When the iPad 2 first debuted in Apple’s refurb store, discounts were relatively small: $50 off each model, representing discounts of between 5 and 9 percent, depending on which model you looked at. Now 16 GB models are discounted $80, and 32 GB and 64 GB versions carry an even steeper $100 price drop, representing between 12 and 16 percent off the value of a new, nonrefurbished device.

The new pricing applies to both Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi + 3G models, and Apple currently lists pretty much every model as being in stock, with the exception of the 64 GB AT&T model. All Apple-refurbished iPads come with a full one-year warranty, a new battery and outer shell, and free shipping. There’s really no downside if you’re looking for a gift when comparing these to new iPads, except that you can’t get engraving on refurbished gear.

Apple doesn’t say anything about these price changes’ being limited-time offers, but, as is always the case with refurbished products, supply is limited. You have to wonder if this isn’t a precursor to the arrival of an iPad 3 early next year.

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In the old version, users had to purchase their offers via other means, then could redeem and track them via the Google Shopper app. Now you can buy the offers directly, and also subscribe to offers for specific locations right from an iPhone. The purchases you make bypass Apple’s in-app purchase system entirely, and instead use Google Checkout to complete the transaction via an in-app browser interface.

But the Shopper update is just one of three major recent Google software changes that bring features previously only available on Android devices to the iPhone and iPad. Just Monday, for instance, Google+ got an update that brought improved notifications, full resolution photo uploading, and search function. And late last month, the Google Search iPad app got a considerable overhaul, which introduced slick built-in quick-access interfaces for Google Apps, making it almost like a limited version of Chrome OS within an app.

Google’s doing a good job right now of making sure its experiences reach as broad an audience as possible, but which experiences, specifically? Google+, its fledgling social network, is a major play to win back some of the ground it has already given up to Facebook in terms of being a destination on the web. In order to succeed at its goal of amassing as many users as possible, Google is aware that it has to reach mobile users on the platform where they live, even if that’s not its own.

Google Shopper, especially now with its local offers, is likewise a product that benefits Google most by being in front of as many eyes as possible. It’s purely about advertising reach and selling to groups, so it makes sense that Google would want to count iOS users among potential customers.

With the Google Search app for iPad update, the goal is once again to make sure as many people as possible are using its search products and apps like Docs, all of which help drive traffic to its primary properties and therefore, encourage ad revenue, too.

In short, Google’s improvements to its iOS business are strictly self-interested, which means users hoping to gain some of the more useful elements of Google services on Android devices will likely ultimately be disappointed. Don’t expect turn-by-turn navigation in Maps, for instance, or an official Google Music native player; these are things that remain valuable as competitive advantages for Android devices, rather than as standalone efforts to be promoted in and of themselves.

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Micromat’s TechToolPro 6 is the bundle headliner this time around, offering some of the most comprehensive diagnostic and repair tools for your OS X system available anywhere. TechToolPro 6 is the most recent version and normally retails for $99.99 on its own. It checks your drives for potential errors or signs of failure, helps you rebuild your disk directories and optimize performance, plus recovers data from corrupt drives.

Another highlight is Postbox 3, the latest iteration of one of the best options out there for power email users who aren’t satisfied with what the build-in Mail.app offers. It’s a better fit and better designed than Microsoft’s Outlook for the Mac, and it’s a great Gmail client, too. The only downside is that there is no Exchange support, but it has a load of organization and filtering features that make tackling even the most unruly of inboxes a much easier task. Postbox 3 is normally $30 on its own.

One more app on the list that merits closer inspection is Neverwinter Nights 2. It’s a few years old now, but the game really stands up well despite its age. RPG fans will love it, especially if you enjoyed the first installment or if you’re a fan of games in the Diablo vein. Ordinarily, Neverwinter Nights 2 retails for $20 on the Mac App Store.

There are eight other apps in the bundle, too, as well as one more for the first 15,000 buyers. There is something for everyone, including the FontPack Pro Master edition, which ordinarily retails for $300 and includes every typeface designed by the SummitType font foundry (handy for designers), and Hear, an app that adds audio equalizer options to every app on your Mac (nice for the audiophiles in the crowd).

