Apple TV+ Just Launched, Here is Everything You Need to Know
Plans & Pricing, TV Shows & Movies, Offline Access, Simultaneous Streams, & 4K Content
The long-awaited Apple TV+ is finally here and after months of waiting, we finally have the app at our disposal. The streaming services launches only 11 days before the launch of competitor, Disney+.
With a $6 billion budget slated for content, Apple promised that their service will best their competitors, including Amazon, Hulu and Netflix who already have stable market share. Now that Apple TV+ is officially available, here is everything you need to know about the service.
Plans & Pricing
As of right now you can sign up for Apple TV+ through the Apple TV app or or on tv.apple.com for a seven-day free trial. After the 7 days, Apple TV+ will be $4.99 per month.
How to Activate Your Free Subscription
Apple is offering one-year of the streaming service with the purchase of a new iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac, or Apple TV.
The least expensive way to take advantage of the offer is to buy the Apple TV HD for $149 or Apple TV 4K for $179. Right, now you can get an Apple TV 4K for just $90 from AT&T,
- Turn on your new device and sign in with your Apple ID.
- Open the Apple TV app.
- The offer should be presented immediately after launching the app.
- Tap “Enjoy 1 Year Free.” Enter your Apple ID password to confirm.
According to Apple, customers will have three months after they activate a device to activate their free subscription. If you buy multiple devices, you won’t be able to stack the offer for multiple years of free service. After the year expires, the plan will automatically renew at the $4.99 a month price.
Apple also announced that they will be giving away Apple TV+ to Apple Music subscribers on the student plan—which is also $4.99—at no additional charge.
Supported Devices and Apps
Apple TV+ is available on Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV (Stick & Stick 4K), and select Samsung (2018+ models), VIZIO (2016+ models), and LG Smart TVs (2019 models).
As expected, it is also available on iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, and your browser at tv.apple.com.
Features
Simultaneous Streams & Offline Viewing
One Apple TV+ subscription allows you to enjoy up to 6 simultaneous streams. If you have an iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and Mac, you can even download episodes or films to watch offline.
4K Content
All Apple TV+ originals are available in 4K HDR / Dolby Vision. Most titles also offer Dolby Atmos sound.
TV Shows & Movies
Apple TV+ exclusively has original series and films. Unlike Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime, it doesn’t carry any library content like old TV shows and blockbuster movies.
You won’t be able to binge series at launch either. Similar to Hulu — Apple TV+ will release three episodes to start, then one each Friday, with the exception of Dickinson — all 10 are streamable today.
Their front-running shows The Morning Show, See, Dickinson and For All Mankind were released to critics for early reviews and they were met with mixed impressions. Nonetheless, Apple TV+ still has a host hoard of shows in the cooker coming to the platform on a monthly basis.
Apple Originals
Available Today
The Morning Show
What happens when the people you trust to tell the truth prove themselves to be dishonest? The Morning Show follows the free fall of an early morning newscast in the wake of a scandal, and its struggle to survive in an era when news arrives in the palm of your hand.
See
In the far future, a virus has decimated humankind. Those who survived emerged blind.
Jason Momoa stars as Baba Voss, the father of twins born centuries later with the mythic ability to see—who must protect his tribe against a powerful yet desperate queen who believes it’s witchcraft and wants them destroyed. Alfre Woodard also stars as Paris, Baba Voss’ spiritual leader.
Dickinson
Dickinson takes place “during Emily Dickinson’s era with a modern sensibility and tone. It takes viewers into the world of Emily, audaciously exploring the constraints of society, gender, and family from the perspective of a budding writer who doesn’t fit in to her own time through her imaginative point of view. Dickinson is Emily’s coming-of-age story – one woman’s fight to get her voice heard.”
For All Mankind
A science fiction web television miniseries created and written by Ronald D. Moore, Matt Wolpert and Ben Nedivi. The series will dramatize an alternate history depicting “what would have happened if the global space race had never ended” after the USSR succeeds in the first manned Moon landing.
Snoopy in Space
Follows Snoopy as his dreams of being an astronaut become a reality when he and Woodstock tag along with the Peanuts gang on a field trip to NASA and are chosen for an elite mission into space. As Snoopy and Woodstock fulfill their dreams of astronaut training and space travel, Charlie Brown and the gang assist their friends from mission control.
Helpsters
A new children’s series from the makers of “Sesame Street,” stars Cody and a team of vibrant monsters who love to help solve problems. It all starts with a plan.
Ghostwriter
A reinvention of the beloved original series, it follows four kids who are brought together by a mysterious ghost in a neighborhood bookstore and must team up to release fictional characters from works of literature.
Oprah Book Club
Oprah Winfrey joins the world’s most compelling authors in conversation as she builds a vibrant, global book club community and other projects to connect with people around the world and share meaningful ways to create positive change.
