1. ✴MacUpdate Bundle - First look
 
At the end of last year, I participated to MacHeist. It was a pretty nice project that started out as a game in which members of the community solved riddles to get freebies. At the end a bundle of very nice apps was sold for about 50 bucks: a huge bargain. I really liked it, it wasn’t just a bargain, it was also a lot of fun doing the heists and some good brain-teasing. Everybody knew it was leading up to the sale of a bundle, but no one was forced to buy, it was just some new and pretty clever marketing for Mac apps.
 
Now, MacUpdate is also selling a bundle of 11 apps for about 50 bucks. It’s not quite as attractive, first there aren’t any riddles or anything fun about it, second the apps are not as cool as the ones from the MacHeist bundle (some of which I use on a daily basis like TextMate or Delicious Library).
The bundle’s got SRS iWOW, GarageSale, Cocktail, ProfCast, Amadeus Pro, Fetch, GraphicConverter, PhotoPresenter, Little Snitch, Intaglio and TechTool Pro.
TechTool Pro alone is worth $100, and I’ve used it in the past, I know this is quite useful, so buying the bundle is basically getting this one for half of its price anyway. I was also considering buying Little Snitch for a while so I was probably going to buy the bundle anyway. But then I received a message from MacHeist saying that they would add a few apps to the bundle if bought through their site. Those apps are quite nice: WriteRoom, Linkinus, BrowseBack, Exces plus access to two betas for Pixelmator and Flow.
That decided me and I clicked the Buy button.
 
1/ SRS iWOW:
I’ve only tried SRS iWOW so far, which is a plugin for “enhancing” iTunes’ sound. This thing is not for me.
If you’re watching video podcasts or iTunes TV downloads on your iMac with the sound played through the built-in speakers, that might give you a better experience.
If, like me, you’re listening to hi-res music and you’ve got your computer plugged to a decent sound system or decent headphones (like my AKG K271 Studio), you need to stay away from this plugin, it will all make it sound very awful.
I’ve also noticed that it wasn’t really going easy on my CPU, and that sealed its fate. I didn’t even have to remount the disc image to launch the uninstaller, it was still open on my desktop. Farewell SRS iWOW!
 
EDIT after more tests: Stay away from this obnoxious software, I discovered that my iTunes was running at about 30% CPU usage even with the plugin turned off. After de-installing the thing the usage went back to a normal 8-10% on a PB G4 1.5Ghz.
Friday, 20 July 2007
The Silver Tongue Show