Supercharge Your Mac with the StackSocial Mac Superbundle [Software Bundle]

StackSocial has been offering some pretty amazing deals, and their latest is no exception: The StackSocial Mac Superbundle. The amount of apps that they’re serving up that will aid you in getting work done faster and better is pretty astounding — there’s 10 amazing Mac apps worth $471 that they are offering for just $49. And while not all of them may seemingly fit into your work arsenal at first glance, you might find by diving in a little deeper that every app offered here certainly can improve your productivity in some form or another.

I’ve not had the chance to use every single one of these apps, but have put a few through the paces over my time as a Mac user. Here are some of the apps that I’ve used and how they’ve managed to level up my productivity on my Mac.

There have been times that I’ve needed to have a PC at my disposal when working at past employers, such as my stint using box office software for my city’s film festival. Our office was a Mac office, with only 2 Windows-based machines that were available to use for ticket selling. Luckily, I had Parallels Desktop for Mac installed on my MacBook Pro, and it proved to be a huge timesaver. I was able to run reports, check out statistics and ticket availability and get my work done without having to move to another machine or totally disrupt my workflow.

The best part about using this app was that I could flip back and forth between the work I had to do on the OS X side and the work I had to do that required Windows. The time saved on that alone paid for the software.

If you have to use a Windows machine for certain parts of your work — or perhaps even use a Windows environment for gaming so that you can take a break every once in a while, you can’t go wrong with Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac. This app normally sells for $80 on its own — so you’re already way ahead of the game by picking it up as part of the Mac Superbundle by StackSocial.

Realmac Software makes some really beautiful, essential and easy-to-use apps, and LittleSnapper is no exception. i’ve had to grab plenty of screenshots during my time as an online writer and editor, and LittleSnapper handles this job with effectiveness and ease.

And i’ve barely scratched the surface with this app over the years. Using it mainly for high-quality “screengrabs”, I’ve yet to take advantage of the other tools baked right into LittleSnapper, such as callouts and highlights. I’ve blurred out personal info for app reviews when testing apps, I’ve cropped screens to fit as imagery for various websites and I’ve kept them all organized into collections.

Well…that’s not entirely true. LittleSnapper automatically organized them all for me. That’s a tremendous timesaver unto itself — because there’s nothing quite like having something like that being automated for you.

LittleSnapper usually retails for $40, which is only $9 less than the entire StackSocial Mac Superbundle.

I’ve tried my share of money management apps, and only in the past few years has the Mac come into its own as a platform where you can really have some useful software to do so. Of all of the native apps I’ve tried, Chronicle isn’t only the easiest to use — I actually enjoy managing my money with it.

With iCal integration built right in, Chronicle does everything it can to keep you on top of your finances. The app offers debt reduction tracking, bill viewing and will allow many to make online payments right from within the app. And because I enjoy using Chronicle so much more than any of the past native Mac finance apps, I’m really keeping on top things when it comes to my money — often without even thinking about it.

Chronicle is $15 — a great price point for an app that is supposed to help you keep a handle on your finances — and it rounds out what is a very robust bundle offering by StackSocial.

There’s a lot more to the StackSocial Mac Superbundle than the three apps I just mentioned. Here are all of the apps in the bundle, along with what you’d pay for them separately:

Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac – $80LittleSnapper – $40iStat Menus 3 – $16Flux 3 – $120iStopmotion Home 2 – $50Fantashow – $50Video Converter 2 – $46SyncMate Expert 3 – $40CuteClips 3 – $15Chronicle 4 – $15

Check out the video below to get an overview of all 10 apps offered in the latest StackSocial bundle that will supercharge your Mac — and your productivity.

If you’re looking to level up your productivity on your Mac, go out and get the StackSocial Mac Superbundle today. You’ve got a ton to save ($49 for $471 worth of apps) and nothing to lose — other than time.

StackSocial Mac Superbundle – [StackSocial]

(Photo credit: Power Button from a Mac via Shutterstock)

Mike Vardy is a writer, speaker, and "productivityist". Read more of his writing and learn more about him at MikeVardy.com, and you can also follow him on Twitter.

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Tech Tools and Software: What Motivates Change

Technology has clearly changed how we work. Mobile devices, for example, have allowed for a more flexible work environment, making it easier to work from anywhere on almost any device.

Whatever changes we adopt, the bottom line remains the same; we want to get our jobs done and done well. And when the technology we’re accustomed to using works, we don’t want to take the time to learn something new. Email is the perfect example. The tech community continues to argue whether email is a dying form of online communication. While tools such as IM have helped us communicate faster, we still use email as our core content management system because we have not yet found another platform that’s better.

