A while back I told you about the MacHeist II promotion, a follow-up to last year's wildly successful Mac software promo. This year's sequal, 4 fun-filled missions resulting in free applications has just come to a close and the final bundle is on sale now. When you purchase the bundle, 25% of the sales goes to a charity of your choosing from their list which includes one of my personal favorites, the Humane Society. The bundle is on sale from now until January 23rd, so grab your wallet now.

In my opinion, it was worth participating just for the free "loot" given away during the promotion. But now that the final bundle has gone on sale, lets take a look at what you get for your $49 ($343 value):

1. 1Password - the best password manager for the Mac
2. Cover Sutra - iTunes add-on
3. Cha-Ching - finance app
4. iStop Motion - make stop-motion movies
5. Awaken - alarm clock that integrates with iTunes
6. AppZapper - the app delete program Apple should have made
7. TaskPaper - a small note/list app

When 5,000 bundles have been sold:

8. CSSEdit - easily create and edit CSS style sheets

When even more bundles have been sold (actual number not known):

9. Snapz Pro - an awesome snapshot and desktop movie making app

When a lot of bundles have been sold (actual number not known):

10. Pixelmator - a very cool Photoshop-like image editor

I can almost guarantee that MacHeist will sell enough bundles so that buyers get all 10 apps - last year they sold over 16,000 bundles. They aren't going to let this thing fail. Even if you buy now before the last three apps are unlocked, you'll get them when they are unlocked.

Unlike last year's promotion, all these apps are fully-upgradeable apps, and some are even exclusive version releases the general public doesn't have access to yet.

You can also "gift" some of the apps if you wish, using the registration info of a friend if you don't want the app.

Agents (users) completing all four missions leading up to the final bundle received free "loot" and a total of $10 off the final $49 bundle price. The following applications are the ones I received by completing the missions:

1. Monkey Lover - game
2. Sofa Control - adds apps to the Apple Remote capability
3. XSlimmer - removes unused code from applications (removes PPC code on Intel Macs)
4. DEVONnote - great note taking app similar to Yojimbo
5. Hana - browser marquee app
6. Billy Frontier - old western shooter app
7. VoiceCandy - audio recording app featuring alerts, voice email, etc.
8. Freeze Frame - puts all your processor's power into one app at a time
9. Podcast Maker - make podcasts
10. Wallet - store passwords, serial numbers, etc.
11. Catalog - catalog your CDs, DVDs, etc. in a searchable database
12. Mouseposé - dims your entire screen back except for an area around your mouse (great for presentations)
13. Runic - another game (pong meets warcraft)
14. iota-Calc - a software programmers calculator
15. WireTap Pro - easily record any sound your Mac makes - great for recording streaming music, etc.
16. Overflow - an app launcher that inspired Apple's "stacks" feature - but better
17. Santa's Gizmo - a Christmas shopping list manager
18. Bit Clamp - secure encryption app

Say what you will about how promotions like this financially hurt developers. Nobody twisted their arm to participate, but there's no denying that MacHeist has made it fun and rewarding for Mac users to participate, and maybe introduced some apps you didn't know even existed.

I'm looking forward to more MacHeist in the future.