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If you show an interest in Apple or technology in general, chances are good that you received at least one iTunes gift card today from a friend or family member today.
Given the card can be used to purchase apps, games, music, movies, TV shows, books, and more, it can be difficult to decide what to buy with your newly acquired funds.
We're here to help with a roundup of ongoing iTunes and App Store sales as well as some other hand-picked recommendations.
Holiday Movies on Sale
In addition to an iTunes sale on select 4K HDR movie bundles, Apple has also discounted a handful of popular holiday movies.
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- Bad Santa 2 - $2.99, down from $12.99
- Die Hard (4K) - $7.99, down from $14.99
- Elf - $9.99, down from $14.99
- Home Alone (4K) - $9.99, down from $14.99
- Love Actually - $9.99, down from $14.99
- The Holiday (4K) - $9.99, down from $12.99
- How The Grinch Stole Christmas (4K) - $9.99, down from $14.99
Games on Sale
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- Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Classic - Free, down from $2.99
- Streets of Rage Classic - Free, down from $0.99
- Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Spirit of Justice - Free, down from $0.99
- Layton's Mystery Journey - $7.99, down from $15.99
- The Room Three - $1.99, down from $3.99
- Mini Metro - $0.99, down from $4.99
- Jade Empire: Special Edition - $0.99, down from $9.99
- Euclidean Lands - $0.99, down from $3.99
- After the End: Forsaken Destiny - $0.99, down from $3.99
- Old Man's Journey - $1.99, down from $4.99
- Cat Quest - $1.99, down from $4.99
- Abi: A Robot's Tale - $0.99, down from $2.99
- Jaipur: the board game - $0.99, down from $4.99
- Flower - $2.99, down from $4.99
- Vignettes - $0.99, down from $2.99
- Smash Up - The Card Game - $2.99, down from $4.99
- Oceanhorn - $3.99, down from $7.99
- Transistor - $1.99, down from $4.99
- Full Throttle Remastered - $0.99, down from $4.99
- Day of the Tentacle Remastered - $0.99, down from $4.99
- Grim Fandango Remastered - $0.99, down from $4.99
- Don't Starve: Shipwrecked - $0.99, down from $4.99
- Invisible, Inc. - $0.99, down from $4.99
- Minecraft Story Mode - S2 Episode 1 - Free, down from $4.99
Apps on Sale
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- Tweetbot 4 for Twitter - $4.99, down from $9.99
- Picfx - Free, down from $1.99
- TapMeasure – AR utility - Free, down from $1.99
- Focus - Productivity Timer - Free, down from $7.99
- Vectorscope - Free, down from $1.99
- Fuelly - MPG, Mileage, Service - Free, down from $5.99
- BeatMaker - Free, down from $4.99
- Timepage - Free, down from $4.99
- My Wonderful Days - Free, down from $2.99
- Halide - RAW Manual Camera - $2.99, down from $4.99
- Duet Display - $9.99, down from $19.99
- Deliveries: a package tracker - $2.99, down from $4.99
- Castro 2 - $1.99, down from $4.99
- Superimpose - Free, down from $1.99
- Meditation Studio - Free, down from $3.99
Apple Music Subscription
iTunes gift cards can be used to pay for an Apple Music subscription, which costs $9.99 per month for individuals, $14.99 per month for families with up to six people, and $4.99 per month for students in the United States and Canada. Prices and student plan availability vary by country.
Those looking for a slightly better deal on an annual Apple Music subscription should consider a 12-month Apple Music gift card, which Apple sells for $99. A 12-month subscription to Apple Music normally costs $120 when paying for the service directly with iTunes credit or another form of payment, so you can save $20.
Apple Music provides on-demand access to over 40 million songs from the iTunes catalog across iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac, Apple Watch, PC, and Android.
Other Subscriptions
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iTunes gift cards can be used to pay for many subscriptions available as in-app purchases, although prices can be higher in the App Store as some companies charge extra to make up for Apple's 30 percent cut of sales.
- Netflix
- Hulu
- Spotify
- Tidal
iBooks and Magazines
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iTunes gift cards are also valid for purchases on the iBooks Store across iOS and Mac, providing an opportunity to do some reading over the holidays.
- Ready Player One
- A Wrinkle in Time
- Annihilation
- Station Eleven
- It
For magazines, iPhone and iPad users can download the Texture app and subscribe to unlimited access to over 200 of the world's most popular magazines for $6.99 per month as part of an ongoing sale. Magazines can be read on up to five devices per subscription, with the ability to download issues for offline reading.
Some of the magazines available include People, Vogue, Rolling Stone, National Geographic, GQ, Sports Illustrated, Wired, Maxim, Men's Health, GQ, Bloomberg Businessweek, ESPN The Magazine, and Entertainment Weekly. New issues are available alongside a searchable archive of thousands of past issues.
Numbered Coloring Books
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The latest App Store craze is numbered coloring books in which children colorize pixel art by following a numeric guide. Many of the apps have in-app purchases available to unlock additional pixel art, remove watermarks, and/or remove ads.
- Color by Number
- UNICORN
- Pixel Art - Color by Number
- Sandbox Coloring
Mitchel Broussard contributed to this report.
Top Rated Comments
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Handy tip before anyone goes off spending $ on magazines -- Most U.S. libraries offer free magazine downloads for a bunch of titles via Rbdigital/Zinio. All you need is a library card and you can register via your libraries web site. If you want to read them on your iPhone or iPad you will also need to download the RBdigital app -- though I use the original Zinio app, but think it's because my account is so old.iBooks and Magazines
For magazines, iPhone and iPad users can download the Texture app ('https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/texture-unlimited-magazines/id533561885?mt=8') and subscribe to unlimited access to over 200 of the world's most popular magazines for $6.99 per month as part of an ongoing sale. Magazines can be read on up to five devices per subscription, with the ability to download issues for offline reading.
Some of the magazines available include People, Vogue, Rolling Stone, National Geographic, GQ, Sports Illustrated, Wired, Maxim, Men's Health, GQ, Bloomberg Businessweek, ESPN The Magazine, and Entertainment Weekly. New issues are available alongside a searchable archive of thousands of past issues.
Also since most local libraries have reciprocity deals with other library systems in the area if you get a card from those libraries you can download the available magazines offered by those systems. In my experience most systems offer the same assortment give or take one or two titles. But, for example, I have a card for the library in the county's next door because they offer Road and Track and my county does not.
The magazines do not need to be "returned" and can be stored on your device as long as you wish.
Thanks for the informative article, Joe.
I didn’t get any gift card :(
Buy yourself a card. That is what I did. :D