During Apple's Q3 earnings call this afternoon, Tim Cook praised the success of its iTunes software and services arm. The CEO said the division was the fastest-growing of the company's business in the first 9 months of its fiscal year 2014.
The segment generated $4.5 billion in revenue during the 3-month period, an increase of 12% YoY (or year over year). And Cook attributed the growth to a number of factors, including growing interest in China and strong App Store numbers...
Alongside Developer Preview 4 of OS X Yosemite, Apple launched a new beta version of iTunes 12 this morning. The most notable change in the software is its refreshed interface, which features flatter UI elements, greater space between buttons, and other iOS 7-esque design language.
iTunes 12 also brings about a new icon, as well as a host of new features. Included in the new functionality is support for Family Share, a new option Apple announced at WWDC last month for sharing iTunes purchases, improved playlists, a redesigned information window, and more...
Best Buy, the Richfield, Minnesota headquartered American multinational consumer electronics retailer, is seemingly offering discounts on Apple products on a weekly basis. To boot your week, the company is now offering $100 iTunes Gift Cards for just $85, representing a saving of fifteen bucks on your software and digital media purchases on iTunes.
These physical cards usually leave Best Buy's warehouse in 1 business day and the retailer is throwing in free shipping to sweeten the deal a bit more...
Apple this morning announced its eighth annual iTunes Festival in London. The 30-day event will feature over 60 acts, and once again take place at the legendary Roundhouse throughout the month of September.
Headlining this year's Festival will be Maroon 5, Pharrell Williams, Beck and David Guetta, and Apple says that it will once again be streaming all of their performances to iOS devices, iTunes and the Apple TV for free...
On Tuesday, Apple launched a new service in Japan called 'iTunes Pass.' The service allows customers to purchase iTunes Store credit from an Apple retail store using Passbook, eliminating the need for physical gift cards and redemption codes.
At the time of launch, it was unclear if Apple intended to roll out iTunes Pass to other countries, or if it was merely just testing the waters for a bigger project. After 24 hours, that question was answered tonight when the service popped up in the US...
Apple has launched a new service in Japan called iTunes Pass. The program is actually quite interesting, as it appears to allow customers to purchase iTunes Store credit from an Apple retail store, using Passbook instead of physical gift cards.
Users have long been able to store gift cards in Passbook, but we've never seen a direct-to-Passbook service like this, without the need to redeem a code. It almost looks like this could be a prequel to Apple's oft-rumored mobile payment system...
A few years ago, Apple extended song previews in iTunes from 30 seconds to 90 seconds, for tracks longer than two and a half minutes. The move pleased users, as it enabled them to listen to a large chunk of the song before purchasing it.
It appears, however, that Apple has recently changed its policy regarding music samples, reverting some track preview times back to 30 seconds. The change has been reported by several users, on both mobile and desktop versions of iTunes...
Apple has just released a brand new iTunes 11.3 update which enables iTunes Extras for HD movies on Mac computers. Moreover, iTunes 11.3 finally brings back iTunes Extras to the $99 Apple TV media-streaming box after Apple killed support for this useful content-enhancing feature back in 2010.
As if that wasn't enough, the company confirmed that these interactive menus with featurettes, behind-the-scenes videos, director's commentary and other interactive assets will be coming to iOS 8 in Fall...
Folks in Japan may have noticed that newer Disney movies like Frozen and Thor: The Dark World have been unavailable for purchase in iTunes over the past few days. You could rent the titles, but the option to buy them had been removed.
Good news this morning though, as it looks like Disney has resumed iTunes sales in the country. Variety is reporting that the temporary halt was due to difficulties in negotiations over the renewal of the old contract between the two firms...
Keeping true to its promise to release a much-improved iTunes U version 2.0 on July 8, Apple today posted the update to the App Store. Now available free of charge for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, iTunes U 2.0 finally allows educators to create, edit and manage entire courses, directly on their iPad.
Enhancements for students include new ways to collaborate, with the ability to start class discussions and ask questions right within the app. Jump past the fold for the full reveal...
Following-up on Apple's announcement of the forthcoming iTunes U 2.0 update with new creation tools and discussion feature on iPads, Foundation - a non-profit behind E.O. Wilson’s "Life on Earth" - today announced launch of the complete series on iTunes U and the iBooks Store.
Provided free of charge, the first seven chapters in the 41-chapter series released today as interactive iBooks textbooks, with the remaining materials to be rolled out throughout 2014. In addition, the series is accompanied by an iTunes U course that gives learners access to course materials included in the Biology course...
Apple on Monday announced a major new version of its iTunes U educational app with a number of new creation and discussion features for iPad. The new iTunes U 2.0 app, due July 8, will enable teachers to create, edit and manage entire courses directly on iPad for the first time, while students will get to take advantage of some interesting new collaboration capabilities, including the ability to start class discussions and ask questions right from their iPad...