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Apple opens international iPad store ahead of rollout

Still keeping apps to itself, though

Apple has opened the iPad section of the iTunes app store for business outside the United States - kinda, sorta. Previously, iPads not being on sale yet anywhere other than the US, the iPad just wouldn't let you log into the app store directly unless you had a US iTunes account. Now it will, although in various respects the non-US stores still seem to be not quite with us.

iWork? Never heard of it...

Apple's own iBooks and the apps in the iWork suite still aren't available in the UK store, but you can now find and buy other iPad apps, including newspaper apps for the Financial Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today, directly from the iPad. Log in to the app store from a computer with a UK account, however, and although you can buy some iPad apps so long as you can find them, the store did not at time of writing have a separate section for iPad.

Search for an iPad app that you know exists, however, and ye shall find it - which is more or less the situation as it was prior to the international stores opening. It's possible to get free apps from the US store by setting up a US account without a credit card. That'll get you iBooks (though that section of the store isn't exactly bulging with compelling reads yet), but in order to get the iWorks apps you'll need a credit card registered in the US, or to maybe do something cute involving gift tokens. But they'll no doubt be available next week anyway, or when the next puff of white smoke emerges from the Cupertino conclave. ®

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