Not another bundle...!?

Found out about MacFriendly today, which includes 12 (maybe 13, depending on sales) apps for $50. But how many apps that are unique or different from what I already have to justify buying something like this?

Invoice 3 - useful if I ran a small business. But being that I presently have no need for an invoice application, this is useless. As for managing my finances, I have Mint.com and even Quicken. Miss.

Flash Decompiler Trillix - Do what with the what now? Something about messing with SWFs, which might be nice to know in the future if I ever start seriously playing with Flash, but for right now, this is a miss.

TimeNet - Basically something to work in conjunction with a business manager like Invoice 3...except I have TimeTable, which I like a lot, have gotten used to, and see no reason to replace. Keeps track of your time for billing purposes. Miss.

Icon Commander - Turn any image into icons for Windows Vista, XP, or Mac. Believe it or not, I'd actually find this useful. I'm always wanting to jazz up my apps and folders, and "if you want something done, you've got to do it for yourself." So I might just start making icons! Hit!

Amnesia - Uninstall apps properly. I already have AppZapper. Miss.

WaterThumber - Easily batch process images with watermarks, resize them, create web-ready thumbnails, and so forth. Sounds like a good replacement for the finer things that IrfanView for Windows does, and what powerful image editors like Photoshop don't do. I have a number of photo editors and managers, and this does things that they don't (as far as I know, though I don't have to do this often). Potential hit.

MacPilot - Finds all the hidden tricks in OSX without having to rely on Terminal. Supposedly does what TinkerTool and Onyx can't! Plus, I like Koingo Software. Hit!

Singlemizer - Get rid of duplicate files. This is a double-edged sword. Not all files that appear to be duplicates are, and some that are need to be kept for special reasons, like back-up or backwards-compatibility purposes. Plus, the most common producer of duplicates (for me, anyway) is iTunes, and I have Dupin for that. Potential hit.

Squish - A URL shortener. For the truly lazy who can't just go to bit.ly, fb.me, or any of those other URL shorteners. I use Twitter apps that shorten the URLs automatically, so this is a total miss for me.

Marketplace - Craigslist without the Ugly. I hardly use Craigslist at all, but I just might if it comes down to job hunting...and the incentive is greater if an app prettifies it. Potential hit.

Emailchemy - Takes closed-source email formats and makes them open-source. Can converted emails to Google Apps accounts (of which I have two: CSUN and Gaming Dead). Other than that...uh, I don't really think the features are all that useful for me. Overall, a miss.

ForeverSave - Time Machine on steroids. Lets you back up the documents created by specific programs, on a regular basis, to avoid all those program or computer crash losses. Sounds awesome. Hit!

iTasksX (LOCKED) - Project Management "for professionals." It sounds awesome, but it looks totally complicated and like it has a steep learning curve. Plus, how is it any different from what Bento, Things, or similar programs do? It may be more robust, but those programs LOOK easier to use, even if I have to use multiple programs to achieve the same result. Miss.

Overall? Six (Seven) Misses, Three Hits, and Three Potential Hits. It's basically dead-even if you don't take iTaskX into account, and usually I'd expect more out of a bundle, even for such a good deal as 12 (13) apps for $50. I'd be willing to split the cost with someone if they wanted the licenses for the apps I don't think I want, but where am I going to find someone like that?

I wish I could mix and match bundles, but that defeats the whole thing that makes bundles so cheap--the fact that people get dupes of apps they may already have, if they're Mac-savvy, that they discover new apps from cool, favorite, or possibly new developers, and that ALL TOGETHER, enough sales rewards all the developers involved. If I could buy only six of the apps, I'd probably pay at least $50 for them. Can someone invent the Mix Bundle, or a mini-Bundle better than the MacHeist nanoBundle?

Pleeeeease?

The little brother big bundle

So, aside from new bundle MacFriendly, there's the regular and usually awesome MacUpdate Promotional Winter bundle. This year, it's got some goodies, but also some oldies. To get or not to get? This might be a harder decision than MacFriendly, where six apps of useful quality weren't enough to swing me into whipping out my credit card.

PowerTunes - Create, organize, and share multiple iTunes libraries. I used to want to do this because I had the majority of my music on my external drive, and I tried to have a smaller one on my laptop...but the way iTunes did it made things confusing. Even though I had the music on the external, some folders were still on my laptop, and Time Machine couldn't back up the full library on the backup. This might be useful if I ever find a reason to do multiple libraries again. Potential hit.

PathFinder - A replacement for Finder. I hear a lot of people hate Finder and think it needs to die already, but I've never had a problem with it. Still, it's always nice to discover something awesome...potential hit.

Socialite - "Keep track of the social networks that matter to you." I don't really know what this means, but I do use social networks A LOT. Oh wait, this is EventBox renamed! The last thing I need is another Twitter client when so many cool ones are free, but this does integrate a lot of others, but mainly for status updates...which, hello, are not the only thing attractive about social networks. But it also integrates RSS feeds, and ever since the upgrade of NetNewsWire, this might be a cool replacement...maybe. Potential hit.

Yep - Tag, organize, find documents. What iPhoto is for pictures and iTunes is for music and video media, Yep is for documents! Does it do HTML, I wonder? If so, this would be a total Hit!

Radio Gaga - Already have it. Miss.

GarageSale - Already have it. Miss.

Speed Download - Had a previous version from another promo and liked it, but having the newest version might be nice. Hit!

HealthNut - Not like I need to diet, but it sure would be interesting to put all that I learned in my Food Science classes to good use. Besides, I can't assume that I'll have this fabulous metabolism forever! Pretty useful! Potential hit!

PCalc - A scientific calculator. Not like I do complex math often, but if I did, aren't there websites or widgets to take care of it for me...or my own scientific calculator that I spent a year taking math classes to earn. Miss.

FlagIt! - Flag email messages in Mail.app with different colored flags. Endless colors, and the ability to mark and unmark the messages and then find out when they're completed. This could be useful, especially for me, when Smart Folders, Junk marking, and colored labels just aren't enough. Every layer of organization helps. Hit!

Holiday DVD Templates - Well, I've never made DVDs, let alone holiday ones, but it's cool to have the option to have jazzy holiday DVD menus. Useful for when I finally get around to learning iMovie and iDVD and maybe even shooting my own video. Hey Santa, can I have a Flip camera? Potential hit.

iRip - Get music from my iPod back to my Mac. Nice tool, but I've already got the free (albeit basic) expod for that. Miss.

Machinarium - An adventure/puzzle game featuring robots. Sounds cool enough, and it might be neat to review for GD. Potential hit.

DragThing - A professor I had recommended this, and the Macworld editors seem to love it. I already have Quicksilver as a launcher and Overflow as a dock manager (which I hardly ever use, since Quicksilver's become second nature to me), but DragThing seems to do a lot more: you can have hotkeys, have multiple docks, have a Trash on the desktop, play sounds in response to actions, and even stores frequently used clippings! Sounds like a total hit to me!

14 apps for $50 is already a better deal than MacFriendly, but how does it break down?
Misses: 4
Potential Hits: 6
Hits: 4

That means 10 total apps of the 14 (3 of them are only available for the first 10,000 sales, but they're only at a little over 1,000 now) are something I'd like to try--a much better fraction than with MacFriendly. I might just have to invest in this...but would anyone like the licenses for Radio Gaga and Garage Sale, since I already have them? If each app were evenly priced, they'd be $3.57/each, so two apps would go for about $8. Any takers?

Anyone know about any other bundles out there I should take a look at?