iPod touch Makes "Buying Now" Too Easy!

One of the great features of the iPod touch 8GB and 16GB models is the product’s ability to connect to an available and authorized wi-fi internet connection. This is great for Safari browsing and YouTubing, but it also makes it easy to buy music via the built-in iTunes Store. Talk about instant gratification—with only a few touches you can purchase any of the millions of songs available from the iTunes Store.

While demoing one of our beautiful iPod touch units recently at our flagship South Burlington retail store, I noticed that the iTunes Store on the unit was set up and ready to buy music. I was curious whose credit card would be charged if customers decided to test-drive a song purchase. I was surprised to see at the bottom of the screen that my personal account (and billing information) was registered to this unit. Obviously this concerned me from a fiscal and privacy standpoint, so I began researching how to log an iPod touch out of the iTunes Store.

The Apple Support pages only had information on how to switch iTunes Store accounts, not on how to disable or log out of an account. These documents noted that the iPod touch will automatically pull the account information from whichever account is logged into the iTunes Store on the computer at the time the iPod is synchronized with the Mac or PC. After some trial-and-error, I discovered that by simply logging out of the iTunes Store on the computer then syncing the iPod, I was able to disable the song purchases from the iPod touch. Only the purchasing option on the iPod will be disabled, so the iTunes Store can still be browsed. Perfect!