Mac App Deals 

Check Out MacBundler’s Pay What You Want Bundle For Charity

 

The Scoop

Check out the new “Pay what you want and support charity” bundle from MacBundler. These bundles are always fascinating to watch, more for the psychological insights than any economic or technological reason. For anyone who pays $1 USD they can get two of the apps offered. However it is not a pick and choose buffet, users who pay $1 will only have the apps Image Trick PRO and Destination: Treasure Island made available to them. The average price that purchasers paid so far is $7.55,  for those who decide to pay more than the average also receive Data Guardian, Cockpit, Thoughts and the secret app. If the pricing scheme is getting a bit hard to follow do not worry, I will list out all the different options available at the end of this article. The real kicker is the secret app. When enough Mac app bundles are sold to raise $10,000 for charity, the secret app will be unlocked for users who paid above the average purchase price. What that app may be is anyone’s guess. I suggest waiting until the bundle has broken through that $10,000 ceiling before entirely making up your mind on purchasing this bundle.

 

The Mac Apps

 Destination: Treasure Island (value $14.90) – From the little that I’ve seen regarding this app, Destination: Treasure Island appears to be a first person view, adventure/riddle solver game along the lines of Myst. For those who are unfamiliar with Myst, it was one of the most groundbreaking games of its time when at its release. It was also maddeningly complicated. Destination: Treasure Island looks to be similar to this, except it takes its plot elements from the Robert Louis Stevenson adventure. For anyone who wants to know more, I suggest buying the app through MacBundler either from the $1 for only two apps option or $7.99+ to get the whole kit.

 

 Image Tricks PRO (value $9.99) – Image Tricks PRO describes itself as “a powerful photo editing application that utilizes Mac OS X Core Image filters and Quartz Compositions to transform your favorite photos.” In translation,  that means that the app applies special effects filters to pictures. Exactly how powerful this image editing software is I leave up to its users to decide. For the $1 option, Image Tricks PRO seems to be a fair deal, especially when Destination: Treasure Island is thrown in it ends up costing users practically their pocket change.

 

 Data Guardians (value $19.95) – Data Guardian is a secure database software for Mac that uses the impressive sounding 448-bit Blowfish encryption to protect your files. In plain english,  that means that Data Guardian’s encryption algorithm uses 448 bits (binary ones or zeros) to mask the files in its database. As anyone who can count in binary knows that equals a mind-bogglingly large number in decimal notation, which means that the odds of cracking the encryption are overwhelmingly against those who want access to it. Users must pay more than the average $7.99 to unlock this app.

 

 Cockpit (value $27) – Cockpit bills itself as “the missing Mac control center for all your apps and tasks” which allows users to run most of their tasks from within Cockpits interface. It also boasts that it is highly extendable due to the nature of its plugin based architecture. The app comes with a few preinstalled plugins which can be used for batch editing image files, batch renaming files, controlling iTunes, screen capture and more. Cockpit seems like an intriguing app that is worth a try for the price it is being offered at through this bundle. Users may only download Cockpit if they pay more than the average $7.99 for the bundle.

 

 Thoughts (value $34.50) – Thoughts is an information assistant app for Mac OS X that allows its users to create “rich documents containing notes, links, pictures, tables and list” within its “beautiful” interface. From the way that the app is described, it appears to be a cross between and journal and an organizer. Anything that users create in Thoughts can be exported for use in Word (.doc or .docx), TextEdit (.rtf), PDF and Open Office (.odt). To sum up my thoughts on Thoughts, it appears to be an intriguing app that can be purchased for an exceptionally good price through this bundle. As always, I leave it up to the users to decide whether or not this app is a fair buy. Thoughts is only available to those users who are willing to pay the above average prices whatever that may be. As of this writing the average price paid is $7.99.

 

 Mystery App (value ??) – There is not much to say about the mystery app, except one piece of advice: wait until the MacBundler passes the $10,000 ceiling and reveals what the mystery app is before you change your mind. For those users who remain unimpressed by what has been offered so far, there is a chance that surprise app could end up making this bundle into a great buy. The mystery app will only be available after enough bundles have been sold to raise $10,000 dollars for charity. Additionally the mystery app will only be available to those users who paid above the average price for the bundle.

 

Quick Recap

Price: $1 gets users: Destination: Treasure Island as well as the Image Tricks PRO graphics editing application.

Price: Above Average Paid Price (currently $7.99+) gets users: Destination: Treasure Island, Image Tricks PRO, Data Guardian, Cockpit, Thoughts as well as the mystery application which will be unveiled after enough bundles have been sold to raise $10,000 for charity.

 

Wrap Up

If you end up buying the bundle, let us know what you think about it by leaving a comment below on your experience. 

Last updated by FreshMacApps at May 4, 2013.