The deal lasts until Dec. 21, so you still have another 16 days to decide if it’s tantalizing enough to merit your hard-earned cash.

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The App Store is a bit of rolling sea of pricing turmoil, according to madvertise’s findings in the U.K. App Store, with regular highs and lows that make shopping on certain days more advisable than on others. Fridays turn out to be the best possible time to spend your hard-earned cash, since 19.58 percent of iPad and 18 percent of iPhone app prices on average see a drop just before the weekend, and none of the top five categories of apps see any price increases on a Friday.

Don’t jump the gun and think you can get away with buying earlier, though; Thursdays are the worst possible day to shop, with 17.9 percent of iPad and 17.36 percent of iPhone apps showing an increase in price that time of week. Thursdays are good for one thing, however, since along with Wednesdays it’s the most common time for new apps to arrive in the App Store. Updates also come most frequently on Thursdays, with Tuesdays coming in a close second.

Madvertise’s study, which it created in conjunction with AppZapp, a bargain-hunting tool for App Store shoppers, concludes that Friday is the best day to shop for apps. That’s not too surprising, since a lot of publishers seem to promote their wares with weekend sales in order to lock in lucrative positions high up in the App Store rankings.

All bets are off during this weekend, owing to Black Friday, but there’s little reason to doubt Friday won’t be a great time to pick up some cheap apps, both in the U.S. and abroad, too.

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The images posted by 9to5Mac appear to be from an internal staff leaflet or flyer detailing the Apple Store’s Black Friday deals. In addition to the Mac sales (which are actually pretty good at $100 off even the cheapest models), a lot of accessories are on sale, including Apple’s own iPad Smart Cover ($11 off all models), wireless input devices ($11 off keyboard, Magic Mouse and Magic Trackpad) and networking devices ($11 to $51 off AirPort and Time Capsule hardware).

But some of the standouts include sales on products that, while excellent, are normally out of reach for a lot of consumer budgets (mine included). For instance, the Jambox by Jawbone gets a $51.95 discount, making the Bluetooth speaker only $148 on sale. Jawbone’s breakout hit, the fitness tracking UP wristband, is also significantly cheaper according to the spy shots, getting a $21.95 temporary price drop. Bowers & Wilkins’ excellent C5 stereo headset, which we recently picked as the best overall iPhone headphone companion, is on sale for $128, a full $51.95 off its original price, and the same company’s Zeppelin Air, which is the best and brightest of the AirPlay speaker lot, hovers a little closer to being affordable thanks to a $101.95 price break, making it ‘only’ $498.

I may not have expressed much enthusiasm about Apple’s Black Friday sales in the past, but if this flyer turns out to be accurate I’ll be singing a different tune. Deals on high-end Apple accessories don’t come along often enough, and wireless, room-filling sound just might be worth waiting in line for. Check out the full flyer snapshot at 9t05Mac and let us know if anything catches your eye.

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Both the 32 GB Wi-Fi + 3G and the 64 GB Wi-Fi-only iPads are on sale for $399, which represents a savings of $230 and $200 respectively. The 64 GB Wi-Fi + 3G version is $499, which is $230 less than its original retail value. The 3G versions are compatible only with AT&T in the U.S., as first-gen iPads only support GSM cellular technologies.

If you’re looking to get your hands on an iPad, and you don’t mind being a generation behind (there’s little you’ll miss unless you’re an avid FaceTime user or enjoy cutting edge games), this is great deal. Apple may just be clearing out inventory of older devices now that the original iPad has been off the market for a while, but it could also be the case that Amazon’s upcoming Kindle Fire has caused Apple to want to hook in as many iOS tablet users as possible before that device launches.

Whatever the reason for the discount, Apple lists it as a “Special Limited Time Price,” so the sale probably won’t last forever. If there’s someone really special on the Christmas list this year, this might be a nice option.