My previous post asked whether our digital work habits were helping or hindering productivity. Today, the question is what if something could make doing our jobs significantly better than the status quo? Would we change?

I may be going out on a limb, but I think a new solution needs to be at least 10 times better than the current solution if a company or individual is going to make the switch. But what makes something at least 10 times better? Think of it this way. How much time have I spent on learning? How much does it change my work habits? Are there are tangible benefits? Going back to the email example and how IM has replaced email in places; IM is simple to use, easy to understand, and it provides an immediate response where email could take days for a reply. This is what makes IM at least 10 times better than email in certain instances.

One of the best examples of this phenomenon I’ve seen is one software company’s testing of the next version of its flagship software. The company invested heavily in a simplified user experience, designed to enable users to more easily discover the features they needed as well as expose them to other tools that might be helpful. The company’s development teams took the existing features from the previous product and put them into this new user interface. They then got a wide variety of users – from new to very experienced – to use the new product. The most remarkable comments came from experienced users, who could not believe how much had been added to the new version, even though the only difference was a new user experience.

Every company or individual can tell you exactly when they decided to switch their processes to something better. For an individual, it might be the realization of how much time is being wasted in a particular effort. For companies, it tends to be something that impacts the bottom line. These decisions often have additional, unforeseen benefits as well.

One of my favorite examples comes from a major accounting firm. Their “tipping point” was in their financials. They realized they were spending 25 percent more in software costs than needed. A change was in order, and for them it was standardizing their tools.

The results? They not only were able to reduce costs, but they also reduced software management time by 98 percent, improved productivity and collaboration among their employees, and kept ahead of the competition.

With new tools and software, it used to be that “powerful” meant complicated. If you were prepared to take a class, read a book and invest significant time in learning, then that software or tool was more credible and capable of getting the job done. However, in the past few years, the web, mobile apps and the consumerization of software have all contributed to creating a new paradigm; the easier and more intuitive the tool, the better and more likely it is adopted.

Yet we all suffer from some level of risk aversion and fall to “the old way of working.” I am guilty of this sometimes, and I suspect most people are as well. We know what it takes to get things done today, however old-fashioned. If we sit back and critically evaluate from a technological perspective how we work as individuals, teams and as a company, the red flags will emerge and change will follow.

Has your company experienced a technological “tipping point” recently? Or have you personally switched to something you consider at least 10 times better? Please share in the comments.

(Photo credit: hand holding the world and email via Shutterstock)

Mark Grilli is director of Acrobat Solutions product marketing at Adobe Systems Incorporated. He is responsible for worldwide marketing strategy and implementation of the company’s Acrobat and Acrobat.com products and services. Prior to joining Adobe, Grilli held marketing and client services positions at WebEx (now a Cisco Company) and was co-founder in a eLearning start up. Grilli blogs often on the official Adobe Acrobat blog. He holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from UCSB and a MBA from Pepperdine University.

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Personal Audio Recorder PRO 10% OFF downloadable Software

Audio Recorder for the Treo600 and Palm Tungsten and LifeDrive!!!

Personal Audio Recorder (PAR) turn your Palm smartphone into an audio recorder. PAR can record voice memos to RAM or on the external card such as SD and MMC. You can play back recorded voice memos with easy. PAR is very flexible and configurable. Option includes different sample rates and record in mono or in stereo mode. Recorded voice memos can easily to beamed or transferred to the desktop using a card reader or a card exporter software. Voice memos can also be emailed with your email client. PAR includes one button press recording feature, keyboard short cuts, export voice memos to the card, import wave files from the card to RAM, pause recording, pause play, start playing at any part of the voice memos.

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Palm Tungsten or Treo600(R) with Extended Sound Manager

Need Firmware 3.05 update for Treo600

200K of free memory.

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One button recording

Compatible with Palm/Handspring Treo600

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Folders on the card to orangize your voice memos

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Import wave file from the card to ram

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Personal Audio Recorder Plugin 50% OFF downloadable Software

Personal Audio Recorder (PAR) plugin turn your Palm into an audio recorder. PAR records voice memos to the external card such as SD/MMC, CF or Memory Stick. Easily add PAR plugin to your existing or new application with simple cut and paste ready source code. PAR plugin is designed for C/C++, SatelliteForms and other programmers. When you purchase you will get example projects in Code Warrior and SatForms. One time site license and use PAR plugin in all your projects.

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