Interesting that @MacSparky has decided to effectively ditch his old “legacy” Apple ID and use the new icloud ID going forward. I’ve been tempted to do this, but never gotten around to it. Each time I get a new device it’s always a bit of an ugh moment having to remember to setup the separate ID for subscriptions and purchases. I guess it’ll become less of a problem as newer Apple users will just have one Apple ID for everything.
Anyone else done this? Or are people just using the old legacy media and purchases Apple ID if they have one.
I did about a year ago. I hadn’t watched any of the movies I purchased in a few years and streaming has replaced my music library (but my music is backed up). I think I’ve repurchased around $50 worth of apps. Most of what I use now use is free or subscription.
I am always interested in hearing him talk about this because I have the same issue. I think I am going to try and make the move this summer when I have some time to give it the attention that it will need. I liked his suggestion about adding the old account to the family plan to still gain access. I agree with @DocD that I don’t really listen to any of the music or watch any of the moviesI bought because I can pretty much just stream them now. I think having the two accounts also causes issues with HomeKit devices.
I suspect it does, but the subscriptions are also a business expense and likely tax deductible and perhaps reimbursable. But, I’m not an accountant and I don’t play one on TV.
Do you find the Amex Platinum card worth it? I’m looking at it and think that even signing up for just one year would be worth it if we were willing to plan trips that maximized the point redemption.
It’s definately worth it for the first year with the sign up bonus, especially if you have a travel redemption planned. After the first year, it will depend on whether you can use enough of the credits to offset the annual fee and how much you value the lounge access it provides. I travel through Charlotte and Philadelphia and both of those have Centurion lounges. Plus I use the Skyclub when flying with Delta. If I ever slowed or stopped traveling, I would have to do a more stringent valuation to see if it was worth it.
we got one for upcoming trip to Europe (and possibly one to South America next year) - trying to take advantage of all the benefits, but really getting 160k points to use ain’t bad…
Honestly, I’ve found it isn’t that much of a hassle. Usually I find myself having to enter the password I’m not expecting maybe once every couple months. Once it was a pain – one of my machines kept asking me to re-enter various account passcodes to get iCloud working properly – but it was a passing problem.
I was kinda disappointed that in an episode devoted to subscriptions, they barely ever mentioned how much any given subscription costs.
In the U.S. at least, “umbrella” insurance is coverage that takes over where your auto or homeowner’s insurance ends.
Ordinarily, if you have the bad luck to cause a horrific car accident, and wind up owing damages that exceed your auto insurance policy limits, the injured parties can go after your other assets – house, vehicles, property, etc. The more assets people have, the bigger this risk is (you can sue someone with no assets for $2 million and win, but even if you sell all their belongings you won’t get close). So insurers will sell an umbrella policy that adds $1 million (or even much more) on top of the auto and home policies.
Or, if you were joking: Clearly you haven’t seen my umbrella collection!
Edit: One way @ismh (or was it @MacSparky?) could drop a subscription: Instead of Picture This, pick up the app Seek – it has identified nearly every plant, animal and fungus I’ve tried it on, it barely collects any information on you, no subscription or in-app purchases (I think it’s free), it’s from a university or consortium of universities, and it ties into a pretty cool network of people who are willing to identify the edge cases the app doesn’t (usually because my photo is lousy). I highly recommend it.
Another vote for Platinum. We get it for free because of our jobs, but even when that ends some day we will keep it. If you add up Global Entry (which comes with PreCheck), Clear, the airline credit, it basically pays for itself right there. Then you add on the other benefits ($15/mo Uber credits, $20/mo digital credits, etc.), totally worth it.
Yeah, I had a quick look at what would be involved, and it does seem more hassle to ditch the secondary ID. Apple has made it very easy to run a secondary ID for media and purchases. All my iOS apps are on the secondary ID so I’m guessing I’d have to reinstall those using the primary ID.
Most of the subscriptions I have are direct with the vendor rather than through Apple but there’s a couple of in app purchases I’d have to re-evaluate. Probably not many though.
At the moment it seems that the disadvantages of ditching the secondary ID outweigh the advantage of running everything through the one primary ID.
Interested to hear more about other experiences though…
I did that a while ago as I was frustrated trying to manage two different emails for my Apple ID so I just consolidated them on the one that I had all the legacy purchases and retired the other one In my case, I retired my.me account.
