Apple has rolled out movie support for its iTunes in the Cloud service to a number of new countries this morning. The list features Japan and seven additional European countries including Italy, Lithuania, Austria and Spain.
For those unfamiliar with the service, it allows you to stream and re-download previously purchased iTunes content on all of your registered iOS devices. It's available for all content, but today's rollout is restricted to movies...
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...
When it comes to iTunes and video streaming, the Apple service is often overlooked by iDevice owners because it is always there - no app is downloaded, no service subscribed. It is that ubiquity that appears to have garnered iTunes high customer service satisfaction when it comes to streaming video.
However, right on its heels are traditional streaming video operators, such as HBO Go and Netflix. But are we comparing apples to oranges, since iTunes doesn't stream content in real-time on computers, giving consumers the false impression of superiority...
As its iTunes Radio launch draws closer, Apple has begun sending out emails to owners of Internet radio stations asking that they provide cover art for future use on iTunes and mobile devices.The move suggests that the company is looking to feature independent streaming music stations, alongside its premium iTunes content, in the upcoming service...
Apple has altered its iTunes Terms and Conditions to permit children under the age of 13 to operate individual iTunes accounts created at the request of an 'approved educational institution,' signaling the beginning of its next big push into education.
Previously, the company restricted iTunes accounts to children aged 13 or older. But with it landing major iPad distribution deals with school districts, the Mac-maker has announced that it will be changing its policy with the fall release of iOS 7...
Yesterday, Apple seeded beta 3 of Apple TV 5.4 software. And looking at the change log, it initially appeared that the update was little more than a maintenance update, as there were no new notable features. But a couple of cool things have since been discovered in the release.
For one, it looks like Apple has re-added the ability to purchase music through iTunes—as it stands, users can only purchase TV shows and Movies through iTunes on their Apple TV, and this appears to change that. And two, a new 'touch to setup' feature has been added...
Alongside today's release of iOS 7 Beta 4, Apple has also seeded a new version of iTunes to its registered developers. The first beta of the upcoming iTunes 11.1 is now available via Apple's Dev Center (the current iTunes build carries a version number of 11.0.4). The beta software contains the iTunes Radio feature, which on desktop is currently available only in the United States on OS X 10.7 or later Macs...
The music discovery engine Shazam has been on a roll lately. May brought an exclusive background television-tagging features to Shazam for iPad and last month the company added a new Pulse feature to ease music discovery by analyzing the trending real-time charts. In today's update, your Shazam apps have received another useful feature: multi-track purchase...
Just when I thought Apple has started to recover from the Dev Center breach and that the brouhaha couldn't get any worse, now comes word that iTunes activation servers have been experiencing an extended outage for the past few hours. No matter how you look at this, it's another blunder for Apple.
Without iTunes servers working, customers are unable to activate their handsets. Apple's servers used to melt under heavy load before, but it always happened shortly after a new iPhone had gone on sale (2007/2008/2009 iPhone launches), never mid-cycle like today.
It was unclear at post time whether this development had anything to do with a breach last Thursday which prompted Apple to take the entire Dev Center down...
Apple CEO Tim Cook's message Tuesday was clearly: "We're back!" But can a company which has experienced four quarters of sliding shares and a stock value that's dropped around 40 percent since September make such a claim without traditionally fat gross margins?
The iPhone - Apple's flagship product - has seen its per unit revenue fall with the iPad telling a similar story. In an ironic development, Apple products once overshadowed by the iPhone and iPad now are revenue champs, according to a Wednesday report...
Apple on Monday quietly announced its users have subscribed to one billion podcasts through iTunes. The milestone is being celebrated via a special iTunes section that includes the What's Hot and New & Noteworthy sections.
Additionally, Apple highlights cherry-picked shows like This American Life, TEDTalks, 60 Minutes, Happy Tree Friends, etc.
There are now 250,000 different podcasts in more than a hundred languages available through iTunes...
When it comes to apps, free is best. New research finds consumers are willing to accept ads in their apps to avoid paying for their favorite iOS or Android apps. According to Flurry, the number of free apps available in the App Store and Google's Play store continues to rise.
Matter of fact, the trend toward free apps has grown to comprise 90 percent of applications in Apple's App Store. The overwhelming vote for free means the average iPhone app cost nineteen cents, with iPad apps averaging fifty cents.
For Android apps, the fascination with free is even greater, driving the average cost of apps using Google's mobile software down to just six cents...