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IDG’s Macworld Magazine Editors Announce the 2006 Macworld Best of Show Awards
14 Products are recognized for Innovation and Excellence
SAN FRANCISCO, CA, January 12, 2006 - IDG’s Macworld, the premier Macintosh magazine and Web
sites, presented the winners of the “Macworld Best of Show Awards,” representing the most exciting
hardware and software products announced at Macworld Conference & Expo in San Francisco. Jim
Dalrymple, editor online for Macworld, presented the awards on the show floor today.
“With Apple’s Intel announcement on Tuesday, it’s evident that developers have embraced the
transition,” stated Dalrymple. “The new products that were unveiled at this year’s show were truly innovative
and demonstrated to the thousands of Mac enthusiasts that this is an exciting new direction for the Mac
market.”
To be eligible for Best of Show consideration, products were either making their public debut at
Macworld Conference & Expo or were recently introduced and likely to generate excitement on the show
floor. In addition, the editors had to see the products in action. “Macworld Best of Show Awards” represent a
highly-coveted honor within the Macintosh industry and are presented exclusively at Macworld Conference &
Expo.
The Best of Show winners for Macworld Conference & Expo San Francisco 2006 are:
MacBook Pro from Apple (http:/vww.apple.com) Apple's PowerBook line has long been a strength of the
company's hardware offerings. But lately, even this venerable laptop has been showing its age, with hot-
running PowerPC chips limiting just how fast these machines could run. Apple appears to have found the
ideal answer with the new MacBook Pro ($1,999 for the the 1.67GHz model; $2,499 for the 1.83GHz
version). Powered by an Intel Duo Core processor, this new laptop should improve on the PowerBook's
performance -- Apple says it will deliver up to four times the performance of its PowerPC-based laptops --
without sacrificing any of aesthetic quality. Indeed, the MacBook Pro retains the PowerBook's striking
metallic look, while managing to squeeze a function iSight camera into a laptop that's essentially the same
size. At this rate, the Intel-based Mac era is off to a promising start.
iLife ‘06 from Apple (www.apple.com) iLife '06 packs a lot into a $79 package. The latest version of Apple's
media suite adds iWeb software for creating Web sites and blogs, but also updates the other programs in
the bunch. iPhoto improves its speed, adds full-screen editing, and includes higher-quality book ordering as
well as new cards and calendars; iMovie adds animated themes, real-time effects, video podcasting, and
lets you open multiple projects at once; iDVD adds widescreen menus, better slideshows, and now works
with third-party DVD burners; GarageBand includes podcasting creation and iChat includes interview
recording (shipping now).
Lightroom from Adobe (http://www.adobe.com) Lightroom, which Adobe released on Monday as a public
beta for the Mac, takes a new approach to working with your photos—and offers some interesting
competition for Apple's recently released Aperture 1.0. As competition is something that's been sorely
lacking in the professional photo-editing market lately, this clash of the titans can only mean good news for
digital photographers. Lightroom lets you take control of your photos—sorting, rating, editing, and
publishing—in a nondestructive way. The program is designed to complement, not replace, Photoshop;
while it offers an impressive collection of tools for the most essential editing tasks, it also makes it easy to
switch to Photoshop for compositing, masking, and similar needs. Best of all, it doesn’t require the latest and
greatest Mac hardware to run smoothly. Mac users can download it free from Adobe's site.
iSee 360i from Advanced Technology Office - ATO (http://www.atollc.com) iSee 360i lets you use many pre-
5G iPods to play videos and view photos. The $249 device docks with your iPod and can not only play files
stored on the iPod's hard drive on the iSee's 3.6-inch color screen, but also be used to record video from a
number of different sources. It gives new life to older iPods, and adds functionality to even the latest video
offering from Apple (available later this quarter).
EyeTV 2 from Elgato (http://www.elgato.com) EyeTV 2 works with all existing EyeTV-compatible hardware,
but features a dramatically designed interface that mimics iTunes and iPhoto. You can create playlists of
video recordings and favorite channel lists. An integrated program guide frees you from having to start your
Web browser to see what's on or schedule recordings. Scheduled videos can automatically export to the
Press Release: Macworld Magazine Editors Announce the 2006 Macworld Best of Show
iPod; integration has been tightened up with Roxio's Toast 7; and myriad of other enhancements have been
made. Shipping now, EyeTV 2 costs $49 through March 31, then it's $79.
