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iTunes Store drops support for Windows Vista on May 25th
Ah, 2007: the days when Windows Vista was all the rage (or inducing rage), the Apple TV was brand new and music download stores were the hottest way to get the latest albums. Apple certainly remembers that year... and would like you to move on. The company has posted a support page warning that the iTunes Store will no longer work on Windows XP, Windows Vista and first-generation Apple TVs as of May 25th. iTunes itself will function, but new purchases and re-downloads are off limits. "Security changes" necessitate dropping these older platforms, Apple said.
Apple moving international iTunes arm to Ireland next month
In a note sent out to developers, Apple has confirmed it's moving its international iTunes business from Luxembourg to its European hub in Ireland effective February 5th. The company pre-empted the move last September, when it transferred all developer contracts and an estimated $9 billion in assets between the countries in preparation. And from next month, responsibility for Apple's iTunes arm serving over 100 countries (not including the US) -- and covering the iTunes, iBook and App Stores as well as Apple Music -- will formally transfer to its offices in Cork, Ireland.
Bono apologizes for that U2 download you didn't ask for
Apple and U2 may have touted that Songs of Innocence iTunes giveaway as a breakthrough music deal, but not everyone appreciated seeing an album forced into their collection. And apparently, front man Bono is now well aware of this -- he just used a fan Q&A on Facebook to offer an apology of sorts. He's sorry that U2 got "carried away" with its idea, and claims that the band was worried that years of work "might'nt be heard" if it had a typical launch.
The iTunes Store is about to get a flatter look
Apple has flattened the design of just about every interface it makes, but the iTunes Store has remained largely impervious to those changes -- reflections, drop shadows and extruded buttons abound. All that is likely to change soon, however. According to 9to5Mac, those trying out the iTunes 12 beta are now seeing a super-flat iTunes Store layout that mirrors what you've seen in iOS, OS X Yosemite and iTunes 12 itself. The carousel highlighting new content is no longer full of pseudo-3D effects, and most of the buttons have been reduced to simple wireframes. A few elements are reportedly missing as of this writing, but it won't be surprising if the new-look storefront gets some stage time on October 16th.
Apple includes Ridiculous Fishing and Wunderlist in its top iOS and OS X apps of 2013
As is tradition near the end of the year, we look back on our most recent lap around the sun and try to forget all those resolutions we didn't meet. Today, Apple's the one in a reflective mood, having published its "Best of 2013" selections for the iOS and Mac App Stores as well as iTunes. Free language teaching app Duolingo tops the iPhone chart, with chainsaw-assisted angling title Ridiculous Fishing snapping up the game-specific award. The iPad app of the year accolade goes to Disney Animated, an interactive guide to the iconic studio's animation process, and SFCave-meets-Super Meat Boy platformer Badland stands at the top of the podium in the games category. The iOS edition of Minecraft is the best selling paid app of 2013 despite its age, while puzzler Candy Crush Saga is both the top free and the top grossing app of the year. In the OS X App Store, to-do list manager Wunderlist takes home the prize for best app of the year, with Lego Lord of the Rings being named the greatest game. For all honorable runner-up mentions and the best-of selections for iTunes music, books, TV, films and more, load up the relevant store and look out for the banner.
Apple App Store hits 60 billion cumulative downloads
Over 64% of compatible devices are already running iOS 7, according to Apple, making it by far the company's most successful mobile operating system. In all, iOS 7 was downloaded over 200 million times in the first five days after it was released. Apple also reported paying developers over $13 billion to date, thanks to the over 1 million apps available in the App Store, which have hit over 60 billion cumulative downloads. (Apple still has the edge over Android; there are about 900,000 apps available in the Google Play store.)
