Apple has just made available to download iTunes 12.6 for both Windows and Mac platforms. Here are all the changes in one place.

The world may be getting smaller and smaller thanks to the world wide web and modern technologies, but that doesn’t mean that everything that’s available to rent or buy in one country is available in them all. Apple’s iTunes is a prime example of that, with some content available in the United States but not in others, and even some of that content that is available internationally is delayed before making its way outside the U.S. borders. It’s a pain, but as always, there’s a way around it.

Apple has signaled the approaching end of the year by publishing its “Best of 2013” page on the iTunes Store. The dedicated page on iTunes concentrates on digital products which the company offers for users to purchase and download, including iOS apps, music, podcasts, books and movies. As well as listing the most successful consumer downloads of the year, Apple also outlined their own choices in each category by having an Editors’ Pick for things like app and album of the year.

Beyoncé’s new, self-titled fifth studio album has shattered sales records on Apple’s iTunes Store by shifting a mammoth 828,773 copies in its first three days. With 617,213 copies sold in the U.S. alone, the album is already well on its way to becoming the singer’s fifth solo album to pass the million sales criteria for Platinum certification in the States, and considering that at present, it’s only available on iTunes, it’s a great achievement.

PayPal is used by millions as a convenient way to send money around the world. The eBay-owned company is seen as the de facto payment method for transactions through the Web’s favorite auction site, but in recent times, we’ve seen a marked effort from PayPal to expand its range of services. As a part of this movement, PayPal has today launched its very own digital gift store, and although it plans to work with many companies and merchants in the future, the launch of the service sees Apple as its main partner.

Seldom does a new release of any software pass without a few teething issues, and iOS 7 has been no different. With a few lock screen security problems having been fixed with the minor iOS 7.0.2 update last week, some users have been reporting of their iTunes Store app crashing since updating from iOS 6. Luckily, there are some fairly painless fixes available, and you can check the details after the break!

Users around the world have reported in the last couple of days that purchasing and downloading applications from the iTunes App Store has become problematic for them, with what seems like an almost total block from the platform. It remains to be clarified what is actually causing the issue, and with no official word from Apple we can only speculate as to the cause but the problem is affecting a random selection of users, the majority of which are running older versions of iOS.