Apple’s iTunes media player makes it very easy to sync your media content from your computer to your iPod or your Apple TV. It also allows you access to the iTunes online store to access additional content that you can buy or download for free, including TV Shows, Movies, Music, and iPod Apps. The software isn’t perfect, but it works pretty well most of the time and it is a very convenient way to manage your media library between your various devices.

Apple has instituted some pretty unfortunate policies with iTunes (it only works with Apple Devices for one) including a requirement that you “Authorize” each computer you use the software with if you want to access or play content purchased from the iTunes Store using your Apple Account. This is a form of DRM (Digital Rights Management) and it is required even if you access only free content.

One potential issue users face with this policy is that Apple will only allow you to authorize up to 5 computers at any given time. If your computer dies, you sell it, or you make major changes to it, then you would have to use up an additional 1 of your 5 allowable authorizations on a new or upgraded computer.

You can “Deauthorize” an individual computer, or once in any 12 month time period you can “Deauthorize All” of your computers at once. You must be able to access iTunes from one of your previously authorized computers, so be sure to do this prior making any major changes to it, having it serviced, or before you sell it or give it away.

To Deauthorize iTunes from ONE of your computers:

1. Open iTunes.
2. Choose Store > Deauthorize Computer (In earlier versions of iTunes, access this option from the Advanced menu).
3. Select “Deauthorize Computer for Apple Account” and enter your Apple ID and password and Click OK.
4. A message should appear saying that “This computer has been successfully deauthorized.”

Note that in some cases one computer may be taking up more than one of your Authorizations. If you suspect this to be the case, simply repeat the above steps until you see a message saying that “This computer was not authorized. To authorize this computer, play a song or video you have purchased using this account.”

To Deauthorize iTunes from ALL of your computers:

1. Open iTunes.
2. Click iTunes Store in the menu on the left side of iTunes.
3. If you’re not signed in to the store, click the Account button, then enter your account name and password.
4. Click the Account button again (your ID appears on the button), enter your password, and then click View Account.
5. In the Account Information window, click Deauthorize All.

You are now free to Authorize additional computers to work with the iTunes Store!

Remember that you can only “Deauthorize All” once in any 12 month period, so use this feature carefully. You would be better to Deauthorize individual computers rather than blowing away them all at once.

Dropbox announced today that they now have a free dedicated iPhone App to allow you to access your files at Dropbox directly instead of requiring you to go through the web interface. I’ve only recently started to use Dropbox, but this is definitely one feature that will make the service a whole lot more useful for me.

Instant access to my important files from anywhere is very cool. Of course there are already several other ways to use the iPod Touch or iPhone as a filing cabinet for key documents, but none of them are very convenient to access or to update. Because of that I simply haven’t used it for that purpose. But now I will!

If you’re not familiar with Dropbox, here’s a brief introduction:

Dropbox is software that syncs your files online and across your computers.
Put your files into your Dropbox on one computer, and they’ll be instantly available on any of your other computers that you’ve installed Dropbox on (Windows, Mac, and Linux too!) Because a copy of your files are stored on Dropbox’s secure servers, you can also access them from any computer or mobile device using the Dropbox website.

With Dropbox, your files are always in sync.
Let’s say you’re editing a document at home. As soon as you click ‘Save’, Dropbox will sync this same file to all your other computers (and now your iPhone!) instantly and automatically. It’s as if you saved the document to all of your computers. This gives you the freedom to work on any of your computers and always have the files you need.

Dropbox lets you share files easily.
You can easily share entire folders or photo albums with Dropbox. Simply put the folders you want to share in your Dropbox, and invite people to them. You can also send people links to specific files within your Dropbox. This makes Dropbox perfect for team projects.

With Dropbox, online backup is automatic.
Every time you put a file in your Dropbox folder it is automatically backed up to our secure servers. If your computer has a melt-down your files are safe on Dropbox and can be restored at any time. Our free 2GB account is perfect for backing up your documents. We offer larger accounts (up to 100GB) for backing up your music and video collections.

Dropbox lets you go back in time to undelete or undo changes to files.
Every time you save a file in Dropbox, Dropbox syncs it to our secure servers. Dropbox keeps a history of every change made so that you can undo any mistakes and even undelete files. By default, we keep the last 30 days of undo history for all your files. We also have an unlimited undo option called “Pack-rat”.

