Online Registration

You can pay for Spike via the Web using the Kagi Online Order Process system. This allows you to pay by Visa, MasterCard, American Express, or First Virtual. Choose one of following options:

• Normal version of the online form
• Secure SSL version of the online form.

Unless you've already registered Spike you have a "lite" version of the software. To make Spike fully functional you only need a key. When you have registered and your payment information has been received by Kagi, you will receive confirmation of the your registration and YAV will email the registration code to you. Usually this will take less than 48 hours.

To register Spike, select Register from the Apple menu. Type your name and the registration code you received from YAV to convert your evaluation copy into a full version. The full version has no restrictions on the number of files you can process in a single batch and lets you work in kilobytes or bytes. Further, the full version will enable the 63 presets settings that cover most QuickTime deployment scenarios. There are several other differences between the full version and the demo version. Finally, as a registered user you will receive email notification of periodic updates to Spike that will add additional features to the software.

You can also register by email or US check.

To register via email or normal mail you need the Register application to enter your registration information. The Register application is placed in the Spike folder by the Spike Installer. If you don't have it anymore, you can download it separately. You need to perform the following steps:

• Launch the Register application.
• Enter: your name, your email address, and your snail-mail address
• Select the version of Spike you wish to register
• Select the payment method from the popup menu
• Press the Save button if you are going to email your information.
• Press the Print button if you are going to snail-mail your information.
• A file called "Register" has now been created or printed.

If you are paying by email, then email this file to sales@kagi.com.

If you are paying by snail mail the mail the printout to:

Kagi
1442-A Walnut Street #392-4P
Berkeley, California 94709-1405
USA

Why we're lowering the price of Spike:

We've had almost a year to evaluate our Spike users, both registered and unregistered. We found two main types of users: 1) users who compress QuickTime as their livelihood and who regularly required Spike to process batches of movies consisting of hundreds of files; 2) users who routinely process 15 movies or less and for whom the 15-movie limit was no incentive to pay the shareware fee. Likewise, the fact that the program eventually expired was no incentive for the latter group to register — they simply installed a fresh version to get around the expiration. For users in this category, the only incentive to register was access to Spike's presets, the value of which has been widely misunderstood (starting in version 1.5, we have made this a bit easier to grasp — unregistered users can now examine them but not use them).

Considering these facts, we made some serious decisions that effect both Spike's usefulness and price. First, we decided to remove all expiration dates. Thus, Spike becomes a useful tool forever and those who can't afford to upgrade to the full version can continue to use Spike without registering the software and they will continue to have a valuable tool. Naturally, there had to be some trade-offs in this deal. The main compromise is that unregistered users of Spike can now only process 2 movies at a time — the privilege of batch-processing an unlimited number of files is reserved to registered users. Additionally, the option to work in bytes is reserved for registered users although the option to "display decimal framerates" is now available in all versions. The 63 presets continue to be available only in registered versions.

On the other hand, in consideration to those users who do need to use Spike's batch processing capabilities to work with more than two files at a time and to compensate for lowering the maximum batch count to 2 for unregistered versions, we've decided to make it easier to purchase by lowering Spike's price.

In summary, we've added longevity and the guarantee that people will have a useful tool whether they register or not, with the trade-off of a lowered batch file-count in the lite version, compensated for by a lowered registration fee. Although we know that we can't please all the people all the time, we believe that these compromises will address the needs of the majority of Spike's users.