Mac Software You Don’t Need But Must Have.

I’m a sucker for fun software on my Mac, regardless of how valuable it might not be.

Enter Stick Software and a collection of fun tools and toys that don’t do much but will keep you and your Mac happy.

What caught my eye last week was Stick’s Jiggler, a nifty little tool that acts like a, well, a jiggler for your mouse, and that keeps your screensaver from activating.

Let’s keep it real, OK? Is Jiggler something you really need on a Mac? I mean, if your screen saver comes on after a certain time period, all it takes is a jiggle of the mouse to make it go away. Is that so hard?

Of course not. But Jiggler on your Mac keeps your Mac awake and keeps that pesky screen saver from activating so you won’t be annoyed and actually have to touch your mouse to get your screen back.

Stick Software also makes Eyeballs. In this case, $10 will get you a set of colorful eyeballs in your Mac’s menu bar or on the desktop. What do Eyeballs do? They look at the cursor, mostly.

There’s Aqua Blueberry Eyeballs, JetBlack Eyeballs, Anima Lime Eyeballs, all of which look out from your Mac. If you don’t use the mouse pointer, they eyes get sleepy and droopy. That’s an incentive to jiggle your mouse.

I wonder what would happen if you put Jiggle and Eyeballs together. Would your Mac get a headache or nausea?

We live in a peripatetic age, and Stick delivers what we need with a desktop critter called BigFoot-- a pair of feet that walk around your desktop.

They dance, they chase the mouse, the do a little hopscotch, and they’re highly configurable, even sporting some shoes. I didn’t see stiletto heels but I suppose you could make your own.

Lest you think a $10 investment would go to waste on tools of dubious value, Stick delivers the Measles, little round bouncy spheres that travel all over your Mac’s desktop.

Hey, that’s true value, right? Except these bouncing spheres have a purpose in life that differs from Pamela Anderson’s bouncing spheres. Measles’ spheres act as a CPU monitor. The more your Mac’s CPU churns away on some task the more the spheres change color.

Unlike Pammy’s bouncing spheres, Measles’ spheres are highly configurable.

Stick Software has a couple of games, too-- a puzzle game, an arcade game. There’s also a screensaver or two. The most useful tool is PhotoReviewer, for those of us who juggle a lot of digital photos on our Macs, and who happen to have an extra $15 that we are not planning to use. Ever.

Apple is not the only creative software company on the planet. Apple makes software so they can sell hardware, which costs more, so they make more money. Stick Software sells software which doesn’t do much of anything we need, but which costs less, and might be fun.

Do you have a fun Mac application, tool, or utility that doesn’t do much? Share it with Mac360 readers in the Comments section below.

Check out the daily list of our 9 Word mini-Reviews at NoodleMac, and Kate's daily in-depth Mac software reviews at PixoBebo.

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