British Users of Mac Podcast

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If you have not heard of Mac Heist then you need to learn about it now.

Mac Heist is a 2 week sale on some of the best Apps that are out their for the Mac at a price that is insanely low. For £25 you can get a collection of applications that are normally valued at around £200. That is INSANE.

The bundle has only 4 days left but here is my basic run down of the software. I will be reviewing these in software saturdays to come so save the money and get them now.

Pixelmator

Great image editing progrram. Cheaper version of Photoshop really. It uses Core Animation so it sends the work to the GPU instead which makes it much faster if you have a good graphics card. Won’t be as fast on MacBooks or MacMinis (and most likely the MacBook Air). Well worth the bundle just for this.

1password

A way of keeping all your passwords in one place. You can add all of your favourite websites to it and it can autofill the entries for you. It also has anti-phising built in so it will look out for any scams. It will generate a password for you if you can’t think of one which can be really handy.

CoverSutra

Yes ok, its an iTunes controller but this one is actually worth paying for. It actually looks like a Mac Application and some of the other alternatives just look ugly if we are honest. It has Last.fm intergration so your friends can stay up to date on what you are listening to. You get one of my favourite features Global Shortcuts meaning that whatever application you are in you can control your iTunes.

Cha-Ching

Cha-Ching is a money managing application. It trys to make money managing interesting and a lot less boring. It has a very good looking interface that is very Apple esq. You can tag items and make sure they are all searchable. It makes working with your accounts on the PC really seem boring. It is also very powerful. It may not be everything you want but for most people it will be fine.

iStopMotion

You will probably have heard of Stop motion animation. It is the theory of taking inanimate objects and then moving them and taking a picture every time you move it and stringing them together to make a movie. Think Wallace and Gromit. iStopMotion brings that functionality to you using your iSight webcam. You can take photos and you can create some really impessive things.

Awaken

I find it really hard to get up on on a morning (being a teenager) and it can be quite hard to get an alarm that wakes you. Also awakening to that annoying “BUZZZZZZZZ!” Can drive you insane. Using Awaken you can set multiple alarms to wake you to the same song or playlist and using your Apple remote you can control them.If you find it as hard as I do to wake up on the morning. This could be an idea.

Speed Download

Speed download is a choreographer for your downloads. It makes sure that whenever you download something. It will send music to iTunes, it will send movies to front row, its like a good chauffer or doorman. You can also use it as an FTP client and it works with smart folders. It also supports broken downloads really well as in when your downloading something and your internet dies when you get it working again you can start downloading from where you were so you don’t waste any time starting again.

AppZapper

One of the greatest Mac apps out there. With AppZapper it makes uninstalling applications a seemless and easy process. When you normally delete an Application you drag its icon to the trash but when you use AppZapper it gets rid of all the excess stuff that isn’t lost when you get rid of an application normally. It gets rid of preferences, caches and other files. You can save space and processor power so it is well worth it.

TaskPaper

Procreastination is something I suffer greatly from, right now I should probably be doing homework, but when i set myself a to do list 9 times out of 10 I follow it and get most of the things on that list done. Take paper is a simple way ot create to-do lists. Task Paper is based on .txt files so it makes it easy to move the files around. You can also create sub-headings like “Work” or “School” or “Home” to divide up the jobs you have so you know what you are doing where.

CSS Edit

For anyone who is a web deveoper coding in CSS, CSS edit is almost a MUST. You can go from typing the code to preview bringing it up in a live webpage. You can also see your code in real time without refreshing or uploading. It makes editing sites simple and effective meaning you can really thoroughly check it before the site goes live. You can search all elements and attributes and is a must in any aspiring or professional web developers arsenal.

Snapz ProX

Snapz ProX is a screen recording application which means you can reord the movement on your screen like a video. There are so many reasons why you would want to do this from wanting to show a friend your latest trick, being tech support for the family, selling a piece of software or to start your own screencast. You can take regular snapshots like you can with applications like skitch but the beauty is when you are recording. It is invaluble if you are tech support for your family as you can send them a screencast showing them what to click etc. as opposed to trying to explain it.

Wingnuts 2

After deleting all your unwanted apps using AppZapper, Finishing off the list of tasks you made in Taskpaper such as coding that final bit of the sight using CSS Edit, recording that screencast for gran showing her how to use iTunes using Snapz ProX and managing your finances using Cha-Ching and the rest of it. You can settle back to a nice game of Wingnuts 2. It is an arcade style game in which you play through time fighting off fighter planes and fighter jets from time periods such as the 1920’s and times during WW2 and also planes that are in the distant future. We all need to relax with a game every now and then.

WOW! So there you have it Mac Heist . It isn’t really an application but the ones included are great. Look out for full reviews of these on Software Saturday in the future as I am just about to by my Mac Heist bundle.

Oh, I nearly forgot to mention, some of the money used goes towards charity so really in this deal no-one looses out. I’m not going to give a rating as such today but I would say even for Pixelmator, which standard is more than the full bundle, it is worth it.

For more information, check out www.macheist.com there you will find links to each individual piece of software and their website.