Several years ago, I had a simple but wonderful checkbook app for my Palm. It was nothing more than money in and money out with some simple categorization (food, clothing, automotive, etc.). In other words, an electric alternative to a checkbook. Since I don't really write checks anymore, I no longer carry a register around. Plus, that old Palm is dead and gone (having accidentally spent one night in my rainy front yard), so I need an alternative.

We've reviewed mobile financial apps before, like Pennies and Mint. Cory and Mike got to play with those, but I was lucky enough to nab Cha-Ching Touch for review.

The Good

First things first. It's pretty. Every screen and icon is nice to look at and easy to navigate, even the Get Smart-style vault that requires a passcode at launch (note that this is off by default).

To get started, create an account. Choose either Checking, Savings, Credit, Online, Loan or Cash. Each is represented by a unique icon which is a nice little touch. From there, enter an account number and associated URL if applicable.

Last month, we got a sneak peek at Cha-Ching Touch, the finance app for the iPhone and iPod touch from Midnight Apps. Now, it's ready to go. We haven't played with it yet (a full review is coming), but I definitely see the appeal of a quick and easy mobile finance tracker (which is a long-winded way to say "money app").

Years ago, I had a great check register application on my Palm and I loved it. It simply monitored money in and out with some basic categorization. That's what we're after, and Cha-Ching sounds like it's going in the right direction.

You can monitor your budget and enter location-aware transactions. There's good news for owners of the desktop version, too. Namely, transaction histories will sync to the iPhone client via WiFi. Neat.

There's a demo video here. It's a nice looking app, that's for sure. You can currently pick it up from The App Store for an introductory price of $2.99US. Again, we'll let you know what we think after we've put it through its paces.

Today is the last day to buy the much coveted MacHeist application bundle. MacHeist has decided to sweeten the deal by unlocking SoundStudio early and offering $5 off any Insanely Great Tee. If you are a registered member of the MacHeist site you can also get early access to Headline (an RSS reader).

The MacHeist Bundle currently includes the following Mac apps:

• VectorDesigner
• DEVONthink
• XSlimmer
• CoverSutra
• Awaken
• iClip
• Overflow
• Cha-Ching
• WriteRoom
• Enigmo
  
• Bugdom 2
• Nanosaur 2
• TextExpander
• SoundStudio

The MacHeist Bundle costs $49 and 25% of your purchase will be donated to your choice of charity. Currently, MacHeist has sold over 4,000 bundles and raised over $50,000 for charity. You can purchase a bundle at the MacHeist website.

In the Leopard onslaught, Cha-Ching 1.2 slipped under our radar - however today sees the release of yet another (minor) update: version 1.2.1. For those of you not familiar with Cha-Ching, it's an easy-to-use money-management tool whose import options (such as Quicken and Microsoft Money formats) and slick interface mean that you might not need something such as Quicken to balance your books.

Of course, you're all clamouring for the details of what's new and exciting in this update. There's plenty of enhancements, not least of which are a number of Leopard fixes to ensure that Leopard-running folks can start budgeting (for MacWorld San Francisco?) in style with:

• the ability to backup vaults locally (in addition to the existing .Mac backup option)
  
• the ability to pay bills directly from the Master Vault
• plenty of graphical enhancements for the new big-cat

Cha-Ching sells for $40, with version 1.2.1 a free update for existing registered users. Version 1.2.1 is available now from the Midnight Apps website or via the built-in software update.

Cha-Ching, the streamlined money manager that aims to put the fun back finances, has made a minor update to v1.0.3 with some truly useful new features and fixes. At the top of the list is a database migration to Mac OS X's built-in SQLite to boost performance, as well as search enhancements for using multiple tags and searching both To and From fields, but that's not all. Included in the update are:

• OFX and QFX support added
• Can now sort transactions in Print Panel
• Printing now uses already filtered list of transactions
• Source pane can now be expanded much more

The update can be had either by running Cha-Ching (chose Check for Updates from the app menu if it doesn't check automatically), or by heading over to the Midnight Apps site.

Midnight Apps, as promised, has announced Cha-Ching 1.0 is landing Friday, April 20th, 2007. Cha-Ching is an excellent personal finance management app that I feel safe calling a Quicken killer, at least for many people's needs. Since its beta days, Cha-Ching has featured things like a simplified UI, tagging and other goodies to bring a little fun to tracking one's cash and credit flow, but this final 1.0 promises even more new features. So many new features, in fact, that the company will be announcing one big one each day this week until Friday, when 1.0 will be released for download (in light of this promotion, I tip my hat to their site designer for the sketchup and 'not quite finished' touches on the site). Today's feature: Spotlight Integration - users will be able to search for any transaction or tag from the comfort of a Spotlight window, which means they can also create things like Smart Folders to get a quick glance at transactions without even having to open Cha-Ching.

Stay tuned to Midnight Apps all this week to hear more about the great new stuff coming in Cha-Ching 1.0, but if you're on the fence with whether to purchase, you might want to act sooner than later: now that the app is all growed up, it's going on a 'reverse sale' that ends Friday. Through its time in beta, Cha-Ching has cost $20 and is still at that price - but only for today. Each day this week, Cha-Ching's price will be raised by $5 until Friday, where it will take on its full price of $40. If you ask me, a happy user of Cha-Ching since January when I attended the developer's presentation at the Apple Store during Macworld 07, Cha-Ching is a great value even at its full price, so any day you buy this week will be a bargain. But you don't have to take it from me: you can download a demo of Cha-Ching in its current 0.5.2 beta version to get your finance on and decide for yourself.

Cha-Ching, Midnight Apps' handy Quicken-killer that takes the pain out of managing your money, has received a minor update to v0.5.2. While the notable changes like UI improvements, bug fixes and confirmation dialogs when deleting items aren't much to write home about, the third change from the emailed press release is what has me excited: "upgraded database in preparation for version 1.0." I spoke with Juan Alvarez, lead developer of Cha-Ching, about an ETA for 1.0, and it's apparently slated to land before the end of April with some rocking new features and changes. Cha-Ching itself has received a major overhaul in preparation for the big 1.0, so stay tuned for more details and some pre-release screenshots as soon as we can publish them.

Cha-Ching is a fantastic app, one of the very best out there for simply and elegantly managing your money on the Mac. I use it all the time! Erm... well, I would use it all the time, if I had any money to manage. No reason you can't enjoy manipulating your money with this great app though!

Version 0.5.1 brings mostly bug fixes, but bug fixes are important in beta apps, where a single bug sometimes mean a broken feature. Fixes include:

• .Mac uploading issues.
• Startup crash when iPod is connected.
• Interface bugs.
• QIF importing.

The developers are saying that 0.6 will include some big new features and larger updates, but aren't giving specifics.

Juan Alvarez, developer and CEO at Midnight Apps, gave a CocoaHeads presentation at the Apple Store Thursday night of the new 0.5 version of Cha-Ching, his slick money app that brings financial management out of the stone ages with the beauty of Mac OS X and Cocoa. While Cha-Ching is still in a half-1.0 beta status, it's a pretty impressive app powered by some slick innovation. Read on for some sexy screenshots and feature highlights of this latest version.

Keeping track of your money isn't that much fun. Cha-Ching hopes to change all of that. Using a fun interface, and iSight integration this little app keeps track of both your expenses and your possessions. iCal and Address Book integration lets Cha-ching remind you when bills are due, and keep track of who you owe what.

Cha-Ching is in beta with a 30 day demo. There is a special beta price of $14.95, though the price goes up to $24.95 after the beta is over.