iTunes Store

App Store, Mac App Store iTunes/iBooks Store and other iCloud services experiencing outage

If you're unable to update your apps or buy books and music on Apple's content stores, you're not alone — there's trouble in iCloud. Apple's App Store, Mac App Store, iTunes Store and iBooks Store services have been experiencing widespread outage for straight six hours now.

At first, the company's iCloud Status Page would not acknowledge the downtime. Earlier this morning, the company refreshed the dashboard which now shows the App Store, Mac App Store, iTunes Store and iBooks Store as being unavailable “for all users”.

UPDATE: following what became an eleven-hour long outage, the App Store and iTunes services are now back online.

Disney’s Movies Anywhere out for Android, makes cross-platform movies a reality

In a somewhat ironic twist of fate, Disney is helping blur the lines between Apple's and Google's respective ecosystems with Tuesday's release of its Movies Anywhere app for Android, now available free of charge in the U.S. Google Play Store. That's right, the app now lets folks buy and enjoy Disney content on both iOS and Android devices.

The movie-curating app debuted as an iOS exclusive in February 2014 with support for free streaming of any Disney, Pixar and Marvel content previously purchased from Apple's iTunes Store. Any of the 450 Disney movies you bought using the app would immediately register as purchased inside the iTunes Store.

Now that Disney Movies Anywhere is available for both iOS and Android, not only can you watch your Disney movies across Apple's and Google's platforms, but also purchase any Disney, Pixar or Marvel Universe movie on Google Play and have it available on iOS and vice versa.

iTunes has the Dark Knight trilogy for $15 and other movie deals

Heads up movie lovers and Batman fans, the iTunes Movie Store is offering a great deal on the popular Dark Knight trilogy. For a limited time, you can get all three movies: Batman Begins, The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises in HD for just $14.99.

Given that $15 is typically the standalone price tag for each of these movies, the promotion will net you a savings of $30. The three films, which star Christian Bale, come highly recommended too, with all of them rated an 85% or higher on Rotten Tomatoes.

iTunes has all 7 Saw movies for $30 and other Halloween deals

With Halloween coming up tomorrow, Apple has discounted a number of horror movies in its iTunes Store down to $9.99. It's also added Saw: The Complete Collection to its Movie Bundles section, which includes all 7 movies from the popular franchise for just $29.99.

Given that each Saw movie typically sells for $12.99, this deal is a savings of more than $60. But if you're not a fan of the Jigsaw killer, there are plenty of other notable movies on sale, including genre classics such as Poltergeist, The Shining, and The Blair Witch Project.

Apple revamps iTunes Store in iTunes 12 ahead of OS X Yosemite launch

Apple has rolled out a revamped version of its desktop iTunes Store to iTunes 12 today. Folks with access to the developer preview or public beta of OS X Yosemite should see the new storefront with various changes including cleaner, flatter design elements.

As you can see in the image above, Apple has axed the 3D rotating carousel of featured content in favor of a new card-style layout. There's also no longer a backdrop shadow behind the album art, or in the navigation buttons, and the fonts have been changed.

iTunes offering big discounts on TMNT, Stanley Kubrick movie bundles

If you've ever listened to one of our weekly podcasts, Let's Talk iOS or Let's Talk Jailbreak, you know that I love a good deal, and this morning I've got a few of them to share with you involving iTunes movie bundles. For a limited time, you can pick up 3 TMNT movies and 7 Stanley Kubrick films at a deep discount.

The first bundle includes all 3 original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies—the live action ones from the early 90's—in HD for just $14.99. The second offers up 7 classic films from Stanley Kubrick, one of the greatest and most influential directors of all time, in HD for just $39.99. That's less than $6 per movie...

iOS 7: the ultimate iTunes Store guide

Interested in making a digital media purchase on your iPhone? The iTunes Store app is your primary portal for doing so. The iTunes Store app is a stock application that is installed by default on every iOS device. It allows you to make digital media purchases for a variety of media types.

The iTunes Store app works in tandem with the stock Music app and the stock Videos app to provide users with a rich digital media experience. Check inside for details covering the ins and outs of this long running stock application.

How to set up an iTunes and App Store allowance

I recently found out there is a feature in iTunes that allows you to set up an allowance for someone to have access to a pre-determined amount of money to spend each month in the iTunes Store, App Store, or iBooks Store.

A perfect illustration of this feature would be the case where parents would be able to set up an allowance for their kids. This way, kids have access to a credit they can spend each month, either on apps, movies, musics, books, etc.

In this post, I will show you how to set up an iTunes allowance so you can send a monthly iTunes Store credit to anyone...

Breaking Bad fans not happy with the way iTunes handles final season

AMC's hit TV show Breaking Bad, starring Bryan Cranston, returned last night for the highly anticipated second half of its final season (5). I wasn't able to find specific numbers, but it's believed that the premier could have broken several ratings records.

But while cable viewers turned out in droves, many iTunes users were met with disappointment when they logged in to view the episode. As it turns out, folks who purchased a Season Pass for the first half of the season don't get access to the second half...

Apple acknowledges that the iTunes Store is down for some users [updated]

If you're having trouble downloading music, or otherwise accessing the iTunes Store, you're not alone. A number of users have taken to Twitter to report that the digital content front is down, and Apple itself has now acknowledged the problem.

As of about 11:30 am this morning, Apple's system status page shows that the iTunes Store is down, with the issue affecting 'some users.' A detailed timeline on the page shows the outage has lasted over an hour and is affecting iTunes purchases...

Apple slashes a bunch of love songs to 69 cents in Valentine’s Day iTunes promo

Hot on the heels of announcing 25 billion song purchases since the iTunes Store's inception nearly a decade ago, today Apple of California has conveniently kicked off a fitting Valentine's Day love music promotion.

The company has discounted some of its most popular love songs, which now cost 69 cents a piece. These music tracks span genres and decades, from artists like Aerosmith, Celine Dion, James Taylor, Kenny Chesney and Whitney Houston, to name a few...

Apple announces 25 billion iTunes songs sold

Just in time for Valentine's Day $0.69 love music sale, Apple this morning issued a press release announcing that music lovers have downloaded more than 25 billion songs from the iTunes Store. The company's song sales now average to 15,000 tracks downloaded per minute. The iTunes Store opened for business on April 28, 2003 and its catalog is now over 26 million songs strong. Remember that it was only back in September 2012 that Apple announced 20 billion iTunes song purchases.

With the recent addition of 56 new markets, music on iTunes is now available for sale in 119 countries. And with the recent Apple TV 5.2 software update, owners of Apple's $99 set-top box can now see upcoming songs when playing music, choose what plays next and access their previously purchased songs from iCloud, right on their television set...