Every Dropbox user automatically gets 2 GB of storage for free. You can pay for extra storage, but you can also earn credits to increase your free allotment by referring other new users (up to a max of 3 GB). In fact if you use the following link, you can help me increase my free space… Thanks!

https://www.dropbox.com/referrals/NTI4MjQ1MzI5

In an interesting twist that I haven’t seen mentioned anywhere else, the free Skype App for the iPhone is now available to Canadian users of the iPhone and iPod Touch. For reasons that nobody could adequately explain to me, the app was initially only available for US based users. I was therefore very surprised when I came across it in the app store on iTunes yesterday. I wonder if this has anything to do with the recent purchase of Skype by a conglomerate that includes the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board??

Skype is a very cool app that allows iPhone and iPod users to make voice calls over the internet, using either the 3G network (iPhone only) or a WiFi connection. Calls are free to other Skype users and inexpensive to landlines and mobile phones. The Skype service also includes additional features such as instant messaging, file transfer and video conferencing; however, only some of these features are currently available with the app.

This is very exciting because the iPod Touch can now be used as a phone (if you have an add-on microphone) anywhere that a wireless internet connection is available. For many users that will be all day long in their home and office locations, or even at McDonalds and Starbucks locations that off WiFi service to their customers.

How long will it be before WiFi is available everywhere? That would eliminate the need to carry a mobile phone and/or to pay for an expensive data plan.

I am definitely a gadget guy. I have some pretty cool electronic stuff that makes my life easier and more fun. I have a programmable Harmony Remote to to control my home entertainment system. I have some seriously cool photography gadgets (such as a wireless remote to fire the camera itself and a whole set of Alienbees remotes to fire flashes off camera). I have a GPS datalogger that I can use to create tracklogs to show where I’ve been, and also to Geoencode my photos.

These gadgets are cool, and very fun, but they all pale in comparison to my iPod Touch. This thing is seriously cool and I use it all the time. I use it to listen to my favorite music and to Podcasts every day during my drives to and from work. I use it to quickly check my email and my Twitter feeds when I have only a few minutes and can’t get to the computer. I check the current temperature and the weather forecast all the time! Occasionally, I even play games on it (and I’ve heard that it’s a better gaming maching than even the Nintendo DS), but I’m not much of a gamer so that’s not all that important to me.

One of the most amazing features of the iPod Touch and the iPhone is the ability to download and install applications from the App Store. There are Apps for almost anything you can imagine, and there are more being produced and released every day. While you have to pay for some of them, there are also a great many that are free. And just because they’re free doesn’t meant that they aren’t good either. Some of my favorite apps are free, or at least very cheap. Here are a few of them:

1. GooSync – This free App allows me to sync my Google Calendar to and from my iPod.  I use Google Calendar to manage all of my appointments and important events, so it was a no-brainer that I would want to be able to take that with me on my iPod.  I don’t understand why the native iPod calendar can’t sync with external services, so GooSync is a perfect alternative.  Note that there is a premium version of GooSync available for $14.99 hat has a lot more functionality, but I don’t need that so I stick with the free version.
   UPDATE (June 18, 2009) – I now sync my iPod Calendar directly to my Google Calendar.  Check out the tutorial on how I do it.
2. Byline – I also use Google Reader to manage all of my RSS feeds and wanted a simple way to sync those feeds to my iPod.  This is another feature that I would have expected the iPod to support natively, but until it does Byline works very well.  The one thing it can’t do that drives me crazy is to allow me to mark articles as “Unread”.  I like to quickly scroll through my feeds and have a quick look at all of them, and then mark those that I want to read in depth later as Unread.  This should be a simple change though and I have hopes that they will eventually make this improvement.  This App costs $4.99 and I had no problem paying that after trying several other apps for Google Reader.  Byline is by far the best of the bunch.
3. Sudoku – This is a free Sudoku App that helps me get a quick fix with the popular Sudoku numbers game when I’m bored or I need a diversion.  There are lots of other Sudoku apps, this was just a free one that I found.  It works well so I keep using it.
4. Sportacular – For any sports fan this app from Citizen Sports is the bomb!  It quickly and easily allows you to see the current scores and standings for all your favorite sports teams.  It has a huge list of sports and teams that you can follow, from pro to college, from mainstream to obscure, and it is always up to date with up to the minute news and results. And it’s free!  This app rocks!
5. iBird Explorer Plus – Any serious bird watcher (or photographer that shoots birds) must have this application.  It has an easy to use search function to help you find and identify the birds of North America.  The included range maps and photographs are essential for confirming the true identify of the birds you see, while the playable audio files are also extremely useful to help identify birds by their song.  This app is not free (and at $19.99 it is by far the most expensive app I have purchased) but it is a great example of why some apps are worth buying!