I use an app called Subtrack to keep track of my subscriptions. Among other things, Subtrack allows me to group subscriptions in folders (e.g. “Memberships”) and supports tags (e.g. I have a tag called “Tax Deductible” to readily identify subscriptions that I can write off as a business expense). Subtrack also supports notifications that can be customized on a subscription-by-subscription basis and has excellent support for widgets on Mac, iPhone and iPad.
Subtrack is a one-time purchase that includes Mac, iPhone and iPad. There are also in-app purchases to send the developer a tip (I just sent him some extra to further support his efforts). Speaking of tips, if you’ve been getting excellent value from an app that isn’t subscription-based (or even one that is), consider giving the developer a tip to say “thanks” and encourage future development.
Omni Apps
David mentioned that he subscribes to Omni’s apps. It’s worth noting that Omni also gives you the option of purchasing their apps with a one-off purchase. An upgrade fee typically applies if you want to upgrade to the next major release unless you purchased the license close to the release of the next major release (e.g. if you purchased OmniFocus 3 fairly recently, you’ll get a free upgrade to OmniFocus 4). The one exception is OmniFocus for the Web; this is only available on a subscription basis.
Setapp
I’m a big fan of Setapp…and it keeps getting better and better. David and Stephen mentioned the excellent Due app. The Mac version of Due is included with Setapp. I think it’s necessary to subscribe to the iPhone/iPad separately, but it’s only $CA6.49 (I’m guessing $US4.99) a year, which I gladly pay as it’s an app I use daily.
Lifetime Subscriptions
Some app developers offer a one-time lifetime fee as an alternative to paying monthly or annually. I’ve opted for the lifetime option for some of my favourite apps (e.g. Halide and Anybox).
@ismh seems to be arguing that subscriptions are fine for using apps because it’s normal for services to charge on as “as used” basis, as opposed to one charge up front. He cites examples like electricity, water, etc.
I don’t have an issue with reasonable subscription costs, but I don’t think Stephen’s reasoning holds up very well to scrutiny. The fact is not all services require monthly fees. Would Stephen argue that a monthly subscription fee ought to be charged for using the service provided by his coffeemaker, his toaster, or his refrigerator? How about his clothing? Just because something provides a service doesn’t justify a monthly fee when you use it.
On the other hand, consumers do have a choice to lease a car, or rent a refrigerator. But in those cases the user has a choice to outright buy the item, or rent it. Perhaps this is the best option for software developers to consider. Give the consumer a choice to buy or lease. Some do, but many don’t. I appreciate it when they do.
It is an interesting fact, that a lot of people just follow the way they are used to, independent of higher costs related to that.
We had several surveys at my company, if customer prefer a free drink and meal on their flights, or if they would rather pay a (way) lower price for the fair, and pay extra for beverage and (even higher quality) meals.
Most customer preferred the higher price, with the free items, or to say it even better, they preferred the free items, and didn’t look at the total price at all.
This seems to be similar, if it comes to software and similar services. People seems to be more happy, if they could pay a (even higher) single price (even with yearly new payments for new versions), instead of a monthly or yearly payment that is named as an Subscription.
This might be an interesting area for a scientific research to find out, why so many people are acting like that!?
If a developer sells his software he has no guarantee his customer will ever purchase an upgrade. With a subscription he has the possibility of continued income. When you buy a car the manufacturer doesn’t guarantee the vehicle forever. So would you prefer to purchase your software outright with only 1 year of support?
I wouldn’t accept a job where I was paid 20% of my salary in January and the balance in December of each year. And that would be a better situation than a lot of developers live with now.
I get that devs order a continuous stream of revenue. But as a customer, I usually don’t go for subscription software because I have no guarantee that the developer continues to develop the software. Some just maintain the state of their software. Why should they have a guaranteed income?
For services such as email, I am ok with subscription. Same goes for apps which requires servers to be kept.
I prefer business models such as Reeder. He makes a new version of his apps every now and then. When he has a new app, he charges again which is fair. This also does but require him to support old versions forever. A pity that this model is not more common.
I don’t think employment is a correct analogy. If you sell an app, that is more akin to a business. And businesses might have fluctuations in revenue.
to further support his efforts). Speaking of tips, if you’ve been getting excellent value from an app that isn’t subscription-based (or even one that is), consider giving the developer a tip to say “thanks” and encourage future development.