Suitcase Fusion from Extensis (http://www.extensis.com) Combining characteristics of the Suitcase and
Font Reserve font managers, Suitcase Fusion can find and automatically activate exact versions of fonts in
a document, including embedded EPS or PDF file fonts. The program's Font Vault feature gives more
control over fonts to eliminate unnecessary font conflicts and duplicate fonts. The program also provides
advanced search capabilities based on keywords, foundries, and font classifications. ($100)
Google Earth from Google (http://www.google.com) Google Earth is a gorgeous flyover program with very
detailed satellite photos of some areas (Europe, North America) and less of others (sub-saharan Africa). It
includes options for boundary, building and even commuter rail overlays. And, it's free!
MemoryMiner by GroupSmarts (http:/’vww.memoryminer.com) MemoryMiner lets you explore the
relationships between the people and places in your digital photos. The idea is to develop personal histories.
Using an intuitive interface, you identify the people and places in your photos and when the photo was
taken. MemoryMiner ($60) uses this info to build connections between photos so you can, trace the
movements of the single person (or multiple people) through time and around the world, and explore shared
links between people. All of this data can then be published on the Web for others to explore.
JBL On Time from JBL (http://www.jbl.com) Continuing its tradition of making high-quality speaker systems
for the iPod, JBL upped the ante once again by releasing the On Time ($299). Not your typical speaker
system, the On Time features a looping speaker, dual alarms, a clock radio and ambient light sensors, so it
reacts automatically to changing light conditions.
LightZone 1.0 from Light Crafts (http://www.lightcrafts.com/) This photo editing application, targeted to
professional and advanced photographers, provides an alternative way to view, manage, edit, and correct
digital photographs according to light values. LightZone is based on the Zone System, a photographic
technique popularized by landscape photographer Ansel Adams, that lets photographers visualize and
control the tonal range of their images. ($250)
Marware Project X (http://www.marware.com) Marware's Project X fills a gap in the Mac industry by
delivering project management software that is easy for anyone to understand, but is still powerful enough
for those users that want and need high-end features. Project X ($199.99) takes a true Apple approach to
interface design, providing an elegant and easy to use workspace.
Techtool Protégé from Micromat (http://www.micromat.com) There are plenty of tools out there that'll help
diagnose and fix a troubled Mac. Micromat's new Techtool Protégé, though, is one of the coolest. It’s a
FireWire flash drive that comes pre-loaded with a bootable copy of OS X, the latest versions of Micromat’s
TechTool Pro and DiskStudio, and whatever other utilities you want to load into its gigabyte of memory.
Just plug the Protégé into that ailing Mac's Firewire port, boot up, and use the built-in software tools to find
out what's wrong and fix the problem.
Browseback from Smile on My Mac (http:/www.smileonmymac.com) If you've ever wanted to find a Web
page you previously viewed but did not bookmark, Browseback is a handy way to search your browser
history. The program gives you thumbnails of every page you looked at and you can search your history with
keywords, even if you saw the page weeks ago. ($30)
Docktopus from Startly Technologies (www.startly.com/products/docktopus.html) One of the most
underused features of Mac OS X's Dock is the ability to add informational "badges" atop Dock icons. Startly
Technologies' $20 Docktopus makes the Dock more useful by letting you add badges to your Dock icons.
Your Trash can can tell you how many files are in it; iCal's icon will sprout a mini-calendar of events; and any
application can gain a processor icon that indicates how hard it's working. Docktopus finally gives us a
reason to turn off auto-hide and keep the Dock open all the time.
About Mac Publishing LLC
Mac Publishing, LLC publishes the world’s leading independent Macintosh publication and Web sites. Every
month the award-winning Macworld magazine reaches 1.2 million Macintosh professionals and enthusiasts
while the Mac Publishing Web presence gamers an average of over 3.5 million unique visitors. The Mac
Publishing sites include: Macworld.com, PlaylistMag.com, MacOSXHints.com, MacworldProductFinder.com,
and JavaWorld.com.
Headquartered in San Francisco, Mac Publishing, LLC is a subsidiary of International Data Group (IDG), the
world’s leading technology media, research, and event company.
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Press Release: Macworld Magazine Editors Announce the 2006 Macworld Best of Show
More information on Mac Publishing, LLC and IDG can be found on the Internet at www.macworld.com and
www.idg.com.
Note: Company and product names are trademarks of their respective companies.
Media Contact:
Mac Publishing LLC
Kasey Galang
(415) 632-9663
kgalang@macworld.com
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