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Charlotte Henry

Charlotte is a media junkie, covering how Apple is not just a revolutionary tech firm, but a revolutionary media firm for TMO. She is based in London, and writes and broadcasts for various outlets.

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Articles by Charlotte Henry

‘Lisey’s Story’ Premieres on Apple TV+
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'Lisey's Story' Premieres on Apple TV+

Charlotte Henry ·

Lisey’s Story premiered on Apple TV+ on Friday. The first two episodes are now available to subscribers. The remaining episodes of the eight-part series, an adaptation of the Stephen King novel of the same name, will be released on a weekly basis.

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Twitter Launches First-Ever Subscription Service - and it Let's You Edit Tweets

Charlotte Henry ·

Twitter announced that it is rolling Twitter Blue, its first-ever subscription service, in a blog post on Thursday. The new service is coming to Australia and Canada first, costing CAD$3.49 or AUD$4.49 per month respectively. It includes various features, including ‘Undo Tweet’, which gives you a brief window in which to preview and edit a tweet before it goes live.

For those wondering, no, a free Twitter is not going away, and never will. This subscription offering is simply meant to add enhanced and complementary features to the already existing Twitter experience for those who want it… Starting today, we will be rolling out our first iteration of Twitter Blue in Australia and Canada. Our hope with this initial phase is to gain a deeper understanding of what will make your Twitter experience more customized, more expressive, and generally speaking more 🔥.

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What Having Apple TV on the Nvidia Shield Tells us About Apple's Services Business

Charlotte Henry ·

Earlier this week, Nvidia announced that SHIELD users can purchase or rent movies and shows and access Apple TV+ through the Apple TV app on the device. At iMore, Oliver Haslam neatly outlines how this underlines a significant shift that has been going on in Apple’s services business.

Apple’s services business isn’t what it once was. It’s no longer a way to keep people tethered to Apple and is instead just another way for Apple to make money. If people insist on using Android phones, they might as well give Apple $10 each month to listen to its music. People really don’t want to buy an Apple TV 4K? No problem, Apple will take their $4.99 per month and let them watch on their crappy smart TV instead. The idea of an Apple TV app running on the Nvidia Shield – of all things! – would have been insane just a few short years ago. Call me an old romantic, but who knows – maybe it gives us all hope that one day, on an indefinite timescale, we’ll see iMessage break free of Apple’s chains as well.

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Might Apple buy a Hollywood Studio? Analysts Think it Should

Charlotte Henry ·

The lack of content on Apple TV+ compared to its rivals is a regular source of discussion and criticism against the service. According to The Hollywood Reporter, some analysts want it to fill this gap by following Amazon in purchasing a major Hollywood studio.

CEO Tim Cook has described streamer Apple TV+’s ambition “to be one of the most desired platforms for storytellers,” singling out comedy series Ted Lasso, drama The Morning Show and the miniseries Defending Jacob as its titles with “significant buzz.” But the streamer is seen by some Wall Street analysts as lacking multiple, regular breakout hits, which has led some to argue for a studio acquisition. Morgan Stanley research released in April found only 8 percent of U.S. respondents said they use Apple TV+, a figure that lags far below Netflix (58 percent), Amazon Prime (45 percent) and Disney+ (31 percent).

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Apple Music Celebrates Black Music Month

Charlotte Henry ·

June is Black Music Month. Apple Music will be celebrating and exploring the contribution Black artists have made with playlists and other content. It also released a new video celebrating “creators and the cross-cultural dialogues that bring the world so much texture, light, and joy.”

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Will Apple Ever Give More Than 5GB iCloud Storage For Free?

Charlotte Henry ·

Steve Jobs unveiled iCloud in June 2011 and, a decade on, the amount of free storage offered has still not increased beyond 5GB. 9to5Mac has published a good history lesson of the service, including speculation on how the paid tiers could change to help both Apple and users.

There is an argument to be made that Apple’s services revenue would actually benefit from giving away slightly more upfront to reel people in and entice customers into paid plans. 5 GB isn’t enough to even try out iCloud Photos in any meaningful capacity. If instead the free tier was matching Google’s at 15 GB, it would enable Apple users to get a reasonable amount of photos backing up to iCloud, experience some of the benefits of cloud sync, and then be more likely persuaded into committing to a paid plan. To pull this off, you’d have to adjust the paid tiers accordingly. Maybe a lineup of 15 GB free, 100 GB for $0.99/month, 300 GB for $2.99/month and 2 TB for $9.99/month could be compelling. An even cheekier approach could be to only increase the storage offered as part of Apple One, making the higher-value subscriptions more attractive for consumers migrating from the free plan.