The MacHeist bundle is now available for sale for US$39, up to US$642 less than if these applications were purchased separately, and 25% of your purchase price goes to charity.

Because the discounting is so deep, it's probably still worth the price even if only two or three of the applications are ones you want to use. The website lists the retail price of each app so you can do your own maths for it.

The MacHeist bundle now includes ten separate applications, with a maximum of 13 (or 15 including the Tweetblast apps) to be included. As more bundles are sold, several other programs are unlocked for download - previous MacHeist bundles have always reached the target for unlocking all applications.

The ten currently included programs are:

• Equinux's iSale: eBay listing creation and management software
• Acqualia's Picturesque: Photo manipulation software
• Acacia Tree Software's SousChef: Recipe management software
• 2D Boy's World of Goo: Physics-based puzzle game
• Ecamm's PhoneView: iPhone/iPod Touch access and backup software
• Realmac software's LittleSnapper: Photo archiving and organizing software
• Kinemac's Kinemac: 3D animation software
• Flying meat's Acorn: Photo manipulation software
• Ambrosia Software's WireTap Studio: Audio recording utility
• Pangea Software's Cro-Mag Rally: Cart racing game

And, if you participate in the TweetBlast as well, you will get:

• Delicious Library 2: For cataloging books, CDs, DVDs, and anything else you can think of
• Ambrosia's Multiwinia: Multi-player real time strategy war game

If you use the website link below I'll get credit for referring you, which may mean I get extra free applications. If you'd rather not use the ATMac referral, just go to http://www.macheist.com directly.

Website: MacHeist Top Mac Apps Bundle: Up to 15 apps for US$39

- Ricky Buchanan
ETA: Times, a newspaper-style RSS reader has now also been added to the bundle.

Recently I had to re-install Leopard and all the software on my computer. As I was waiting for things to download I made a list of all the software that, for me, is a "must have". I'd love to hear others' similarities and differences!

Assistive Technology

I have to install the assistive technology first so I can manage the rest, and be productive while I'm rebuilding the computer so I'm listing these first. The other sections are just organised so they make sense - I generally just install things as I realise I need them, rather than all at once which is too overwhelming.

I use a large range of assistive technology because I can do more if I switch between different types. Once my arms get too weak to type I can still work if I dictate instead of typing, for example.

I use ControllerMate to remap some of the keys on my trackpad, XKeys device, and even the regular keyboard so they do what I want them to do when I want them to do it. This isn't technically "assistive tech" software but it certainly serves the purpose for me!

I install [msd] for speech to text input, and the small utility program Voice Candy to make it easy to send mp3 emails. Sending mp3s is easier than dictating, especially when my voice is tired which always messes up the recognition.

In the assistive technology I also use KeyStrokes for typing when I can't manage my keyboard.

The British Infovox iVox voices are the ones I find easiest to listen to, so I use those as my default system voices. VisioVoice helps me with reading documents as I can alternate between listening to the text-to-speech and reading visually.

Work

First is Apple's iLife and iWork packages. I use iTunes and iPhoto from the iLife set, and Pages and Numbers from the iWork set and it's money very well spent.

I use Things to keep my projects and things to do organised. If I didn't have that, I'd never know what I needed to do next. I use it for short term planning and long term planning - pretty much anything that doesn't fit into iCal goes into Things.

Internet

I use both Safari and Firefox web browsers, as they are good for different things. I also use Fluid to make "mini browsers" for specific things - I have one for Facebook and one for Twitter at the moment.

For reading most of my blogs and other regularly-updated sites I use the RSS reader NetNewsWire.

Chatting

I use Adium for instant messaging, and Colloquy for IRC which is an older type of text chat.

I use Skype for voice chat and PhoneValet to control my regular telephone and provide caller ID and voicemail services.

Video

I use EyeTV for watching TV directly on my Mac.

I use the standard QuickTime player to watch movies and other things downloaded from the net - once I've installed Perian and Flip4Mac-WMV, QuickTime player can handle almost any video file and I use VLC on the odd occasions that QuickTime doesn't suffice.

I don't like the interface that RealPlayer has, but it's useful for streaming audio like listening to internet radio stations.

Utilities

The Growl notification system is used by many of the above programs. Installing it means that I can set the notifications to be large and readable, in the colours I find easiest to read. If I wanted, I could set them to be read out or to use system beeps or email or all sorts of other options.

PTHPasteboard is another little utility that makes a big difference to my productivity. It keeps track of all the things I've copied and pasted to save time and save me from loosing things when I accidentally copy two sections in a row. I also have a "static" pasteboard that sits on my menu bar and lets me paste in things I type often to save on typing.

PseudoAnacron runs every time I boot up the computer and just checks to make sure the general "housekeeping" tasks for OS X are done properly. Apple has set them, by default, to run in the middle of the night and my computer is usually off at that time. They aren't essential, but they help to keep the computer running at its best.

iStat Menus sits on the menu bar and tells me how much of the CPU and internet connection are being used, which is generally useful. I also have it set up so the date and day of the week is up there as well as the time - I can never remember these!

Then we have the weird driver/program for my Epson Scanner that hasn't been updated for years and has a truly hideous interface. Let's not go there.

What's essential to your computing that I haven't covered? Which of these do you think have better or cheaper alternatives? Tell me!

- Ricky Buchanan

[msdbanner]

Most of the software we review and recommend at ATMac is created by individuals or companies with just a few employees. This "indy" software, as it's known, is usually able to be tested before you buy it and is very reasonably priced, but if you want a bunch of different pieces of software it can still add up quickly. Here are a bunch of websites which offer discounts on different pieces of software at different times.

MacUpdate Promo have a different deal every day with a large discount on the software price. They also have an extended sales page which lists software available at a smaller discount for a longer time. If you check out the extended sales be sure to look for the "Show me" dropdown and select each option in turn to make sure you're shown all the available software on sale.

MacHeist intermittently offer bundles of several pieces of software for sale at heavily discounted prices. Some of it requires that you solve an Internet-based "treasure hunt" type activity before you can purchase. The answers to the treasure hunt are always posted on their forums within a few hours of the puzzle being announced, but it can take an awful lot of forum reading to find the right code to use. This may or may not be worth the trouble, depending on how much free time you have and how much you like weird puzzles.

Mac Bundle Box is a software discounting website, intermittently offering a bundle of software which can be purchased at one low price.

MacZOT have a different deal every day with a large discount on the software price.

TheMacBundles.com bills itself as the "farmer's market for software." A new site also offering a bundle of software which can be purchased at one low price.

The Mac Santa bundle has been around for two years now each December. Last year Mac Santa offered a two-tiered discount system that takes 20% off of a particular batch of software each day and then 10% off all previously featured software until the end of the promotion on December 24th.

MacToSchool was offered in 2007 just before the USA school year commenced. The 2007 bundle offered a variety of programs which are mostly related to education/school stuff but many of which would be useful to anybody. No longer available.

dealmac doesn't offer discounts themselves but they do offer a central place that lets people know about discounts of many things including Mac software. Many of the discounts listed above are listed in their Mac software category, as well as other one-off discounts they find out about. Dealmac also offer a bunch of other categories which may interest readers, including Apple hardware and more general computer-related supplies.

I've purchased a lot of my software this way - using evaluation versions until I've found them for sale at a price I can afford. If you're wanting to buy software it may be worth your while to subscribe to some of these websites and see if what you want comes up. Tell me how you go!

- Ricky Buchanan