MacHeist: the good, the bad, the ho hum

The MacHeist bundle wasn’t exactly freeware, but for anyone interested in thrift, it certainly was a great deal. I found it irresistible. As always in a bundle such as this, there are going to be some apps you like, some you don’t like and some that are just ho hum. Here’s my list:

The Good

The Hit List: I’ve tried various organizers and to-do lists in the past and have always wound up abandoning them. In the end it always seemed easier to just put sticky note on the computer. The Hit List, though, is super easy to start using right away. And if you’re so inclined, there are a lot a features you can learn later. It’s earned a place of honour in the dock. We’ll see how long it lasts.

Little Snapper: Imagine iTunes for screenshots. It has a built-in browser that allows you to take screenshots of web pages. And you can store all your images in various categories and smart lists of your own creation. I never thought I’d find a use for such a thing, but there’s a lot of potential here.

The World of Goo: This is a wonderful game that’s almost impossible to describe. You’re basically building structures to accomplish a goal, and having a lot of fun along the way. It’s a great way to pass the time and build your brain power.

Cro-Mag Rally: Just about anything Brian Greenstone does is good, and this racing game set in caveman times is no exception. It has great graphics and plenty of powerups and obstacles to keep things interesting. Steering takes some getting used to — you can easily find yourself off-course.

Picturesque: Create some wonderful special effects for your photos, including perspective, reflection, shadow, curve and stroke. You can also crop and save presets. It does what it does well, but you might find it limited.

Times: This one just barely makes it into the The Good. I like newsreaders of all kinds, and this one is kinda cool because it displays the news similar to a newspaper layout. The question remains: Is it innovative? Or just a gimmick?

The Bad

Espresso: This is a text editor used mainly for creating the code used for websites. One of its big selling points is a live preview of how your site looks as you add new code. Unfortunately this feature doesn’t work unless you use a workaround that you can find by searching the user forum. I wonder how many people will bother to do this, or simply move on to one of the other capable text editors out there. And this is just one of many complaints. Check the Espresso forums for more. The worst part is the deafening silence from the developers.

The Ho Hum

iSale and PhoneView: Not sure what they do and likely won’t bother to find out.

Acorn: Once you’ve been spoiled by Photoshop, it’s pretty hard to take anything else seriously. It’s nice to have the alternative, though.

Kinemac, WireTap and BoinxTV: I can’t image ever wanting or needing these apps, so I didn’t download them. Maybe I’ll surprise myself some time in the future.

Posted Saturday, April 11, 2009 in

Tell a friend    Share   

Comments are open

  1. you’re a software site, and you can’t be bothered to find out what two programs do? isn’t that kind of pathetic?

    iSale is useless unless you sell stuff on ebay. PhoneView is very nice for iPhone owners as it lets you easily extract SMS and other data from your phone.

    WireTap is extremely useful for recording audio from sources that don’t easily let you download audio. I’ll let you use your imagination for that.

    mazakor

  2. I had a feeling that line would be controversial. Of course, I got the gist of what they do, but beyond that they didn’t interest me so I didn’t explore them further. I get your point, though — readers likely expect more. I’ll think about putting together a more thorough article for the “ho-hum” stuff.

    Mark

  3. I spent a stupid amount of time deliberating over this bundle, and ultimately I think that was one of the reasons I didn’t buy it. Enough with the “unlock” B.S! Tell me what the heck I am buying!?!? The whole Macheist experience is waaay too goofy for my taste, with their silly espionage concept and unlock stages and Briefings and nerd chicks with bad fake russian accents. Enough already. I don’t have time for this. The target audience must be nerdy adolescent boys.

    Ryan Biggs

  4. I think you hit the nail on the head with the Espresso comment. I was desperate for that program to be a winner, and it held so much promise when first announced, but they certainly dropped the ball in a very big way.

    Gareth Williams





Make links like this: "Your choice of text":http://www.example.com
Learn more about Textile markup

  

Previous:
Next:

A blog about
Mac freeware

Blog
categories