iPhone sales figures for the first weekend since the device went on sale on September 20th have been announced by Apple. This year the company set a new record high of 9 million sold units, these include both, iPhone 5c and iPhone 5s models.

This isn’t the first time Apple has broken its own previous high. With every new release of iPhone the company successfully manages to set new sales record. iPhone 4S recorded four million sold units during the first weekend and iPhone 5 recorded 5 million units. Even though this years figures set an all time high, they can’t really be compared. This year Apple is selling two new models and added China to the list of countries where the phone would go on sale.

Apple’s press release does not break the iPhone sales figures for the two different models however, analysts believe that iPhone 5s demand was much greater than iPhone 5c. The company is struggling to meet the demand for iPhone 5s as the availability has moved to October for many customers.

Apple also announced that iTunes Radio has been very well received by users as the company recorded over 11 million unique listeners during the launch weekend. iOS 7 was released to general public on September 18th and Apple revealed that over 200 million devices are already running the latest software.

iPhone is the most profitable and revenue generating business for Apple and as the company continues to break previous records, its clear that users are voting with their money.

On Thursday, Twitter launched the music app that was nothing but a rumor for the past several weeks. Twitter released the app early Thursday, and called it Twitter #music, with a hashtag in the title to reflect the popular feature from the social networking site. The app integrates a number of other music streaming services such as Rdio and Spotify and also shows previews from iTunes.

All of the music in the app will give users a preview until they log into their Spotify Premium or Rdio account. Twitter also introduced the service on the web for users who stream music on their computers and for those who use Spotify or Rdio on the web on a regular basis. Twitter #music uses Twitter as its main source of music and aggregates the most popular emerging artists and songs and also utilizes a user’s follow lists to recommend other music that the user may like.

Twitter #music is very similar to something such as Apple’s Genius suggestions in iTunes, but uses other music streaming services and Twitter to aggregate and recommend new music. ABC News released more specific details on the Twitter #music app:

The Popular page shows you new music that’s trending across Twitter while the Emerging tab shows “hidden talent found in tweets.” While those two parts feed you information about what the collective Twitterverse is jamming to, the last two focus on who you follow and your personal music taste.

The Suggested tab shows artists you might like based on the artists you follow on the service and who they follow. And finally the #NowPlaying tab shows songs your friends are listening to or tweeting about. For instance, if your friend tweets that they are listening to a song by Justin Bieber, that song will show up on that page.

Twitter #music is now available as a free download on the App Store {Direct Link} and on the web.

{Via MacRumors}

According to a report from AppleInsider, Apple is contacting developers through the iTunes Connect program, requesting that they localize their applications. This means that developers will update their apps with multiple languages and will also market applications and books as localized. By localizing apps, developers will be able to reach a number of different regions, because all text, titles and descriptions will be molded to each area.

In the letter to iTunes Connect members, Apple noted that the App Store and Mac App Store are available in 155 countries with support for 40 languages, saying that “it has never been more important to localize your app and marketing material.

Alongside the request to developers to localize their applications, Apple also released a Chinese Support Communities forum, which allows users to provide support to other Apple users through their native tongues. This would allow for customers to feel comfortable using the product, especially if they are receiving assistance that is tailored to their needs. Until the release of this forum, most Chinese users and users from other countries around the world would have to refer to the English forums for help.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has noted in the past that China is a major growth opportunity for Apple and the company has posted an increase of over 67 percent in revenue in the country. Recently, Apple has been dealing with customer complaints about the company’s warranty policies, prompting their Senior VP of Operations Jeff Williams to go to deal with the public relations issues. Apple is consistently trying to increase support for its Chinese users as the company realizes that the region is a key part of their revenue models.

{Via MacRumors}

On Thursday, CNET reported that Apple is reportedly very close to completing a deal with both Warner Music and Universal Music Group for its rumored iRadio service. Earlier this week, reports suggested that Apple was looking to launch the service as early as this summer, and with new reports of the companies finalizing deals, it appears that the previous rumors may be correct.

