You can rent or purchase movies in 4K from iTunes, but you cannot download them locally to your devices like with 1080p (HD) and standard definition (SD) content offered on the store.
4K movies from iTunes can be streamed but not downloaded locally
iTunes
What you need to know about iTunes 12.7
Apple recently released iTunes 12.7 and boy have the unexpected changes shocked some people. Like, no longer can you browse iOS App Store on your computer! Here's our quick rundown of all the major changes in iTunes 12.7 that you should be aware about.
Apple: 4K iTunes content same price as HD, previous purchases upgraded for free
Apple SVP Eddy Cue is on stage now at Apple's event to announce the new 4K Apple TV. In addition to the hardware, Cue made a couple of major ( and frankly, surprising) announcements regarding 4K content in iTunes.
Apparently, when iTunes rolls out its 4K content, it will be priced the same as high definition content. So no need to worry about that big price gap between 4K and HD that you've seen in physical media. Also, folks wondering what happens to all of their previous HD purchases will be happy to hear that Apple will upgrade them to 4K versions (where available) for free.
Here's more on the move from Eddy Cue:
“Bring the magic of the cinema straight to your living room with the new Apple TV 4K,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. “Customers will love watching stunning 4K HDR movies from an impressive catalog on iTunes, while also getting automatic upgrades of 4K HDR movies already in their iTunes library and enjoying 4K content on services like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, coming soon.”
These are nice surprises indeed, given that folks were expecting to pay more for new and upgraded 4K content, and should help push Apple TV 4K sales.
Fox: home rentals of flicks still in theater to cost “less than $50”
As Apple and Comcast continue to debate offering home rentals of the latest flicks just weeks after their release, Bloomberg today cited 20th Century Fox studios chief Stacey Snider as claiming that this will become a reality within 6-12 months.
WSJ: Apple does not want to raise price of 4K movies, Hollywood disagrees
Just how much should Apple's iTunes Store charge for 4K movie downloads?
According to The Wall Street Journal on Monday, Apple has proposed pricing new 4K movie releases at $19.99, which is precisely what the company currently charges purchases of major digital movie releases in full HD (1080p) resolution on iTunes Store.
Apple is collecting donations for Harvey storm relief
Apple has begun accepting donations for the American Red Cross to help with the Harvey storm relief efforts, allowing its customers to make donations in $5, $10, $25, $50, $100 and $200 increments via a special page on iTunes.
Apple closes the signing window for iOS 10.3.2
Apple systematically stops signing older firmware for its mobile devices a couple of weeks after a new firmware release to prevent downgrades. Although they’re slightly late this time around, they’ve closed the signing window for iOS 10.3.2 three weeks following the release of iOS 10.3.3.
It’s not too significant for most iPhone and iPad users considering there isn’t a public jailbreak for any iOS firmware newer than Yalu for iOS 10.0-10.2, but it illustrates how Apple isn’t letting up on their efforts to put everyone on the latest firmware possible and to keep them there.
Apple appears to be readying 4K HDR iTunes content ahead of Apple TV upgrade
Apple may be readying 4K resolution video content on iTunes with high dynamic range (HDR) color support ahead of a possible 4K-capable Apple TV introduction this fall.
Fix: Apple Music not showing up in iTunes
If you signed up for Apple Music on your iPhone or iPad but also want to enjoy the service on your Mac, you might be up for a surprise when you launch iTunes and realize Apple Music is not showing up.
This could just be a bug, or maybe just a box that hasn't been checked. Regardless of the cause, we will show you how to turn on Apple Music in iTunes on your Mac.
Happy Emoji Day from Apple!
Happy Emoji Day, everyone!
Apple has joined the festivities by taking over the rotating carousel on its iTunes Store for movies with a bunch of emoji-themed banners. These have replaced standard movie banners for popular flicks such as Stephen King's “It” remake, “Kong: Skull Island”, “Get Out”, “Arrival”, “Logan”, Disney's action-film remake of “Beauty and the Beast” and more.
Apple has not discounted the movies promoted with emoji banners.
July 17, is celebrated as World Emoji Day.
Why July 17?
Because this date is famously displayed on the iOS Calendar Emoji, which is the date that iCal for Mac was first announced at MacWorld Expo in 2002. The Calendar emoji was approved as part of Unicode 6.0 in 2010 and added to Emoji 1.0 in 2015.
Thanks, Carlos!
Amazon and other competitors are hurting iTunes movie sales and rentals
Strong competition from the likes of Amazon and Comcast has halved Apple's market share when it comes to movie sales and rentals, The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday.
The numbers should be taken with a grain of salt because, as the article states, no third parties track market share in the digital-movie business. While that makes exact figures impossible to obtain, Hollywood majors do different amounts of business with Apple and several of them have confirmed “a marked decline in iTunes’ leadership position.”
Sources said iTunes' market share for renting and selling movies has been falling for years, tumbling to between 20 percent and 35 percent from well over 50 percent as recently as 2012.
By comparison, Amazon's market share in that business has recently climbed to around 20 percent, studio executives said. As for Comcast, it now claims about 15 percent of the combined market for movie sales and purchases in the US.
Bernstein Research estimates that iTunes video, music, book and magazine sales in 2016 accounted for an estimated $4.1 billion in revenue, making it the second-largest services business behind App Store sales.
Apple says it's focused on providing users with premium entertainment via video apps on App Store. The company takes a fifteen percent cut on subscriptions sold via App Store.
An excerpt from the article:
An Apple spokeswoman, who didn’t dispute the market-share estimates, said Apple is focused on providing customers with video content across subscription services such as Netflix and HBO, as well as iTunes, where she said movie purchases and rentals have increased over the past year and hit their highest level in more than a decade.
It is no secret that video-subscription services are growing in popularity at the expense of on-demand rentals and movie purchases. Why pay five bucks or more to stream a single movie via iTunes in high definition if you can get a full Netflix or HBO NOW subscription for the price of a single movie download (new movie downloads are priced at $19.99 on iTunes)?
Movies, like music, are meant to be streamed no matter what Apple says about it.
Just like iTunes' market share for digital music purchases has been decreasing as part of the overall industry decline due to the rise of streaming services like Spotify, the same thing is now happening in the digital movie industry.
Apple has offered movies and TV shows on iTunes since 2003.
Apple has been trying for years to persuade Hollywood studios to let it build a so-called skinny bundle of the best channels from the likes of Disney, ESPN and others, to no avail.
Last year, total digital-movie sales and rentals rose a combined twelve percent to $5.3 billion in the US, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers.
How to enter DFU mode on Apple Watch
With the right dongle to connect your Apple Watch to iTunes through its diagnostics port, you can easily enter Apple Watch DFU mode.