A word processor doesn't make you a writer, and RapidWeaver doesn't make you a web designer - but it enables you to make and maintain quite a nice looking webpages quickly and easily. There is quite a strong and inexpensive third-party plug-in and templates market (we are talking about $2-5 for most) so pretty much anything one needs can be found (you can even make a webstore incl checkout with the right plug-in etc). To compare it with an app that costs 10 times as much is insincere at best - it's like complaining that TextEdit isn't as capable as Word - and RapidWeaver with the Stacks plugin, some stacks, and Hype gives DreamWeaver a run for its money.

@xlivelive: The claim that you can't make your own templates is simply wrong. You can (look at all the third party templates), but that does require a deep knowledge of CSS and HTML at the least. The whole point of RapidWeaver is to enable users without knowledge of the "web languages" to create websites too.

@Pxl: WordPress is something very different from RapidWeaver. It was specifically written for blogs, and you CAN do websites with it. But while it is far superior to RapidWeaver when it comes to blogs, it is also far inferior when it comes to a lot of other website types. And you can integrate WordPress into RapidWeaver (see http://www.realmacsoftware.com/addons/rapidweaver/plugins/wp-blog)

Regarding price: I too find it a bit too high, but you can often buy RapidWeaver very cheaply in a bundle (at the moment together with Toast, Disk Drill Pro, etc at macsuperbundle.com for $49).

Available for free during Feb 2012 - see http://www.daz3d.com/

After incorporating a few simple keynote animations into iBook Author and seeing how much space they use I was looking for alternatives. I played with both Hype and Purple this weekend. Purple is free this weekend on the app store, so getting it was a no brainer. However I'm leaning towards Hype - it is easier to use and has more features. Purple seems less rounded and thought out.

That being said it is still fairly basic and needs more effects and transitions.

While Hype is able to output for iBook Author the process needs to be made much easier - Hype has a chance to position itself as the tool of choice, and others (like Shade) have already added "export to iBook Author".

So it's "make or break" time for Hype - if Hype can get souped up and keep the price it has the potential to corner the market for iBook Author animations before the big boys jump in.

An absolutely outstanding package - when asking professional developers what add-ons they recommend they always say that the MBS plugins are essential. I have to admit that I am still dipping my toes into the water - there is just so much of it that the whole package can be daunting … scratch that, IS daunting. But certainly well worth it - and the video tutorials in iTunes are a big help. New features seem to be often added before anything similar appears in REALbasic itself, and seem certainly much better implemented (like regular expressions), and while some features DO disappear that is the nature of progress (if you no longer support Win 98 or MacOS 10.3 then what is the point of having specific features for those systems in there?). Apple stopped supporting PowerPC (G4, G5) years ago, REAL.studio has now stopped supporting it, so I have the last REAL.studio version with the right MBS plugin to support people on PowerPC, while using the newer version to compile for Cocoa - my code is the same for both.

Unfortunately Stanza is dead. Marc Prud'hommeaux (the original and last Stanza developer at Amazon) quit in May. There will be no updates (and Amazon has not responded to requests to make Stanza open-source).

Stanza is also not working on iOS5 (crashes at startup) - I recommend GoodReader on iOS as a replacement.

To all EyeTV Hybrid users:

There is a widespread problem with the device being only recognized as being on a USB1 port or not at all - the bizarre solution is to heat up the EyeTV Hybrid for 2 min and then plug it in (don't make it too hot or the plastic will melt). See http://forums.elgato.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=527&start=25 for details

I was ready to throw mine away - now it's working again.

HELP! Each time I start AppShelf it again imports my 18 MacHeist serials - and deleting them one by one is a pain!