These days, everyone has videos – they watch them on their cell phones and iDevices, they rip DVD’s, and they even record videos to share with their friends.  But what happens when you really want to place a video on your iPod that iTunes won’t work with?  What if your friend can’t play your videos because they’re in the wrong format?  Video converters have so many options, and can be difficult to learn how to use.  That’s where FuelCollective’s Permute for Mac comes in.  Permute might rightly be called “The Audio/Video Converter For the Rest of Us.”

Although Permute does contain advanced options in its preference panes, all most users will need to do is select a preset (such as “iPhone,” “iPad,” “AppleTV” and so forth), and then drag and drop as many files as they’d like to convert!  It’s extremely simple, and it supports a wide variety of video (and audio) formats.  Although the interface is simple, slick, and easy to use, an interested reader might rightly be thinking: “But what about speed?  What about quality?  Does Permute really perform?”

In answer, we offer the following: While Permute does seem to produce a media file of a very acceptable quality, it doesn’t manage to be the fastest converter on the block.  However, for a home user just looking to convert video files with ease (perhaps while browsing the web or working on a word document), Permute scores.  In short, Permute is a beautiful, simple app that does exactly what it claims – converting media files with ease and style, and for that, Permute receives our recommendation.  The app sells for $14.95.  For more information or to buy, visit the FuelCollective website.