With its iRadio service, Apple will reportedly be using a different revenue stream and adding features not seen in other streaming music services such as Spotify and Pandora. Initial reports suggested that negotiations slowed because of Apple’s offering of low royalty which have likely been resolved since then. It is unclear, however, if the record labels settled for a lower rate or if Apple offered a higher rate.

That includes a quick way for consumers to buy a song they hear, potentially boosting download sales from iTunes, as well as a revenue share of new audio ads Apple is planning to add to the free service, according to sources.

The product would be tied to iTunes, and available on mobile devices.

The service, according to sources, most closely resembles Pandora because it doesn’t offer on-demand listening. Apple is building some unique features, such as the ability to jump back to the beginning of a song, according to one person briefed on the company’s plans.

It is possible that Apple would launch the new service at the company’s WWDC conference during the summer. Warner Music and Universal Music Group will be enough for the company to launch the service, however, they will also need to strike a deal with Sony Music Group to get the full library of songs. It is possible for the deals to fall through, with content and royalty rate negotiations still continuing, but with all of these reports, it is all but confirmed that Apple will be launching a streaming music service later this year.

{Via MacRumors}

After multiple complaints from parents and other App Store users about mistakenly buying in-app purchases, the Cupertino company is finally addressing the widespread complaint. Last week, Apple quietly updated the App Store to add a note to the “Free” apps in the store that mentions on the bottom that it “Offers In-App Purchases.” This warning is currently displayed only on the iTunes App Store, but will likely be available on iOS soon, as that is where the unintended purchases are usually made.

A number of users, mostly parents have complained that their children unknowingly make purchases for upgrades, and other tokens inside of applications. Some of these In-App purchases can range anywhere from $1 and sometimes can go past $100.

There have been a number of reports on the issues that customers have had with the flawed in-app purchasing system, including a five-year-old boy in Britain that charged £1,700 to his parents credit cards through in-app purchases in the game Zombie.

Apple has been sued by some customers, including a man from Phoenixville, PA, who filed a lawsuit against Apple, claiming that the company was allowed to “pocket millions of dollars” off of unauthorized purchases. In order to address the concerns, not only has Apple added the new warning, the company has also begun to refund money and give $5 iTunes credits to customers who filed claims that the in-app purchases were an error. It is unclear what other actions Apple will take if the issue persists.

{Via AppleInsider}

With Asia a major source of revenue for Apple, and its products becoming hugely popular in countries such as Japan and China it is not surprising that the company is releasing more of its online services in the region.

On Tuesday, Apple updated the iBooks application with improved Asian language support on the books available in the iBooks store, and finally opened up Japan to the iBookstore. Now, users in Japan will be able to download books through the online store directly to their iOS devices.

What’s New in Version 3.1

The iBookstore in Japan now has hundreds of thousands of books available for purchase, including fiction, manga, light novels and more. This version of iBooks also includes a number of improvements for reading Asian language books.

Apple did not limit the book titles available to Japanese users, allowing them to download books from all over the world, including a large selection of Japanese titles. Types of books include fiction, manga, light novels, and many others. iBooks 3.1 is a sizeable 43.1 megabyte update and is now available through the App Store on both iOS and through iTunes [Direct Link].

{Via AppleInsider}

Apple recently announced a major milestone for its iTunes Music Store, hitting 25 Billion downloads. Last March, Apple’s App Store hit 25 billion downloads, with the company giving out a $10,000 gift card to the person who downloaded the 25 billionth app. Apple did not launch a promotion for the milestone as it has done in the past with apps and previous music downloads however, did give €10,000 iTunes Gift Card to the winner.

The 25 billionth song, “Monkey Drums” (Goksel Vancin Remix) by Chase Buch, was purchased by Phillip Lüpke from Germany. As the downloader of the 25 billionth song, Phillip will receive a €10,000 iTunes® Gift Card.