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Apple lowered the price of its refurbished original model iPads by $100 over the weekend, and all of these models get a brand new battery and outer shell before being resold, so you won’t be able to tell it isn’t a new device. Having purchased many refurbed Apple goods over the years I can tell you the quality of these products is usually indistinguishable from new. Prices for the refurbished iPads now range from $299 to $599, with each Wi-Fi model getting an additional $100 off their existing discounts, and Wi-Fi + 3G models knocking off $130 from the price of each.

Stock is bound to be limited, and there’s no telling how long Apple will be offering these prices. As of this writing, all storage capacity and connectivity options are still available.

At this price, I’m considering picking up a basic model 16 GB refurbished model as a dedicated development and testing device for my personal projects. Anyone else think this is too tempting to pass up?

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Voices, the last chart-topping offering from tap tap tap sold 300,000 copies in its first month of availability, and Angry Birds, which The Heist managed to knock from its long-standing perch, was a flop for its first three months on the App Store in English-speaking markets. So how did The Heist skip the line, so to speak, and zoom to the top of the charts in such a short period?

Tap tap tap principal Phill Ryu sees it as the result of promotion, adding value for gamers, speaking directly to the audience, generating word of mouth, and being a fresh face among a crowd of old familiar mugs. To say that The Heist is an overnight success is to ignore the fairly extensive pre-launch promotional campaign, which began in the release of Twitter for Mac 1.0. In January, people who bought the MacHeist nanoBundle 2 last year were given exclusive access to a secret area within the official Twitter for Mac client that held clues about The Heist. Then, a week prior, the team put up a teaser page (featuring a multi-touch puzzle when viewed on iOS devices) and a new discussion forum to help build buzz.

The app itself is attractive, too, not only because it’s a great, well-designed game, but also because it offers buyers a uniquely attractive value proposition. Specifically, The Heist costs only $0.99 (the going rate for chart-toppers in the App Store), but it offers gamers who complete it a code redeemable for another game that normally retails for $9.99. It feels like you’re getting something for nothing. Ryu says that they considered charging more, but opted to aim lower in order to build their audience as quickly as possible. Making well over $300,000 (total sales revenue minus Apple’s 30 percent cut for distributing the app in its App Store) in one week says they probably made the right decision.

Direct marketing also worked for The Heist: 500,000 fans opted to receive email updates about the product, and tap tap tap used an iPad 2 giveaway to incentivize fans to spread the word on Twitter. Blog coverage picked up quickly based on the buzz generated through other means, and on the reputation of the MacHeist brand as a quality software bundle deal provider for OS X.

The Heist also had two more key elements going for it. First was an air of mystery, as the prize remained unknown for a short time after its release, and as people seemed surprisingly reluctant to spoil the reward for others. Second, The Heist wasn’t an Angry Birds title, or another variant of longtime App Store chart-toppers Fruit Ninja, Tiny Wings and Cut the Rope. Just by virtue of injecting some new life into the relatively stagnant pool of offerings on Apple’s charts, The Heist made itself attractive to buyers.

I asked Ryu if he could sum up the key to The Heist‘s success in one succinct statement, and he did so by comparing the app to a blockbuster movie from last year:

The Heist was the Inception of the App Store this summer. Fanboy-driven, buzz from a plot twist, a high-risk gamble in a relatively niche game genre, heist-structured, more mentally taxing than most, and I guess, unlocking a game in a game. It’s a fairly unconventional hit, I think.

Both thematically and metaphorically, I think that’s a pretty spot-on comparison. Can’t wait to see where these guys go next with App Store innovation.

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MacHeist and developer tap tap tap Tuesday released The Heist

I talked to MacHeist Directorate Members and tap tap tap Principals Phill Ryu and John Casasanta to find out more about the idea behind The Heist, and what why it seems to have struck such a positive note with app buyers. Note that MacHeist and tap tap tap, while technically separate entities, share the same founders and most staff. MacHeist is a software bundle deals provider that also happens to develop apps in the process of designing its deals packages.

