Apple starts charging sales tax in Canada on Apple Music subs and iTunes purchases

Apple has confirmed that it is charging Canadian customers sales tax on purchases of TV shows, movies, music, audiobooks in Canada. In a statement to iMore, Apple reps stated tha the changes in Canadian legislation have required the company, which considers itself the world's biggest taxpayer, to collect sales tax on digital items and subscriptions sold.

The statement from Apple is as follows, "As the world’s largest taxpayer, we respect the important role taxes play in society. Due to recent changes in Canadian legislation and the growth of our business, sales tax will now be charged on purchases of TV, movies, music, and audiobooks. Apple has been operating in Canada for 38 years and we are proud to deliver the best products and services in the world to our customers here.”

Source: 9to5Mac

Apple's GarageBand app celebrates 15 years of music creation for the rest of us

John Mayer and Steve Jobs demo an earlier version of GarageBand

Apple is celebrating 15 years of Garageband, the app included in macOS which enables anyone to put together various loops and samples as well as integrate live voice or musical instrumentation. Garageband was an ambitious and successful application that was part of iLife, the suite of apps included with every Mac sold.

GarageBand brought drag and drop simplicity to music creation and added myriad options for instruments, loops, and beats which were mostly royalty free. For budding musicians or composers, it gave them the ability to put together music even without having to read notes or having access to various instruments.

The app, originally introduced onstage at Macworld '04 by Steve Jobs and John Mayer, has grown to be the most widely used music app in the world — and is now on over 1 billion iPhones, iPads and Macs globally. 

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Apple announces blockbuster holiday week with $1.22 billion in sales

Apple announced a record-breaking holiday sales week and New Year's Day with a huge $1.22 billion in sales spent in apps and games. 

"The holiday week was our biggest week ever with more than $1.22 billion spent on apps and games, and New Year’s Day set a new single-day record at more than $322 million,” said Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “Thanks to the inspiring work of our talented developers and the support of our incredible customers around the world."

Apple says services set new all-time records in multiple categories, including the App Store, Apple Music, Cloud Services, Apple Pay and the App Store’s search ad business. Huge earners in the app department includemultiplayer games like Fortnite and PUBG as well as productivity, health and fitness apps. "1Password, Sweat and Luminosity charting in their respective categories," Apple reported.

Drake tops Apple's 'Best of 2018' charts. Who else made the list?

Apple just released the 'Best of 2018' -- a global collection of top charts of all the amazing things we should see, play, and listen to. From podcasts to audiobooks and from music to apps and more we're definitely curious as to who made the lists and what will make great conversations at the holiday dinner party. Apps that topped the 'paid for' list shocked us included FaceTune, a retouching app to allows users to have flawless skin. Hey, guess it's cheaper than botox. Anyway, here's are the lists...

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