iTunes is a media player and media library application developed by Apple Inc. It is used to play, download, save, and organize digital audio and video on personal computers running the OS X operating system and the iOS-based iPod, iPhone, and iPad devices. Editions of iTunes are also released for Microsoft Windows. It can connect to the iTunes Store to let users purchase and download music, music videos, television shows, iPod games, audiobooks, podcasts, movies and movie rentals in select countries, and ringtones, available on the iPhone and iPod Touch (fourth generation onward.) It is also used to download application software from the App Store for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. iTunes has been criticized for not being able to transfer music from one portable device to another.
iTunes was introduced on January 9, 2001. In June 2010, Apple released a new privacy policy relating to the establishment and collection of users' real-time location information. The information had been included in various device-specific EULAs since 2008, but was not included in Apple's general privacy policy until 2010.
iTunes 10.7 is the most recent version of iTunes available for Mac OS X v10.6.8 or later, as well as Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8. On September 12, 2012, with the announcement of the iPhone 5 and the new generations of the iPod Nano and iPod Touch, Apple announced a revamped version of iTunes to be released in October 2012, however the release was pushed back to the middle of December after Apple revealed it was taking longer than expected to finalise the software.