The Mac App Store was launched by Apple at the beginning of this year and it seems that it brings a bonus very interesting for Mac owners. In the case of the purchase of some Macs, the iLife suite is offered free of charge, which is now no longer available in physical format on a DVD but directly from the App Store. The suite is already installed on the newly purchased Mac and the first time you log into the Mac App Store, the operating system automatically adds licenses to your account for the entire iLife suite. Using the Apple ID with the respective license, you can download the iLife suite on any other Mac you want without any restrictions.
When you first set up one of the new Macs, you're prompted for your Apple ID and password. That information is sent to the Mac App Store, which adds licenses for the iLife '11 apps to your Mac App Store account.
But as we've explained when covering the Mac App Store, the license for Mac App Store-purchased software lets you install that software on any of the Macs you own that are authorized with your Apple ID. Purchase an app on your laptop, and you can launch the Mac App Store app on your iMac, click the Purchases button, and install that same app without having to purchase it again.
Although Mac OS X Lion checks the Mac's hardware to see if it is registered with Apple, no such check is made for the iLife suite and simply authorizing an Apple ID on another Mac allows the entire software suite to be downloaded. We are talking about a very useful bonus offered by Apple to its customers, and surely many will be happy to know that applications offered for free by Apple can be installed on several Macs using the Mac App Store.
