iTunes Store

PayPal for Apple ID expands to 11 markets, now with support for Apple TV & Apple Watch

PayPal announced today that it's expanding support for App Store and other purchases made with Apple ID across Apple devices to eleven new markets, including the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Austria, Spain, Canada, Mexico, Israel and Australia.

The roll out began today in Canada and Mexico, with other markets including the US due soon.

Before today, the PayPal option was limited to customers in the United States with limited integration requiring a credit card on file with PayPal as a linked method of payment.

As part of an expanded partnership with Apple, your App Store purchases can be now deducted directly from your PayPal account. The new system provides a “secure and versatile payment method to meet the growing demand for digital entertainment,” in PayPal's own words.

Adding PayPal as a payment method now works in the App Store, iTunes Store and iBooks Store apps for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch: just go to Settings → iTunes & App Stores, tap your Apple ID in the list and choose payment information to link PayPal with your Apple ID.

Previously, customers had to go through iTunes for Mac and Windows PCs to configure their Apple account for PayPal integration. Once PayPal has been selected, all future purchases with the customer's Apple ID will be automatically charged to their PayPal account, including:

Apps on App Store and Mac App Store Apple Music subscriptions Music, movies, TV shows, ringtones and more on iTunes Store Books on iBooks Store iCloud storage upgrades

As a bonus, the feature now supports PayPal's One Touch technology,

One Touch skips the PayPal login screen at checkout after the first use as long as you’re in the same device or browser. In other words, after buying something using your Apple ID from App Store and other stores, One Touch will skip the password field that PayPal normally requires.

More importantly, One Touch allows for simple purchasing from all Apple devices—including your Apple TV and Apple Watch for the first time—since you no longer need to provide your PayPal credentials for every purchase.

Both new and existing customers will be able to switch their account to use PayPal as the default method when the feature goes live in their market.

For more information on how to set up PayPal with your Apple ID account on your iOS device, visit paypal.com/ituneslaunch.

The best thing about using PayPal as a payment method on App Store and elsewhere is the fact that you can add credit cards to your PayPal account to use with your Apple ID without having to enter any financial details into your Apple ID account.

Amazon and Apple end Audible exclusivity deal to avoid antitrust probe by German government

Quietly announced two weeks ago following discussions with both the European Commission and the German Federal Cartel Office, Apple and Amazon have decided to end their deal which made Amazon-owned Audible an exclusive provider of audiobooks for iTunes.

According to a Reuters report Thursday, the move puts an end to antitrust complaints by the German government and is likely to boost competition.

The agreement had been in place for over a decade, since 2003.

Here are 5 top-grossing holiday movies of all time on U.S. iTunes Store

Apple on Thursday released a list of the top five best-selling holiday movies of all time on iTunes Store in the United States. Elf, originally released in 2003 and starring Will Ferrell as Buddy the Elf, is the all-time best-selling holiday movie on iTunes Store.

In addition to the list of the top five holiday movies on iTunes Store, the Cupertino company yesterday launched limited-time movie bundles at discounted prices, a bunch of 99-cent rentals and films under $10.

App and iTunes Stores down for some people [U: working again]

Some owners of iPhone and iPad devices may experience difficulty purchasing apps and media from Apple's digital content stores because they've been experiencing issues since about 12:30pm Pacific / 3:30pm Eastern Time. According to Apple's iCloud Status Page, some folks may be unable to make purchases in the iTunes Store, Mac App Store and App Store. We'll update the post as soon as these problems have been resolved.

Update 3.15pm PT: everything is working again, according to Apple.

Apple wants to offer rentals for movies that just came out in theaters

Bloomberg is reporting that Apple is in discussions with Hollywood studios about eventually offering home rentals for new movies two weeks after they've hit the silver screen, but at a price.

New flicks are usually available for purchase on the iTunes Store 90 days after theatrical releases, followed by rentals two to four weeks later.

Movie studios are now said to be discussing rentals two weeks after they open in theaters though encryption is among the concerns in these talks, the article notes.

Apple announces December 23-27 iTunes Connect holiday shutdown

Apple on Tuesday announced that its annual holiday shutdown of iTunes Connect will be taking place between December 23 and December 27, 2016. iTunes Connect is a service developers and iTunes partners use to submit their apps and other content to Apple's content stores. In other words, no new apps or app updates shall surface on the App Store and Mac App Store between December 23-27.

Opinion: Dark Mode? Apple’s been testing dark interfaces on iOS for years now

My colleague Andrew first broke news yesterday that Dark Mode resources have been found within iOS 10's Messages app. Now, Dark Mode was expected to make an official appearance in iOS 10, but the WWDC keynote came and went without any mention of this feature.

Now Mac Aficionados tweeted out screenshots depicting a dark interface in other iOS 10 stock apps, including an automatic dark mode in iBooks, in addition to the Clock app, Safari and the iTunes Store.

As it turns out, dark interfaces in these apps (sans Clock) have been present for years, indicating Apple's been testing how users might accept a Dark Mode option on iOS.

Confessions of a big iTunes spender

I have a confession to make...

It's become painfully obvious to me, glancing at my purchase history, that I've reached a point in my computing life where I'm now a big iTunes spender. To my astonishment, in the past year or so I've been burning money on apps, media and services at a clip of a hundred bucks each month. That's actually a conservative estimate. Realistically, my iTunes spending is somewhere in the ballpark of $150-$200 per month.

To look at it another way, that's $1,200-$2,400 in annualized services revenue for Apple from this particular customer, excluding my hardware purchases. When this much cash is getting sucked out of my pocket by Apple, I can't help but admit the company must be doing something right when it comes to digital media and services.

I realize $100 per month is a lot of money to burn on digital entertainment. I'm not going to preach on issues of morality here nor will I suggest that everyone should spend that much, or spend anything at all in the iTunes and App Stores.

What I'm getting at is this: despite dropping significant cash on apps, media and services, I've never felt buyer's remorse. Why? Because I'm getting value for my money and, after all, Apple is just a middleman. To put it bluntly, I'd rather spend my hard earned cash to support those who create content for a living than blatantly steal their hard work.

Here's what a $100 spent in Apple's content stores buys me, why I don't think I'm being ripped off and how the sense of satisfaction I get in return makes it all worthwhile for me.

Top 3D Touch shortcuts and gestures available for the App Store and iTunes Store apps

The App Store and iTunes Store storefronts are 3D Touch-enabled on the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, with each supporting some pretty smartly chosen Home screen shortcuts that'll save you a few taps once you get the hang of them.

On the other hand, previewing your apps and media via force-pressing isn't as developed as in other stock apps, such as Messages and Maps. But don't you worry—iDownloadBlog comes to the rescue!

This quick tutorial clearly demonstrates where on the App Store and iTunes Store common 3D Touch shortcuts and Peek and Pop gestures do and don't work.