TOP MAC SOFTWARE 2012 ESSENTIALS

MacGizmoGuy tells you WHY and WHICH Macintosh applications are the smart-buy. These best-selling Mac programs to help you 'Get-R-Done', have fun, secure and protect your Mac's data, and let you share your world, creativity and ideas with others. Although the Apple App Store is now part of OSX Leopard and Lion, Amazon is agressively countering with The Mac Software Store for both boxed retail and downloadable software titles.

Take a look at this list of Best Selling Mac Software Programs - There's a reason why these OSX applications for Macintosh rise to the top. They address common computing needs, are powerful, well-written, fun.

Browse the full Top 100 Mac Software Titles to see a ranked list of popular and MAC-SPECIFIC software other folks choose.

SMART MAC BUSINESS SOFTWARE CHOICES

WORD 2 YOUR MUTHA : EVERY MAC USER NEEDS THIS!
Microsoft Office 2011 Single User Student Edition
Office 2011 For Mac - Student Edition
Big Changes in 2011 - The Student Edition no longer includes liscences for up to 3 Macs. And Entourage is NOT part of this bundle! $119 MRSP.

Mac Office Home & Business 2011
Here, email is included as Entourage transitions (finally) to Outlook which is now fully compatible with the Windows version. Especially for cross-platform businesses - we've been waiting for a true full-featured Mac version of Outlook. It's finally here. MSRP $199.

There's still good reasons to stay with - or hunt down Office 2008 for Macintosh: It ain't broke, and the Student-Home edition includes THREE serial #'s for family use. Smart money says stay with Office 2008 unless 2011's features are a must have.
Low-Cost Mac Office 2008
WHY? You need FULL-Compatibility with the world's most common document formats. And MORE IMPORTANTLY with Microsoft's new XML format files: Word .DOCX Excel .XLSX and PowerPoint's .PPTX formats. Without Office 2008, you will have problems opening certain files. The reality is most 'Office Compatible' programs like Apple's iWork or AppleWorks or others often can't and don't open/print/display all Office files perfectly.


TURBOTAX MAC 2011: CUZ I'M THE TAX MAN.

Best Mac Tax Software 2011

Shipping on November 25, the Mac TurboTax 2011 Federal and State Deluxe edition is all most need to file a full 1040, Schedule C for self-employed, and more.

TurboTax Mac Deluxe

Federal + State Edition
Download or Boxed Retail Versions

For Do-It-Yourselfers, nobody makes tax preparation on the Mac so easy. Intuit now bundles the Windows and Mac version of Turbo Tax in the same retail box to simplify purchase. Often the higher-end TurboTax packages are more hand-holding fluff than substance, but a Home & Business Edition has additional features for small biz environments with employees, business specific deduction assistance and more.

As an alternative, H&R Block AT HOME tax software for Mac costs a bit less and is a somewhat more affordable way to do taxes on an Apple computer : Mac Version H&R Block At Home 2011 Deluxe + StateEither way, once you find a Mac tax program you like, it's smart to stick with with it, each program can read in last-year's info to save you alot of typing.


QUICKEN FOR MAC:Go Broke Slower, Get Rich Quicker

Best Price on Qicken 2007 For Macintosh
For money management, Quicken is the de-facto standard. Why recommend the *2007* version? Quicken doesn't always release new versions every single year for the Mac - and in a way they don't NEED to. When feature enhancements warrant, they release an updated version. But frankly Quicken 2003 for Mac OSX works just about as well as the latest one. Whether on the Mac or PC, the fundamentals of single and double entry accounting haven't changed in centuries.

Small businesses may need more accounting horsepower: Step up to QuickBooks 2010 for Mac


GET YOUR MAC-GAME ON

Electronic Arts SPORE for Mac
Spore is the sort of game you can GROW with over time, with add-on packs to customise, grow and expand your game characters and worlds.

