Apple Makes iMovie, GarageBand, and iWork Apps for Mac and iOS Free for All Users (macrumors.com) 65
Apple today updated several of its Mac and iOS apps, making them available for all Mac and iOS users for free. From a report: iMovie, Numbers, Keynote, Pages, and GarageBand for both Mac and iOS devices have been updated and are now listed in the App Store for free. Previously, all of these apps were provided for free to customers who purchased a new Mac or iOS device, but now that purchase is not required to get the software. Many Apple customers were already likely eligible to download the software at no cost if they had made a device purchase in the last few years.
Re: (Score:3)
Can you provide any evidence for what you claim? GarageBand actually has a long history of having a very user-friendly approach to copyright. Some bad actors have made claims against certain GarageBand loops in the past, but they have all been trolls. With the exception of distributing single loops individually, content created with Garageband comes with a worldwide royalty free license and Apple doesn't claim to own or have any rights to user-produced content.
Re: (Score:1)
Can you provide any evidence for what you claim?
He didn't claim anything.
Re: (Score:2)
He certainly made an implied accusation. The meaning of language extends far beyond the immediate literal meaning of the words used.
Re:New GarageBand ToS (Score:4, Informative)
Make sure you read the new ToS!
There is no such thing as a free lunch. Make sure you're not giving Apple rights to all of your creative works by using their "free" apps.
It's NOT Free. You bought an Apple hardware Product at some point.
Re: (Score:2)
Not necessarily, it could have been a gift. From a horse.
Re: (Score:2)
Like the dead one apple keeps beating with their products?
You mean like the dead one that the Apple Haters keep beating with their (tired and incorrect) memes.
Re: (Score:2)
Not necessarily, it could have been a gift. From a horse.
True.
Then you get TWO gifts: The Mac/iDevice from the horse, AND the (former) iLife and iWork Applications from Apple.
What's not to like?
Still Don't Get It (Score:3)
I still don't get it. What else would you run these apps on if not a Mac or iOS device? (To me, they've always been free so...what changed?)
Re:Still Don't Get It (Score:4, Informative)
If you have a device bought before 2013 you had to pay for the apps. Now you can get them for free.
Re:Still Don't Get It (Score:5, Informative)
There's a few different things going on here with regards to the Mac versions.
Versions of iWork prior to 2011 were traditional boxed commercial products - as in, you went to the store and bought a disc. The Mac App Store had been introduced in 2010 and in 2011 Apple released iWork '09, the then most recent version, on the Mac App Store as three separate apps at $19.99 a piece (which meant that the three together were cheaper than the $79 they had been charging for the iWork DVD-ROM).
In October 2013 they released new versions of all three, now just called "iWork" with no particular year or version designation, and now exclusively on the Mac App Store. They also made this version a free upgrade for iWork '09 users both to reward existing owners but also because this allowed them to transition to using the Mac App Store as their central software update platform. At this time, however, they were still three $19.99 applications.
The way the free upgrade worked was that the Mac App Store looked to see if you had iWork '09 installed and if so it would install the newer iWork (leaving the old one intact) and associate your Apple ID account in the Mac App Store as having owned the apps. At the time there was a trick people discovered - by accident or design the Mac App Store was incapable of determining whether or not your copy of iWork '09 was the full version or the 30-day trial, which Apple had rescinded from their website but which was still floating around. If you installed iWork '09's trial and rebooted, the Mac App Store would start installing the new version of iWork and your account would now own the latest iWork even though you had not purchased iWork '09. In a statement, Apple acknowledged that this was possible but that they thought the convenience of upgrading and Mac App Store association was worth the potential loss in sales they might suffer as a result.
In October 2014 Apple announced that the three iWork apps would be free with new hardware purchases. Prior to this point you had to either qualify for the free iWork '09 upgrade or purchase the apps, and anyone who didn't do the trick above would still need to buy the apps.
What's changed today is that now the three iWork apps are outright free to everyone, not just people who bought a Mac after 2014 or were willing to perform the iWork '09 trial trick. If you had them on devices prior to 2013 for "free" then either you had taken advantage of some promotion or some bundling, or you may have gotten the upgrade as a result of the 2013 rollout.
