Up to now, if you rented a movie on iTunes, you had to finish watching it on the same device. In other words, if you started watching it on your Apple TV one evening and wanted to watch the rest of it in bed on an iPad or iPhone, you couldn’t. There was no way of switching between devices to carry on from where you left off.
Apple has finally put that right with an iTunes update rolled out on Tuesday.
Version 12.6 of the media-playing software offers what the company calls a “rent once, watch anywhere” feature, telling users, “Now you can enjoy your movie rentals across your devices with iOS 10.3 and tvOS 10.2.”
Ah, hang on … the more observant among you will have noticed that those two software versions aren’t officially out yet, though with both currently available in beta — and with Apple citing them as part of its iTunes update — it shouldn’t be at all long before they make it to the masses.
Regardless of whether you watch a rented iTunes movie on one device or on several, don’t forget that you have 24 hours (in the U.S.) or 48 hours (non-U.S. locations) to finish it. And you must start watching it within 30 days of renting it or you’ll have to start over. You can grab the latest iTunes update now from the Mac App Store.
Apple’s iTunes update came on the same day that the tech titan quietly rolled out a couple of new products — an all-new 9.7-inch iPad called simply “iPad” that replaces the iPad Air 2, and a special-edition “Product (RED)” iPhone 7 and 7 Plus. A few other extras were also pushed out by the company on Tuesday — here’s an overview of everything you need to know.
