Apple finally opens iTunes Store in the Philippines

MANILA, Philippines — If you own a piece of Apple hardware and is an avid user of iTunes, lend us your ears: the Cupertino-based technology giant has finally opened its iTunes Store for downloads of music, movies and other digital content to Philippine users, as well as 11 other Asian countries beginning Wednesday.

The move effectively allows Filipino iPod, iPhone, iPad, Mac and PC owners entry to a wealth of musical and theatrical content, or around 20 million songs currently available on Apple’s digital content distribution platform.

Other countries now allowed to purchase content from iTunes include Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Macau, Malaysia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Vietnam.

Apple said the opening of iTunes in these countries also signal the entry of more Asian content in the platform.

“Customers can also rent or purchase movies from the iTunes Store, with many available in stunning HD, from major studios including 20th Century Fox, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, The Walt Disney Studios and Warner Bros. Pictures,” it added.

Long awaited by music and film aficionados in the Philippines, the iTunes Store revolutionized the music industry in the West as well as in other countries with the introduction of low-cost DRM-free MP3 downloads, at just $0.99 per song. It also recently allowed the renting of movies starting at $2.99, where users can keep a copy of the film for 30 days and will have 48 hours to view the film once they clicked the Play button.

Apple, however, did not mention whether it would be allowing the download of TV shows through the iTunes Store in the near future.

source: interaksyon.com

Google officially launches Dropbox-like cloud storage service

HONG KONG — After years of speculation, search giant Google finally broke its silence on Wednesday regarding the availability of Google Drive, its cloud storage service which will give users up to 5GB of free storage space.

In an announcement on its official blog, the company said Google Drive is the natural evolution from Google Docs, the company’s Web-based office productivity suite, which has allowed uploads of different filetypes in recent years.

Users will be given an initial 5GB of storage space in the service for free upon signup, with an option to upgrade to 25GB for $2.49 per month; 100GB for $4.99 per month; and 1TB of storage space for $49.99 a month.

Subscribers of the premium service will have their GMail Inbox space upgraded to 25GB as well, Google added.

“Drive is built to work seamlessly with your overall Google experience,” the technology giant said. “You can attach photos from Drive to posts in Google+, and soon you’ll be able to attach stuff from Drive directly to emails in Gmail.”

But Google Drive is not just about storage, as the company said they are working with third-party developers to integrate various functions into the service, including editing videos or creating website mockups.

Interested users can signup by visiting the Google Drive page and install Mac and PC apps to easily upload their files to the cloud. A Drive app has also been made available in the Google Play Shop (formerly Android market), while an iOS app is currently in development.

Google Drive is said to be the IT firm’s response to Dropbox, a hugely popular file-syncing service that offers an initial 2GB of free storage space to users of various platforms.

Microsoft also has its own cloud storage facility called SkyDrive, which it has deeply integrated in all Windows versions, including in mobile phones.

source: interaksyon.com