If there's one software company and product line that can raise the ire of even the most mellow Mac user, it's Intuit and the Quicken line of accounting software. While the company rightfully owns the market for home and business accounting software in the Windows world, their Mac products are beset with bugs, delays, and incompatibility issues.

IGG Software has announced a "Why wait another day?" rebate program to persuade frustrated Quicken Mac 2007 owners to switch to iBank 3.5 (US$59.99). If you're a Canadian or U.S. owner who purchased iBank after July 10th, 2009, and have proof of ownership (installation disc or receipt) for either the Mac or Windows versions of Quicken or Microsoft Money, sending in a mail-in rebate form will get you a $20 incentive to switch to iBank.

iBank 3.5 requires Leopard, and has a number of features that take advantage of Apple technologies. For example, you can take a picture of a receipt using your iSight camera and include that with a transaction record. MobileMe users get the advantage of automatic backups of their financial data, as well as a way to enter transactions "on the road" with the companion iBank Mobile iPhone app (US$4.99, purchased separately).

All in all, the rebate is a great way to start saving money and begin working with an accounting application that was designed from the ground up to work on Macs.

The Finance section of the App Store does feature some heavy-hitters (Bloomberg, ATM Hunter) and some fairly weak beer too. A lot of these apps are unitaskers, particularly when it comes to stock quotes and charting. For a full-featured and free investment information portal, and a strong competitor to the Bloomberg iPhone app, you may want to try the newly-released AOL Daily Finance, powered by the dailyfinance.com site.

The first key feature to note is the free real-time equity quote service, provided from the BATS Exchange; major exchange (NYSE & Nasdaq) quotes are delayed, though. You can quote individual symbols or watch your entire portfolio with ease, whether you enter it on the device or link to your existing lineup under your AOL or AIM screenname; up to 25 separate portfolios can be managed. You can also view up-to-the-minute financial and market news from the AP and other sources.

The other standout feature of this app is its comprehensive charting support. Clicking the chart button on an equity page brings up a straightforward chart, but rotate your device into landscape mode and you're in a Cover Flow-esque lineup of all the charts in your portfolio. Double-tap a chart to access a full suite of advanced comparison options (vs. markets, vs. peers, seasonality, showing events like earnings & splits, and custom symbol comparisons). Holding down a finger on a single-line chart enables a crosshair cursor that lets you see the specific data for any point on the chart. All the functions are intuitive and easy to use; the charts are cached so you can see most of your data even if your device is disconnected from WiFi or cell service.

If you're of a mind to keep an eye on the markets while you're on the move, you may find this app has the tools you're looking for. Check out the gallery below for a few screenshots.

Editor's Note: TUAW's parent company Weblogs, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of AOL.

It always makes me happy to see a familiar name on a press release, so when I received a note this morning about PocketMoney 2.0 for iPhone (click opens iTunes) now being available in the App Store, I took more interest than usual in the news.

Hardy Macia and his company, Catamount Software, have been developing software for mobile devices and Macs since the Newton MessagePad reigned supreme in the PDA world. In fact, that's when I first became familiar with PocketMoney. Fifteen years later, PocketMoney is still an excellent mobile app for keeping track of expenses, incomes and budgets.

There are so many new changes and features in the 2.0 version of PocketMoney that Catamount has released a 13-page document (click to download) describing them in detail. I like the new budget features, which show you at a glance how you're doing with meeting or missing a categorized budget. Catamount has added a library of video tutorials that take users step-by-step through almost every function of the app.

If you'd like to give PocketMoney 2.0 a try, there's a free Lite version (click opens iTunes) that has all of the capabilities of the full version, but is limited to 2 accounts and 2 repeating transactions. The full version is currently on sale for US$4.99.

To learn more about PocketMoney 2.0, check out the gallery below.

Many Mac users have been using Cha-Ching to manage their bank accounts for some time. The guys at Midnight Apps are at it again, and this time their money management software is on the iPhone.

Just like the Mac version, Cha-Ching mobile allows you to create multiple account and manage your budget, schedule payments, and add payees. Probably the most amazing feature is the ability to sync all of the data from the Mac version of Cha-Ching wirelessly to your iPhone/iPod touch.

When you tap on the Budget icon in the toolbar, you have the ability to see at a glance your current budget. At the top is your overall budget showing how much money you have left on a scale. If you tap on the Budget icon a second time, a history of your budgets for each month will come up. When you're ready to set your budget, tap on "Edit" at the top. You can add or remove categories in the app settings.

New to Cha-Ching is the scheduler section of the app. In this area, you can easily track upcoming bills. You can set the frequency, amount, category, account to subtract it from, and any notes that you might want to include.

Cha-Ching mobile is also location-aware. When you add a payee you can have the app remember the location. When you sort by locations, the nearest payees will show up near the top. This is a great way to track your payees based on where you are. The app will also remember the category, location, and other details about the payee; this makes creating new payments simple because most of the details will be automatically filled in for you.

In the settings section, you can easily see all of your accounts, set user-created categories, secure your Cha-Ching app with a 4-digit passcode, sync with Cha-Ching 2.0 on your Mac, and set scheduler options.

Cha-Ching mobile should be on the App Store soon. It has a sale price of $2.99US. You can visit their teaser page for a quick movie demo of the app.

In an interesting -- not to say wildly speculative -- essay, Slate Magazine's Karim Bardeesy says that Apple should take some of its $28 billion and start a bank.

