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I’ve been taking Hazel for a spin, and I’m rather impressed. The analogy they have running is that it’s a “personal housekeeper”, and does file management/cleaning in the background while you work.

For a good while I thought Hazel was not going to be very useful for me, as my Downloads folder is organized using Speed Download 5’s rules, and I also had AppZapper for cleaning up application files.

However, firing up Speed Download for downloading a small document sometimes feels a bit overkill, and that’s where Hazel works for me. I can even set custom rules for various file types, like when I download SQL backups:

I can send the SQL to a specific folder (here, my database backups folder), and rename it to include the timestamp when I downloaded. Absolutely cool :D

Additionally, firing up an extra application (AppZapper) to delete applications is an additional step, when I can just hit Command+Delete and have Hazel tell me if she wants to delete other application-related files.

The $21.95 Hazel is definitely worth it, especially if you don’t have any of the other applications that manage your folders for you. It’s a great addition to the MacUpdate Parallels bundle, and complements the bundle well.

This is the first review of a series of reviews I plan to do on the applications included in the currently-running MacUpdate Parallels bundle. For the full list, please see my original MacUpdate Parallels bundle post.

Kelvin told me that the MacUpdate Parallels bundle went live yesterday, and I caved and bought it last night. The current bundle, which will continue to run for 12 days (at the time of this writing), contains the following gems:

• Hazel
• Art Text
• MenuCalendarClock
• Leap
• StoryMill
• Typinator
• DVRemaster Pro
• Sound Studio
• BannerZest
• Parallels Desktop

The latter three are currently still unlocked at the moment, with them getting unlocked once the 5,000, 10,000, and 15,000 bundles have been sold, respectively.

Personally, I’m interested in the following applications:

• Hazel - looks like this is the ultimate app to have if you’re obsessive compulsive ;) the tagline is “personal Max OS X housekeeper”, and while application deletion is already handled by AppZapper (which I bought in the MacHeist bundle before), this still looks like a good application to invest in.
• MenuCalendarClock - I’ll admit I’ve never used iCal and Address Book all that much, but with this application it looks like I’ll be using them a lot more now. I love being able to see to-do lists and events right when I login, something that I once had on my Windows PC.
• StoryMill - for anyone who knows me, you’d know why this is interesting ;) novel writing software! Looks pretty nifty, allowing you to organize characters, scenes, etc.
• Typinator - for shorter keystrokes all over! I’ll have to see how this works with me typing half the time in a different language. Actually, it just fixed one typo I had while writing this entry, from “hvae” to “have”. ;) Nifty!
• DVDRemaster Pro - DVD backups anyone? This is an important utility and it looks to be pretty robust.
• Parallels Desktop - of course. I need IE for testing. Booting up in another OS wastes a lot of time. This will be cool once it’s unlocked!

I plan to review each application in my interested-in list as I play a bit with it over the next few days, so check back if you’re interested. :) I’ll try to do the other applications, so let me know which you’re interested in, but no promises!

Go check the promo bundle out yourself! ;)

Edited to add: I’ve started reviewing! Click to see the reviews, if you haven’t decided on getting the bundle yet:

• Typinator Review
• Hazel Review