IDG's Macworld Announces Best of Show Awards.

Business Editors/High Tech & Publishing Writers

Macworld San Francisco 2003

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 9, 2003

IDG's Macworld, the premier Macintosh magazine and Web sites, today announced the winners of the "Macworld Best of Show Awards," representing the most exciting hardware and software products announced at Macworld Conference & Expo San Francisco. The awards were presented by Jim Dalrymple, Editor, Online of Macworld.com and MacCentral.com.

"The products released at Macworld Expo show the continued ingenuity and commitment of developers on the Macintosh platform," stated Dalrymple. "Apple continues to innovate and lead the way for the personal computing industry."

To be eligible for Best of Show consideration, products were either making their public debut at Macworld 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, although some evaluations were based on beta versions or prototypes. "Macworld Best of Show Awards" represent a highly-coveted honor within the Macintosh industry and are presented exclusively at tradeshows that feature Mac products.

The Best of Show winners for Macworld Conference & Expo San Francisco 2003 are:

Apple 12" and 17" PowerBook G4s (www.Apple.com) Apple surprised the keynote audience Tuesday morning when Steve Jobs simultaneously announced the world's largest and smallest full-featured portable computers. The 17" PowerBook G4 features the largest display ever to grace a portable, engineered into a 1-inch-thin notebook that's ultralight (just 6.8 pounds), starting at $3299. This PowerBook also has a backlit keyboard which, along with the screen brightness, automatically adjusts based on available ambient light. This PowerBook comes standard with SuperDrive, the new FireWire 800, and Bluetooth technology which allows the computer to communicate with other wireless devices. The 12" PowerBook brings the best of both worlds combining a G4 processor with the smallest form factor that the company has ever produced in a notebook.

Pixion PictureTalk 4.0 (www.pixion.com) This Web conferencing software allows you to share all or part of a document, presentation, software application, Web page or your desktop, live and interactively over the Internet. It has a simple to use interface and offers complete security with multiple levels of password protection.

4D, Inc. 4th Dimension 2003 (www.4d.com) With Web services and application integration capabilities, 4th Dimension 2003 allows different applications to reuse each other's data and functionality. The new tool also includes an integrated compiler, increased scalability, new printing and reporting features, and beef-up developer programming capabilities such as the new Method Editor.

M-Audio Revolution 7.1 (www.m-audio.com) Revolution 7.1 is the first high-definition 7.1 surround sound card for Mac and PC systems that provides up to eight channels of professional 24-bit/192kHz audio with consumer-oriented features. Revolution 7.1 is targeted to users who want to play DVDs and music in surround sound, experience more realistic gaming, and record or mix their own music.

DigiDesign Inc. Pro Tools 6.0 for Mac OS X (www.digidesign.com) DigiDesign's industry-standard audio recording, editing and mixing software makes its debut on Mac OS X. The software also gains a new, streamlined interface, multiuser log-in functionality, DigiBase file management, support for Mac OS X Core MIDI services, and much more.

LaCie Big Disk (www.lacie.com) The LaCie Big Disk is a portable, external FireWire hard disk available in two configurations: a 500GB model and a faster 400GB model. With the capacity of about 12 standard computers, the 500GB hard drive can store two days of uncompressed Digital Video or the equivalent of 100 personal DVD-Video (MPEG2). The drive is targeted to people using 2D/3D imaging applications, photo databases, music and digital video professionals, but it can also be used as a network or local backup disk.

LaCie Data Bank (www.lacie.com) The LaCie Data Bank is a 20GB drive small enough to fit in your pocket. Shaped like a silver ingot, the Data Bank is designed for the professional user that's on the go. The Data Bank's flip down door on the back features support for Apple's FireWire technology.

Sorenson Squeeze 3 Compression Suite (www.sorenson.com) Sorenson Squeeze allows you to encode and deliver high-quality QuickTime media for streaming and progressive downloads. Squeeze offers two-pass VBR and fast-pass VBR and audio VBR for MP3 encoding. The former produces higher-quality video than standard compression with only slightly more processing time. The latter reduces processing time to non-VBR standards, while delivering only slightly lower quality than two-pass VBR compression.

Apple AirPort Extreme (www.apple.com) The next generation of Wi-Fi wireless networking technology based on the new 802.11g standard, AirPort Extreme operates at up to 54Mbps. It's downwardly compatible with devices that use the slower standard, as well, and costs less than its predecessor -- only US$199. AirPort Extreme Base Stations support up to 50 users, wireless bridging to extend the range beyond just one base station, and USB printer sharing to allow multiple users to wirelessly share USB printers connected directly to the base station.

Dr. Bott ExtendAir (www.drbott.com) Mac peripheral maker and distributor Dr. Bott has announced the ExtendAIR, a range-extending antenna for Apple's new AirPort Extreme Base Station. ExtendAIR is being offered in two models -- ExtendAIR Omni, which extends the range of the AirPort Extreme Base Station by 250 feet in all directions, and ExtendAIR Direct, which extends the base station's range by up to 500 feet in a single direction -- convenient for linking to a remote location, for example.

MasterWriter Inc. MasterWriter 1.0 (www.masterwriter.com) Written entirely in 4D, MasterWriter 1.0 creates software solutions for professional songwriters. It combines reference dictionaries, a database for organizing work in progress, and word processing functionality, plus a hard-disc recorder for melodies, a MIDI drum loop library and Songuard, an online date-of-creation song registration service.

MacSoft Unreal Tournament 2003 (www.wizworks.com/macsoft) This 3D action game pits Mac gamers against each other in the gladiatorial arena of the future. Take on humans and computer controlled "bots" alike in a no-holds barred fight to the death as you explore 30 maps and choose from more than 35 calendars. Loads of exotic new weapons, new Special Moves activated by collecting adrenaline, and sophisticated in-game physics add a whole new spin to this first-person shooter. This game is coming soon.

Hewlett-Packard 6127 Printer (www.hp.com) The Hewlett-Packard 6127 color inkjet printer features built-in Ethernet networking and photo quality print at up to 4800 x 1200-optimized dpi color printing. The 6127 prints up to 20 pages per minute in black and up to 13 in color with automatic two-sided printing.

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 over 1.7 million influencers of computer purchases*, while the Mac Publishing Web presence garners an average of 1.7 million unique visitors. The Mac Publishing sites include: Macworld.com and MacCentral.com. Headquartered in San Francisco, Mac Publishing LLC is a wholly-owned subsidiary of International Data Group (IDG).

* SOURCE: IntelliQuest CIMS v 9.0

About International Data Group (IDG)

Headquartered in Boston, International Data Group (IDG) is the world's leading technology media, research and event company. IDG publishes more than 300 magazines and newspapers and offers online users the largest network of technology-specific sites around the world through IDG.net (www.idg.net), which comprises more than 330 targeted Web sites in 80 countries. IDG is also a leading producer of 168 computer-related events worldwide, and IDG's research company, IDC, provides global market intelligence and advice through 51 offices in 43 countries. Company information is available at www.idg.com.