We’ve all been there. It’s Christmas Eve, the shops are either packed to the gills with queues at tills that snake all the way to the door, or they’ve shut early. And you’ve just realised that there’s one present you forgot to buy.
If the lucky recipient is an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch owner, you’re in luck, however. You can gift them an app, or several, and they’ll never know they were the only person who dropped off your list.
There are several options for buying gifts from iTunes. The simplest is to but an iTunes Gift Card. These are available in most supermarkets and many high street stores. That’s not a lot of good if it’s late on Christmas Eve, though.
Another option is to navigate to the Buy iTunes Gifts section of the iTunes Store. You’ll find it under Quick Links on theft hand side of the Store window.
Finally, you can gift individual iOS apps. You can also gift music and movies, but, sadly, there’s no option on the Mac App Store to gift Mac apps. To gift an app on the iTunes Store, open iTunes, click on iTunes Store, and search for the app you want to gift. Click on the arrow next to its price and select Gift this App from the menu.
You will then have the option to send an email or print a gift certificate. If you choose email, the message will be sent immediately, you can’t delay it until Christmas Day. Choose to print your own certificate if you want to delay the gift-giving until the big day. Personalise the certificate, write a message and print it. The certificate will be printed with a code which when redeemed on the iTunes Store will allow the recipient to download the app.
ALl that remains is for all of us at MacUser to wish you a Merry Christmas. We’ll be back next week with the latest news on all things Apple.
