Fusion Ads Holiday Bundle
There have been a lot of software bundles this year, but one just came out and it’s geared to (mostly Mac) web developers: Fusion Ads Holiday Bundle. I use many of the apps listed and heartily recommend them. They include:
- ExpressionEngine (Freelance License)
- Versions
- Fontcase
- Billings
- DrawIt
- ExpanDrive
- TextExpander
- Postmark
- Kaleidoscope
- Gedy’s Social Icons
- Pictos Icons
- Mijingo training for ExpressionEngine 2
- Keynote Wireframe Toolkit
The bundle is $79 and you could be entered to win a MacBook Air or an iPad. 10% of the profits will go to charity.
Echofon
While at times it can be a distraction, Twitter has become a valuable resource in my development process over the last couple of years, allowing me to take part in a great community of web and ExpressionEngine developers spread across the globe. I’ve never really used the Twitter website to keep track of conversations, though, preferring from the start to use a desktop client. While I’ve experimented with many, the one that’s stuck is Echofon for Mac.
I’ve stayed with Echofon for a number of reasons, most notably for its ability to sync between desktop and iPad clients. As a result, I can view my timeline from Echofon for iPad and when I return to my Mac, I’ll see exactly where I left off reading (and vice versa). Echofon also has a great conversation view — you just click on the little speech bubble and Echofon brings up the entire list of related tweets. Another handy feature is Echofon’s ability to autofill usernames. Start typing the name of someone you follow then press the Tab key — voila!
The only thing I miss from Echofon is filtering — I’d love to be able to remove tweets from my timeline containing certain words, for example. Overall, though, Echofon is a great app and I highly recommend it for Mac and iPad owners.
Mountee
Mountee is a new Mac app for those who use ExpressionEngine 2 (EE). Essentially, Mountee let’s you mount your EE templates as files so that you can edit them via your favourite editor instead of from within the EE control panel.
Prior to release, I didn’t see how Mountee was different from ExpanDrive or Transmit’s “Mount as Disk” feature, other than Mountee would also allow you to change template preferences without going into EE’s control panel. Now, however, I can see why Mountee is such a big deal: It doesn’t save templates as files at all. Not only is this better for performance (sites with a lot of traffic can perform more slowly when templates are saved as files), but it still allows you to use EE’s native template versioning.
I’ve only tested Mountee a little on my local machine, so I don’t know if there are any bugs or performance issues, but I can definitely see it making my transition from EE1 to EE2 much easier.
MacUpdate Promo Spring Bundle
Another week, another Mac software bundle. This time, it’s the MacUpdate Promo Spring 2010 Bundle — 11 apps for $50. There’s not a lot here for the web worker, other than Parallels Desktop 5, which is normally $80, and WebSnapper ($15), which I’ve previously written about.
While I’m a VMWare Fusion user myself, MacTech recently compared the performance of VMWare Fusion 3 and Parallels Desktop 5, with the latter performing better in most areas. So it might be worth considering the MacUpdate bundle simply for the $30 discount on Parallels.
Camtasia for Mac
TechSmith, makers of the venerable Camtasia Studio, have just released Camtasia for Mac, their new Mac software for creating, editing, and sharing screencasts. Camtasia for Mac is $149 USD but can be purchased for $99 until Dec 31, 2009. Moreover, if you own Camtasia Studio 6 or later on Windows, you can apply for a further discount.
System Requirements
- Mac computer with an Intel processor
- Mac OS X v10.5.6 or later
- Quartz Extreme support
- 1GB of RAM
- Approximately 4GB of available disk space
- QuickTime 7.5.5 or later
- CD drive required for installation
Get ScreenSteps for 50% Off
ScreenSteps, my favourite app for creating documentation and user manuals, is on for half price today only. If you have a Twitter account, follow @screensteps and they’ll DM you a coupon code. If you’re already following them, DM them for the code. ScreenSteps works on both OS X and Windows and supports exporting to HTML, blogs, PDF, Word, and ScreenSteps Live. It’s amazing software with an incredible support team. Give it a try if you haven’t already.
MacUpdate Promo Spring Bundle
It’s that time of year again — time for another Mac software bundle: the MacUpdate Promo Spring Bundle. For the next two weeks, you can grab 11 apps for $49.99 USD. The most notable apps are TechTool Pro 5 ($98), Parallels Desktop 4 ($79.99) and RipIt (18.99), an awesome program for backing up your DVDs to your Mac. The complete bundle includes:
- TechTool Pro $98.00
- Parallels Desktop $79.99
- Circus Ponies Notebook 3 $49.95
- NetBarrier X5 $49.95
- DVDRemaster Pro $49.99
- Paperless $44.95
- Multiplex $35.00
- MoneyWell $49.99
- RipIt $18.99
- Posterino $24.95
- BetterZip $19.95
Two New CSS Framework Tools
Boks is an Adobe Air application that provides a user interface for working with the Blueprint CSS framework. Boks handles the grid and baseline settings and then exports the CSS and HTML files.
For the 960.gs framework, which is what I’ve been trying out for the last little while, there’s a new jQuery plug-in called 960.gs grid overlay that does as the name implies — it overlays a semi-transparent 960 grid over your layout as you develop your site. According to the developer, there is also a bookmarklet in the works.
Run IE8/IE7/IE6, Firefox, Safari, Chrome, and Opera from the Web
If you’re looking for a way to run IE 6/7/8 concurrently on Windows, Xenocode’s Browser Sandbox will let you do just that. You can also run Firefox (3 and 2), Safari, Chrome, and Opera. From the site:
The Xenocode Browser Sandbox allows all popular Windows browsers to be run simultaneously, directly from the web. Web designers, system administrators, and other users can now evaluate Internet Explorer 8, 7, and 6, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera, and Google Chrome directly from the web in a risk-free manner. Unlike traditional software applications, Xenocode WebAppsdo not require any software to be installed andallow multiple application versions to run side-by-side on any version of Windows.
The downloads are free; Xenocode’s WebApp technology is in beta.
Update: As noted by PM below, you now have to install the Spoon plug-in to get the browsers to run. You don’t have to register, though. Just download and install the plug-in and return to the Xenocode browser page to run the browser of your choice.
Layers Screenshot App 50% Off Today Only
Layers, the new screenshot app that captures your screen and saves each window and icon as its own layer in a PSD, is on sale for $10 USD on MacUpdate today.
Layers generated a lot of buzz on its release about a month ago, and it certainly looks interesting, but I can’t think of a good use for it myself. Still, $10 is hard to beat. Let me know if you purchase or already own the app — how do you use it and how does it fit in your workflow?