The iOS versions of iWork followed a similar trajectory, though skipping the part about being on DVD prior to 2013 and any upgrade tricks - they were released as three $9.99 apps, free with hardware purchases past 2014, and now just free to anyone.
Re: Still Don't Get It (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:1)
You could give them a list of your orders with a device count and they'd give you codes for the apps or grant them to your MDM for managed distribution.
https://www.jamf.com/jamf-nation/discussions/14296/vpp-for-iwork-ilife (the Apple KB now just refers to everything being free)
Later they also added the ability to assign an app directly to a device instead of to a user, so your MDM could just push it out to however many devices you have licenses for.
Re: (Score:2)
You don't have to purchase a NEW iOS or Mac to get these apps anymore.
That's what's different. Of course, given that Apple has had this thing going on for years now, I'd be surprised if there was someone that wasn't already eligible for them. You'd have to be toting around a really old iPhone (probably around the 3GS era) or a really old Mac (over 10 years old) to not q
Re: (Score:2)
You don't have to purchase a NEW iOS or Mac to get these apps anymore.
That's what's different. Of course, given that Apple has had this thing going on for years now, I'd be surprised if there was someone that wasn't already eligible for them. You'd have to be toting around a really old iPhone (probably around the 3GS era) or a really old Mac (over 10 years old) to not qualify.
Please try your arithmetic again. Apple announced the previous change in 2013, as stated in the summary. Specifically, that was October of 2013, but the iPhone 5s was released in September. Thus, early adopters could have a device that was only recently discontinued and still fully supported by the latest version of iOS that is ineligible. Additionally, since Apple did, indeed, manufacture iMacs in 2013, there is no need to go back to 2007 in order to find a Mac that would not have been eligible for this, e
Re: (Score:2)
>> all of these apps were provided for free to customers who purchased a new Mac or iOS device
I still don't get it. What else would you run these apps on if not a Mac or iOS device? (To me, they've always been free so...what changed?)
They were free to download for you because you purchased a new Mac and/or iOS device. If you have only purchased Apple devices on the used market in the last four years or so, this would have excluded you, which I think is the part you're missing (besides the fact that a 4-year-old Mac would still be pretty good at this point and a four-year-old iPhone wouldn't be the worst thing, either, so it's not necessarily the case that everyone would have purchased a new--or used, though previously ineligible--Mac or
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
But wouldn't that mean if you had a Mac that came with all this stuff and for whatever reason added a second user to it, you'd have to buy it all for the new user?
No, Mac App Store does system-wide installs, but the purchase and download are tied to one specific Apple ID. If that Apple ID is in use on a specific computer and there is another user on the computer tied to a different Apple ID, they can still use the app.
Or that if you went through a breakup and let your ex keep the iTunes account (I did), you'd have to buy all the stuff you got for free?
Yes, given that the purchase is tied to a specific Apple ID (e.g., iTunes account). I have, however, seen reports (or at least one; not sure if it was here or another forum) lately of people getting prompted if they would like to transfer the iWork/iLif
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
>> all of these apps were provided for free to customers who purchased a new Mac or iOS device I still don't get it. What else would you run these apps on if not a Mac or iOS device? (To me, they've always been free so...what changed?)
A Hackintosh
Small catch (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
It requires a hardware key to activate which is available with an RS-232 connector. USB-C to RS-232 dongles sold separately.
(Playing along with the joke) Unless you have an XServe. It has an RS-232 connector.
Re: (Score:2)
RS-232 dongles sold separately
Who knew iOS was powered by Bayan Vines.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Welcome back to customer lock-in central.
Funny. I don't participate in any iCloud stuff with any of my Apple gear.
Also allows ownership change (Score:3)
Something that just happened recently on a system update, was that it asked if I wanted to change ownership of my iMovie license - in the past I had installed iMove under a different user, so I could not update it when logged into the iTunes account I use for Mac apps...
So that has gotten better as well, probably part of the same change where they don't care if you switch the owner to be a different iCloud user as long as you are running on a Mac.
Keynote's pretty slick (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Keynote remains the jewel of the collection.
Pages and Numbers had many interesting features before they went cross platform, but both were incomplete. They needed another year of development before they would be really good.