Beginning in 2006, MacHeist ran series of challenges that consumers could follow in order to gain access to a software bundle deal that offered multiple Mac applications for one low price. In 2009, with MacHeist 3, it brought coder Corwin Derkatch (who was also instrumental in the development of this iOS app) on board to create Flash minigames.

Casasanta came up with the idea of packaging minigames for the iPhone later that year, says Ryu. While the “games looked nice enough,” Ryu wanted to go bigger than simply repackaging what they already had, so he ended up suggesting “a much more involved take that featured a giant looming safe to crack, a prize at the end, and mysterious phone calls from Sophia, to try to port the spirit of MacHeist over [to the iPhone].” The MacHeist team had already invested considerable time and effort into a straightforward port of its flash games (six months worth, according to Ryu), but “everyone was on the same page about taking the time to make something truly cool.”

The result of their efforts is definitely cool, as well as addictive. And I’m not the only one to think so, either. Ryu reports that the app has seen more than 25,000 sales so far in just its first day on the App Store. It’s the single best launch tap tap tap has seen for any of its apps so far. Those players are eager to crack the safe, too. So far, 10 percent of buyers have already beaten the game, which is no small feat, speaking as someone who probably slept less than he should have last night in an effort to claim my prize from The Heist.

The addictive quality of the puzzles found in The Heist is due to a simple formula, according to Casasanta: “take a classic puzzle and throw an interesting twist into it.”

For example, Casasanta points out that the wires puzzles in The Heist “are basically traditional 15-puzzles (8-puzzles for the easy levels),” with the additional element of having to “figure out how the wire segments on the tiles need to be arranged to connect the various circuits.” Same with the stone/sand/glyph puzzles, which borrow elements from Sudoku, but use “sections [that] are much more irregular” than the traditional simple 3×3 grid within a 9×9 larger grid arrangement used in Sudoku puzzles. Also, the Sudoku-style puzzles in The Heist employ “color to add another dimension,” and “various abstract glyphs instead of numbers” to “breathe a bit of new life into a familiar puzzle,” says Casasanta.

Of course, the careful attention paid to the look, feel and sound of each puzzle experience is also a key factor. Casasanta notes the development team tried “very hard to make them look great and also have nice background soundtracks to set just the right mood for the player.”

I also talked to Ryu about the business model behind The Heist. MacHeist charges $0.99 for The Heist in Apple’s App Store, but upon completion of the game, users are rewarded with a code for a $9.99 game called Eets in the Steam marketplace, which sells games for Mac and Windows computers. Ryu and his team negotiated a promotional deal with Klei Entertainment, the studio behind Eets, in which MacHeist pays Klei a licensing fee in exchange for the rights to distribute Steam codes to The Heist players for one year. Klei is looking for a bump in sales thanks to the exposure promotional downloads will provide its game through Steam and other sources as a result of increased download volume.

Finally, I asked Ryu about his plans for the future of The Heist and the potential of the iOS platform. He admitted that there were potentially plans in the works for both the introduction of new content to the existing Heist app, and also plans to expand with additional apps and iPad support, but he wouldn’t make any guarantees about either. Judging by the response so far, I think it’s a safe bet that we’ll see something new and exciting from the MacHeist/tap tap tap team on iOS down the road.

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The idea behind SaleLocator is that finding local deals should be fast, easy and require as few barriers to entry as possible. The app definitely makes good on that promise. It auto-detects your location upon launch (after you provide permission, of course) and immediately loads up sales at local retail outlets within range. You can sign up with a SaleLocator.com account, but you don’t have to, unless you want to be able to bookmark relevant sales for later use. SaleLocator isn’t just for big-city dwellers, either; the app provides useful info regarding sales in any U.S. market.

In an email interview, SaleLocator Co-founder and CEO Michael Falkson explained the app can do this because it sources the data to find sales using a multi-pronged approach. There’s a dedicated research team of employees who check out deals, and a “proprietary retail sourcing process that utilizes a variety of online and offline data sources.” SaleLocator has also managed to secure relationships with 25 national retail partners so far, including H&M and Barnes & Noble, and Falkson noted that “more are joining the program each day.”

