As is typical with a new iOS release, Apple today updated their iTunes Store Terms and Conditions to account for several new features included in the OS. While most of these are trivial and expected, one addition clarifying the way rental downloads work jumped out at us.
Section USAGE RULES.ix.b adds a sentence to the beginning that says, "Once you purchase a rental, you must fully download the rental within thirty (30) days." What follows is what was previously there: "You have thirty (30) days after downloading a rental to begin viewing. Once you begin viewing, you have twenty-four (24) hours to finish viewing a movie. Stopping, pausing, or restarting a rental does not extend the available time for viewing."
This means if you buy a movie today but wait until Saturday to download it, you have thirty days from Saturday to start watching (and then 24 hours from there). But if you purchase today you must complete your download within thirty days of today or you'll lose access to the rental for good.
This is only a slight difference, but a handy one to remember, especially if you buy a movie on your iPad and can't download it because hotel Wi-Fi is crappy. Just make sure you download within thirty days of your purchase and you'll be good.
Additional changes that you agreed to today (or will before you next use the App Store on your iOS device):
- Removes all references to Ping
- Adds language allowing for Touch ID, Apple's new fingerprint detection technology coming on the iPhone 5s
- Adds a section whereby you give permission to Apple for Automatic Delivery of Updates (a new iOS 7 feature)
- "iBookstore" becomes "iBooks Store"
- Adds language allowing people under 13 years old to use the App Store if their account was given to them by their school.
- Adds language to allow the new "Popular Near Me" feature
- Changes "credit card or PayPal account" to "payment method," which certainly cleans up the language and allows them to remove an entire paragraph. I don't think there's anything sinister going on with this one (and I love my tinfoil hat!)
If you care to read the whole thing, Apple leaves the current version published online.