I try not to shill products or special deals in my posts, but this one's too good to keep to myself: If you've got a Mac user on your Christmas list — or if you just want to freshen your own OS X software library — you should check out the bundle currently being offered at MacUpdate's promotional site, www.mupromo.com (and no, I'm not getting any referral money for this).

For $49.95, they've packaged together eight real and useful programs that might otherwise cost more than $500 if bought separately. Sure, I'll probably never use the Marine Aquarium screensaver,

but it will make someone else happy — and I've already got my money's worth with the discounted Forklift and Yep utilities. The other programs, which include the top-rated RapidWeaver, MemoryMiner, XSlimmer, Swift Publisher and XMIND 2008 PRO, are just great gravy that I can now explore with a full license.

So why am I bothering to tell everyone else? Because if enough people buy the bundle, MacUpdate promises to throw in a couple of additional programs for free. And I could really use iStabilize myself…

Our friends at Hyperology just may be on to something: Flash-based "interactive toys" aimed directly at cats — and the people who feed them. Could a Meow Mix sponsorship be far behind?

Naphthalene claims he made the first such application for his cat… but I'm guessing he really made it for the bigwigs over at Ralston Purina. Or not.

Either way, cool idea! If anybody tries it out on a 30-inch flat screen, let us know how it goes.

And there was a great rejoicing.

After months of trying to decide whether to go ahead and use the beta version of the next big release, fans of the Firefox browser can at last go ahead and upgrade: The Mozilla Project has officially released Firefox 1.5, the patiently-awaited "almost major" upgrade to the popular Firefox browser.

What's included? See for yourself. And if you're still

using Internet Explorer (snicker), I have to ask: What the hell is wrong with you? Don't you realize IE 6.0 is sooooo 1990s? (Not to mention riddled with an ever-increasing number of backdoor exploits).

What are you waiting for? Go get Firefox.

Everybody said Apple was going to announce a video iPod today, but insiders at Apple told us they weren't. Turns out they did, though.

And better yet, the

target="_blank">new iMac has a freakin' remote, making it a real entertainment hub. So now my next PVR will play Flash animations, too! And World of Warcraft! And, um… Photoshop.