iTunes

At one point in time, especially before the iPhone, iTunes may have been Apple's most popular brand. It was everywhere, from Macs to iPods to even Windows PCs. iTunes' time, however, is probably long gone and there are signs that it's on its way out are getting clearer. The latest is Apple's move to silently clear out the brand's social networking pages, as if wiping its existence from the face of the Internet.

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iTunes has been around for a very long time - since 2001 in fact - but it may not be much longer before we're saying goodbye to it. With WWDC coming up next week, Apple is said to be doing away with the classic software in favor of separate applications for music, videos, and podcasts. If you've been using iTunes since the early days of the iPod, you might want to start saying your goodbyes now.

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New apps like Apple Music, Podcasts, and Apple TV are coming to Apple computers with the next big macOS update this Spring. This would essentially mean the long-awaited breaking-up of the iTunes app, and perhaps the first step toward ending file-based media at Apple altogether - far, far down the road, obviously. Music, TV, Podcasts, and "perhaps" Books apps will be in the mix, and the Apple services machine will be kicked into full gear before school is out.

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The folks behind the latest round of Samsung Smart TVs seem to have reached an agreement with Apple to bring a whole lot of content to their sets this Spring. News this morning is that Samsung Smart TVs will launch iTunes Movies and TV Shows starting in Spring of 2019. They'll also be bringing support for AirPlay 2 starting at around the same time.

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A recent case that went viral over the Interwebs reminded consumers that they may not really own the digital content they purchase, even if it says “Buy”. The case of Anders da Silva’s disappearing iTunes Movies, however, isn’t as clear-cut as it seemed. Because while this specific case doesn’t exactly change the policies, a lot more factors are apparently in play, particularly the case of switching regions/country where the content you have bought may not or no longer be available in your new place of residence.

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Purchasing digital copies of usually physical goods is so easy and convenient these days, most of us don’t give a second thought about it. We don’t have to carry books around, deal with fragile DVDs, or fumble around for cartridges whenever we want to switch games. But depending on where you bought said digital content, buying might not exactly mean what you think it means. That was the bitter truth that a Canadian iTunes user learned when Apple quietly removed content he already bought because the items were no longer being sold on its digital content store.

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YouTube Music's 2018 reincarnation just launched, and it's available for SOME users. If you live in the United States, Mexico, Austalia, New Zealand, or South Korea, you might be in luck. Today Google launched "early access" to YouTube Music for some users - but not ALL users.

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Has hell frozen over? We've lost count of how many times. We are, after all, in an age of frenemies, so it shouldn't be surprising to see bitter rivals on the same bed from time to time. And Microsoft did promise that Apple's iTunes will be on its Microsoft, formerly Windows, Store, which should have happened last year. Better late than never and now Apple fans forced to use Windows 10 will have one less thing to miss from their favorite Apple operating system.

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Today ESET researchers showed us how most popular security apps are scams. That's a harsh reality - but it's real. The vast majority of highly-downloaded, downloaded en masse apps made for "security" aren't providing security at all. What they're providing instead is a whole lot of advertisements and what ESET describes as "pseudo-security." It's a real mess.

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There’s no arguing that Facebook made a massive blunder in the way it handled the Cambridge Analytica situation. It has caused many big names in many industries, ranging from tech to advertising, to pull out their support or chide the social networking giant. Apple, who has been painted as the poster boy for protecting customer privacy, naturally criticized Facebook’s behavior. But in explaining how Apple would have done it differently, Tim Cook pit the company’s practices and philosophy against those of more “open” app and content markets, like Android’s Google Play Store. But which strategy is the right one to take, especially in this day of rampant privacy violations? As you might expect, the answer isn’t clear-cut.

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Apple's iTunes U, Mac App Store, Volume Purchase Program, iTunes Store, Apple TV, and App Store all had issues this afternoon. This came after Apple's morning event in Chicago in which the company revealed a new iPad with emphasis on school deployment. In other words, today the folks at Apple had a great morning, but a less-than-super afternoon.

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Today it was revealed that Spotify's newest user interface for Android and iOS is mostly for new users - for the moment. Users discovered this via Reddit, where user experiences are shared and screenshots are compared. We tried a method shared by users there, and surprise! A new account with the newest version of the app yields a new UI, but switching back to an old account brings the UI back to the old look.

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