“We are grateful to our users whose passion for music over the past 10 years has made iTunes the number one music retailer in the world,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. “Averaging over 15,000 songs downloaded per minute, the iTunes Store connects music fans with their favorite artists, including global sensations like Adele and Coldplay and new artists like The Lumineers, on a scale we never imagined possible.

Apple’s iTunes Store currently offers over 26 million songs, which are available in over 119 countries. Apple launched its iTunes Music Store in 2003 and will celebrate its tenth anniversary this April.

As Apple grew exponentially after the introduction of the iPhone and iPad, the company’s online services such as the App Store and Music Store continue to flourish. The services are key parts of the Apple ecosystem which binds together the hardware with the software.

{Via MacRumors}

Apple has been widely rumored to be working on subscription based music streaming service for iOS devices. When Apple purchased LaLa, many believed that the company would introduce a streaming service. However, the purchase turned out to be to acquire talent to develop iTunes Match service.

Evad3rs released their ‘evasi0n’ unthethered jailbreak for iPhone5 on Tuesday and now 9to5Mac points us to hidden radio icons in iOS 6.1 release. Jailbreaking the iPad with evasi0n and then going through the files in Music.app revealed references to “radio button” with icons bearing resemblance to radio streaming icon in iTunes. Further, it was found that the button files are labeled with “buy” in the filename.

Many news publications like Bloomberg and WSJ previously reported on rumors about Apple working on Pandora competitor and cited music label licensing deals as being one of the hurdles being faced by the company. If those rumors are to be believed and with the hidden radio icons being revealed in iOS 6.1 is any indication then we could be seeing Apple announcing a new music subscription service soon.

Apple could be looking at allowing users to stream music tailored to their taste using the genius data and then integrating it with the iTunes store to allow purchase of favourite tracks. iTunes music store was recently made available in 56 new countries and the Cupertino, Calif. based company could now be looking at launching a music streaming service.

Following numerous reports online, Apple confirmed in a press release that it was in fact introducing the store in 56 new countries. The following countries received the iTunes Music Store on Tuesday:

Europe: Belarus, Moldova, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine

Africa, the Middle East and India: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Egypt, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, India, Israel, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Swaziland, United Arab Emirates, Uganda, Zimbabwe

Asia Pacific: Fiji, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Micronesia, Mongolia, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan

Latin America and the Caribbean: Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, Trinidad and Tobago

With Apple’s iTunes Music Store is now available in double the number of countries in which it was available in previously. With this expansion, Apple’s revenue from iTunes will most likely increase because of pent up demand. Apple’s international sales are a large part of its quarterly and yearly revenue, particularly in Asian nations such as Japan and China.

{Via MacRumors}

Starting today with Facebook Gifts, you can instantly gift your friends iTunes digital gifts and recommend albums, movies, games, apps, and more available on the iTunes Store.

Search for a specific song or album to recommend, or let your friend decide. iTunes digital gifts are available for $10, $15, $25, or $50.

According to AllThingsD, the partnership between Apple and Facebook includes Facebook into a $260 million dollar business for third-party businesses which equates to about 13% of total sales.

So that adds up to around, say, a $260 million-dollar market size for physical iTunes cards split among participating retailers, of which Facebook will now be an active participant. That pie is small compared to Facebook’s overall revenue ($3.71 billion in 2011), but another digital product with less overhead and high demand is definitely a win for Facebook’s Gifts department

This partnership will help both Facebook and Apple, which have had issues working together in the past, particularly during negotiations over Facebook being integrated into Apple’s iTunes based social network, Ping. Ping was Apple’s failed social media experiment and frayed the relationship between the two companies.

However, the two companies worked together to integrate Facebook into iOS 6 and OS X Mountain Lion. Now, Facebook can benefit from selling the iTunes gift cards through its service and Apple can benefit from increased sales of the gift cards, as well as more iTunes users.

