An upcoming change in the App Store terms of service means that Apple won’t require publishers to offer in-app subscriptions to periodicals at the same or better price than are available elsewhere. As of 30 June 2011, publishers may charge any rate for a subscription in an app, or not offer subscriptions via in-app purchase at all. However, they still cannot provide a link to buy a subscription outside the app.

In the first glimpse of what iCloud will mean to Mac and iOS users, Apple has released iTunes 10.3 with a pair of new features: Automatic Downloads that ensures that all purchases appear on all your devices, and the long-awaited capability to re-download purchases.

In a quiet move, Apple has added the iBookstore to iTunes, so you can now browse for and purchase books from your Mac. But you still can’t read them on the Mac with any program from Apple; for that you’ll need to use iBooks on an iOS device or an independent application.

The U.S. Library of Congress has opened the National Jukebox, a Web site that offers Flash-based streaming access to over 10,000 78 rpm discs issued by the Victor Talking Machine Company between 1900 and 1925. (The discs have been made available thanks to blanket permission from the rights-holder, Sony Music.) Thousands more are slated to be added soon. This is one of the great promises of the Internet, though it’s worth noting that these recordings can’t be downloaded because sound recordings published before 1972 are subject to state and/or common law protection, not Federal copyright law, and thus won’t fully enter the public domain until 2067.

A change in a recent version of iBooks has given the app the capability to open EPUB files directly from Safari, Mail, and apps like Dropbox. This makes moving EPUB files into iBooks far easier than before, both for individuals and publishers.

Beating Apple and Google to the punch, Amazon has launched Cloud Drive, a Dropbox competitor, and Cloud Player, a way to play back any unprotected MP3 and AAC files you put in its cloud.

Subscriptions are coming to the iTunes Store in the next year, but if you think Apple is going to settle for simply copying other music subscription services, you’re not giving Steve Jobs and company credit for wanting to change the world.

Jeff Carlson’s latest edition of “Take Control of Media on Your iPad” covers the iPad 2 and iOS 4.3, as well as the latest tips, tricks, and techniques for managing and enjoying the iPad’s extensive media capabilities.

A judge has rejected a sweeping settlement of lawsuits against Google that would have given the search company a kind of monopoly, and created a cartel for pricing by authors and publishers. Good.

Time Warner’s new free iPad app puts a few dozen live cable channels on subscribers’ iPads... but not much else.

iTunes 10.2 is out to support the upcoming releases of the iPad 2 and iOS 4.3, but Kirk McElhearn’s eagle eye has spotted a few other minor changes, largely in the program’s preferences, along with slightly improved performance.

TidBITS contributor Eolake Stobblehouse interviewed Adam to talk about publishing the Take Control ebooks, and specifically how the iPad has changed reading and buying habits in less than a year of being on the market.

The Amazon Prime membership program has long provided free two-day shipping and $3.99 one-day shipping for a $79 annual fee. Now Amazon Prime members also receive free streaming of 5,000 movies and TV shows.

Public libraries are hopping on the EPUB-loaning bandwagon, and, although the experience still leaves much to be desired, the ride is starting to get a little less bumpy.

Lex Friedman writes at Macworld about how Apple has now modified the U.S. iTunes Store to play 90-second previews of songs longer than two-and-a-half minutes; that’s up from 30 seconds. According to Lex, not all songs have the new previews yet, and the longer previews are limited to the U.S. iTunes Store, presumably due to licensing restrictions in other countries. Still, 90 seconds is much better for getting a sense of a song. Oh, and look carefully at the screenshot; 90 seconds should be more than enough to get a sense of that piece!