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December 18, 2009

Sharing paid iPhone apps with family (or close friends)

Apparently, you can share paid apps with up to 5 family and friends! I am just showing the technical feasibility, so I'm going to ignore all IP-related comments. Do this at your own risk.

How does this work?

The core theory of this is:
  • One computer can be owned by many people (iTune store accounts).
  • One account can own (be authorized to use) up to 5 computers.
  • If an acount has previously paid for an application, you can re-download it for free from the iTunes store.
  • Once a computer is authorized for a particular iTunes account, you can synchronize any app on any iPhone that is purchased by that account.
  • You can have apps purchased by different accounts on the same computer / iPhone 
So assuming you, your father, and your sister all have iPhones. You have a computer each in which you keep your own individual music, apps, etc. Just do this:
  1. On all the computers, under the Store menu in iTunes, select Authorize Computer.
  2. Do step 1 for each of your accounts, i.e. authorize the computer using your dad's account, yours, and your sister's. 
  3. That's it!
So how are the apps shared? They aren't shared automatically. In fact, there's no way you can tell what apps your sister has bought unless you ask her. But if there is a certain app you know she bought that you want on your iPhone, just log in using her account on your iTunes Store on your computer (or on your iPhone), and just download the app again. You'll see a message that you can download the app for free since you (your sister's account, actually) have already purchased it. 

And because your computer is authorized to synchronize apps from all 3 accounts, they'll sync across to your iPhone (or computer, if you did this on your iPhone) just fine :)

Oh, and if you already have 5 computers authorized and you can't do so anymore, you can find out how to reset (deauthorize all computers) them here. 

Have fun!

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Filed under  //   apple   iPhone  

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August 30, 2009

PC vs Mac - The Marketing War continues...

via news.cnet.com

An excellent read of Apple's and Microsoft's marketing journey.

Entrepreneurs should take a que from this - good marketing is half the battle won! The other half, of course, is a good product. What else?

I must say I love these ads. I can just spend hours looking at them. Speaking of which, if imitation is the best form of flattery, this is yet another area Microsoft is imitating Apple. ;)

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Filed under  //   ads   apple   marketing   windows  

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March 30, 2009

What has my Mac solved for me?

I got asked by Wee Kee a very simple question - What has my mac solved for me?

The quick answer is - I no longer smash my keyboard against the monitor in frustration... =) and i figure it saves me a few years of my life in the long run! haha..

But seriously, it's just the way it all just works. My life is so synchronized and organized, from the way iPhoto takes care of my photos, auto-tagging faces it recognizes, to iTunes syncing my music and movies into my iPod and iPhone, to my contacts being synced 5-ways at all times - laptop, desktop, web, iPhone, iPod. Ditto for my calendar.

And you need to see Quicksilver in action to see how much more productive it can make you... every 5 minutes here and there cuts away a few hours a week (or month). Someone asks me to send them an attachment. It takes me a total of about 5 seconds from the moment my fingers touch the keyboard to having a composed email with the file attached sent off to the receipent. It's efficiency redefined.

Not to mention that it doesn't hanggggggggggggg the way Windows does (and takes away an hour of my lifespan and a small piece chipped off my monitor and keyboard everytime it happens).

Also, not something everyone uses, but I love the fact that it's based on Unix. I can do whois, nslookup, etc etc all in 2 seconds, unlike going to the web and doing all the regular clicking around and taking 20-30 seconds just to do some stuff. And you get all the regular cronjobs, etc etc too - my mac polls all my regular anime sites for bittorrent downloads so it's all ready to watch when I'm back from work.

The possibilities are quite endless. :)

For the regular user, a mac can really help through the ease-of-use, but it really SHINES when a power-user makes full use of (1) it's superior user interface and scriptable features, (2) it's unix-based core, and (3) superior applications!

Ok, I think I have to justify (3). I think it's common knowledge enough that the Mac community in general as a demographic are more willing to spend on software and are more insistent on quality that is not just about a piece of software not hanging, but also user-interface, usability and innovation. This has led to much, much better quality software in the Mac arena as compared to Windows. Just look at all the crappy shareware and freeware around in Windows! On the contrary, Mac software tend to be more well-rounded, and not just focused on features, features, features (ending up in bloatware), but also on the holistic user experience. I just love that.

Well, I've ranted enough. But that said, I am, for the first time, looking forward to the release of Windows 7. There's enough hype that Microsoft has finally copied enough of Apple's stuff (hehe) to make a decent-performing OS. It might just be my first Windows box in a long time :D

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Filed under  //   apple   windows  

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March 12, 2009

The new Apple Shuffle - someone hack it?

via apple.com

Let's face it, the new shuffle is small. Really small. To me, it's TOO small. I'll probably lose it within a week.

But the voiceover feature is a good thing for a shuffle. Now, it actually makes sense, because previously, I couldn't put my Spanish audio lessons in there. It'll jump all over the place and I'd never be able to go to Lesson #X since I have over a thousand songs in that puny thing.

Now, I'm actually considering getting it. No, better not. I'm broke.

What I'd actually like to see is someone hack it into a pair of headphones. No wires, you know? I know someone who actually did that with the old shuffle. It took a pretty big pair of headphones coz yeah, the old shuffle was pretty big still. Now it's smaller than a key! I'm sure there's some cool stuff that can be done.

Will be waiting out for that! :)

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Filed under  //   apple   gadgets  

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