MacUpdate Update (MacUpdate² ????)

I fired an email of to the guys at MacUpdate yesterday after receiving a somewhat misleading email about their current software bundle. This was the reply.

‘Don’t worry about it. Come back closer to the end of the promotion if you want (like Thursday or Friday even). The bundle will be where you want it to be. :)’

The reply missed the original point, since I was asking about advertising a bundle as available today when three apps were not yet ‘unlocked’. Looks like the guys at MacUpdate are pretty confident all ten apps will be included, so I expect I will be buying the bundle before the end of the week.

Macupdate Promo

Following hot on the heels of the Macheist Retail bundle comes the latest Macupdate deal. As before, there’s seven software packages on offer for the slightly higher than previous $64.99, with three more to be unlocked after sales hit certain numbers. Hazel, Art Text, MenuCalendarClock, Leap, StoryMill, Typinator and DVDRemaster Pro are the apps you get to start, with Sound Studio, BannerZest and Parallels Desktop as sales targets. There’s some very interesting software in this bundle so it’s one to watch to see if the final three apps are added.

Mac Heist bundle on sale

I’ve been waiting for this one since December, but now it’s here I’m a bit disappointed. It sounds good value at 10 apps for $343.75, but the total value listed includes the three apps that aren’t unlocked yet. CSS edit is currently 3/4 of the way to the 5,000 sale unlock but we don’t know how many sales are required to get the final two apps. I found Mac Update’s approach of listing the sales required to unlock was a far better method. At least you could judge if the targets would be reached after a few days.

My disappointment is with the apps in the bundle. 1password has been on my want list for a while, so great. Coversutra? Looks great, don’t need another iTunes controller. Cha-Ching (personal finance), iStopMotion (stop motion filming) and Awaken (turn your mac into an alarm clock) wouldn’t get used. AppZapper is nice for uninstalling apps, but I use the free AppCleaner. Taskpaper? Nope, don’t need another to-do list editor. CSSedit (CSS editor, surprise!) and Snapz Pro X (screen grabber) would also not get much use if they are unlocked. That leaves Pixelmator, the only mainstream creative app in the bundle. I wouldn’t mind Pixelmator if it gets unlocked, but $49 for two apps seems lika a waste of a bundle.

The biggest problem is that the recent Mac Update bundle raised the bar. Yep, Swift Publisher, Memory Miner, Forklift and Rapid Weaver are great packages I have found very useful, and once the other software was added on it was a much stronger package. I’ll be watching the Mac Heist bundle for developments, but it certainly isn’t a must buy at the moment.

The Best Free and Open Source Software

Mohawke has several pages of free and open source software recommendations, spread across OS and platform categories. Click the links to view.

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Switching to Free sofware

One of the ideas I have been toying with for a while now has been switching to free sofware, or reasonably priced software. The second MacUpdate promo bundle finished recently, and I got some great software for £25. Most of it I wanted, some was usually priced out of my reach so you can’t complain about £25 for twelve bits of quality software. There’s a similar bundle on sale soon at MacHeist, and for now you can solve the challenges they are posting to win free software and money off the bundle when it goes on sale. Good fun and some nice software given away so far.
But what of the free software? There’s some excellent stuff out there, so I’ve added a new section to the site to document my switch to free and cheap software. Microsoft office may be the industry leader, but how much power do you need to write a letter?

My first recommendation is Frostwire, a free open source Limewire replacement.