2 ONS. 1 OFF. | Things you should know.

If you’re reading this, you’re probably just as frustrated as I was this afternoon when I tried to search for “Skype” in the iTunes App store. No results. After a quick search, I discovered that the new Skype client for the iPhone was released in every country EXCEPT for Canada. It seems Skype has chosen to leave us out of yet another great service offering of theirs—the other being Skype-in. The reasoning? “Patient-license restrictions”. Great.

So what next? Find a loop-hole—and as it turns out, it’s a pretty simple, perhaps obvious one. Here is what you need to do:

Step 1: sign out of your iTunes account within iTunes. This one is pretty simple. Click Store>Sign out.

Step 2: change your country preference within iTunes. This one is also rather simple. Select iTunes Store from the left menu within iTunes (this is the same way you normally would access the iTunes store to purchase music/movies/apps etc). Scroll down to the very bottom where you see a drop-down menu beside My Store. Change this to United States.

Step 3: sign up for a new iTunes account. Again, this is easy (noticing a trend here?). Click the Sign in button on the top right hand side of the iTunes Store (you should already be there). You will be prompted to either create a new account, or to sign in. Simply create a new account. If you don’t have a US address, which many of you won’t, make something up. 90210 always works for me :)

Note: you’ll likely wish to create this account without a credit card (unless you have a US card). Here is a link to the instructions for creating an iTunes account without a credit card: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2534. It’s important to note that you must be within the App store section of the iTunes store in order to create an account without a credit card on file.

Step 4: verify your iTunes account. You should receive an e-mail requiring you to confirm your account. Click the link at the bottom of the e-mail.

Step 5: log into your new iTunes account. On the top right hand side of the iTunes Store section within iTunes, click Sign in then enter in your newly created credentials.

Step 6: search for Skype within the iTunes Store, download it, then sync your iPhone. Voila! You now have Skype on your Canadian-issued iPhone.