If you cannot connect to Apple’s iTunes or App Stores, you’re not alone [Updated]

Apple’s iTunes Store seems to be suffering from a widespread outage at the moment. We’ve attempted to navigate the store to purchase content and are getting a ‘cannot connect’ error. A search of Twitter shows that we’re not alone.

This may be related to a recent iCloud Mail issue that is affecting many users, and that Apple has confirmed on its site. We’ve experienced the problem with apps as well as songs, so whatever is happening, it’s affecting both the App Store and iTunes Store.

Apple says that the iCloud Mail and Notes issue is related to older messages, and that they will be restored ASAP. Since Apple’s cloud services are mostly served from its own data centers now, rather than from third parties, it’s likely that these two issues are related.

We’ve reached out to Apple for comment on the outage and will update this post if we receive a response, or have any further updates on the issue.

Update: At this point, the issue appears to have been resolved, as we’re seeing service return and the reports have calmed down.