Macheist: of interest only to Mac users

[bohemiancoast]

I've been waiting to mention Macheist until it was all completely unlocked and it was clear what you were getting for your money. It's a Mac shareware bundle; 12 (and a bit) complete apps for $49. I don't entirely know how they do this, because some of the apps in the bundle cost more than $49 on their own. But there we go. Last year there was some criticism (mostly from developers who had chosen not to join in) about the financing, and the way in which developers got some cash, and a shedload of publicity, and a significant wodge of support work from all these people who'd got the app cheaply. But as it's the second time around, I tend to think the developers involved will have known what they were getting into -- most of them are back for a second year. .

Last year I just bought the bundle, and, oddly, the programs I've ended up using weren't really the ones I thought I'd use when I got it.

I've been having a whale of a time with Macheist, because it started off in early December with a series of puzzle games (the prizes are other free apps, and discounts on the bundle, and things like that). All that is over now but I mention it so that people who like that sort of thing can remember for next year that it's there. I did most of the puzzles with my kids, and they involved things like a treasure hunt in Portland, Oregon using Google Street View, and decrypting code by finding and downloading an Enigma simulator.

The apps in the bundle are: Pixelmator (a Photoshop Elements competitor, but note that Pixelmator has layer masks), Snapz Pro X (flexible screenshots and video capture), CSSEdit (does what it says on the tin), Speed Download (ditto), iStopMotion (easy stop motion animation), Wingnuts 2 (a game, plus there's an extra game bundled in from the same developer), Taskpaper (a very simple GTD app), 1password (password manager that works across browsers), Awaken (turn your £2000 Macbook Air (say) into a £3.99 alarm clock), Cha-Ching (cute banking), CoverSutra (cute mp3 controller) and AppZapper (cute uninstaller).

If that sounds like a good deal for $49, then there's a link here; in the interests of fair disclosure I should point out that that is a referral link that will get me one more app if one of you buys a bundle. But I'm not much fussed about the app; I'm posting because I suspect some of you would like to know that the bundle's available.

Comments

[davidlevine]

Every time I see that word (without the H capitalized) I think it's to be pronounced to rhyme with "atheist."

[erikvolson.livejournal.com]

I just had the Austin Lounge Lizards jump into the earworm player because of that.

"Our accents are the drawliest, our howdies are the y'alliest
Our lone star flag's the waviest, our bundles are the macheist...."

[strangedave.livejournal.com]

I felt slightly dumb about buying MacHeist because I realised only after paying that the apps I really wanted weren't unlocked yet - now they are unlocked, I'm very happy. The few that have real work uses (particularly CEEEdit) are worth the money, the rest are a nice bonus.

[bohemiancoast.livejournal.com]

Unlocking is a marketing ploy. Somewhere deep in the MacHeist forums someone has carefully deconstructed why every bundle sale ever has ended up unlocking its apps, even when they haven't hit the alleged targets.

[johncoxon.livejournal.com]

What is the extra app you get from the referral?

[bohemiancoast.livejournal.com]

There are two apps available for referrals -- the first is LaunchBar (which I got because drplokta and I traded referrals) and the second is Circus Ponies Notebook, which gets rave reviews. I use Mori, which I think does the same thing, but I'll give Notebook a go and see what happens.