AFFORDABLE MAC MULTI-GAMES
LOW-COST OS X COMPATIBLE GAME SUITES

Hoyle Puzzles

150+ Hoyle Card Games 2009
For $20 or Less, Hoyle games for Mac can give you years of entertainment and a huge variety to choose from within each package. Whether you're a card-shark, a gambler, or puzzle-brainiac -- HOURS of fun for pennies per game.

Hoyle Casino 2008


HOLY MACINTOSH UTILITY BELT, MACMAN!

TOO MANY MAC UTILITIES AREN'T WORTH THEIR SALT
Disk Warrior 4 Is The Utility To Buy
Unlike ANY other disk-utility, MacGizmo has SAVED PEOPLE'S DATA with DiskWarrior when other programs could NOT. Use it once in a crisis and it will pay for itself many times over. When a drive has serious directory problems, Disk Warrior can either save it, let you salvage and copy the data if possible - or clearly let you know - DATA RECOVERY IS BASICALL HOPELESS. If so, it's time to rebuild your Mac life. In a nutshell: the ONLY meaningful drive help you need beyond Apple's own free Disk Utility app.

Do You Need Norton AntiVirus 11?
It's really debateable whether Apple user's GOT to have anti-virus protetction on their Macs. But if you sling Office documents around with PC users often, are in a cross-platform shop, or want peace of mind, STAY ABSOLUTELY CURRENT with Norton AV for Mac and run updates often - and sleep better. With Apple's increasing market-share, the relative safety from viruses and Mac trojan-horse threats we've enjoyed for years... probably isn't going to last much longer. But MacGizmos last words? Remember: With a complete external hard drive clone or backup of your Mac data - you can recover from any crisis.

PICTURE PERFECT: IPHOTO FIX ITS

PHOTOSHOP-TILL-YOU-DROP : ELEMENTS FOR MAC
Intel Mac owners will want the latest, greatest image editing powerhouse on the cheap: the consumer version of Adobe Photoshop Elements 8 [For Intel Macs Only]
For slightly older Macs or versions of OSX: You might be able to hunt down a now discontinued, discounted copy of version 6 - (which still runs great on Snow Leopard 10.6 anyways)
Adobe Photoshop 'Lite' - Elements 6 for OSX Leopard+Tiger
Simply put: NO other graphics program give you the precision control, the sophisticated selection tools borrowed from CS3, the ability to alter and ajust images with this much finesse! There's other interesting graphics editors for Mac - but NONE with the refined power this low-cost cheap version of Photoshop for Mac has.

MAC SCRAPBOOK CALENDAR & GREETING CARD WORKSHOPS

Dektop Publishing extraordinare. The Print Shop Mac 2.0 does it all.
Broderbund has sold The PrintShop for decades - for both PC and Mac and this version is just world class PRINT ANYTHING from labels to cards to calendars to signs, biz cards. Nobody makes layout easier. TIP: Only buy the 2.0 version! Earlier versions just won't run right and will crash on Mac OSX 10.5 Leopard.

Alternately, the lower-cost Print Explosion v.3 for Mac
A worthy competitor to Print Shop - Nova Development's PrintExplosion has been around for many years and is a mature, easy to use OSX app that makes it ridiculously simple layout text and graphics - and with brain-dead simple "WHAT DO YOU WANT TO CREATE? LET'S GET STARTED!" Wizards and Templates to do half the work for you.

APPLE SOFTWARE - UPDATE OR HOLD?

The relentless evolution of computer hardware technology often drags the world of Mac software along with it. There are times when you really MUST upgrade your Macintosh software to stay current and in the game - and other times when you you simply needn't be bothered with the expense of a newer version for a few ho-hum features you might not need in your Mac life. As we move from OSX Tiger to Leopard to OS X Lion soon -- we may need to budget for updates to our critical Apple applications to keep up. The bottom line: If it ain't broke (or too buggy) - don't fix it. But if updates cause your Mac programs to lock and freeze or refuse to launch. Don't stay frozen in the past: Update your Mac software library when and where prudent.