Is iOS 11 region-free?

[unobtainium]

I'm Canadian but had to move to the U.S. for work a few years ago. When I moved, I switched countries in the iTunes store and therefore lost all my old media purchases (a few movies and TV shows -- no big deal). Since updating to iOS 11, the movies I purchased when using the Canadian store have suddenly popped up in the TV app on my Apple TV, and when I investigated I found that I could download them from iTunes in the Cloud on all my devices.

Is this a bug or a feature? Has anyone else had a similar experience since updating?

 

[jpn]

hi,

interesting post. thanks.
i dont have an Apple TV
but here is my recent experience on iOS11 with Apple iTunes and Apple Music:

iTunes: it still seems very much tied to my apple iTunes ID in that Region. For example, I have a a lot of TV shows that I purchased in the USA iTunes store, with an apple ID associated with that store. But when I have set my Region for Japan, using my apple iTunes ID associated with Japan iTunes, I can no longer see those TV shows in the Purchased space.

Apple Music: definitely still tied to a specific country. in fact, you are given the blunt message "To change stores you must first cancel your Apple Music membership".

are you IDs in both countries perhaps using the same ID and password in both countries?

apple is beginning to blur Regionality in some areas:
Wallet has been totally Region-free.
and due to iPhone 8 and iPhone X now supporting NFC-A, NFC-B, and NFC-F it means that your USA EMV apple pay associated credit card can now work in Japan as is, due to these latest devices supporting the Japan standard for near field communications terminals (NFC-F) automatically.

 

[nicho]

and due to iPhone 8 and iPhone X now supporting NFC-A, NFC-B, and NFC-F it means that your USA EMV apple pay associated credit card can now work in Japan as is

that's not necessarily true. it means your US phone can add a Japanese card to use in Japan, not the other way around.

for example, China - you can add a China UnionPay card to any phone purchased worldwide, but that doesn't mean you can use Apple Pay on a visa card and expect it to work there (spoiler: it doesn't).

 

[herbius]

This is very interesting...

Last year I moved from Holland to Australia, and in moving my iTunes account lost a bunch of movies purchased (although, you could always redownload them buy clicking "buy" and confiming the price, it would show you a dialog to just download it). I was really unhappy and complained to Apple about this at the time, but all they said was that there was nothing they could do...

As of the last few days it seems that a bunch of the lost movies (but not all of them) have been added back into my purchased list and into my library in the TV app on iPhone and iTunes. I'm guessing the movies that are still unavailable are movies that couldn't be matched in the Australian store.

 

[jpn]

that's not necessarily true. it means your US phone can add a Japanese card to use in Japan, not the other way around.

for example, China - you can add a China UnionPay card to any phone purchased worldwide, but that doesn't mean you can use Apple Pay on a visa card and expect it to work there (spoiler: it doesn't).

hi

thanks so much for your useful info its interesting. i'm personally not familiar with Chinese devices or Chinese cards or NFC flavors at terminals within China.

iOS 11, on newly released devices (iPhone 8 and iPhone X), supports automatic on-the-fly translation between NFC-A, NFC-B, and NFC-F (the Japanese standard) at any of the NFC terminals using any of these 3 protocols, when used within Japan or in the USA. for the 1st time, apple iPhone users from both Japan and the USA can use their iPhone (8 or X) within either of these 2 countries, with any EMV card they have associated with apple pay.

there is a wonderful site maintained by Joel Bassett with this info. https://atadistance.net/2017/09/25/...-line-for-ios-11-apple-pay-and-global-felica/

a graphic from that site is extremely interesting (attached). pls visit joel's site. he's doing amazing discovery work on this.

 

[nicho]

hi

thanks so much for your useful info its interesting. i'm personally not familiar with Chinese devices or Chinese cards or NFC flavors at terminals within China.

iOS 11, on newly released devices (iPhone 8 and iPhone X), supports automatic on-the-fly translation between NFC-A, NFC-B, and NFC-F (the Japanese standard) at any of the NFC terminals using any of these 3 protocols, when used within Japan or in the USA. for the 1st time, apple iPhone users from both Japan and the USA can use their iPhone (8 or X) within either of these 2 countries, with any EMV card they have associated with apple pay.

there is a wonderful site maintained by Joel Bassett with this info. https://atadistance.net/2017/09/25/...-line-for-ios-11-apple-pay-and-global-felica/

a graphic from that site is extremely interesting (attached). pls visit joel's site. he's doing amazing discovery work on this.

You should re-read his article again. You're putting 2 and 2 together to make 5.

"Suica also solves a big problem for visitors to Japan. There are not many stores in Japan where visitors can use foreign issued Apple Pay credit cards: McDonald’s, Ikea, Tokyo Disney World. It will get better but these things take time.

If you have iPhone 8 this is solved now because you add Suica and charge it with your Apple Pay credit card of choice. It’s the best of both: use your credit card from home and get the benefits of FeliCa and Suica in Japan, Easy. Done. Get on the train and go."

You can use a Japanese Suica card and an American credit card on the same phone. That doesn't mean you can use an american credit card with apple pay in Japan - unless all you do is go to McDonald's, Ikea and Tokyo Disney.

 

[unobtainium]

This is very interesting...

Last year I moved from Holland to Australia, and in moving my iTunes account lost a bunch of movies purchased (although, you could always redownload them buy clicking "buy" and confiming the price, it would show you a dialog to just download it). I was really unhappy and complained to Apple about this at the time, but all they said was that there was nothing they could do...

As of the last few days it seems that a bunch of the lost movies (but not all of them) have been added back into my purchased list and into my library in the TV app on iPhone and iTunes. I'm guessing the movies that are still unavailable are movies that couldn't be matched in the Australian store.

Okay so I’m not the only one. Hopefully this means Apple is intentionally matching movie purchases made in another country’s iTunes Store with the same Apple ID.

(For the record, I use the exact same login and password as I did in the Canadian store. I just switched countries in settings, a few years ago now).