Apple Now Requiring iTunes 10 (Or Later) For iTunes Store Access? [Still Running An Old Version of iTunes, It May Be Time For An Upgrade Or Possibly Lose Access To The iTunes Store]

Posted on TFTS by Robert Nelson on Tuesday, 26. April 2011 under: Audio,Visual, Computers & Computing

As much as some will want to hold onto things of the past, regardless of the reason, there is always a time to move on. And given that, it seems Apple is beginning to make the push in terms of getting users away from older versions of iTunes.

Of course, we should point out that this story seems to still be developing, however 9to5Mac is reporting that they have received a tip claiming that iTunes 8, more specifically iTunes 8.2.1 will no longer allow for access into the iTunes Store. According to the details given, trying to click on the link for the iTunes Store or searching the iTunes Store using the search box in iTunes brings up a “See What You’re Missing” page that is pushing the user to upgrade to iTunes 10.

That said, sure, there may be some valid reasons to still be running iTunes 8 — but lets face it, iTunes 10 works just fine. Anyway, the way the story reads is that this particular user has iTunes 8.2.1 installed on a G3 Mac, which is apparently the latest version of iTunes that is still compatible with the now-aging Mac. And for those wondering, a G4 powered Mac will run iTunes 9 and/or iTunes 10.

Seems strange that Apple would lock out access to the iTunes Store from iTunes 8, but like we said at the beginning of the post — maybe it is time to move on. After all, the last G3 was released way back in January of 1999 and lets face it — if you are still running a G3 Mac as your daily computer then you are most likely not spending all that much on iTunes music anyway. Or maybe on the flip side, if you are still running a G3 Mac as your daily driver you should be getting a pat on the back for dedication. Either way though, while you apparently cannot buy any new tunes, the software still allows you to play your tracks just fine.

And lastly for those looking for a trip down memory lane, iTunes 8 was introduced in September of 2008 and brought the Genius feature.

Source

Ubuntu 11.04 PowerPC
Apple drop support for apple store in Itunes 8 and 9 for OS 10.4 (and all G3 machines)… i found the “user agent” string that application binary use to tell to apple store the version of itunes we use, is inside(show content) Applications/iTunes/MacOS/iTunes, opening with simpletext, (35 MB) take some seconds, and then search:
ProcessCommandsThreaden-usPPC iTunes/%s (Macintosh; %sMac OS X %s)
*this string for PowerPC machines
ProcessCommandsThreadIntel iTunes/%s (Macintosh; %sMac OS X %s)
*this string for Intel machines
Command %s tell the application to call iTunes version, machine and OSX version:
iTunes/8.1 (Macintosh; PPC Mac OS X 10.4.11)
*output Itunes original user agent
The Apple store in Itunes in now only working with iTunes 10 user agent versions
A try to fix the PPC editing and saving the binary string in some modes:
iTunes/10.2.2 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X 10_5_8)
iTunes/10.2.2 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X 10.5.8)
*Not work, itunes dont respond
iTunes/10.2.2 (Macintosh; %sMac OS X %s)
*iTunes open, apple store cant connect because itunes binary dont take the 10.2.2 string, they need the %s string
Is there any way to found and fix the resource %s that “user agent” itunes use to connect to apple store ? like this:
from: iTunes/8.1 (Macintosh; PPC Mac OS X 10.4.11)
to: iTunes/10.2.2 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X 10_5_8)
All the machines that have a G3, OSX 10.4 or iTunes 8,9 are out from Apple Store