Tech-Knowledgy: Google Music Invitation, Removing iPhone Apps and Loaning Kindle Books

The estimated reading time for this post is 5 minutes

Welcome back to Tech-Knowledgy, where your tech questions are answered!

Q. How can I get an invitation to Google Music? Can you send me an invitation?

A. Great question. Three weeks ago in The Wonder of Tech Poll: Do You Want Your Music in the Cloud?, nobody voted that they were excited about having their music in the Cloud. But this past week, several Wonder of Tech readers wrote to me excited that they had received an invitation from Google Music to set up their accounts. (See, Google News: Is Your Music Going to the Cloud? for an explanation of what Google Music is.)

People say they’re not excited about moving their music to the cloud but then are excited about receiving an invitation for Google Music. How can that be?

Google Music is free for now, so it makes sense to grab an account and get online storage for 20,000 songs. Even though people don’t seem excited yet about moving music to the cloud, signing up for a free Google Music account now prepares you for the future in case you decide later you want to have online access to your music.

How can you get an invitation? I can’t send you one. In fact, be very suspicious of anyone who says they will send you one. Only Google can send out an invitation to Google Music. There are scams out there sending fake Google Music invitations, so be sure to ignore those.

Update: Good news! You no longer need an invitation to use Google Music.

Google says that Google Music will be free for a limited time. Google isn’t known for charging fees for their services, but why not sign up today since it’s free?

Q. I’m running out of space on my iPhone. I got a 16gb iPhone, but I wish I got a 32gb one because I love to load it up with apps, music, movies, and pictures. I realize I need to get rid of some stuff, but how do I delete apps? If I delete them off of my iPhone, will I have to buy them again later?

A. I can understand your dilemma. Plenty of people think they won’t need much space on their iPhones (or iPads) and then later realize that their device is filling up. Unlike many other devices, iOS devices (iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch) don’t have ways to expand storage such as an SD card, so what you bought is what your stuck with.

You’re correct, the only way to free up space on your iPhone is by deleting what’s on there. To delete an app, press down on the icon until the icons jiggle. When they jiggle, press the X in the red circle which will delete the app.

If the app has any stored information (for example, notes in a utility app or high scores in a game app), that information will be lost when you delete the app.

Make sure you sync your device with iTunes before you delete any apps. If you have purchased the app through iTunes, it will already be on your computer so you can easily reload the app onto your iPhone again later.

If you bought the app on your iPhone through the App Store app and delete the app without syncing it first to your computer, getting the app back on your phone will be much more difficult. iTunes should allow you to re-download an app that you have previously purchased, but you will have to remember which apps you have purchased and which versions of each app you own. It’s much better to sync your iPhone first before deleting apps so you can easily get them back on your iPhone later.

Q. For years I’ve been telling my best friend about how great my Kindle is and she finally got one. I’m excited and want to get her started with some of my favorite Kindle books. Can I loan them to her? Should I put her on my Kindle account? How can we share Kindle books?

A. Congratulations to your best friend on her new Kindle! I’m excited for both of you that you can share Kindle books with each other.

Some Kindle books can be loaned from one Kindle account to another (note: neither the lender nor the borrower needs to own a Kindle, loaning works among any devices that have Kindle apps such as smartphones, iPads and computers). You need to go to your Kindle account to see which of your books you can loan.

• Go to http://www.amazon.com/myk from your computer and you will be taken to your Manage My Kindle page.
• Go to the bottom of the page to see the Kindle books in your account.
• Click on the + sign by each book. If you can loan a book, there will be a button next to the picture of the book cover:

You can only loan a book once and the lending period expires after 14 days. Once the lending period is over, the book will disappear from her Kindle. During the lending period you will not be able to read the book on your Kindle.

Since you mentioned that she is your best friend, you could consider putting her on your Kindle account. This should be reserved only for people you trust, because they will be able to purchase Kindle books and charge them to you. Putting your friend on your Kindle account has the following advantages over loaning Kindle books:

• The two of you could share any book, not just ones that allow lending
• You both can read a book at the same time (though Whispersync may get confusing since your Last Page Read would be different from her Last page Read)
• You don’t have to worry about the 14 day lending period restriction.

Some book clubs set up a separate Kindle account for their readers so that everyone can read the same Kindle book at the same time. But Amazon has a limit of six Kindles that can have the same book downloaded at once. Larger book clubs may need people to take turns reading their Kindle books.

Enjoy sharing your books!

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Have a tech question? Either post your question in the Comments section or email me at [email protected].

Have you signed up for Google Music or do you intend to sign up for it? Are you running low on space for your iPhone? Have you loaned a Kindle book to anyone? Let us know in the Comments section below!

* Image by Anthony Sigalas