AppAdvice International: iAds, discounted gift cards, iTunes Festival and more

This week, Apple made a number of changes to its iAd advertising platform.

As our original article explained, two new ad styles and support for two new countries have been added to Apple’s iAd. Our own Aldrin Calimlim delivered the news in an article published last Tuesday. He wrote:

The two ad types newly added to the iAd platform are full-screen interstitial banners and pre-roll video ads. The former type refers to ads that can be displayed as pages of content and as transitional screens between two sections of an app. As for the latter type, it refers to ads not unlike the ones that play before videos on YouTube.

However, international readers will be more interested to hear that support for both Russia and Switzerland has been added as of Apple’s most recent iAd refresh. Coverage can be deployed for the new countries from inside iAd Workbench – the application developers use to deploy mobile iAd advertisements.

Apple’s iAds.

As of the recent change, iAds are now available in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Spain, and Taiwan.

Also this week, PayPal started offering iTunes Gift Cards at 25 percent off their usual price in the United Kingdom. Available through PayPal’s Digital Gifts store, discounted £15, £25, £50, and £100 cards could be purchased from the eBay-owned e-commerce company.

The discounted gift cards were available for a short time only.

Unfortunately, however, the deal is no longer available; it ran from Aug. 26 to Aug. 28. Did you manage to pick up a discounted iTunes Gift Card this week?

We also heard this week that the Apple-owned Beats Music is raffling off tickets to iTunes Festival London 2014. There are a couple of catches, however, with the most significant being that entrants must be U.S. residents.

This is because a Beats Music account is required in order for users to participate in the contest. In addition to this, entrants must also be at least 18 years of age; in order to enter the competition, simply visit the Beats Music artist page of an act scheduled to perform at iTunes Festival London 2014 and follow the instructions there.

Beats Music’s #GoWithMe competition is open now.

Our original article explained:

Beats Music is set to pick 25 winners, each of which will receive two-night hotel accommodations in London and a pair of tickets to the iTunes Festival for one of the following performances: Kiesza on Sept. 7, Calvin Harris on Sept. 7, Pharrell Williams on Sept. 10, Maroon 5 on Sept. 11, or Ed Sheeran on Sept. 29.

The competition, called #GoWithMe, runs until Sept. 20. You can download the Beats Music iOS application free of charge on the App Store.

Finally this week, and in more iTunes Festival-related news, Apple finalised the lineup for its series of London concerts. Last-minute additions to the schedule include Imelda May and The Mirror Trap, as well as Friend Within and Kate Simko & London Electronic Orchestra.

Here’s the full lineup for the concert, which runs Sept. 1 to Sept. 30:

• Sept. 1 – Deadmau5 + Friend Within + Kate Simko & London Electronic Orchestra
• Sept. 2 – Beck + Jenny Lewis
• Sept. 3 – David Guetta + Clean Bandit + Robin Schulz
• Sept. 4 – 5 Seconds of Summer + Charlie Simpson
• Sept. 5 – Kasabian
• Sept. 6 – Tony Bennett + Imelda May
• Sept. 7 – Calvin Harris + Kiesza
• Sept. 8 – Robert Plant + Luke Sital-Singh
• Sept. 9 – Sam Smith + Sohn
• Sept. 10 – Pharrell Williams + Jungle
• Sept. 11 – Maroon 5 + Matthew Koma + Nick Gardner
• Sept. 12 – Elbow + Nick Mulvey
• Sept. 13 – Paolo Nutini + Rae Morris
• Sept. 14 – David Gray + Lisa Hannigan
• Sept. 15 – The Script + Foxes
• Sept. 16 – Blondie + Chrissie Hynde
• Sept. 17 – Gregory Porter + Eric Whitacre
• Sept. 18 – Jessie Ware + Little Dragon
• Sept. 19 – SBTRKT
• Sept. 20 – Rudimental + Jess Glynne
• Sept. 21 – Ryan Adams + First Aid Kit
• Sept. 22 – Jessie J + James Bay
• Sept. 23 – Placebo + The Mirror Trap
• Sept. 24 – Ben Howard + Hozier
• Sept. 25 – Mary J. Blige
• Sept. 26 – Lenny Kravitz + Wolf Alice
• Sept. 27 – Kylie + MNEK
• Sept. 28 – Nicola Benedetti + Miloš + Alison Balsom
• Sept. 29 – Ed Sheeran + Foy Vance
• Sept. 30 – Plácido Domingo

As usual, the iTunes Festival is being held at The Roundhouse in London, England; while tickets are available via a free-to-enter open competition, all 30 of the festival’s shows will be streamed free of charge to iOS devices (via the iTunes Festival app) and to Apple TVs, as well as to Mac and PC computers.

See also: 5 surprises from past Apple iPhone events, Today’s apps gone free: abc Notes, Postcard Maker, Runr and more, and Sorry Apple, but Wellograph is the world’s first sapphire crystal smart watch.

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