{Via MacRumors}

During this year’s September iPhone and iPod event, Apple also introduced iTunes 11. The Cupertino, Calif. based company released the newest update on Thursday, with a number of new features, such as a redesigned App Store, a mini player, and playback syncing. Other features include:

– Completely Redesigned. iTunes makes it more fun to explore and enjoy your music, movies, and TV shows. You’ll love the beautiful edge-to-edge design, custom designs for each album, movie, or TV show in your library, and getting personal recommendations any time you click in the Store.

– A New Store. The iTunes Store has been completely redesigned and now features a clean look that makes it simpler than ever to see what’s hot and discover new favorites.

– Play purchases from iCloud. Your music, movie, and TV show purchases in iCloud now appear inside your library. Just sign-in with your Apple ID to see them. Double-click to play them directly from iCloud or download a copy you can sync to a device or play while offline.

– Up Next. It’s now simple to see which songs are playing next, all from a single place. Just click the Up Next icon in the center display and they’ll instantly appear. You can even reorder, add, or skip songs whenever you like.

– New MiniPlayer. You can now do a whole lot more with a lot less space. In addition to showing what’s playing, MiniPlayer now includes album art, adds Up Next, and makes it easy to search for something new to play – all from a smaller and more elegant design.

– Improved search. It’s never been easier to find what you’re looking for in iTunes. Just type in the search field and you’ll instantly see results from across your entire library. Select any result and iTunes takes you right to it.

– Playback syncing. iCloud now remembers your place in a movie or TV show for you. Whenever you play the same movie or episode from your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or Apple TV, it will continue right where you left off.

Apple delayed iTunes 11 because of engineering issues, and The Wall Street Journal’s Jessica E. Lessin commented, mentioning that parts of the new iTunes had to be rebuilt.

The new iTunes has been delayed a month by engineering issues that required parts to be rebuilt, according to people who have seen it.

Following the major management shake up at Apple, and the departure of iOS chief Scott Forstall, senior vice president of internet services, Eddy Cue took over all projects related to iCloud alongside his existing projects with iTunes, iTunes Store, and the App Store. Cue also took over Maps and Siri, after both failed to function as advertised and Apple received numerous complaints from customers.

With Cue running all of these services more strictly now, it is no wonder that iTunes 11 is delayed unless it can be guaranteed to operate the way it is expected to. The newest version of iTunes, iTunes 11 is now available for download on the Mac App Store and on the iTunes page as well.

{Via iMore}

On Wednesday, Apple Inc. (AAPL) acquired HTML5 web app company, Particle. AAPL has acquired other companies in the past in order to develop a key part of one of their projects or create an entirely new one. CNET initially reported that Apple acquired the San Francisco based startup and that they acquired the company for its talents in the industry as opposed to any specific project that they were working on.

The company has done HTML5 work for Google, Motorola, Amazon, Yahoo, Sony, and Apple. The group has also created some “labs” projects including Intervue.me, an asynchronous video interviewing project. […]

The deal went through late last month, though not all its less than a dozen employees stayed on to work at Apple. Those who did are listed as “creative technologists” as well as one “user interface engineer,” according to their public LinkedIn profiles.

The report goes on to mention that Apple’s new employees will be put to work specifically on projects such as Apple’s website, iAd, and iCloud.com. Apple may also utilize the company for other projects, such as bringing more of the iTunes software over to the web, similar to iTunes Preview.

It appears Apple has already brought a few employees from Particle onboard already, with TechCrunch noting that several Particle employees have changed their employees on LinkedIn as early as September.

{Via MacRumors}

Early Wednesday, Amazon released an iPad app for its Instant Video service, Amazon Prime Instant Video. The service allows subscribers to rent and buy movies and television shows for offline viewing and competes with other major streaming giants such as Netflix. Amazon’s streaming also gives users the option to stream Prime Instant Video titles when connected to the internet.

