Apple Announced the New Apple TV Plus

Tim Cook, CEO of Apple Inc., says, "Our vision for Apple TV app is to bring together your favourite shows, movies, sports, and news, and make them available on all of your devices. So you can spend less time looking for something to watch and more time enjoying it."

WHAT IS APPLE TV PLUS?

Apple TV Plus is a video subscription service that will feature Apple's growing list of original movies and TV shows. When it launches this fall, Apple TV Plus will be the exclusive way to see that content. And Apple has invested money in forming a talented roster full of stars that work to produce a program that, hopefully, can be matched with the best Netflix programs. Even Oprah is on board.

But Apple TV Plus is not a proprietary application or a separate experience. Actually, it will be accessible through the Apple TV application on iOS, Mac and other platforms. You probably have your own tab or dedicated section of the TV application, but Apple did not give specific details in today's event, and the Apple TV Plus website is extremely light on details. The best thing we got was a brief look at a row of Apple TV Plus with eye-catching animations during today's presentation.

WHAT IS APPLE TV PLUS NOT?

A true competitor of Netflix or Amazon Prime Video: as Peter Kafka correctly predicted at Recode, Apple is not (yet) building a complete transmission service that combines original and licensed programs as its rivals. In contrast, the Apple TV Plus service focuses exclusively on Apple's original programming. There are no older things to go around without stopping as we do on Netflix or Prime Video. There are no Hollywood movies or past TV hits to talk about. Not yet, anyway.

On Android or Windows: although it announced a TV application for several platforms (including Fire TV), Apple gave no indication that the service and its originals are available on Android or Windows. That's a big hole if the company expects these high profile shows to be accessible to as large an audience as possible. The native applications for these platforms, at least at this moment, do not seem to be in the cards.

On the web: The same happens with web browsers. Apple did not mention how to transmit Apple TV Plus through popular desktop browsers such as Chrome, Firefox or Microsoft Edge.

WHEN CAN WE WATCH APPLE TV PLUS?

Apple says it will share the prices and availability of Apple TV Plus this fall, but it was not very specific than that. We have no idea how much Apple TV Plus will cost per month or if you can combine it with other services of the company with a discount.

DOES THE APPLE TV APP HAVE A COST OF USE?

No. Unless you are paying for Apple TV Plus or a subscription to Apple TV Channel (and none of them is available yet), the TV application is completely free to use.

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WHERE CAN WE SEE THE APPLE TV APPLICATION?

Currently, the Apple TV application is available on Apple TV decoders (fourth generation and Apple TV 4K) and on iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. But in today's event, Apple said the TV application will make its way to the Mac this fall. In addition, the company confirmed that it will bring the TV application to Samsung's smart TVs this spring and to Vizio, Sony, LG and other TVs "in the future".