Apple refunds Breaking Bad iTunes passes in wake of split season
When AMC split the last season of Breaking Bad in two, it annoyed iTunes Season Pass holders who had to pay twice to finish Walter White's saga. Rather than point angry viewers in AMC's direction, though, Apple is shouldering the burden (and trying to dodge a lawsuit) by issuing refunds. Customers who bought the not-actually-last season of Breaking Bad are receiving $23 iTunes credits that they can use for another Season Pass if they so choose. The refund comes just before the series wraps this Sunday, but it's a welcome recompense for viewers who were caught off guard. Check out Apple's email to customers after the break. [Thanks, Abraham]
Some of Apple's online services down this morning
No, it's not your imagination. Some of Apple's online services have been down this morning. A quick look at the Apple System Status page shows that the iTunes Store was down for 16.6 percent of all users between 8:57 and 9:42 AM ET, and that continuing outages affecting less than 1 percent of all users are making life difficult: "Users may be unable to use iCloud Documents, Photo Stream, iPhoto Journals, or Backup & Restore. Users may also be unable to send or download attachments in iMessage." If you're one of the affected users, be sure to keep a close eye on the status page to see when services reappear for you.
Apple features incredibly cheap movie bundles sale on iTunes (Updated)
Apple is currently offering a sale on movie bundles in the iTunes Store with some very good deals indeed. For example, you can buy the Harry Potter Complete Collection, which features all eight Harry Potter movies in HD for only US$9.99 (Update -- the price has gone back up to $59.99). That's a little over one dollar a movie. Other great deals include: All 10 of the original Star Trek movies are only $49.99 in HD. The Lords of the Rings trilogy is only $17.99. The Back to the Future trilogy is only $19.99. The Jurassic Park trilogy is only $19.99. There are plenty more movies to be had in the movie bundles sale promotion. There's no word on when the promotion ends, but it is likely to run until next Tuesday when Apple refreshes its movie offerings each week.
The iTunes influence, part three: Art in the age of digital disruption
"What happened is way worse for musicians. It has forced musicians to be marketers." John McVey, producer, Coupe Studios "I fear that in general the only musicians able to create a truly independent and successful career are those who had one before the industry changed, who had the fan base in place to enable them to continue independently of the record labels." That's Peter Owen, an independent composer and producer. He is one of many musicians who feel that the internet has made the business of creativity more challenging. Parts one and two of this series surveyed how iTunes and MP3 catalyzed the digital music movement for labels and consumers. The effect of the internet on musicians is less recognized. In one way, musicians have benefited similarly to consumers. While consumers have gained amazing access to music, musicians have acquired unprecedented access to listeners. So it's the promised land for musicians, right? Not exactly. For many creators whose careers span the before-and-after of digital music, there is a crushing sense that the grass isn't greener after all.
The iTunes influence, part two: Setting the music free
"I think the consumer is going to be driving this train for quite a long time." -- Casey Rae, deputy director, Future of Music Coalition In 2003, the iTunes Music Store established an environment for downloadable music at exactly the time when consumers needed a safe and stable online music store. iTunes sold a million songs in the first week, 10 million in five months and 25 million songs after eight months. But the consumer demands of one era do not necessarily hold sway in a different cycle. iTunes is facing powerful competition from Amazon, Google and Microsoft in the pay-per-download business. Meanwhile, streaming platforms like Spotify, Rdio and YouTube are establishing a widespread attitude that music is free, and that downloading from a store isn't as compelling as accessing a service. Apple is still making plenty of sales in the music store (15,000 downloads per minute), but users are also flocking in different directions. With the state of music industry still in flux, 2013 could be as pivotal as 2003, and the next 10 years could be as eventful as the last 10.
The iTunes influence, part one: How Apple changed the face of the music marketplace
"iTunes is a stepping stone along the way." -- Jim Griffin, OneHouse LLC On April 28th, the iTunes Store basked in a milestone 10th birthday. Two years before its 2003 launch (as the iTunes Music Store), Apple introduced the iTunes client as a desktop music management program and implemented it as the device manager for the first iPod later in 2001. In those two years, Apple laid the groundwork for what can reasonably be called the iTunes era of music. Apple did not invent digital music, even though for many iTunes embodies 21st century music buying. However, during the past 10 years, it has become the US' top music retailer, with customers currently downloading 15,000 songs per minute from the app's library of 26 million songs, according to an Apple spokesperson. Since its launch, it has evolved into the hub of a powerhouse media / tech ecosystem that turned Apple into the world's most valuable company in 2012. As a symbolic milestone, the iTunes anniversary encourages reflection on the past, a survey of the present and predictions of the future. Digital music continues to evolve, for businesses, consumers and musicians.
