Monday, January 18, 2010

iTunes Gift Cards - Not Just for Music Anymore!



Since most of my friends and relatives know that I am fairly well assimilated into the Apple collective when it comes to iPods and iPhones, an easy gift for me is an iTunes gift card.  But for years I would dread receiving them because I hated to buy music with DRM.  Since Apple has relieved that requirement by offering non-DRM selections, there's still only so much music that I need to buy.

Last year, I realized that could buy iPhone Apps with my iTunes gift cards.  This may seem obvious to most, but up until that point, I had never spent a dime on an iPhone app (frugal, tightwad, whatever, I hate to part with my own money!).  I bought Bejeweled 2 (still my biggest time sink with Blitz), Gem Spinner and Peggle (OK, I ran out of gift card money and forked over real dollars for this addiction).  All three of these are still on the front page of my iPhone!

This year, I found myself again with extra iTunes money in my account.  I never thought about getting movies through iTunes, because I didn't want to watch them on my iPhone or computer and didn't have an easy way to hook my ancient desktop to my TV.  But as a reward for a job well done for Hands On Small Business, I bought myself a laptop as my previous laptops have been taken by Doug and Adam.
I was only looking for an ultra compact notebook or netbook and loved the full-sized keys and higher resolution monitor of this Acer. But as an extra bonus, it also had an HDMI output. Hey, that means that I can finally play movies easily from my laptop to my TV.

So I finally ventured down the path of renting a movie from iTunes.  We rented Aliens in the Attic.  As soon as it started, I felt the lack of control from not having a remote.  But as soon as I thought this, I realized that I just needed to download the Remote app for the iPhone.



A couple of taps on my iPhone and clicks on my computer and I suddenly had full control of my movie from my iPhone!  Now this was more like it.  I especially love that they have the 10 second rewind feature for us DVR-reliant.  We watched the movie for nearly 24 hours straight, with the kids having friends over the weekend. And I watched as it magically disappeared after our allotted time.

I still don't think I would buy movies on iTunes because I love all the extra features of DVDs, but getting a rental is fairly quick as easy.  At least there's one more way of using up my iTunes gift cards.  Of course, the kids loved that particular movie so much, they keep asking for it on DVD.  Can't get enough of Kung Fu Grandma and Funky Ricky. Silly

1 comment :

MIT Mommy said...

Hey, and thanks to your recommendation so long ago, that is exactly the laptop I have. And, by the way, I love it. Thank you.