The privately-funded app currently offers all its functionality completely free of charge, but Falkson explained that after an initial period during which the company plans to focus on “getting feedback, improving the app’s functionality and growing the overall platform’s user-base of consumers/shoppers and retailers,” the company plans to create an ad-supported version of the app, in addition to a paid version that will be ad-free. Ads seem like an easy sell, given that users of the app are already looking to make purchases in the first place.

Revenue-gathering attempts won’t come without additional features aimed at winning over and keeping users, however. Falkson says international support is on the way, and possibly even “loyalty credits,” which might resemble the sort of reward systems we’ve seen in other apps aimed at mobile shoppers like Foursquare.

Group-buying apps like Groupon may be the stars of location-based mobile shopping for those of us who are keen on social networking and live on the web, but for average users, an app that just opens and tells you which stores nearby are having sales, and on what, is a lot less easier to accept when making the move from traditional paper flyers. 

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• Pixelmator. With a powerful image editor that gives Adobe’s Photoshop Elements a run for its money on the Mac, the Pixelmator team is urging existing customers, as well as any prospective new customers, to pay the limited time price of $29.99 to get the application from the Mac App Store. If you do, you’ll be entitled to a “free” update to the upcoming 2.0 version of the application.  They’ve also made it clear that the Mac App Store is the future for Pixelmator, and cite several advantages on their own website.  A definite buy at this price any day, app store or not.
• SketchBook Pro. Autodesk is also offering a great deal on the Mac App Store, selling SketchBook Pro for $29.99 instead of $79.99.  The app is the Mac desktop equivalent of its iOS counterpart. Since your Mac isn’t a touch device like your iPhone or iPad, you’ll need to look at augmenting your desktop experience with something like Wacom’s Bamboo tablet. Trust me; if you’re interested in creating digital artwork, it’s worth it.
• RapidWeaver. Realmac Software is offering its flagship product for $39.99 on the Mac App Store instead of the usual $79.99. With Apple not paying much attention to iWeb, switching over to a tool like RapidWeaver may be your best option. With over 45 themes included, this web development tool can plug right in to your existing MobileMe account and be everything iWeb isn’t, and more besides.
• Art Text 2. One of my personal favorites from BeLight Software is now priced at just $9.99 in the Mac App Store, a full $30 cheaper than its usual price. The options and degree of control a user has over text and its presentation with this application is astonishing.  I use it all the time for almost every sort of communication.
• Apple Remote Desktop (ARD). If you managed a household with more than one Mac, or a business that uses Macs as the standard machine, then Apple’s Remote Desktop software is great. It allows you to provision software, perform regular maintenance, and even troubleshoot and control all the Macs on your local network. The software used to be $299 for a 10-client limit, or $499 for an unlimited license. ARD on the Mac App Store doesn’t seem to have a limit at the present time.
• Aperture. As mentioned above, Apple knocked a full $120 off the price of this advanced image management and editing application. If you like iPhoto, but want more power, Aperture is the way to go.

Each of these applications has a proven track record among users, and it’s amazing to see them available at these prices. The Mac App Store’s sales pace, including one million downloads in the first day, may keep prices down, but that’s not a sure thing. There’s little reason not to act now, unless you think this is just the beginning of a race to the bottom for App Store pricing.

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The following four bundles expire between Dec. 23 and Dec. 31. As tends to be the case with these bundles, there’s usually a standout app or two which make the bundle worth the price tag, then you get a handful of other stuff. The rest can be pretty hit or miss, but if you can get one or two great programs at less than retail, then anything else is just gravy. The best part is, if you or someone you know is new to Mac and could use some great software, bundle deals like these are a terrific place to start!

Titles in bold italics highlight some of the apps that really make the bundles worth the cash.

