The MacHeist bundle was announced yesterday with great fanfare. Tech celebrities Chris Pirillo, Veronica Belmont, and Lisa graced the occasion in a live presentation, unveiling one app at a time. Personally I think they acted like salespeople on your average TV marketting infomercial, but let’s put that aside. It’s the Bundle that we’re after, and it’s totally out of this world.

13 good quality applications were announced, some yet to be unlocked, putting the total worth of the bundle at somewhere round $950 for an insanely low price of $39. Of course, some applications are yet to be unlocked, but at the rate at which people are buying these apps, that’s definitely going to be a reality.

What’s in the bundle

So let’s go over the apps and see what they mean for you:

iSale ($39)
A desktop application for eBay, iSale lets you create auctions, customise them with pictures and videos, as well as manage payments and clients right from your desktop. If you’re not into selling on eBay, that’s one app that will go to waste.

Picturesque ($35)
We’ve reviewed Picturesque, and having in this bundle is just awesome. Using Picturesque you can create some stunning web graphics with just a few clicks. Check out review.

SousChef ($30)
I don’t know squat about cooking, and have never really delved into finding recipes online. Looking at the screencast however it does look like an interesting app for someone who does a lot of cooking. I can’t comment any further on this however, having never used it.

World of Goo ($20)
Oddly, a game features in the bundle. Perhaps there should be a MacHeist ‘Gaming Bundle’ in the future. This is a puzzle game, and should provide some entertainment. Not something you would buy otherwise though.

PhoneView ($20)
Here’s a gem I hadn’t heard of before. PhoneView allows you to access all your iPhone data on your Mac. You can see SMS conversations, call history, as well as transfer files to and fro. You can even import music from an iPhone which is not synced with your Mac. A great app for any iPhone user.

LittleSnapper ($40)
We’ve reviewed this before, and it’s a very good addition to the bundle. LittleSnapper is a screenshot manager, which allows you to snap, organise, and share screenshots across the web. Check out our review to know more.

Acorn ($50)
A Photoshop alternative for the Mac, Acorn is quite a powerful image editor. It’s not as intuitive as I’d have liked it to be, but it works. I’d have preferred it if Pixelmator was added to the Bundle (no regard to them being our sponsor), but Acorn is good enough.

Kinemac ($300)
At $299, this 3D app seems to have been added to the bundle only to raise the total value. I don’t know how powerful this app is, nor how ‘professional’ it can be, it’s not an app an average user would like to use. Let us know if you have any opinion about this application.

From hereon, the apps are unlocked as and when goals are reached.

WireTap Studio ($70)
An excellent audio grabbing application, WireTap can capture selective sources of your Mac’s audio. If you want separate streams captured from your Skype conversations and iTunes playlist, WireTap can do it. Excellent for podcasters.

BoinxTV ($200)
I know nothing about this app, except that it allows you to record, edit and broadcast live video presentations. At $200, it’s another high profile app with a niche market. To be unlocked when a goal is reached.

The Hit List ($70)
The next thing in GTD apps, The Hit List from Potion Factory has got the tag of being a ‘things competitor’. Having used both, I would say as similar as both appear to be, they both work in different ways. Excellent app to have if the bundle attains the goal, that’s yet to be announced.

Espresso ($80)
Recently released Espresso is a CSS and HTML editing application from MacRabbit. Touted by the community as a ‘Coda killer’, Espresso has some neat features up its sleeve. We’ll be doing a thorough review of this app, but if the goal is reached, it’s going to be worth it for web developers.

Charity

The bundle is donating 25% of each bundle sold (not just of the profits) to a charity of your choosing. As of this time, they’ve already generated more than $80,000 for charity, and are definitely going upward of $500k by the time it ends. This is a great initiative by the MacHeist team, and the developers backing it up.

Is it worth it?!

Is that even a question to ask! At $39, this bundle is totally worth it for almost any mac user. Unless you have purchased a lot of those apps, most of these apps will come in handy one way or another. Having the price lower than the cost price of most of these apps is another killer.