mpantone

iOS_Guy80 said:

When can I pre-order?

You'll know when everyone else knows: after Apple officially announces the product.

And that's most likely to coincide with the new iPhone 17 models -- thus September of this year. At that time Apple will let everyone know about availability including pre-orders if they choose to do that.

MassiveAttack said:

mpantone said:

It's worth pointing out that the Services Division has been the fastest growing business unit at Apple since before the pandemic.

It's important to remember that Apple views itself primarily as a software company: one whose software and services run best on their own proprietary hardware.

Remember that things like Apple TV and Apple Music run on hardware other than Apple's own devices. A lot of the hardware categories that Apple is involved in are saturated in industrialized nations. There's more growth potential in emerging markets.

It's also worth pointing out that something like F1 has worldwide appeal, not like Nascar which is basically limited to North America.

There's precedent in someone taking more control in film distribution. Taylor Swift did it with her Eras Tour film, bypassing the studios and film distribution network by negotiating with the major theater chains. That means the studios and distributors got shut out of a revenue cut which is where most of your movie ticket goes (the theaters actually get very little, their profitability is mostly from concessions -- that pricey tub of popcorn and soda).

Taylor Swift steamrolled the competition and the handful of studio releases that happened around the Eras Tour film release got crushed at the box office. It was a mic drop moment for the film industry. Along with her re-recorded releases of many of her earlier albums shows the entertainment industry that artists having more control over business strategies can work.

Clearly Apple took note of this. Hell, she's the one who convinced Apple to change their streaming royalty system to more fairly serve the artists.

I see your point. F1 gets more popular with F1 drivers as influencers on Instagram. It attracts younger audience.
However, I think Apple needs to set some other topics as higher priorities. 
I hear from Apple employees that all departments get spendings cut.. Well.... 

Remember that Apple's Software Engineering and Hardware Engineering teams aren't really involved in film production. Apple has a variety of teams doing different things. That sound engineer who creates Apple Master files for Apple Music isn't writing Bluetooth device driver code. And that Apple Maps engineer isn't doing chip layout design for Johny Srouji's group two days a week.

Anyhow, Apple's senior management team believes it's important to have some exclusive content to Apple TV+ just as it has helped film studios, Amazon, Netflix, etc. They can't just buy everything. Remember that Apple are control freaks, there is far less chance of them getting what they want (in terms of content details) if they already buy a film or TV series that's already in the can.

The success of several TV shows has shown that Apple sometimes exhibits good judgment in letting creators do their thing. It's worth pointing out that Formula One is the pinnacle of motorsport and is the most technologically sophisticated racing league. Being able to draw from Apple technical prowess was a likely benefit for this film. The director still needs to tell a good story though.

It's not like next autumn's iPhone will be delayed because a couple of engineers worked on a special camera. In fact, whatever those engineers learned from the project is likely useful to iPhone development knowledge and likely provides some insight into future design and engineering decisions.

But this article is mostly about content distribution, specifically films. This isn't really an engineering discussion. The main players are likely people with law degrees and deep experience in the entertainment industry. Those people need to be around anyhow to negotiate deals for third-party content. It's not like some admin reads an e-mail inbox and green lights AppleTV+ feature films on his/her own.

If Taylor Swift can bypass the studios' distribution network and get her concert film on movie theater screens all over the world so can Apple. Taylor doesn't have a law degree but she has some working for her. Maybe some of the best entertainment industry lawyers on the planet. The Eras Tour film grossed $180 million domestically (worldwide $261M) and she didn't have to give anything to the studios. And she made Scooter Braun look like a bumbling fool and made a mountain of money doing so. 

I use freeware LosslessCut for trimming videos:

https://github.com/mifi/lossless-cut

https://losslesscut.macupdate.com/

It's very simple and won't transcode the source content.

I used QuickTime in the past but as Apple has dumbed down that application (as well as many of their other native media tools) over the years I've drifted elsewhere.

Moreover LosslessCut supports more file formats, containers, and codecs than today's heavily crippled QuickTime Player.

It's worth pointing out that the Services Division has been the fastest growing business unit at Apple since before the pandemic.

It's important to remember that Apple views itself primarily as a software company: one whose software and services run best on their own proprietary hardware.

Remember that things like Apple TV and Apple Music run on hardware other than Apple's own devices. A lot of the hardware categories that Apple is involved in are saturated in industrialized nations. There's more growth potential in emerging markets.

It's also worth pointing out that something like F1 has worldwide appeal, not like Nascar which is basically limited to North America.

There's precedent in someone taking more control in film distribution. Taylor Swift did it with her Eras Tour film, bypassing the studios and film distribution network by negotiating with the major theater chains. That means the studios and distributors got shut out of a revenue cut which is where most of your movie ticket goes (the theaters actually get very little, their profitability is mostly from concessions -- that pricey tub of popcorn and soda).

Taylor Swift steamrolled the competition and the handful of studio releases that happened around the Eras Tour film release got crushed at the box office. It was a mic drop moment for the film industry. Along with her re-recorded releases of many of her earlier albums shows the entertainment industry that artists having more control over business strategies can work.

Clearly Apple took note of this. Hell, she's the one who convinced Apple to change their streaming royalty system to more fairly serve the artists.

You know, if a third-party tech journalism site needs to explain why a first-party ad is legit, well, that's a COMPLETE fail for Apple.