Remarkably, for all the talk about Apple\u2019s TV service announcement, we ended up with absolutely no material details. We don\u2019t have a date, we don\u2019t have a list of channels or services, we don\u2019t have a price. All we have is the use of a + sign, which since Google gave it up has become the new hotness (ESPN+, Disney+, now Apple News+ and Apple TV+). In fact, we don\u2019t really have a firm date or price on the Apple Arcade app (not that some of those games don\u2019t look intriguing to me) nor on the forthcoming Apple Card (which if you\u2019re willing to be tied to the Apple ecosystem looks like\u2014)<\/p>\n
Time out.<\/p>\n
We really are getting into these silos where you have to pick your ecosystem for everything. Apple, Google, to a slightly lesser extent Amazon, to a considerably lesser extent Facebook and Microsoft: time was you would have an ISP and they get you online and provide your email and maybe even some webspace to go with your USENET feed, LOL. Nowadays you buy a phone, and with that phone comes the ecosystem of mail, calendaring, App Store, virtual digital assistant, GPS and mapping application, digital wallet, online document tools and photo storage, instant messaging\/text application, streaming music service, digital bookstore, and now – television service AND revolving credit AND AND AND. Although to be fair, once you\u2019re tied to all that other stuff, throwing in HBO and a no-annual-fee Mastercard is basically lagniappe.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Anyway.<\/p>\n
The Apple Card is a mildly attractive proposition, and would probably be even more so if I wasn\u2019t already on three credit cards – one of which I would long since have cancelled except I\u2019ve been a customer for 20 years and can\u2019t do that to my credit rating. But for a college kid who wants no fees, no hidden traps, something smoothly integrated with the phone with easy-to-read billing and actionable information, this is probably a godsend. I know I would have been a lot better off with this at Vandy than with a handful of $500-limit cards that quickly got out of hand.<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s that weirdest of Apple events: something that leaves you walking away with nothing in hand but the promise of a bunch of amazing stuff coming Real Soon Now. And in some cases, not even that. Apple is obviously paying over the odds to try to jumpstart a Prestige TV experience and make up for lost time against the Hulus and Amazons and Netflixs of the world (and doing so just as Google appears to be giving up), and appears to be rebuilding the old Newsstand app as some sort of streaming all-you-can-eat solution for curated published print news (which we used to just call \u201cnews\u201d), and even seems to be on the same subscription gaming service tip as Google, with their just-announced Stadia platform.<\/p>\n
And this is bad. See, we seem to have decided that instead of actually owning anything, you will pay a monthly nut for everything in perpetuity. Cable bill? We\u2019ve whopper-choppered that into separate fees for Amazon and Hulu and Netflix and HBO Now. Music? Apple Music or Spotify, and no more of the Jobsian \u201cyou bought it you own it, it\u2019s yours\u201d approach to music. Now we\u2019re gonna pay every month for video games? I know I was an early advocate of the concept of \u201ccash on the freakin\u2019 barrelhead\u201d as a business model for Silly Con Valley, but nobody wants to sell<\/em> you anything any more. They want to rent<\/em> it to you, forever.<\/p>\n Which makes sense. After all, as I decried long ago in this space, Silly Con Valley isn\u2019t in the business of selling things that last. Your grandad\u2019s old WWI revolver can still shoot someone dead. Your \u201966 Mustang can run just fine. Your peacoat will last you the rest of your life. Close your eyes and think: what is the oldest electronic device you currently use?<\/em> Phone? Fitness band? DVR? How long did you get out of your last digital watch? The shift to \u201cservices\u201d is part and parcel of an ephemeral world, where you will pay and pay and pay for things you didn\u2019t think you could get a monthly bill for.<\/p>\n Gary Shteyngart said it, and William Gibson co-signed it, and I concur: \u201cIf only my books came with ejection seats.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Remarkably, for all the talk about Apple\u2019s TV service announcement, we ended up with absolutely no material details. We don\u2019t have a date, we don\u2019t have a list of channels or services, we don\u2019t have a price. All we have is the use of a + sign, which since Google gave it up has become … <\/p>\n