Currently, other services such as Netflix only allow users to stream on the internet and do not provide an offline option. Now, these services will be available on the iPad, allowing Amazon to not only keep many of the customers they have but lure in new customers with the offerings on Apple’s popular tablet. With content on Amazon’s Prime Instant Video now available on iPad, users can stop streaming on one device, and resume on numerous others such as TV’s, a Mac or PC, and Amazon’s own Kindle Fire.

With Amazon Instant Video, you can:

– Stream thousands of titles available from Prime Instant Video at no additional cost with a Prime membership, or watch over 120,000 videos available from the Amazon Instant Video store
– Download purchased and rented videos from Your Video Library
– Shop over 120,000 videos available from the Amazon Instant Video store by visiting Amazon
– Add videos to your Watchlist from a PC, Mac, or Kindle Fire for later viewing on your iPad
– Subscribe to a TV Season Pass by visiting Amazon and episodes will automatically be available on your iPad the day after they air
– Start watching on your iPad, and resume watching right where you left off on a Kindle Fire, PS3, PC, Mac, or hundreds of models of connected TVs and Blu-ray players with Amazon Whispersync.

With this new service, it seems that Amazon is trying to get a leg up on Netflix and build a similar service but is using its Kindle Fire device to grab market share. Amazon Prime is available for $79 a year and also offers its customers free two day shipping and discounted overnight shipping.

Overall, this comes out to be a much cheaper and more convenient option when considering Netflix’s $7 a month charge which adds up to be more money and does not offer discounts on other products.

Amazon Instant Video is currently free {Direct Link} in the App Store and requires a subscription for log in.

{via MacRumors}

Late last month, Apple introduced a standalone Podcasts app, pulling the service out of the Music app on iOS and building a new UI around it. However, soon after release, it became apparent that the app was ridden with numerous bugs as with any introduction of a new user interface or application.

On Wednesday, the Cupertino company addressed these issues with an update to the Podcasts application. Aside from performance and stability improvements, the app has also gained the following:

• Ability to remember custom playback speeds when flipping through new episodes
• Badges in Podcast library to identify number of unplayed episodes
• Fixes issue causing “Subscribe” button to defect and not operate properly
• More reliable artwork for “Top Stations”
• Miscellaneous bug fixes

Apple continues to remove smaller services built into iTunes and give them their own standalone applications and user interfaces. The app is currently offered as a free download on the App Store {iTunes Link} for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

{via The Verge}

Earlier this month, rumors about Apple looking to release a standalone Podcast app were all over the web. On Tuesday, ahead of iOS 6 release date Apple released the Podcasts app, offering up a variety of features, previously within the Music app on iOS, with its own interface.

Apple released the app on the App Store early Tuesday as a free download, however, a redeem button within a app has led some users to believe that there may be paid podcasts offered in the near future.

Podcasts app is the easiest way to discover, subscribe to and play your favorite podcasts on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. Explore hundreds of thousands of free audio and video podcasts from the Podcasts Catalog, and play the most popular podcasts, organized for you by topic, with the all-new Top Stations feature.

Features:

– Enjoy all of your audio and video podcasts in a single app
– Explore hundreds of thousands of podcasts including shows in over 40 languages
– Try the innovative new Top Stations feature to find new podcast series in a variety of topics, including arts, business, comedy, music, news, sports, and more.
– Browse by Audio or Video podcasts, or see what’s most popular in Top Charts
– Tap subscribe for your favorites and automatically receive new episodes for free as they become available
– Stream episodes or download to listen while offline
– Skip forward and back using simple playback controls
– Turn on Sleep Timer to automatically stop playing a podcast while listening in bed
– Share your favorite episodes with friends using Twitter, Messages and Mail
– Optionally sync your favorite episodes from iTunes on your Mac or PC
– Sync your episode playback for seamless transition between devices

The app offers all of the podcasts that were previously available through iTunes, but with a new interface and allows users to stream and download podcasts. Users can also sync podcasts across devices running with the same Apple ID.