MacPromo.com
10 OS X Apps for $49.99
Ends Dec. 31

• TypeIt4Me
• Personal Anstispam
• PathFinder
• MacFreelance
• Folx Pro
• DragThing
• Keyboard Maestro
• CuteClips
• Name Mangler
• Personal Backup
• First 5000 buyers also get Star Wars: Empire at War

Indie Mac Gift pack
6 OS X Apps for $60
Ends Dec. 31

• Delicious Library 2
• Acorn 2
• MarsEdit 3
• Radioshift
• SousChef
• Sound Studio 4

Humble Indie Bundle
5 OS X Games (playable on Steam) for… well, you actually get to set your price!
Ends Dec. 25

• Braid
• Cortex Command
• Machinarium
• Osmos
• Revenge of the Titans

MUPromo Bundle
11 Mac Apps for $49.99
Ends Dec. 23

• 1Password
• MacFamilyTree
• DEVONthink
• Flux
• Default Folder X
• Art Text + Fonts
• Swift Publisher
• Chronories
• Interarchy
• Typinator
• WhatSize
• Tweet the Bundle, and get Process free
• Sign up for the newsletter, and get Image Tricks Pro free

For this writer’s money, the MacPromo and the MUPromo bundles seem to have the best line-ups. They include what are widely known as some of the more popular programs for the OS X platform — with the likes of Pathfinder, DragThing, 1Password, and Default Folder X to name just a few. However you want to slice it, these bundles represent some good deals, but they’re as fleeting as the Christmas season, so act quick if you’re interested.

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The deal, which RadioShack made us aware of via email, only lasts until next Saturday, Dec. 11, so you don’t have much time to make up your mind, but it’s not a bad deal even considering that the iPhone is already halfway through its upgrade cycle. Because it’s so much easier than writing it out, here’s what The Shack is offering in convenient table form:

There are, as you might expect, a few caveats. Phones obviously have to be purchased on a new two-year contract with AT&T, and that means you have to either be a new customer or eligible for upgrade pricing. For the trade-in to apply, your old phone has to be in pretty much pristine working and cosmetic condition. You can see if your old iPhone qualifies either at your nearest RadioShack store, or using the company’s online appraisal tool.

Speaking of that trade-in, you’re probably better off trying to sell your old device on eBay or craigslist first. That $125 discount on the 3GS could translate into around $300 in your pocket if you sell the device second-hand yourself, which would make the iPhone 4 basically free (barring applicable taxes) with the automatic $50 discount.

A $50 discount may not seem like much when you’re spending nearly $300 anyways, but it’s likely the steepest price cut you’ll see on the iPhone 4 this holiday. If you’d rather not wait for the iPhone 5, and you’re eligible for upgrade, it’s not going to get much better than this.

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Best of all, the app is free, so you won’t even have to use it to make your money back. It’s dead simple to use, too. Just search for what you bought, or enter the product’s UPC code and find out if it’s eligible for protection (a few products aren’t, though the app doesn’t exactly make it clear why). If it is, you can tap Protect My Purchase, enter the date you bought or received (if ordered online) the item, and you’ll get a push notification the instant the price drops, provided you’re still within the no-hassle return period for said purchase. The app also sends you an email in case you miss the push alert.

The app won’t actually drive to the store and deal with the Customer Service desk for you, but at least you won’t be left in the dark or stuck scouring Best Buy’s weekly flyers. The app tracks prices in real-time, and even provides price histories so you can see how low the price of any item has been in the past 90 days.

You have the option to upgrade the app through a one-time $1.99 in-app purchase. This removes the single item limit on purchases you can track, and unlocks the barcode scanner, which allows you to just scan the UPC of the product you bought instead of searching for it manually.

I’m not sure if Best Buy is going to be terribly pleased about this app, but it’s a great little tool for consumers, and should come in handy for iPhone-assisted holiday shopping. If you’ve recently bought anything from Best Buy, or are about to, try it out and let us know how it’s working for you.

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A small number of T.J.Maxx and Marshalls stores received a very limited quantity of tablets this week. These were first quality goods sourced from a retailer. They sold out in one day, and they were not advertised in the media.

