Next MacHeist Revealed.

Crazy Apple Rumors Site has an exclusive look at MacHeist next promotion.

Following up on the current and somewhat controversial “Week of Independent Mac Developers” bundle, MacHeist will offer a “Week of Sweatshop Mac Developers”.

According to advanced copy received by CARS, the promotion will honor the Mac sweatshop development houses in the third world.

Enjoying your Macintosh experience? There may be one ingredient you’ve been missing out on: the many cut-rate products created by the Mac community’s extremely overworked sweatshop software development community.

That’s why we’re declaring this The Week of the Sweatshop Mac Developer, and in an effort to spread the word about these cheap knock-offs, we’ve put together a collection of some of the most unethically developed software available on the Mac for a steeply discounted 49 cents.

Irene Camacho, an 11-year-old worker in a Mac software sweatshop on the Mariana Islands said she was pleased with the MacHeist promotion.

“The large and rather sweaty men who run the shop say the $5,000 they received from MacHeist will buy ten more children to help with the work,” Camacho said, her right hand spasming uncontrollably from carpal tunnel syndrome.

Some first world software developers, however, expressed outrage over what they say is MacHeist’s exploitation.

VoodooPad developer Gus Mueller said “For every dollar a developer makes on this deal, MacHeist makes 25. Also, part of the contract says they get to punch you in the groin. What’s that about?”

MacHeist spokesman Joe Casasanta defended the deal, claiming that many of the bundle purchasers are actually software reviewers who don’t realize they can get evaluation copies for free. He also said that the Magic Kitten of MacHeist Goodwill will confer on each developer plus 15 charisma points, which will result in many future sales.

MacHeist’s “Week of Sweatshop Developers” will run all next week, or until too many third world children expire from stress to make it palatable.

37 thoughts on “Next MacHeist Revealed.”

  4. Clearly, I misread part of the article. I saw “sweat” and “developers,” then all I could think about was Steve Ballmer. It’s like Pavlov’s dog or something.

  5. OMG I made cars. I’ve been waiting for this moment all my life, and it totally makes that post worth it now. Sweeeet.

    (Oh, and it’s “VoodooPad”, not “Voodoo Pad” 🙂

  7. And I wonder, what does that bundle include in addition to MS Office, MS IE, MS Virtual PC and of recently MS Win XP SP2?

    I feel smhow abbrviatd aftr that sntnc…

    m…w

  12. It’s worse than we think: my sources say the developers are not paid $5000 but rather 5000 Microsoft points.

  14. This post made me cry. Especially after I watched the FrontLine special “Is Walmart Good for America?” last night.

    Buuuuut, you know, it is such a good deal and if those people weren’t working in sweatshops they wouldn’t be working at all. That and I’d have to pay real prices for the crap I use. That would never do. Good for me and marginally good for the poor. Excellent for the middle man. Tis the American way!

  15. And, anyway, I couldn’t work in a Sweatshop, darling.
    I’m using some deo roll.
    And those kids…
    I mean, isn’t that better to find them sum’thin’ to doo better than wander endlessly in the streets where they do no good, wht d’ya think ?
    Couldn’t we kind of import those workplaces ? To show kids what they really deserve if they carry on with their stupidities…Kinda museum…and it would cut down traffic prices…

  18. “Many developers were punched in the groin to obtain that code…” To me, that’s incentive to buy!

    And who can beat the price?

  19. But what’s so wrong if the kids write good code?
    I mean, there’s just no pride in craftsmanship anymore. Sloppy, bloated, spaghetti (think Ballmer) code – there’s plenty of that. If they don’t pick up good habit while they’re young, they’ll never get it right.

  20. Kudos for at least doing some research.

    Camacho is a very common name in and Marianas Islands (Saipan), but no Camacho is going to be working in a sweatshop. They have Chinese and Philipinos that do the work for them… and most of the profits go back to China. Willy Tan, I’m looking at you.

  22. What’s going on here??? December 12th is Jennifer “Frickin'” Connelly’s birthday and there’s no mention of it? A pox on you all!!!!

  24. Well, at least MacHeist is making some money and that sweatshop developers gain charisma points!

    Good developers are hard to come by.

  27. A contract that allows for groin punches, huh?

    I’ll have to remember that.

    I have no idea whether that would be enforceable in Ohio, but, hey, it could be a good negotiation tool.

  28. so, we’ve got boinx saying they’re fine with it, we’ve got wil shipley saying he’s fine with it (and his app is arguably the 800-lb gorilla driving that train, and the promise of maybe textmate), half of the remaining apps are either members of mydreamapp or macheist (or both), so you would assume THEY are okay with the deal as it stands, and 25% of the proceeds go to charity.

    what… the… hell… do… you… people… WANT?!?!?!?

  29. oh, and i think those who have bought a bundle, myself included, are happy too. seriously, are people just mad that macheist, in a bit of marketing, claimed themselves as the voice of small developers? well, maybe they wouldn’t have to if someone else had bothered to. but hey, that’s fine. sit on the sidelines and b!tch and moan and second-guess. you sound more like the simpson’s comic-book guy every friggin’ day.

  30. WTF is the problem w/ the promotion? I am a happy purchaser of the software bundle, of which one of the apps I already owned (Delicious Library). I purchased 7 other apps that I was intrigued by, but not so much that I would have purchased them otherwise, so that’s a win for the developers – increased exposure and sales (a bunch of small sales are better than no sale if I’m trying to pay rent/mortgage, feed my family, etc.)

    If the apps are good I’ll tell my friends/acquaintances, they’ll tell their friends/acquaintances, and so on. Eventually the promo will end, the involved developers will be more widely known, will have already made more money than they would have made otherwise (if others purchased for the same reasons as I did)… it’s a win-win situation.

  33. TROLLS?!?!?!?!?

    Fetch me out m’shotgun, ma. Thays only one thang ah hates worse’n revenooers, and that’s trolls. Iffn y’ain’t here t’laugh, take yer mopey asses over to MSN. Step lively, ‘fore I start unloadin’ this thang.

  34. Somebody have a problem with the way I sound? Don’t cast aspersions.

  35. “I don’t think it’s plugged in anymore. It stopped vibrating.”

    “The green light is on. Maybe I bumped the setting. Hows that?”

    “Mmmm. Better. Hey! You left the damn computer on in the room again.”

    “Oh, crap. Sorry. Hope I didn’t leave CARS up….oops.”

    “You moron….never mind….I have a heada…”

  36. D’zBallz,

    Several bloggers, including John Gruber (who is both a DOCTOR and a NINJA) are all up in arms because MacHeist appears to be lowballing designers.

    I’d rather get 5,000 GeekGold at BoardGameGeek than the MS points, but hey, whatevs.

    What they (MacHeist) ought to do is include a little checkboxy poll thing: “Hey, how would you, the consumer, divide up extra bonus money from your purchase?” They could send that email out at the 3 month or 6 month mark, and then cut the devs for the good apps another check.

    Per Anil Dash’s famous post about consultant fees, I thought the developer was supposed to do the slapping, not the other way around.

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