Where Are All Your Mac Friends? Find One Here.

Don’t ask me why I’ve never seen MacCompanion before. I thought there was nothing new under the sun.

I’ve lead a sheltered life, don’t buy newspapers or magazines, and get my news from The Daily Show. Then, along comes Mac Companion.

This is a geeky version of Mac news and views, not an online version of Firefly’s Inara hawking her wares.

MacCompanion is a throwback to the good old days. It’s something you read, but it’s online, not in paper form, not email, not in a browser window.

I have to admit, trying out MacCompanion for the first time just felt like, oh, I don’t know, so 1998. Except for one thing.

Juicy information ala the old fashioned magazines. MacCompanion is a monthly PDF e-zine. That’s an electronic magazine.

Cute, huh? Save the trees!! I’m radically natural at times, you know?

MacCompanion for October is what it says it is. A PDF full of articles, reviews, information on hardware and software, even stuff for Mac pros.

These days PDFs are a dime a dozen and more annoying that anything. Annoying, Alexis? Yep. It’s just more stuff to read.

There’s two and a half pages of Table of Contents. That’s your first clue that each e-zine from MacCompanion is chock full of Mac goodness.

Articles? Plenty. How to’s? More than a few.

Links? Did I mention links? How much time do you have. Links-A-Plenty.

Some of the news in MacCompanion has been around awhile and comes from other sites, bloggers, various and sundry articles.

The advantage, of course, is that MacCompanion pulls all the pieces together for you. It’s in one place.

For example, in Reviews, there’s VODcaster, SeaMonkey, NeoOffice, MacLibre, and many others; some we’ve covered on Mac360.

Under How-To is Part 2 of “How To Make An Audiobook.“

There’s also timely information. The term “Podcast“ vs. Netcast is all the rage among Podafficianados, and MacCompanion doesn’t disappoint.

Need hardware reviews? We don’t do too many on Mac360 because, well, hardware costs lots of money, and just like you only need so many t-shirts that say Abercrombie & Fitch, you only need so many printers.

As I was foraging through MacCompanion, I thought to myself, “Hey, we could do this at Mac360.“

It wouldn’t be that tough, I suppose. Just grab a bunch of our good articles for the past month—OK, both of them—then put ‘em together as a PDF for download.

Then, I asked myself, “What would Bambi or Kate think of such an idea?“ Let me sleep on it for a few days and I’ll get back to you.

Ads? Did I forget to mention ads? MacCompannion has a few. Someone has to pay the freight, right?

Still, considering the overall cost of MacCompanion, there’s decent value there. The cost? It’s free, of course. That’s what all those ads do—lower prices.

To get your latest copy, go to MacCompanion and search for your own companion to have and to hold.

Off Topic Note: Are you ready for a new web site that’s all about Apple? AppleHits covers the Mac, iPhone, iPod, and everything else that’s a hit at Apple. Click here for AppleHits. I’ve updated the Mac360 Store with over 100 new categories—More Macs, more iPods, more Mac books, more software. Click Here and select any category for more detail, or use the handy search function. Whenever you buy from Amazon through the Mac360 Store you help support Mac360. Have you ever noticed how much Apple’s “I’m a Mac, I’m a PC” television commercials remind you of Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote? Seriously.