Despite a strikingly similar user interface between the old and new Apple TV, the new Apple TV represents completely re-engineered hardware and software. The focus on the new Apple TV is a streaming-only device as compared to the previous generation storage-syncing device. It appears this fundamental change has opened up a loophole in Apple's rental procedures.
Apple's stated rental policies for TV shows and Movies give you 30 days to start watching a rental, but once you begin watching a rental, you only have 24-48 hours before the rental expires. In order to enforce these rental policies, Apple had some restrictions on what could be done with rental content in between iTunes and the old Apple TV. Previously, Apple required that rentals be moved (not copied) from one location to another -- your iTunes copy was removed when you moved a rental to your first generation Apple TV. While that was feasible for the hard-drive sporting original Apple TV, the new Apple TV is a streaming only device.
So, the new Apple TV will happily stream rentals from your iTunes without any trouble, but it doesn't seem to recognize they are rentals at all. That means when you start streaming a rental from your computer, the 24/48 hour timer never gets triggered. It seems you will be able to watch these rentals as often as you like over the 30 day period.
We've successfully tested this procedure on latest iTunes (thanks to forum user TheBritishBloke), and it works (at least in the short term as the new Apple TV hasn't been out for 30 days):
- Rent a show/movie on your Mac's iTunes - When you begin watching the rental on the Apple TV, no warnings appear indicating that you must finish watching the movie within 24/48 hours - The iTunes rental counter should still show 29+ days remaining - Note: if you do try to watch the movie through iTunes, it will kick off the 24/48 hour countdown
Update: iLounge claims that the timeout is silently triggered, meaning this will not work.
Friday October 31, 2025 1:40 pm PDT by Joe Rossignol
The upcoming iOS 26.1 update includes a small but helpful change for iPhones, and it could prevent you from running late to something important.
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The new ...
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Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models at the same time, which is why we often get rumored features months ahead of launch. The iPhone 18 series is no different, and we already have a good idea of what to expect for the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max.
One thing worth...
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The iPhone XR, iPhone 11, iPhone 12, iPhone 14, and iPhone 14 Pro were all available in ...
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Ove...
Apple launched the Apple TV HD, the Siri Remote, tvOS, and their accompanying App Store a decade ago today, marking a major overhaul of the device.
The new vision for the Apple TV was unveiled on September 9, 2015 during Apple's "Hey Siri" event in San Francisco, where CEO Tim Cook introduced the device with the statement, "The future of TV is apps." The announcement represented a major...
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Apple CEO Tim Cook today said that a more personalized version of Siri remains on track to launch at some point next year, with the new set of features expected to debut on the iPhone as part of iOS 26.4 in March or April.
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Monday October 27, 2025 7:55 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
The upcoming iOS 26.1 update includes a handful of new features and changes for iPhones, including a toggle for changing the appearance of the Liquid Glass design, "slide to stop" for alarms in the Clock app, and more.
Below, we outline key details about iOS 26.1.
Release Date
Given that Apple has yet to seed an iOS 26.1 Release Candidate, which is typically the final beta version, the...