Apple’s own Black Friday deals never seem to be that impressive, but this one from TJX Companies, Inc, which operates the T.J. Maxx and Marshalls chains, is sure to attract consumer attention. Both stores will offer the 16GB Wi-Fi version of Apple’s iPad for only $399 on Black Friday and the following two days.

Both chains will offer the $100 discount off of the regular price between Friday and Sunday of next week, following Thanksgiving. Rumors circulated about the discount yesterday, as reported by Engadget, but the person behind T.J. Maxx’s Twitter account offered official confirmation today:

The rumors are TRUE! Select (unadvertised) locations/limited quant @ajdelao whats this i hear of @tjmaxx carrying IPADS for $399? #maxxfinds—
T.J.Maxx (@tjmaxx) November 18, 2010

Buyers wanting to snag one of the discounted units will have to be both dedicated and lucky, as only select stores will be carrying a limited quantity of devices. For the retailers, it means a smaller overall investment that will draw consumers to all of its locations. For consumers, it could mean a long wait in a line that proves deeply unsatisfying.

No official word on how many iPads each store will receive, either, though a Mac Rumors commenter notes that Marshalls stores in Florida say they will be receiving 100 iPads per day during the holiday weekend.

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MacGraPhoto 2 represents the trend that’s become popular during the last few years of offering bulk discounts for Mac software, a model embraced by the popular MacHeist bundle, among others. Like last year, the MacGraPhoto bundle will cost buyers $39.99. That’ll get you $444 worth of software.

Here’s a list and brief description of what’s included:

• AtomicView. This is, basically, an iPhoto or Aperture alternative that lets you organize, browse and convert photos, video and sound. It actively uses your Mac’s GPU to provide advanced multi-threaded task management and quick-scrolling. Looks like a very handy tool for the amateur multimedia enthusiast, or even the budding professional.
• Sandvox. It’s a website builder that offers templates, live previews, and is tailored to both beginners and professionals. It’s an iWeb alternative that’s a little more flexible, without the learning curve that comes with Dreamweaver.
• Snapshot. This app lets you prepare your digital images for printing. It supports cropping and framing, multiple layouts and even some fun features like borders and speech bubbles. It’s perfect for those who don’t want to get into something like Photoshop, but do want to make sure photos look good before printing.
• Sketch. This is a vector drawing app that keeps things very simple, and focused on your drawing. The canvas is continuous and supports unlimited layers, so that you can just get down to work.
• ImageFramer. This app is dedicated entirely to putting frames on your photos, and also allows you to do things like add watermarks and batch frame entire sets of photo files. It could be handy if you’re creating a gallery website to show off your painting, for instance.
• Layers. Take a screencap of your desktop as a layered .PSD file with Layers. That means things like palettes, toolboxes, icons, and the dock are each captured on separate layers. This is a great tool is do a lot of work with screenshots.
• Hydra. This app allows you to create HDR photos from multiple image files. You don’t need to use a tripod with Hydra, as is often the case with HDR photo apps. It also comes with a plug-in for Aperture and Lightroom, so you can create HDR photos right in those applications.
• Posterino. This is a poster, collage, postcard and greeting card creation app for the Mac. Just pick a template, choose an iPhoto album or specific photos, and you’re on your way.
• Swift Publisher. A desktop publishing app that lets you layout, design and print flyers, booklets, brochures and more, Swift Publisher comes with many bundled templates, and a variety of editing tools. One reviewer described it as what “Apple’s Pages should have been.”

The bundle also comes with a bonus app called DVD-Library that lets you catalog manage, and even backup your DVDs on your Mac. My DVD collection is virtually non-existent these days, but for those with lots of physical media still taking up shelf space, this app could help.

All apps included in the bundle are Apple Staff Picks and have been rated four stars or higher by sites like MacUpdate and Macworld. MacGraPhoto 2 is available for another 19 days, and there are trial versions available for many of the included apps, so you can take your time making a decision. For my money, though, Layers alone is worth the price of admission.

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