TodoMovies: The must-have movie app for movie lovers
Taphive's TodoMovies (US$1.99) app for iPhone has recently been updated to version 2.0. I'd not seen or used TodoMovies before, but as a huge movie enthusiast, I knew I had to check it out. At its heart, TodoMovie is an app that keeps track of movies you want to watch, but it's supercharged in every way. Here's how it works. Say, for example, you heard a friend talking about a film, like Iron Man 3. You want to know more about it, so you open TodoMovies and go to Discover View. You enter the title in the search box and it pops right up with a thumbnail picture, title and the release year. When you tap it, you're presented with the movie's poster and numerous options. Watch a trailer for the movie. Check out a gallery with all the official pictures. Add the film to your watch list or mark it as watched. Furthermore, find out about the storyline, cast and crew, release date as well as TodoMovie's own universal rating. If that's not enough, review ratings are also imported from Rotten Tomatoes and Netflix. In Discovery View, it's easy to find films by genre, what's in theaters at the moment and what's upcoming. With a tap and hold, quickly indicate whether you've seen a movie or you want to add it to your watch list. Movies you've seen will have a little green tick in the top-right corner. Movies you're still to watch will have a blue plus sign. %Gallery-186699% If you find a film you want to watch that's still unreleased, just add it to your watch list. TodoMovie will let you add a release notification reminder with notes, perhaps to remind you to buy tickets for a screening at your favorite cinema! TodoMovie makes it easy to share information on a great film with friends or family. From within the app, share to Twitter, Facebook, a text message or email. The app also searches and links to the iTunes Store, should you want to buy a soundtrack or even rent or buy a film. TodoMovie supports iCloud Sync, so if you're signed into iCloud, your list will be saved and accessible across your iDevices. There's also Dropbox integration, which lets you export images from movie galleries to your Dropbox. It's a really nice idea, especially if you enjoy having movie posters as your desktop picture. Add the Dropbox folder to Desktop pictures in your Mac's System Preferences and set it to change pictures periodically. Export the images from within TodoMovies and you'll have a carousel of movie posters as your desktop picture. My only gripe is the lack of high-resolution images. While offering all of these fantastic features, TodoMovie keeps what's important front and center -- movies. The app is really well-designed, functions flawlessly and looks gorgeous. The only complaint is that it's sometimes hard to decipher the movie title from a poster image. I'd have to tap the image and enter the movie details section just to find out what it was, which was a little frustrating at times. A list view would be nice. In summary, TodoMovies makes it really easy to discover new films, keep track of what you want to watch and what you've watched, and is a fantastic resource for movie info, reviews and media. Whether you're a film addict, conniossuer or you simply want to keep track of movies you want to watch, TodoMovies is a must-have app. TodoMovies is available from the App Store now. Our own Victor Agreda, Jr. spoke to the creator of TodoMovie at last year's WWDC. To learn about the origin of the app, watch the video below.
Apple marks a Decade of iTunes through an in-app timeline
The tenth anniversary of the iTunes Store is looming on April 28th, and Apple wants to do more for the occasion than treat itself to a nice dinner. It just launched an interactive Decade of iTunes timeline (within iTunes itself, naturally) to remind us how far its music service has come since 2003. While the retrospective includes the expected sales milestones, media links and plugs for iPods, it's surprisingly detailed: you, too, can learn that Morcheeba rocked the album charts when iTunes reached Scandinavia. Apple has fiercer competition these days that not surprisingly goes unacknowledged, but it's good to have at least some context for Cupertino's more recent achievements. Catch a taste of that early iTunes Store vibe after the break.
