MacUpdate Promo Spring Bundle revealed
The MacUpdate Promo Spring Bundle has been revealed, and it is, as the kids say, wicked (or sick, or whatever the kids say). This thing is packed with truly useful applications. If you were considering buying any one of these apps, the $49.99US pricetag makes the rest of them a high-value proposition.
There's been some controversy surrounding bundles of this type, but I believe that it's great exposure for developers, and I'm hoping that everyone's getting a fair cut. MacUpdate is my current favorite source for great software deals and they've been doing a great job of providing really useful, intrinsically valuable apps. This bundle is no exception.
I don't know much about the inner workings of bundle assembly, but I assume the bundle sponsor contacts developers and has some kind of engineered plan, even if it's just an inward bias toward certain genres of applications. Whereas the last MacHeist bundle had a somewhat "creative" bent, this MUpromo bundle has a definite technical angle, with a heavy dose of DVD ripping/remastering/viewing tools.
Read on for the list of included apps...
- More information on all of these apps and download links are available on the bundle's page.
TechTool Pro 5
TechTool Pro, a full suite of tools for disk repair, testing and file recovery, has saved my assets several times. In a few situations, it's succeeded in areas DiskWarrior hasn't been able to.
- Parallels Desktop 4
You know what this is, I would think. If you don't have VMWare Fusion, you'll want this to run your Windows (and other OS's) on your Mac.
- Circus Ponies Notebook 3
Circus Ponies Notebook is a grand note-taking application. While I prefer Curio, I don't deny that Notebook is among the best tools in the field.
- NetBarrier X5
I haven't tried this, but I'm definitely going to give it a run on my Mac mini server. It provides firewall and intrusion detection for any Mac.
- Ripit, DVDRemaster Pro 5, Multiplex
The combination of RipIt, DVDRemaster and Multiplex makes a killer home theater starter kit. This covers everything from ripping a DVD, converting it to various platforms, and watching the movies in your collection from a digital server.
- MoneyWell
MoneyWell is strong enough and stable enough that it is, for now, replacing Cha-Ching as my money management app. I've been toying with the switch for a while, and now it's sealed. I love Cha-Ching, and am a long-time user, but the new version and iPhone integration have been unstable enough that I need a switch. If only MoneyWell had an iPhone counterpart ...
- Paperless
Paperless is an awesome, scaled down version of apps like DEVONthink Pro Office, designed to help you get all of your paper documents into a well-organized and easily-searchable database. It's pretty new, but I've been impressed with it so far.
- Posterino
Posterino makes quick work of creating postcards and posters from your digital images. It can make those huge tiled posters out of hundreds of images, which is pretty neat, I guess. I don't plan on doing one any time soon, but it's nice to have the option.
- BetterZip
I'm also a long-time user of BetterZip, a great compression utility handling a ton of formats. Its only drawback has been that it doesn't always handle multi-part RAR archives perfectly, but UnRarX has always filled the gap.
The bundle is selling for $49.99US through June 12th, and you can grab trials of the apps, more information and purchase info at MacUpdate Promo. The retail value of the bundle is stated to be $521.71US, and the first 15,000 bundles get Jets'n'Guns Gold and CuteClips thrown in for free (which brings the total value to a spooky $666.66US). If you have a use for any or all of these apps, or just have an insatiable addiction to Mac software, the MacUpdate Promo Spring Bundle is a wicked good deal.
