“Third largest Australian ISP, iiNet, has given an unexpected late Easter Egg to its customers: unmetered access to the Australian iTunes Store,” Peter Sbarski reports for APC Magazine.
“For now, this means customers can download songs, music videos, audio books and short films from Apple without the data being counted as part of their download allowance,” Sbarski reports.
“But it’s obvious to observers that there’s very little benefit to customers in these small amounts of data transfer saved,” Sbarski reports,
“Movies, on the other hand, with file sizes of a gigabyte or more, could put a serious dent in people’s download allowances, especially on cheaper plans with smaller allowances. This announcement comes on the heels of iiNet’s new plans which have received a pandering from some whirlpool aficionados for their lack of value,” Sbarski reports.
Sbarski asks, “Does iiNet knows something we don’t about Apple’s upcoming introduction of movie and TV show downloads into Australia?”
“Apple Australia confirmed that Steve Jobs intends to introduce movie downloads into markets outside the US this year. Could Australia be first? It certainly seems likely given iiNet’s unexpected decision to provide free access to the iTunes store,” Sbarski reports.
Full article here.
But sadly, for the first year, only the Crocodile Dundee movie series will be available.
What in the crikey is a download allowance? Seriously, there are companies still getting away with this?
What’s a crikey?
http://www.wordwebonline.com/en/CRIKEY
Ya know, the cannucks are gonna be pissed off about this if it’s true. Europe, and now the Aussies first?
Ya think the mounties might invade cupertino and take his steveness hostage?
Thats it I am officially pissed at Steve. I’m going to….I’m going to….throw a Crikey at him (by the wa, a crikey is a fried cricket which apparently is the national dish of Australians)
So, the American translation would be something like this?
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=shazalen
@UA…
yup, or think of Harry Carry yelling “Holy Cow” in a drunken stupor in the bottom of the 8th inning and you’re real close.
When in the hell is Apple Canada gonna get to movies available here?
A download allowance is presumably what I have on my wireless PC card in my laptop. Verizon allows me 5GB a month, or it can cancel my service and force me to pay the early termination penalty. This makes movie downloads over a cell network impractical.
Canadians will be allowed to download only National Film Board anti-VD films made for soldiers in 1943. And five hours of NFB Hinterland Who’s Who TV fillers.
Magic Word: national. It’s a conspiracy, I tell ya!
The center of the universe just graced us with it’s presence.
Along with the NFB films, iTunes will also make avaialble to Canadians Health Canada public service announcements on the dangers of unprotected sex. Free head-to-toe rubber suit gift cards will soon be available as well.
Head-to-toe rubber suits used to be made of old tires, but since they outlawed studded winter tires, they’re no fun anymore.
This is pure speculation. Maybe they’re only offering it *because* the download amounts are small.
Besides, Apple this week said movie downloads would be available in Europe – its second-biggest market – by the end of the year. There was no mention of Australia.
Struth! If the Aussies get the flicks before the other buggers that would be beaut eh!
Jim: You have no idea how far behind Australia as a whole is in their broadband offerings. Download limits are actually the norm here, so there are no companies who are actually “getting away with this.”
While I do hope this is true, I would argue that, if anything, this means that Movies aren’t coming to iTunes Australia any time soon – that would be a huge amount of free downloads (assuming iTunes Movies are successful here) — perhaps most, for those that would use it — they obviously be attracted to iiNet – but to be able to profit from them, their prices would have to be hugely inflated (wait a sec, on seconds thoughts, this is entirely possible)
worked