Upcoming Programming:
More Apple TV+ originals will be added to the Apple TV app each month, including:
Servant
A new psychological thriller from M. Night Shyamalan, follows a Philadelphia couple in mourning after an unspeakable tragedy creates a rift in their marriage and opens the door for a mysterious force to enter their home.
Truth Be Told
Gripping new series starring Academy Award winner Octavia Spencer and Emmy Award winner Aaron Paul, explores America’s obsession with true crime podcasts and navigates urgent concerns about privacy, media and race.
Little America
Inspired by the true stories featured in Epic Magazine, brings to life the funny, romantic, heartfelt, inspiring and surprising stories of immigrants in America.
Calls
American-French drama web television series based on the French series of the same name created by Timothée Hochet. Audiences will “experience short stories through real-life audio sources and minimal visuals.”
Central Park
Starring Josh Gad and Leslie Odom Jr., Central Park tells the story of “a family of caretakers, who live and work in Central Park, end up saving the park, and basically the world.”
Defending Jacob
A crime drama web television miniseries, based on the novel of the same name by William Landay. The series tells the story of “a father dealing with the accusation that his son is a 14-year-old murderer.”
Foundation
The series chronicles “the thousand year saga of The Foundation, a band of exiles who discover that the only way to save the Galactic Empire from destruction is to defy it.”
Home
A documentary series that guides the audience “inside the world’s most extraordinary homes and unveils the boundary-pushing imagination of the visionaries who dared to dream and build them.”
Home Before Dark
A mystery drama series based on the life of young journalist Hilde Lysiak. It follows “a young girl who moves from Brooklyn to the small lakeside town her father left behind. While there, her dogged pursuit of the truth leads her to unearth a cold case that everyone in town, including her own father, tried hard to bury.”
Lisey’s Story
Based on the 2006 book of the same name by Stephen King and produced by J.J. Abrams.
Little America
Goes “beyond the headlines to look at the funny, romantic, heartfelt, inspiring and unexpected lives of immigrants in America, at a time when their stories are more relevant than ever.”
Little Voice
Explores “the universal journey of finding your authentic voice in your early 20s. It is described as a fresh, intensely romantic tale of the search to find your true voice…and then the courage to use it.”
My Glory Was I Had Such Friends
Also produced by J.J. Abrams, along with Jennifer Garner, Karen Croner, Ben Stephenson, and Amy Silverstein. The series showcases “the power of friendship and the resilience of the human spirit as it follows an extraordinary group of women who supported Silverstein as she waited for a second life-saving heart transplant.”
Pachinko
Based on a novel of the same name, the chronicles the life of a Korean family and their eventual migration to Japan.
Prehistoric Planet
Executive produced by Jon Favreau and Mike Gunton along with series producers, Tim Walker and Andrew R. Jones, the series “tells the story of the last days of the dinosaurs 66M years ago.”
Servant
A psychological thriller created and written by Tony Basgallop who will also executive produce alongside M. Night Shyamalan. The series is said to follow”parents Dorothy and Sean Turner, who have hired young nanny Leanne to help care for their newborn child.” As time goes on, it turns out “things are not quite as they seem.”
Shantaram
Based on a novel of the same name which chronicles the life of a convicted Australian bank robber and heroin addict who escapes from Pentridge Prison and flees to India.
Swagger!
The show takes inspiration from the youth basketball experiences of Kevin Durant and explores “the world of AAU basketball in the nation’s capital, and the players, their families and coaches who walk the fine line between dreams and ambition, and opportunism and corruption.”
Masters of the Air
Made in conjunction with Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, Masters of the Air is followup series to WWII HBO miniseries Band Of Brothers and The Pacific. The nine-episode limited series is based on a book by Donald L. Miller, titled, Masters of the Air: America’s Bomber Boys Who Fought The Air War Against Nazi Germany.
Original Films
In addition to original series, the streaming service also has a handful of original films in its lineup.
The Elephant Queen
Available today, the acclaimed documentary film and cinematic love letter to a species on the verge of extinction, follows a majestic matriarch elephant and her herd on an epic journey of life, loss and homecoming.
The Banker
Feature film inspired by a true story, stars Anthony Mackie and Samuel L. Jackson as two African American entrepreneurs who try to circumvent the racial limitations of the 1950s and quietly provide housing loans to the African American community in Jim Crow Texas. Nia Long and Nicholas Hoult also star.
Hala
Feature film and official selection of the 2019 Sundance Film Festival and 2019 Toronto International Film Festival, follows a high school senior struggling to balance being a suburban teenager with her traditional Muslim upbringing.
Dads
Apple bought this documentary film from actress and director Bryce Dallas Howard at the Toronto International Film Festival. The film will look at modern fatherhood around the world, with celebrities like Jimmy Fallon, Neil Patrick Harris and Will Smith weighing in.