Apple has made its first significant upgrade to iTunes Preview, adding sound samples. As at the iTunes Store itself, visitors to Preview pages can now mouse over a track and hit a Play button to start a 30-second sample. People must still launch iTunes to play all samples sequentially, or actually buy an album or track.

Apple is generally believed to be on a path towards a full-scale web streaming service. The company acquired music streaming outfit Lala in early December, potentially allowing it to build an offering in which a person's iTunes purchases could be streamed anywhere. The service might also potentially have a subscription component, as with Microsoft's Zune Pass, which also lets users download an unlimited number of tracks so long as their membership is still active.