{via MacRumors}

iOS 6 beta 2 is noted to have a build number of 10A5338d, and is a 322 megabyte download for iPhone 4S users. The update came from a source called AppleInternal which is specified for releasing the OS on a limited basis straight from the engineers at Apple.

The new update is also reported to have fixed issues that caused the SpringBoard to crash, another where the screen turned black after the user plugged in headphones or turned on speakerphone while using the phone, and an issue where the SpringBoard would crash if an iCloud account was created in the initial setup of an iPhone.

This is only the second beta release since the initial beta of iOS 6 was released by Apple about two weeks ago for developers to test and adjust their apps.The iOS 6 beta 2 is compatible with the new iPad 3, iPad 2, iPhone 4S, iPhone 4 and the 4th generation iPod touch.

The beta is available for download in the Settings application and comes with a new animation, where the icon with gears is now animated. The beta is accessible in Settings as an OTA update, and through iTunes via USB. Apple will likely release several more betas before releasing the Golden Master and then final version of iOS 6.

{via AppleInsider}

Earlier in the year, Apple removed the iTunes U category in iTunes from iOS and introduced a standalone app dedicated to providing university and educational materials. According to a report from AllThingsD, the Cupertino company is planning to also introduce an app dedicated entirely to podcasts in iOS 6.

Like iTunes U, this would also push the podcast feature out of iTunes and into its own app, which would also operate and access data from Apple’s servers entirely on its own. Apple appears to be taking a similar approach to Facebook, by removing secondary but important features and giving them full fledged accessibility and support.

People familiar with Apple’s plans tell me that when its new iOS 6 software becomes widely available this fall, podcasts will have their own app, where users will be able to discover, download and play them on mobile devices. Users who access iTunes via laptop and desktop machines will still find them in that version of iTunes, though.

The report also mentioned that Apple is working on podcast producing technology which will likely be included in this app for users to create podcasts and share. Apple has removed Audiobooks, iTunes U, and now Podcasts out of the iTunes application, and is continuing to give smaller categories in iTunes, more features.

As a result, the company will likely witness an increased adoption in podcast usage and sharing as well as a boost in revenue from the Audiobooks category. The podcast category will become its own app and is expected ot be introduced in the public release of iOS 6 which will arrive later this fall.

{via 9to5 Mac}

Time Inc. and Apple have had a longstanding relationship, which hasn’t always been the best. According to a report from AllThingsD, Time Inc has now negotiated and announced that they will begin to offer a number of their magazines through Digital Magazine subscriptions in Apple’s Newsstand. About 2 years ago, Time Inc. backed out of plans to introduced Sports Illustrated through Newsstand because they refused to follow Apple’s rule that the company bill customers through the iTunes Store billing method and instead opted to bill customers directly through their own service.

As a result, the deal fell through and was not brought up until now. Time Inc. mentioned in the press release that they are looking to introduce all 20 of their magazines through the Newsstand Digital Magazine model, a collection that includes magazines such as Time, People, and Fortune. Even though Time Inc. didn’t follow Apple’s digital magazine subscription, allowed print subscribers of their magazines to access the full issues on the iPad. This is the first time that Time will be working with Apple on subscriptions and will give up a portion of its new subscription revenue.

It still remains unclear what caused the two companies to hash out a deal, as noted by AllThingsD. However, it is likely that Apple showed that Time could benefit from their widespread user base and Time did the same with their reader base. It appears that in this deal, both companies have a chance to benefit one way or another.

It could be as simple as Time Inc. trying to boost sales, which haven’t been stellar recently — a slump at its People magazine title is particularly troublesome for the publisher. Or perhaps parent company Time Warner got some other concession from Apple for one of its other units, like HBO or Turner.

