This week the trend is sports

This week the trend is sports. More specifically the Apple Sports app. On the surface, this is an ultra-simple mobile app only meant to show scores from different teams and leagues. A few things don’t make sense about this though and why it’s been on my mind.

• Apple doesn’t need to make simple apps for every feature it wants to implement
• Apple already added a Sports tab to the News app in March 2023
• Baseball scores are not supported yet, but they are in the TV app and News app

The obvious thought here is that this new Sports app is a holding place for something bigger to come. Maybe it’s more sports streaming content. Maybe it’s more partnerships with other leagues beyond MLS. Maybe it’s sports betting because the app does show betting odds.

I tend to think that, yes, this could be the start of something bigger, but mostly because the app, on its own, right now makes no sense in its current context. The timing also makes less sense to me. The MLS season kicked off, and those scores are there but so did MLB spring training but those scores aren’t, even though MLB scores are in the News and TV apps.

Each time I think about this I get hung up on the fact that there are already multiple places to get sports scores on an iPhone, from Apple. How come the TV and News apps weren’t enough? Why does there need to be a third place for sports scores on iPhone?

Right now, the new Sports app is iPhone only. It’s not available as an iPad app. It’s not even available on the Vision Pro as an iPhone app download. It doesn’t have widgets for the Home Screen or Lock Screen. Right now, it’s too simple to be important, but if it were so unimportant then why the urgency to launch it now before it’s fully baked? The idea for a dedicated sports app certainly had to have been discussed when sports were app to the News app nearly a year ago. So why now? The answer may be as simple as it’s what an Apple executive wanted. But why not do the dedicated app first and then branch out to the other places?

Other things I’m thinking about this week

The Apple Music Reply ‘24 Mix is now officially out for all subscribers. It shows up automatically at the bottom of the Listen Now section of Apple Music and shows the top songs you’ve been listening to throughout the year.

Interestingly, Apple has added a tiny bit more data this year with the number of minutes you listened to your top songs, artists, and albums. That info is available at replay.music.apple.com.

TV

I’ve had early access to the new Apple TV+ show Constellation and have some early thoughts. The show revolves around space and time travel, but in the first episode, it's hard to tell where the show is purposely trying to mess with viewers and where it’s trying to convey its story.

I’m halfway through the season and I waiver on whether it’s worth finishing or not. On one hand, it moves fairly quickly and continually introduces new mysteries that feel like they’re building to something substantial. The flip side is that there’s also a lot of the show that seems like it’s being convoluted to prove its depth in how we think about time or quantum mechanics.

There are plenty of shows stringing along a mystery for an entire season, but the best ones (Severance) also have plenty of substance throughout. I’m on episode five now and think I will finish the show this week. My recommendation for those considering starting the show is to jump in if you like science fiction and can tolerate some superfluous suspense. If sci-fi isn’t your thing I don’t think there’s any reason to force this show into your schedule.

Music

Colouring's new album Love to You, Mate is out. It's great.

There's also a new Bleachers song out, "Me Before You." It's a good song, but the last one released "Tiny Moves," is still stuck in my mind. The full album comes out next month.

Misc links

• The Fujifilm x100VI has officially been announced and is available for pre-order. Apparently, despite raising the price, it’s still very popular.
• Belkin has a new auto-tracking stand for iPhones. It's great for creators, but less of a value as a general-purpose FaceTime stand—unless you take A LOT of video calls.