Macworld CreativePro Conference & Expo wrapped up last Friday, and Macworld magazine has announced its picks for Best of Show. Best of Show picks are products making their Macworld debut that Macworld’s editors felt stood out from the pack. The list includes:
Griffin Technology RadioShark
Griffin Technology’s new RadioSHARK is a fin-shaped apparatus that helps users of any Mac tune in to AM/FM radio transmissions. Included software lets you set station presets and even record live broadcasts for later playback, a la TiVO.
Alsoft DiskWarrior/MasterJuggler
Alsoft Inc. goes OS X native with MasterJuggler 3, its font management software, which sports a redesigned interface, complete integration with OS X and Classic, the ability to preview multiple fonts and sizes, and more. DiskWarrior 3, the latest version of Alsoft’s storied disk recovery tool, adds speed improvements, hardware monitoring, native OS X directory rebuilding for Mac OS X Extended Disks and more.
Broderbund The Print Shop
Software MacKiev and Broderbund are resurrecting a classic, reborn for OS X: The Print Shop, a general purpose desktop publishing software app designed for consumers, not professionals. Users can build all sorts of projects ranging from greeting cards to CD labels and inserts.
Avias MEC Station
Avias Ltd.’s MEC (short for Mobile Entertainment Center) Station may do for digital video what Apple’s iPod did for digital music. The handheld device can play back MPEG1, MPEG2 and MPEG4 files, DivX movies, MP3 and WMA audio, plays games and more. It features a 16:9 display, FireWire data transfer and disk-based access.
SmileOnMyMac Disclabel
Ubiquitous CD burning has been on the Mac for a while, but some users still struggle to make their burned discs look pretty. Enter SmileonMyMac LLC’s Disclabel, which comes with pre-designed templates, the ability to support imported track lists from iTunes, iPhoto and iDVD, automates label creation via AppleScript, and much more.
Epson Perfection 3170 PHOTO
Epson America Inc.’s Perfection 3170 PHOTO is one of Epson’s newest flatbed scanners, a $200 model that comes complete with a built-in slide and film strip adapter. The scanner sports 3200 dot-per-inch optical resolution and 48-bit one-pass scanning, plus it features four buttons to instantly start scanning, scan-to-Web, Copy and E-mail functions. Coming in August, the Perfection 3170 PHOTO’s USB 2.0 interface makes it a good match for the Power Mac G5, due out about the same time.
Dalim DiALOGUE
Dalim Software GmbH’s DiALOGUE is a new Internet-based soft proofing tool. DiALOGUE leverages technologies like XML and Java2 with Dalim’s own TWiST or SWiNG production workflow software.
GeeThree.com Slick 5 & 6 and Sweet Multiport
GeeThree.com continues to improve on iMovie with Slick Vols. 5 & 6, two new collections of plug-ins for Apple’s consumer-level video editing application that can correct color video, highlight moving objects, add new titles and much more. The Sweet Multiport, meanwhile, converts the lower optical drive bay of your Power Mac G4 into a interface with two FireWire 400 ports, USB, and CompactFlash/MicroDrive, Memory Stick and SD Card connectivity.
HP Deskjet 5650
The HP 5650 is a color inkjet printer that offers, in normal mode, up to 21 pages per minute (ppm) for black-and-white and up to 15 ppm in color. The thermal inkjet can handle resolutions of up to 4800-optimized dpi (dots per inch) in color (up to 4800 x 1200-optimized dpi color and 1200-input dpi) and up to 1200-rendered dpi black.
PowerFile C200 MFX/R200 MFX
PowerFile’s C200 MFX and R200 MFX optical storage library solutions units sport a 200 disc capacity, for almost 1TB of total storage capacity. The C200 MFX system can read DVD and CD media, while the R200 MFX library adds the ability to write, as well.
Harman Multimedia JBL Encounter 5.1
Harman Multimedia’s JBL Encounter 5.1, which will go on sale in November, is a surround speaker system with five satellites (including a center channel) and a subwoofer. The subwoofer is a 200 watt behemoth. Each of the four satellites is self-powered, and the center channel array can be clipped to a monitor.
Red Rock Software DeltaGraph 5
Red Rock Software has brought its charting, graphing, and data-analysis tool DeltaGraph 5 to Mac OS X. The technical graphing software lets you develop a range of 2D and 3D graphs and charts and is targeted to researchers, analysts, and managers who work with complex sets of data and who need to collect, analyze and present their findings visually.