Pricing for the digital subscriptions via iTunes has not yet been announced, but will likely be similar in price to some titles that Time currently offers, such as Sports Illustrated which sells for a $3.99 monthly rate or a $38.99 annual rate. A portion of that money will go to Apple, which is what initially prevented Time from entering a deal with the Cupertino based company.

{via MacRumors}

Over the past year, Apple added a number of new applications to its App Store and ported over some of its existing Mac applications over to the iOS platform, such as iPhoto, GarageBand, and iMovie. Late Tuesday, Apple posted updates for all of the following apps: iPhoto, GarageBand, iMovie, and Cards.

iPhoto received a minor update for bug fixes and enhancements, as well as a minor UI tweak, adding a button to allow users to send out journals uploaded to iCloud. This would allow users to share the journal with one click. Cards, a rather simple Apple app, allows users to amake and send physical cards, straight from the app and integrates into Apple’s iOS ecosystem with the use of iTunes gift cards and such.

Any noticeable changes for the Cards app is currently unknown. iMovie received a minor fix allowing users to add their own personal movie soundtracks to a project, as well as minor stability improvements. GarageBand received the most stability improvements, fixing a bug that crashed the app when users tried to upload songs to iCloud or attempted to connect to SoundCloud.

These stability and UI improvements will likely continue over the course of several months, and as iPad and iPhone generations pass, until the mobile app operates very similar to that of the desktop.

{via CNET}

Apple introduced its iTunes Match services last November, allowing its users to create a music locker by matching their music libraries with songs available on iTunes from major music labels and artists. After bringing the service over to a number of countries, including Brazil last December, the company has now decided to release it in a list of new countries including Austria, Greece, and Italy.

Earlier Tuesday, MacRumors received reports that Apple was planning to launch iTunes Match in new countries, with many users reporting that they were prompted to agree to updated iTunes Store terms and conditions while others were unable to complete registration for the Match service.

Apple’s support document for the service has a running list of all the countries that the service is available in, however, at this point has not been updated and does not contain other countries slated to receive the music locker, such as Bulgaria, Portugal, and Slovenia. Alongside the feature of iTunes Match, users should also be able to use iTunes in the Cloud features as well, allowing them to re-download any previously purchased app, song, or music video from iTunes.

Apple’s introduction of the iTunes Match service in a number of international countries is only one of the many ways that the company is targeting customers abroad. iTunes Match is a different approach to the “cloud”, allowing users to access copies of the music files in their library as opposed to spending hours uploading their entire music and video libraries.

{via MacRumors}

Apple Inc. (AAPL) has long been selling movies and television shows on its iTunes Store. Now, according to a Reuters report, the company is reportedly planning to bring EPIX movie streaming to the Apple TV, and likely the new rumored Apple television set. AAPL has been rumored to be in talks at this point, with no specific dates as to when the service will be available, if it ever does happen.

One of the sources told Reuters that any discussions would apply to its set-top box and also to upcoming devices that stream content. Apple is widely expected to unveil a full-fledged TV product later this year or in early 2013 to drive its next phase of growth and potentially revolutionize the industry.

Sources for the Reuters report suggest that negotiations between Apple and EPIX are still developing and that no deal should be expected in the near future. Bringing EPIX content to Apple TV and future Apple devices would allow the Cupertino company to develop and sell exclusive content, not available on a number of other devices.

Apple may also be waiting out a contract between EPIX and Netflix, which doesn’t end until later this September. Once this contract has ended, Apple will likely go ahead and secure a deal with EPIX.

{via MacRumors}

Apple purchased San-Francisco start-up, Chomp, in February in order to utilize its App Search service for their own App Store. However, Chomp retained its app search service for Android users, until late last week. Apple likely decided to pull support for Android in order to minimize the usage of the website and focus it on iOS applications. Chomp also has the possibility of being integrated into iTunes, so that the service can access the data directly from the application, as opposed to users going to the Chomp website.

