Best of Macworld. The FREE Stuff For Mac Users.

Yes, there are a few freebies. Here’s what I found that’s spongeworthy as I scoured the Mac lists.

FREE #1
Some Mac software is worth buying but no one does. So it is with BareBones Software. They’re the same folks who publish the excellent BBEdit (Tera uses it exclusively).

The guys at BareBones know text on the Mac. Some programmers and developers swear by it. It’s not free, though. The kid sister software, TextWrangler, is free.

BareBones released TextWrangler a few years ago, probably as a low end, entry level text tool for Mac users.

Trouble is, not enough people needed a low end, entry level text tool for the Mac. Or, so it would seem, as TextWrangler is now free.

Can anything totally FREE be totally good? It depends on what you need and what you get. With TextWrangler you get a general purpose text editor, a programmer’s text editor (I do no know how that do that), a unix and server administrator’s tool (whatever that is; I’ll ask Tera, she’s the sys admin).

Wait. There’s more.

Free also gets you a powerful text transformer and manipulator. Sounds like a cross between a Japanese cartoon and a US politician, but it’s probably good.

Regardless, it’s free. Click Here for all the Bare Bones necessities and free download link.

FREE #2
Backups are important, right? Tera loves SuperDuper! and ChronoSync, but both cost money. I’m a little more frugal (maybe it’s cause I’m not a real blonde) so I look for bargains.

Guess what I found? A nifty, and FREE, synchronization utility for the Mac. Yes, I know there’s others. Some of them are excellent. So is this one.

It’s called “syncUp 2.0” and comes from some coders called Free Ride Coding. Click Here for the details and download link.

What’s syncUp 2.0 do?

See? Everyone needs one of these.

FREE #3

Blew all your hard earned cash on holiday gifts and partying down? Can’t afford that Mac mini just yet? So poor you can’t afford to pay attention?

Get the next best thing to the Mac mini. FREE Mac mini icons.

Fernando Lucas Santos has a whole package of Mac mini icons (the icons are regular sized, the Mac is the mini) so you can dress up your Mac’s OS X icons so you think you’ve got a Mac mini.

Who’ll know? As Fernando says:

Click Here for a look and the download link.

Is there more? Yes, but not much more that’s worth mentioning. I checked as many of the announcements as I could and true bargains (other than the iPod shuffle and the Mac mini) were few and far between.

I did cough up $39.95 for the AirPlay™ FM transmitter for the iPod. This one looks cooler and easier to use than the Griffin model. No software to worry about. There’s a little box that attaches to the top of the iPod. The box has a small LCD screen which lists the FM frequency.

There’s also a + and a - button to move the frequency up or down to match a blind spot on your car’s FM radio. Nifty. Click Here for the details and a link to XtremeMac.

That means my iPod now has about $872.61 worth of accessories. So much for bargains.

It’s a new year. A new Mac era. Have you found any software bargains yet? Someone just turned me on (oooh) to Quicksilver as a Mac launcher. It’s free, but I haven’t tried it yet.

Share your thoughts, experience, and freebie deals with other Mac users. Click the Comments link below.