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Netflix Inc. will not be part of Apple Inc.'s new streaming service, Chief Executive Reed Hastings said late Monday, Variety reported. Speaking at a press event in Los Angeles, Hastings confirmed what many had already suspected. "Apple is a great company," he said, according to Variety. Apple is expected to unveil its highly anticipated streaming service next week. While it will feature some original shows, it is expected to also bolster its offerings by selling subscriptions to some third-party streaming services, such as HBO and Showtime, much as Amazon.com Inc.'s Prime service does.

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(Bloomberg) -- Netflix Inc. Chief Executive Officer Reed Hastings confirmed that his company won’t be participating in Apple Inc.’s new streaming platform, reflecting new competition between the Silicon Valley giants. Apple plans to introduce the video-streaming service on March 25, opening up a new battlefront for the tech industry and Hollywood. Apple has played a neutral role in the fight for eyeballs online, opting to distribute shows, apps and movies from all major companies. But it now wants to sell the service that people use to watch TV as well. Given that Apple’s service -- at least at launch -- will be heavily reliant on outside suppliers to fill up its content library, there had been some discussion that the company might partner with Netflix to some degree. But Bloomberg News reported last week that Netflix won’t be part of the service.

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Apple's Latest iPads Could Help Keep the Momentum Going. Ashraf Eassa, The Motley FoolMotley FoolMarch 19, 2019, 12:00 AM GMT. Although Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone business dropped 15% last quarter, its iPad business grew an impressive 17% year over year, helped along by the timing of the launch of its latest iPad Pro tablets. Apple had sold its previous-generation iPad mini 4 for nearly four years -- practically an eternity in the world of computing. Although the iPad mini 4 was fairly modern at the time of its launch, its value proposition eroded dramatically over the years as the hardware inside became outdated while official pricing remained high, at $399 for the Wi-Fi-only model with 128 gigabytes of storage. (The company's second-generation Apple Pencil is only compatible with its latest iPad Pro tablets.) And for good measure, Apple has overhauled the camera subsystems in the latest iPad mini. The company claims that the iPad mini 4 was simply a poor value in this day and age. But the upgrades that Apple has brought to the table with the new version create a compelling offering that owners of older iPad mini tablets should find to be worthwhile. If demand for a modern iPad mini is there, this latest model stands to do a great job capturing it.

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Tech giant Apple(NASDAQ: AAPL) debuted two new iPad models on Monday, updates that could help the company keep up its recent growth in the segment. Apple's tablet business, which had been experiencing revenue declines for years, is finally on the rise again, thanks primarily to the popularity of the new iPad Pro, and management clearly hopes these latest offerings will keep the upward trend going. The hyperbole about price in not unjustified: The new iPad Air has same display size as Apple's just-discontinued iPad Pro model, but its starting price of $499 is $150 lower. And its performance is significantly better than the previous iPad Air. With the A12 Bionic chip with Apple's Neural Engine, the new iPad Air delivers a 70 percent boost in performance and twice the graphics capability, and the advanced Retina display with True Tone technology is nearly 20 percent larger with over half a million more pixels.

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Reed Hastings says Netflix won’t be part of Apple’s upcoming video streaming service. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said during a Los Angeles press event tonight that it will not be part of the streaming video service Apple is expected to unveil next week at its Cupertino headquarters. While it will have original content, Apple’s service will most likely initially focus on third-party content, competing against Amazon Channels with la carte subscriptions to third-party channels (Amazon’s lineup includes HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, Starz, but not Netflix, which prefers to control its own in-app experience). Asked how Netflix will compete against rivals with a lot of money like Amazon and Apple, Hastings said “with difficulty,” adding that “it is definitely getting more expensive to source content” as the streaming video market becomes increasingly fragmented. As the largest video streaming service in the United States, however, Netflix has been the subject of antitrust lawsuits and debates. When asked about potential antitrust regulations aimed at large tech companies, Hastings describe Netflix as “really mostly a content company powered by tech,” saying it spends much more on content than tech (Netflix’s chief content officer Ted Sarandos said last year that 85 percent of its total spending goes to new shows and movies, and in October the company announced plans to raise $2 billion in debt to fund new content). Despite its focus on international growth, Hastings also said that even though Netflix once considered entering China by creating a joint venture with a local partner, it currently has no plans to do so, noting that the strategy still didn’t help competitors such as Apple’s iTunes.

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Next week, Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) will host an event that is expected to focus heavily on new services: a new video-streaming service and likely a premium news subscription service. Meanwhile, the company has been widely expected to have new iPads in the works, and the event would have been a natural opportunity to show off the new tablets. Apple has brought back the iPad Air brand, and the new model features a 10.5-inch display alongside the latest A12 Bionic chip, which was introduced last year in the newest iPhones. Apple had retired the Air branding a couple years ago, but is bringing back the moniker in an effort to better differentiate the iPad Pros.

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Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) kicked off what is expected to be a bumper year for new product releases this morning, with two new iPads: a refresh of the iPad Mini and a new iPad Air. The Apple Store was offline for several hours this morning, fuelling speculation that the company was preparing to release new products. AAPL announced a 5th generation iPad Mini and a new iPad Air. What wasn’t announced (but was quickly picked up by Apple observers) was the axing of the 10.5-inch iPad Pro, which was released in 2017. The new iPad Air and iPad Mini show the company is still trying to wring all the revenue possible from its consumer tablets by offering more powerful options while expanding to a range of display sizes. But AAPL is also being careful not to cannibalize iPad Pro sales, keeping features like USB-C connectivity, more advanced edge-to-edge Liquid Retina displays, 12MP cameras with 4K video and FaceID for its professional tablets.

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(Bloomberg) -- Apple Inc. debuted a new mid-tier iPad with a larger screen and introduced the first iPad mini update since 2015. The company debuted a new iPad Air with a 10.5-inch screen, bringing back a model that was phased out when Apple launched the iPad Pro a few years ago. The iPad mini, a device that some consumers have been seeking an upgrade for, continues to use a 7.9-inch screen. The larger iPad introduced today supports the company’s Smart Keyboard, while both new devices work with the Apple Pencil stylus and include a faster A12 processor, a step up from the A10 chip used in last year’s education model.

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The smaller tablet has been resurrected just as Huawei and Samsung unveiled their first foldable smartphones, both of which can be opened out to create screens similar in size to the iPad mini. The new device was announced alongside a refresh of another Apple tablet, the iPad Air - a model that was phased out when Apple launched the iPad Pro a few years ago. The new iPad Air also includes a True Tone display screen, which the company said is 20pc larger with over 500,000 more pixels than previous models. Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing, said: “Today the iPad family takes two big leaps forward with an all-new 10.5-inch iPad Air that brings high-end size, features and performance at a breakthrough price, and a major upgrade to the 7.9-inch iPad mini, which also brings Apple Pencil, Retina display and the A12 Bionic chip to the many customers that love its compact size.”.

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By Adrian Kingsley-Hughes for Hardware 2.0 | March 18, 2019 -- 12:57 GMT (12:57 GMT) | Topic: Apple. Must read: 10 Apple products you shouldn't buy (March 2019 edition). The iPad Air also comes with a 10.5-inch Retina True Tone display, which is close to 20 percent larger and kitted out with more half a million more pixels compared to the old 9.7-inch display. The new 10.5-inch iPad Air starts at $499 for the Wi-Fi model, with the Wi-Fi + Cellular model coming it at $629, with the iPad mini starting at $399 for the Wi-Fi model and $529 for the Wi-Fi + Cellular model.

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