Apple has surpassed 25 billion app downloads from the App Store, making it one of the most successful applications stores out there. Chomp would allow Apple to organize all of its applications, and let users find them more easily and efficiently. Searching for apps in the iTunes App Store can be quite the task, with limitations on sections of apps, and type of apps.

Chomp was purchased by Apple for $50 million, a substantial amount of money, when considering that Chomp would be integrated into Apple’s ecosystem and would become one of the many features in its operations.

As of right now, Apple has not released any plans as to what they intend to do with Chomp, but the Cupertino company has made it clear that they are no longer supporting Android.

{Image Credit – TUAW}

With Apple’s New iPad 3 sporting a Retina Display and most developers updating their apps to accommodate the higher resolution screen, it was only a matter of time before major apps such as the Netflix app and Apple’s own apps got the upgrade to Retina Display quality.

Apple has approved the update for the Netflix application which will now utilize the new display in all of its menus, its app icon, and many other small parts of the app. Netflix also promised via their Twitter account that they will also be including HD streaming very soon.

The @Netflix iPad App now has high resolution icons and images, enhancing Netflix on the new iPad, HD video to follow later. Enjoy!

Alongside the Netflix application, Apple’s iTunes Movie Trailers app was also updated, bringing full Retina quality to the HD movie trailers in the app. Apple’s movie trailer service was strictly limited to iTunes, but Apple released an app to bring movie trailers to the iOS platform. Apple’s iTunes Movie Trailer works on both Wi-Fi and LTE, however, users on a limited data plan could find themselves running out of data rather fast if used for long duration.

Apple’s App Store was released to the public in 2008, and started off with only a handful of apps. The App Store has since grown to become one of the largest online services in the world, suppling millions of iOS users with fun and intuitive applications. On Friday, Apple’s App Store finally hit the 25 billion downloads mark, making it the highest number of apps ever downloaded.

The winner of the promotion, who has not yet been announced, will be awarded a $10,000 gift card valid for App Store, Mac App Store, or any other iTunes Store content. Apple has conducted similar promotions in the past, for the App Store and iTunes Store and offered a range of products from iPod touch to Macbook Pro. The prize for 25 billion downloads is a $10,000 giftcard for online purchases with no hardware.

Apple has approved a total of nearly three quarters of a million apps for the App Store, with over 550,000 of them currently available in the store.

After its introduction in 2008, it took roughly two and a half years to reach 10 Billion downloads, and another six months to 15 billion downloads. With the latest 25 billion milestone, the iTunes Store acheived over 10 billion of the 25 billion mark in only 8 months, the fastest downloading period ever for the App Store.

The winner of Apple’s App Store promotion is expected to announced in the coming week once the company has verified the results and contacted the winner.

{via Mac Rumors}

Apple Inc. (AAPL) recently launched a new TV ad called “Harmony” which in 30 seconds highlights iCloud service for iOS and OS X. AAPL has been posting a series of iPhone 4S ads which show the all-new voice assistant Siri and the much improved camera and now with the latest ad the focus has turned to iCloud.

iCloud automatically stores music, photos, apps, calendars, contacts, documents and keeps all your iCloud enabled devices in sync. When Apple introduced iOS 5 during WWDC 2011 Steve Jobs took to the stage to talk about iCloud and repeatedly said, “it just works”. The new TV ad in a similar theme conveys that iCloud is “Automatic. Everywhere.”

The ad begins with the all-new welcome screen in iOS 5 which gives you an option to use iCloud and then goes on to show an album being purchased on iPhone 4S which then shows up on iPad 2 and MacBook Air. Then photos, calendar, app purchases, contacts update and iBooks are all shown to sync between different devices.

With the introduction of iCloud users can not only keep their iOS devices in sync but can also backup to the cloud, set up the device without connecting to iTunes and with iTunes Match they can upload their entire music library to the cloud.

iCloud is a free service available on devices running iOS 5 or higher however, if you need to add more space for backup then you could purchase additional storage right from your device.