Apple celebrates 'A Decade of iTunes' with interactive timeline
Apple is celebrating "A Decade of iTunes" with a cool interactive timeline in the iTunes store. The timeline pulls out milestones for iTunes each year. For example, on September 7th, 2005 it says "iPod nano replaces iPod mini and goes on to become the bestselling music player ever." Each year also displays the the Top Ten bestselling singles and albums. The entire timeline is actually really cool -- especially if you're an Apple history buff. There's no way to grab a direct link to it, but to see it just open up iTunes, go into the iTunes store and look for the "A Decade of iTunes" white carousel banner at the top.
iTunes Store update lets you buy media today, download it tomorrow
While we like the convenience of shopping the iTunes Store from any device, that doesn't mean we want the download wherever we happen to be -- just ask anyone trying to buy the Beatles Box Set using a flaky coffee shop hotspot. As of a quiet update noticed by Macworld, customers won't have to risk a long wait for some of their impulse purchases. Buy from iTunes on any device and you now have the option to defer very large downloads, whether they're music box sets, movies or TV shows. Shoppers have to live in an area where iTunes in the Cloud is up and running for downloads elsewhere, but that's about the only major catch. Swing by the source link for Apple's explanation of how its delayed gratification works for each format.
Daily Update for February 6, 2013
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen. Subscribe via RSS
iTunes selling, renting movies in recently opened stores
After launching the iTunes Store in a slew of countries earlier this month, Apple has began selling and renting movies in 42 of those locales. According to AppleInsider, the newly added countries that have movie purchases as of today are: Europe: Belarus, Moldova, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine Africa, the Middle East and India: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Botswana, Cape Verde, Egypt, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, India, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Swaziland, United Arab Emirates, Uganda and Zimbabwe Asia Pacific: Indonesia, Micronesia, Mongolia, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan Latin America and the Caribbean: Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, Trinidad and Tobago AI notes that though movies and rental have gone on sale in those countries, many of them offer a limited selection -- some only offering movies from Disney and Sony and their subsidiaries. Also, not all of the countries listed above offer HD movies or movie rentals. The lack of offerings is no doubt due to geographic licensing deals.
Redeem iTunes gift cards with iTunes 11 and your Mac's camera
One of the coolest iTunes 11 features has got to be the new redemption system. It allows you to scan gift codes using your Mac's camera system. As the screen shot above shows, all you have to do is hold up your iTunes barcode and let your camera do the work. No more laborious typing of barcode-supported gift cards is needed any more. Click Use Camera and then use the interactive camera feed to hold up and scan your card. You can only redeem cards that have a box around the code letters, as you see in the screenshot above. Here is Steve Sande redeeming himself. He isn't actually a gift card, but he pretends to be one on alternative Sundays. TUAW first noticed Mountain Lion's Core Recognition framework early this year and suggested that it might be used for this kind of redemption through the "CRCodeRedeemer" class. We're gratified to learn we were right on the money. Mike Rose pointed out in his original write-up that there's even more this tech could be capable of. As he wrote back in Feburary, "This technology would be even more interesting if Apple's 2011 patent application for 'digital handshakes' ever sees daylight. With barcodes or data embeds printed on your devices with invisible ink, you could log into your Mac just by waving your iPhone at it -- which would require that your Mac have some barcode-reading savvy."
iBookstore lines its shelves with paid content in New Zealand, 17 Latin American countries
iDevice owners in New Zealand and 17 Latin American countries are no longer restricted to a diet composed of free content when it comes to their respective iBookstores. A quick search of the storefronts will reveal virtual shelves stocked with paid-content that haven't yet found their way to the shops' homepages. Reside in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru or Venezuela? Head on over to the appropriate store and books with price tags will be available for purchase. If this is any sign of what Apple has up its sleeve for tomorrow, we suspect that "a little more" will involve a bit of reading.
