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Three Gems-heavy bundles offer great bargains

Mac Gems
By Dan Frakes, Macworld JUN 8, 2012 5:00 am PDT

I regularly review great, inexpensive software here on the Mac Gems blog, but I occasionally come across a great deal or bundle that lets you get some of those apps for even less cash. In the spirit of great software on a budget, here are three current software bundles that each include more than a few Mac Gems. (I’ve indicated past Mac Gems with an asterisk; many have been updated considerably since our most-recent review.)

Productive Macs Bundle

The Productive Macs Bundle gives you eight apps, worth $290 at normal prices, for $40. The bundle expires on June 19, 2012:

  • Printopia* ( ; 2011 review): A Macworld Eddy winner, this is our favorite utility for printing from iOS devices to any printer connected to your Mac. It also offers a slew of features for saving files from iOS devices to your Mac and opening them in Mac apps.
  • HoudahSpot* ( ; 2008 review): A third-party—and improved—interface to OS X’s Spotlight search technology.
  • MacJournal* ( ; 2003 review): A nice daily-journal app for the Mac.
  • MailTags* ( ; 2006 review): An add-on for Mail that lets you add searchable tags (similar to keywords or categories) to e-mail messages. It also lets you add notes, set and view priority, and assign due dates to messages.
  • RapidWeaver ( ; 2011 review): An easy-to-use website-building app.
  • Trickster: Formerly named Blast, this utility gives you quick access to recently used documents and windows.
  • Voila: A screen-capture program that offers improvements over OS X’s built-in features.
  • DevonThink: A “bit bucket” for efficiently storing—and accessing—documents, notes, bookmarks, and more.

MacUpdate June Bundle

The MacUpdate June 2012 Bundle gets you 11 apps, worth $457, for $50. It expires on June 20, 2012:

  • BusyCal ( ; 2009 review): Another Eddy winner, BusyCal is a replacement for iCal that offers more features and a better interface. (BusyCal is included only for the first 15,000 bundle buyers.)
  • Parallels Desktop ( ; 2011 review): A virtualization program that lets you install and run Windows, Linux, and some versions of OS X from within OS X.
  • KeyCue* ( ); 2006 review: A great utility for discovering and learning the keyboard shortcuts available in the current app.
  • Attachment Tamer* ( ; 2008 review): Formerly called Mail Attachments Iconizer, this Mail add-on give you more control over how Mail displays and sends attachments.
  • Espionage* ( ; 2010 review): A handy utility that integrates encrypted-disk-image making with the Finder.
  • ScreenFlow ( ; 2008 review): A standout screen-capture and video-editing program, this one’s been updated significantly since our review.
  • Speed Download: A centralized download manager for your browsers with advanced features.
  • Civilization V: The classic strategy game.
  • Jaksta: An app for downloading and converting media from the Web.
  • A Better Finder Rename: A powerful utility for batch-renaming files and folders.
  • My Living Desktop: Transforms your desktop from a static image to a video background, complete with soothing audio.

Mac Productivity Bundle

The Mac Productivity Bundle offers seven apps, 21 WordPress themes, two sets of icons, and six ebooks—worth a total of $570—for $50. This bundle expires on June 23, 2012:

  • Default Folder X* ( ; 2006 review and 2007 video): Another of our all-time favorite Gems, this add-on supercharges Open and Save dialogs to make them much more useful.
  • Keyboard Maestro* ( ; 2010 review): A standout macro and automation utility.
  • PhoneView* ( ; 2008 review): A utility that makes it easy to use your iOS for data storage and to access and edit normally-unreachable files.
  • Typinator* ( ; 2010 review): A text-expansion utility that lets you type simple abbreviations that are replaced by longer bits of text.
  • LittleSnapper* ( ; 2009 review): Another screenshot utility, this one gives you the basics plus the capability to capture entire webpages, annotate your shots, and organize the images in a handy browser.
  • TotalFinder* ( 2010 coverage): This utility enhances the Finder with tabbed windows, additional view options and keyboard shorcuts, and more.
  • iStopMotion Home: A clever app for creating stop-motion videos.
  • ThemeFuse: A set of 21 WordPress themes.
  • Glyph Ocean: A set of 1500 icons.
  • Picons Ultimate+: A set of 160 vector icons for designers.
  • Smashing E-book Bundle: Rather than an app, this is a set of six ebooks for learning Web development tools: CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, and WordPress.