During Wednesday's conference call, Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer made it clear that the company was looking to keep its cash right where it is. Anecdotal evidence suggests that now might not exactly be the best time to get one's feet wet in high finance, but Bardeesy does make a few interesting points.

First, if Apple takes $15 billion of its own cash, at "regulated reserve ratios," Apple could offer $100 billion in loans. Couple that with the company's tech savvy and trustworthy brand, Bardeesy says, and you're looking at an opportunity to "revolutionize the industry."

Second, Bardeesy suggests creating an internet-only bank, taking deposits from everyday people -- via an iPhone fund transfer app, of course. He says the rise of Internet banks isn't unprecedented: just look at how popular they were in Iceland! (Ignore for now those banks' participation in the total collapse of Iceland's banking system.)

And how about a slice of that sweet, sweet government bailout? Apple can have some -- if it's a bank. "Goodie side benefits to banking status include access to some of that TARP money and a steady revenue stream to smooth out any bumps in retail demand for other Apple products," he writes. Contradictorily, in his final sentence, Bardeesy chides the banking industry for "pocketing taxpayer billions while sending nary a penny [his] way." You can't have it both ways, buddy.

In sum, Bardeesy admits that "Apple has prided itself on sticking to its knitting and not indulging in diversionary acquisitions or enterprises." He claims, however, that "an exception can be made when economy and country are at stake and profits are on the table."

Can it? Really?

Thanks to everyone who sent this in.

Keeping track of personal finances isn't usually something to dance about, but with the newly released Moneydance 2008r2 for Mac, you might at least do a little happy dance whenever your checking account balance is in the black.

Moneydance is a full-featured personal finance manager with online banking and bill payment, budget tracking, scheduling of transactions, and investment management tools. It's perfect for older Macs, requiring only 4.8 MB of hard disk space and a thrifty 128 MB of RAM.

The US$39.99 Mac app (upgrade free for existing users) includes a ton of bug fixes and improvements. There's a new popup display of transaction information and splits when you hold down the alt key when hovering over a transaction, plus improved graphs, the ability to store online passwords in the data file (encryption must be enabled), and more. A free trial is available for those who are curious.

In heavy trading volume today, Apple stock (AAPL) is down four percent after initially dropping to 176.23 halfway through the keynote at 1:55 p.m. Eastern time.

At the time of posting, AAPL was trading near 177, which is a decline of over four percent since the closing bell yesterday Friday. (It's been a long day.)

Apple stock has taken hits in the past on announcement days, usually due to traders looking to make a quick buck from the high interest surrounding coverage of the event.

An update, after the jump.

There are many good ways to manage your money on a Mac (oh yeah, there's also QuickBooks). We at TUAW found yet another money management application for your Mac, and this one looks really good. MotiMotion's Prospects allows you to keep all of your banking accounts (and credit cards) organized with graphs, a register book, and more. When you start the program, you get an overview that has a graph of your assets and liabilities -- giving you the ability to see everything you need to.

In addition to pretty graphs of your cash, you also can create: budgets, reports, categories, rules, and more. You can import QIF, OFX, and QFX files from your online banking website or from other money management applications. So, if you are in the market for a good money management application, then you should give Prospects a try.

You can download Prospects from the MotiMotion website. They offer a free version that limits you to 100 transactions across your accounts or a single-user license for $35 (they also offer a family license for $10 more).

A new beta of the personal finance management software iBank 3 has been released and it includes iPhone support. According the developers, you can use your iPhone or iPod touch to view historical transactions or create and edit new ones, but this requires a .Mac account. The download includes a small package that you have to upload to the root directory of your iDisk. You can then access a iBank file you've set to sync with .Mac by going to https://idisk.mac.com/dot-mac username/iBank/index.html on your iPhone.

In addition to the iPhone integration, version three offers a large number of new features including direct download of transactions if your financial institution supports the OFX protocol, investment and loan management, as well as export to tax software and more. For those of you looking for a solid Quicken replacement, IGG Software may finally have done the trick.

The iBank 3 beta is available for download now. It appears that it will cost $59.99 when released ($29.99 upgrade), but if you purchase iBank 2 now it will be a free upgrade.

[via MacNN]

The personal-organizer scanner space on the Mac has been fairly quiet since the departure of the Visioneer PaperPort from the platform (we miss you, guys!), but one of the leading new vendors is coming over to the Mac -- NEAT Receipts for Mac is here at the show and will be shipping later this year. NR's slim scanner and software bundle lets you scan and organize all your paper receipts on your computer, keeping records for expense/business and tax purposes without the clutter and mess.

The final pricing and availability for NR Mac isn't published yet, but what I heard at the booth is $180/$80 (with the scanner hardware or software only) shipping in Q2; you can use the software in standalone or watched-folder mode with most other Mac-compatible scanners. If you've got an envelope full of paper records that need the scanning treatment, check it out.

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.

Moneydance 2006 (awkward name and all) is a well-rounded personal finance app with a nice selection of features including: online banking and bill payment, budget management, recurring transactions, investment tracking, report generation, Quicken/Money import, database encryption and a whole lot more.

It might be missing a few features when compared to big dogs like Quicken 2006, but it's priced accordingly: a license is $30 no matter what OS(es) you need it for, and when I say cross-platform, I mean it: Moneydance 2006 works on Mac OS X, Windows, Linux, Solaris, OS/2, and Unix.
A fully functioning demo is available that allows for entering up to 100 transactions - so what are you waiting for? Go grab a copy and stop making excuses for ending up budget-less and broke every month.