That did not happen. They spent that time moving to iOS, eliminating any features that they couldn't implement on iOS. And that's still where we are today.
here's the catch (Score:2)
I assume the reason for this is Apple makes their money selling storage in the cloud. The more you use those apps, the more storage you need.
Re:here's the catch (Score:4, Informative)
I assume the reason for this is Apple makes their money selling storage in the cloud. The more you use those apps, the more storage you need.
There is no requirement to use anything iCloud to use these Apps. You can, if you wish, though.
If you do, the price is in line with other cloud services. $2.99.mo. for 200 GB, for example.
Re: (Score:2)
I really don't want to see some huge charge on my credit card 'cause the kids were playing with the computer....
If that's really your only hesitation you can get a prepaid Visa at Walmart for less than any of these apps used to cost, then you'll get them all.
Hey, I still use iMovie after trying to make any of the open source "options" work at all for very simple home-movie editing. They were all crash-prone, couldn't handle the video from my Android or Canon, or just had a UI that was so tough to use that
Re: (Score:2)
But can I update them without providing a credit card number and creating an Apple account?
There's a reason I use LibreOffice daily and don't touch Pages....
I really don't want to see some huge charge on my credit card 'cause the kids were playing with the computer....
If your only fear is your kids, then you don't need to give them your AppleID password and they won't be able to run up the charges.
If you want to avoid a CC on file with Apple, you can set up an AppleID with "none" for payment information, and just fund it with gift cards if needed. Zero cost purchases work fine with no payment info, however to set up "family sharing" with linked accounts to share purchases and kids needing approval before they can make purchases on their kid accounts, I think a CC on file
Seirra required to "purchase" most of the apps (Score:2)
For the Mac software, it looks like from a Mac OS X 10.11 "El Capitan" installation, only GarageBand can be purchased, as the latest version of the other applications require macOS 10.12 Sierra.
If you make the purchase on "Sierra" so that the software is listed as "purchased" in your account, you can probably download versions that will work on earlier OS versions - at least that is how "purchased" software typically works in my experience.
For the iOS software, making the purchase from within iTunes gets th
Free, but (Score:1)
wants MacOS 10.12 (or higher).
Re: (Score:1)
What an ignorant comment. Like typical spec-whores, you don't look at the quality of the product, just the immediate specs. For example, Apple's MacBooks/Pro don't throttle the CPU even at high workloads because they properly designed the chassis (using aluminium, an excellent thermal conductor) and cooling system to handle the heat. Virtually every competing laptop which is cheaper but uses a 45W Core i7 will throttle since the plastic chassis, can't dissipate the heat as well. Its one of the reasons Dell's XPS 15" has problems with capacitor whine.
Look at the price Microsoft sells its 13.3" Surface Book and then compare it to the 2016 15" MacBook Pro. On price, they're almost the same, but the MBP has double the processor (4-core 45W/6MB L3 vs 2-core 15W/4MB L3). Also, the MBP has 4 Thunderbolt 3 ports all directly connected to the CPU (which means you get the full 40Gb/s bandwidth unlike any other laptop with TB3 which goes through the PCH and thus suffers 'overhead').
What a jerk.
The Macbook Pro I used got hot enough to be uncomfortable, like standing next to a heater. I don't care how well it dissipates heat when it's being dissipated into my lap. Its PC replacement doesn't get hot. It has a powerful fan and huge vents, so if you think it's throttling, the burden of proof is on you. Since I have no interest in anything other than a traditional laptop, I'm not going to analyze the Microsoft Surface. As for the Thunderbolt, connections that exceed the speed of the connect
Re: (Score:1)
Indeed, I didn't purchase it. I used the Macbooks at work. I like the OS and love the touchpads. The apps I use are heavier than what you've described--in particular, Unity3D, Firefox with a million tabs, and Chrome with a million tabs. (I also use Xcode, but I've found it's not resource intensive except when compiling.) Even Skype seemed to demand unreasonably high resources at times.
http://www.ultrabookreview.com/14875-fix-throttling-xps-15/
My new computer, a solidly middle of the line MSI (obviously I mean quality rather than specs), doesn't even turn the fan on