Apple iTunes, App Stores crash globally

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Apple iTunes, App Stores crash globally

Some of Apple's services such as App Store, iTunes Store, Mac App Store and iBooks Store remained disrupted for nearly 11 hours on Wednesday night, a glitch the iPhone maker attributed to an internal Domain Name System (DNS) error.

Many customers took to Twitter, using hashtags such as #itunesdown and #appstoresdown, to express their frustration after the outage began a little before 9pm Sydney time.

"We're working to make all of the services available to customers as soon as possible and we thank everyone for their patience," Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr said.

Apple said its iCloud Mail and iCloud Account & Sign In were also affected until about 1am Sydney time.

The software update for OS X is also dysfunctional - at a time when users are seeking a patch for the FREAK vulnerability - according to sister publication iTnews. The problem also reached Apple's physical retail outlets, which reportedly used mechanical credit card swipe machines in lieu of electronic POS devices.

The Apple Store website was shut briefly on Monday, ahead of the company's highly anticipated unveiling of the Apple Watch.

A similar outage had occurred in early September, according to appleinsider.com. 

The company's shares fell as much as 2 percent to US$122.11 on Wednesday. 

"Service outages happen from time to time and we view this as a very minor event," FBR Capital Markets analyst Daniel Ives told Reuters.

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