First MacMinute Showtime Awards announced
January 9, 2004 - 00:05 PST   MacMinute is proud to announce the first-ever Showtime Awards. Below you'll find the twelve products we found to be the most all-around "cool" and intriguing demonstrated to us -- or hand tested by us -- during this week's Macworld Conference & Expo in San Francisco. To qualify for consideration, products had to either begin shipping during the show or else be demonstrated for the first time. Among the winners were Discreet's Combustion 3, Elgato's EyeHome, Macsense's HomePod, Apple's iPod mini, and the LaCie Bigger Disk.

AccountEdge 2004 Network Edition by MYOB
Due in early spring, this version of AccountEdge on steroids helps knock down some of the arguments against the Mac as a platform for businesses of all sizes. It's optimized for multiple users to simultaneously work over a Mac network and sports features for payroll, professional time billing, robust contact management, and an integrated suite of online business services, including credit card processing.

BounceBack Professional by CMS Products
The backup and restoration application, once bundled with CMS' ABSplus hardware devices, is now a US$99 standalone product. It makes the backup and restoration product easier than ever before. It barely edges out the upcoming Data Backup 2.0 by Prosoft, the $49 backup utility which has a whole new look and feel.

Combustion 3 by Discreet
The latest version of the visual effects and 3D compositing desktop software has been revved for the Power Mac G5 and Mac OS X 10.3 Panther. Among the many new features in the $995 software are integrated editing, which removes the need for to spend time mastering non-linear editing software (NLE) for simple editing tasks. You can assemble video with transitions directly in combustion software without having to use an NLE.

EyeHome by Elgato
If you were salivating over the thought of the "iBox" (a rumored Apple media server that never materialized), the EyeHome may be your cup of tea. This $249 device lets you access and manage the digital content stored on your Mac (digital photos, video or music) on your TV or home entertainment systems via a remote-control television interface.

FontAgent Pro 2.0 by Insider Software
There are lots of new features in this $89.95 pro manager. However, none is more exciting than "Fontez-Vous," the ability to share fonts in a workgroup without requiring a separate font server using Apple's Rendezvous technology.

HomePod by Macsense
The long awaited $249 digital stereo component lets you take advantage of your existing wireless network to stream music files stored on your Mac to HomePods located anywhere in the house or office using the device's 802.11b, or Wi-Fi, network interface. It plays MP3 and Internet radio, and is upgradeable to support AAC, WAV, and WMA files.

iLife '04 by Apple
Apple may call it a consumer application, but GarageBand, the latest component of the iLife suite, has prosumer audio features. Add in the well-thought-out enhancements to iMovie, iDVD, iPhoto and iTunes, all for $49 (and free with new Macs), and is a must-have software suite.

iPod mini by Apple
Whether you think its $249 price tag is too high or not, one thing is for sure -- the new iPod mini is simply stunning. The "fashionably compact" gadget offers 4GB of storage (about 1,000 songs), packs all the best features from the standard iPod and comes in a rainbow of colors. Although, we wouldn't be caught dead with any of them besides the sleek silver model.

IntelliScanner Collector by Intelli Innovations
This $199 hardware-combo is a perfect complement to the "digital lifestyle" Apple promotes. It's provides a personal barcode reader that's designed to assist you in cataloging books, CDs and DVDs. And look for support for even more types of databases in the months ahead.

LaCie Bigger Disk by LaCie
One terabyte of storage space for just over $1,100; what's not to like. The disk drive offers FireWire 800, FireWire 400 and USB connectivity. With this much storage space in a 5.25-inch form factor, you can store, say, up to 250,000 MP3s or over three days of digital video.

Ovolab Phlink by Ovolab
Combined with the Ovolab Telephone Adapter, Phlink can answer telephone calls and identify the caller using Caller ID and Apple's Address Book. After answering a call, Ovolab Phlink records a message and stores it on your Mac for later retrieval. And while the call is in progress, it will silently listen to any keys the caller presses on the telephone keypad and perform actions based on the digits that are typed. The cost? $159.95.

SyncDek 5.0 by WorldSync Inc.
This bi-directional asynchronous data replication technology for FileMaker databases is a boon for small operations and enterprise clients. What's more, it's another solid component in making the Mac a serious contender in the enterprise market.

One final note. Two other products almost made the cut: Office 2004 by Microsoft's Macintosh Business Unit and Toast with Jam 6 by Roxio. Some of the other products only edged them out because these two are still in the alpha stage of testing. But you can certainly expect them to be taking their share of awards and acclaim in the months ahead.

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