iTunes

Apple has announced the end of its iTunes Allowances service, and has recommended Family Sharing and Gift Cards as an aleternative way for iOS users to send and recieve Apple-related gifts. iTunes Allowances allowed parents to give children monthly credit to spend on the App Store and iTunes purchases. For example, a parent could assign a $10 per month allowance to their child's iTunes account. The recipient could then use the assigned credit until it ran out and wait for it to refresh the following month.

Holiday shoppers can take advantage of an Apple promotion running until December 28. The company is delivering a $60 iTunes / Apple Music gift card to anyone purchasing Beats headphones or speakers. Several products are included in the promotion, and buyers of qualifying Beats hardware will receive their $60 gift card at checkout. The limited-time offer is available at the Apple store online and Apple retail locations.

One of the most convenient ways to pay for iTunes, App Store and other content on iOS devices is through carrier billing. Using this service means that all charges are simply tacked onto your monthly wireless bill. In similar fashion, prepaid subscribers will have costs for music, movies and iBooks automatically subtracted from their account balance. Apple has already started to offer carrier billing to iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users in select regions.

It wasn't too long ago that music fans were trading cassette tapes of their favorite tracks. The days of manually dubbing songs and writing artist information on the tiny insert of a cassette case may be long gone. Despite this, the concept of gifting a custom album could return with a vengance if Apple implements their patent titled Digital Mixed Tapes.

The entire collection of Star Wars films will be available digitally for the first time starting tomorrow. The global release includes never before seen special features including Star Wars: Discoveries from the Inside and Conversations.

Apple fans can get the six-chapter bundle directly from iTunes in HD or standard definition. Of course, individual films can also be purchased. The complete list of movies includes Episodes 1-6, spanning from 1977 to the latest release in 2005.