During my time here at OWC, I have cultivated my love of the Mactintosh independent software community. In the past, I have shared some software gems with you, be it here on the OWC Blog, in various QuickTips and in full-blown reviews. What I’ve always liked about independent software companies is that they often put out software that’s just as good as (and sometimes, better than) the larger software companies at a fraction of the price, so I’m generally glad to toss a few bucks their way and/or give them a featured write-up.

It’s a part of that support for independent developers that I feel the need to draw attention to a great deal going on over at MacHeist. These guys somehow manage to get together high-quality pieces of software from independent developers and bundle them together for additional savings over the already affordable prices of most independent software. For a limited time, though, they’ve got an even better price on their bundle than they usually do – FREE!

Yep. that’s right. For the next six days or so, you can register and download the MacHeist nanoBundle at absolutely no cost.

So what’s in this free bundle? Let’s take a look. more…

Every now and then, you may find that your startup seems slower than normal or that some things are just not working the way they used to. When that happens, it is usually best to be proactive, rather than putting it off until the problem potentially gets worse. There are numerous things that can cause problems with your Mac, both hardware and software. When working with computers, it pays to not only have a physical toolkit, but also some good software tools to help with various situations. Having the right options at your disposal can help save time, which most people do not seem to have enough of.

One great little maintenance utility you can use is Onyx. Onyx takes several important maintenance tasks and puts them all in to one easy to use package. Even better, though, this software is free! more…

One of the Main problems with multitasking is that sometimes you miss an important notification, which grinds things to a halt. Sure, you can arrange all your windows so that they’re all viewable, but unless you have a pair of 30-inch displays, that method gets cluttered very fast. However, there’s another great little utility that works quite well.

Growl is a system extension that keeps an eye on your applications and notifies you of important updates with an unobtrusive window.

Many popular programs are supported by Growl, including perennial favorites like Toast, Firefox, Adium, and  StuffIt Expander. There are also add-ons that add notifications for Safari, Mail, iChat, iTunes, iCal, and a host of others. There’s even a command-line tool to allow you Terminal jockeys out there to add Growl notifications to your shell scripts.

At first, I resisted installing this notification system. Then, I actually started using it. Now, I get notifications as soon as files are done downloading, when I get emails or instant messages, and various other bits of information that are happening that I should know about, but am not actively monitoring.
Has really made my work flow more efficient, and it may do the same for yours.

You can find Growl at the author’s Web site, or in the “System Enhancements” folder of the Shareware collection included with every OWC and Newer Technology Storage Solution.