Apple launches iTunes 12.6 with 'Rent once, watch anywhere' feature

Apple had a rather eventful day yesterday where the company launched a new 9.7-inch iPad, a red color variant for the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. If this wasn't good enough, Apple also released the iTunes 12.6 version of the app as well yesterday.

The highlight of the updated iTunes is a unique new feature, called 'Rent once, watch anywhere'. While it may be quite a mouthful of a name but this feature is something most if not all movie buff Apple users will enjoy. The previous version of iTunes too had an option which would allow users to rent a movie, but users were forced to watch it on the same device itself.

However, the latest update iTunes 12.6 will be available on Apple devices running on iOS 10.3 and tvOS 10.2. However, there is a small hiccup here as the iOS 10.3 and the tvOS 10.2 are both in beta testing and developer preview respectively.

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While both the iOS 10.3 and tvOS 10.2 updates haven't been rolled out officially yet, but considering the release of iTunes 12.6, and the compatibility being highlighted we could see the rollout happen soon.

As mentioned earlier as well, the previous version of iTunes did allow movies to be rented via iTunes on Mac or PC. It could also be transferred to a different device like an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch. Though while doing so the rented movie would disappear from your iTunes library on your Mac or PC.

While users could transfer the movie between devices, the movie could be watched only on a single device. Also, users were able to stream movie rentals from iOS to Apple TV using Apple's AirPlay feature, hence this new feature comes as a good move. The latest update will be most enjoyed by users who frequently use iTunes for movie rentals making it more convenient now.

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The movie rented from iTunes will come with a validity period for 30 days. The user is given 30 days for watching a movie after renting it via iTunes, once the user starts watching the movie, they have 24 hours to finish it in the US, and 48 hours in other regions.

For some reason, if the rented movie has not been watched within 30 days, then the rental procedure has to be repeated again. After exceeding the validity of the rented movies, it will disappear from the users iTunes library. While users can watch the rented movie offline as well, but this option also comes with the 24-hour and 48-hour watch time limit depending on the region.

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