Does anyone here subscribe to Apple One (the full shebang tier) and would they recommend? I know one chap I spoke to a few days back on here recommends, but am interested to hear other’s opinions. Cheers. :-)

@BenSouthwood I do. But you have raised the ‘why’ in me.

I use iCloud storage, TV, Music and News … whatever else is in there I don’t bother with. I could live without News … so need to re examine.

@BenSouthwood I’m all in. Apple One for the whole family and iTunes Match. It’s more than I need, but doubled my iCloud storage, so there’s that.

@JohnPhilpin Cheers. Certainly there’s bits I’m unlikely to use as well.

@hjalm I had to upgrade to 2TB anyway, and it seems sensible to have everything in one place.

@BenSouthwood For my family, we were already subscribing to a larger storage tier and Apple Music Family. Subscribing to Apple One made sense, plus I get access to News+ which has our local newspaper and TV+ which has Ted Lasso. And we've used Apple Fitness+ off and on... So it's worth it to us.

@bobwertz Thank you. I think I’ll take the plunge, see how it goes. :-)

@BenSouthwood I do. The only I rarely use is arcade. But I like the magazine section in news. It’s nice to be able to read a full length article in otherwise paywalled out of. Apple TV and iCloud go without saying

@hawaiiboy I’m hoping they introduce News here.

@BenSouthwood likely has to do with contracts and agreements.

@BenSouthwood Cloud storage is the main positive for us at the moment; I have a feeling Apple is happy to make it an easier experience for the bundle when compared to individual plans, however I don't really care about their intent when the result is good enough.

I think some of the advanced iCloud stuff (that they have released over the past couple of years) is also in there but I have yet to take a full and proper look at all of that to sort it out. After that Fitness will have the best value, although even then that's not so important since we moved away from the city.

TV, Music, and Arcade are all nice to have but I wouldn't miss them and I think my wife would only care about TV.

@hawaiiboy Ireland in particular seems to miss out on a lot, like you say with contracts and stuff.

@BenSouthwood Apple does a lot of business in Ireland, you's think they's leverage it, but there's probably broader UK and EU issues at play.

@BenSouthwood we're in on the family plan, mostly for the increased iCloud storage and Apple Music. Once we got it, I found the TV content really compelling too. We use News and Fitness, but only because they're included, not because we really need them

@hawaiiboy Definitely, we’re missing out on even more since Brexit.

@kq It seems to be. I’ve taken the plunge anyway.

@mroutley Thanks. I’ve subscribed and will try and get my money’s worth.

@BenSouthwood We've used it for years - mainly for the cloud storage, but also for the family sharing of apps, music, and TV purchases. News+ too if there are any publications of interest.

@leeperry We don’t get the News+ sadly.

@BenSouthwood I didn't know that - though I rarely remember to read any!

@leeperry We seem to be in some sort of weird no-man’s land when it comes to rights.

@BenSouthwood If an Apple Watch can or should fit into my life again, Fitness would definitely be much more valuable. I can't remember exactly but I'm pretty sure over the past couple of years they improved the UX for better control of the sessions and so on. I haven't used it for at least two years, though, so can't vouch for it.

@BenSouthwood Yes, I have since inception. News sucks, seems anti-rss (surprise) but you get a lot of pubs included. Music is mostly okay unless the latest changes to the UI are infuriating. iCloud storage works without issue but is sometimes inscrutably slow, and, along with Music, will sometimes claim that items are not available or up to date when the file system says otherwise. TV is quite good, content is almost too good. I would prefer more movies to series but what are you gonna do? Photos works very well, although out of system archiving is not straightforward. Arcade has some delightful diversions; playful and beautiful to behold, but not what most gamers think about when they think about gaming. Family works pretty well but shouldn’t be called Family. Keychain is better than any 3rd party service, now. I might sound a bit negative about it all, but there are lots and lots of other ostensibly small details that together provide (me with) real value.

@SimonWoods I used one of the Walking talks today with Stephen Fry narrating. Brilliant, really enjoyed it, but there should be an option to carry on with the walk and not just cut it off when the talk ends. Tried a meditation and it was decent actually. Not as flashy and brash as I anticipated.

@bkryer So many people are raving about News, yet we don’t get it here. Music, I am remembering why I left in the first place. I’ll get by, but will have to close my eyes to the small issues there. I’m quite happy and trying to get my money’s worth with what I have. :-)

@BenSouthwood re News, it is a pretty deep offering on publications I guess, although some key ones req supplemental subscription. But sharing is awful. It’s a hermetically sealed version of the search-site.action URL thing—anyway the reading experience is not always bad. re Music, again, like so many of their services, it can be maddeningly half-baked. But sometimes, sometimes, the recommendation engine gets me right in the feels.

But the whole iCloud+/OS’s & InformationAgeLifestyle thing, with all its rather elegant fast integrated reliable simplicity, which has simply accrued over the decades, well, it is well worth it.

Important Note: spontaneity, continuity, partitioning, and live archive are the driving forces of my cyber desires, at least lately. And I have a long term investment in their hard-and software...because I’ve used plenty of other stuff over the years. 😉

@bkryer Music forced me to go back to Spotify last time, my carefully curated playlists were wrecked by whatever algorithm they use - I play consecutive albums and a ‘live’ version would appear where the right version should be. I’m playing blind at the moment, I can see it’s still there.

@BenSouthwood just thinking about weird rights issues, for some reason, and came back to this - do you get to watch the live match streams on clarets+ in ROI? we can only listen to audio live.

@leeperry No, we’re not included in the ‘international’ live matches they stream, as I found out when I purchased one a few years back. Ireland does get a 3pm Saturday Prem game (on Sky, anyway) but otherwise we miss out.

@leeperry Also after Brexit, we get charged a bomb for import fees. My wife treated me to a home shirt and got charged an extra £20 to receive it. :-/

@BenSouthwood that's just ridiculous isn't it? according to clarets+ today's video stream is available even for UK viewers for £10. It doesn't usually give that option.

@leeperry Whatever agreements are in place with the BBC/ football leagues, etc, we seem to get scraps and have to make do. Can’t get BBC iPlayer, the new Doctor Who agreement with Disney+ doesn’t apply to us, it’s frustrating.