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March 25, 2009
Another MacHeist Bundle
Yes, I know I keep plugging MacHeist. That's because I love it so. This year the bundle is even cheaper at $39 (though I'm not sure that's not more than $49 was in real money a year ago) and the bundle's bigger.
There's always a contingent worrying that developers who sign up for MacHeist don't get a lot of cash in return for giving away tens of thousands of licenses. I observe that they're consenting adults; and besides, the iPhone has shown that selling your app very very cheap can be a terrifically successful business model.
So, what's in the bundle this year?
- iSale, an eBay helper app (I use GarageSale)
- Picturesque, a photo improving program (I use PhotoShop)
- SousChef, a recipe storage app (I use YummySoup)
- World of Goo, an award winning game (ooh yummy I can't wait)
- PhoneView, an access-your-iPhone utility program (sounds jolly useful)
- Little Snapper, a screen capture program (I use Skitch mostly, and Snaps Pro X when I need heavy lifting)
- Acorn, a not-so-bloaty image editing program (I use PhotoShop)
- KineMac, a 'realtime 3d animation program' (I have absolutely no idea what I might use this for)
- WireTap Studio, an audio grabbing and editing program (I use Audio Hijack Pro/Fission).
There are also three not-yet-unlocked apps, BoinxTV, 'a live-editing tool for video podcasters' (I think this is a very cool program but I'm not sure what I'll use it for; but honestly, anything that's a product of Boinx and the Coding Monkeys is likely to be fantastic), The Hit List, a task manager (I use Remember the Milk, and I've tried a huge range of programs in this space; I would struggle with anything that didn't have both a strong cloud presence and a separate iPhone app at this point), and Espresso, a web development tool (I don't do much, and when I do I handcode, and perhaps Coda or similar is in my future? Who knows). There was some considerable discussion last year about why unlocks always happen (so much so that bundles with locks that are selling weakly always end up releasing their locks early to push sales).
Finally, although the bundle is great, for me the real joy of MacHeist is the build-up, with ingenious puzzles, loads of free software (including some super programs like Fresh and Scribbles) and a great web experience. Worth the bundle cost for that alone and I recommend that people jump on board earlier next year. Anyway, you have two weeks to get the bundle. If you want.
Posted by Alison Scott at March 25, 2009 11:42 PM