Macworld announced their Best of Show awards a few days ago. Here’s a recap, as well as my own picks. I also have my Day 3 pictures up now.
First, the official list:
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[*] Photoshop Elements 6
[*] Guitar Hero III – I definitely agree. I have it on my Wii and it’s very addicting. The USB guitar controller looks nicer than the Wii’s controller, but it’s not wireless.
[*] BusySync – shares iCal calendars
[*] Eye Fi card – SD card with built-in WiFi. I bought one the first day.
[*] Flow – tracks relationships between files.
[*] Dictate – voice command / dictation software
[*] NEC Multisync LCD3090WQXi – 30″ display.
[*] Omnifocus – task management software
[*] Parallels Server – virtualization for server class operating systems, including Mac OS X Server
[*] Vector Designer – drawwing tool
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Here are my picks:
[list]
[*] Guitar Hero III. One of the best Mac game ports. It looks as good as on a game console.
[*] Eye Fi Card. Despite the crappy hotel wifi, I was still able to transfer pictures wirelessly to my Mac.
[*] Kensington. The most beautiful mice & keyboards. I really like their ‘convertable’ wireless mouse, which can also double as a wired mouse if the batteries run out.
[*] Plasq products. I’ve been using Skitch for a long time. Now it’s in public beta. It’s my favorite screenshot utility.
[*] iPhone 1.1.3 update. I updated my iPhone as soon as I was able to get a fast & reliable internet connection. The upgrade went smoothly, although Patrick Scoble temporarily bricked his iPhone with the update. The map location feature is the coolest thing I’ve seen on the iPhone, although it sometimes shows the entire bay area for my location. Most of the time it’s accurate to about one block.
[*] Animation Master. Powerful animation software for only $50.
[*] Snowflake Mic. Almost every podcaster I know uses a Snowball mic. The Snowflake is a much smaller version that can clip to the top of your laptop, just like the old iSight.
[*] USB missile launcher. A company in Moscone West is showing lots of fun devices, including the USB missile launcher, a folding piano keyboard, and a USB drum pad.
[*] Hydra. Inexpensive, easy to use software that generates HDR images. Unlike most HDR software, you don’t need a tripod to take the individual pictures; it lets you choose matching points in the pictures.
[*] Free beer (after 4PM) and a fast, reliable internet connection at H&R Block’s Blog Spot in Moscone West.
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Worst of show:
[list]
[*] Lack of internet connectivity. The only place to get a fast, reliable wifi connection in Moscone South is the corridor outside the exhibit hall. Microsoft’s Bloggers Lounge has the worst WiFi; it usually took me several tries to connect.
[*] Overpriced food. Don’t buy lunch in Moscone. Go to Chaat Cafe on Third Street, just south of Moscone, or one of the restaurants in Metreon, on Fourth Street north of Moscone.
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Vaporware of the year: Spore. EA says it will be released “some time this year”. Spore has been under development for 4 years by the author of The Sims.
Dishonorable Mention: Pickwick Hotel’s internet connection. It was down most of the time, and when it did work it was unbearably slow. Last night I couldn’t obtain an IP address at all.