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 in San Francisco. Jim Dalrymple, News Director for MacCentral and Macworld.com, presented the awards on the show floor today.

"This was one of the strongest Macworld's for new and innovative products in recent years," said Dalrymple. "Developers are showing their ingenuity in product development and continually raise the bar."

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 2005 are:

Apple Shuffle (www.apple.com)

Apple's $99 iPod Shuffle is an incredibly small music player with a really different user interface: it doesn't have a display. It's meant to shuffle through a collection of your music randomly placed on your iPod via iTunes' new "autofill" feature. (Booth 1317)

Xerox Phaser EX7750 (www.xerox.com)

Xerox has teamed up with EFI to introduce the Phaser EX7750, a color laser printer aimed at graphic professionals who need to produce color-accurate documents such as brochures, mailers, and printing proofs. The EX7750 combines the performance of Xerox's Phaser 7750 printer (which prints at 35 pages per minute) with EFI's Fiery network color server for improved color management and job control. The system starts at $17,899. (Booth 1043)

TEN Technology naviPlay (www.tentechnology.com/products/products_naviplay.php)

iPod users finally get a truly portable, wireless headphone solution with the Bluetooth-powered naviPlay. A small transmitter fits any dockable iPod, and you plug your favorite headphones into the lightweight receiver/remote control. With 30-foot range, your iPod sounds great from across the room or deep in your backpack. A version bundled with HP's Bluetooth Stereo Headphones - which include playback controls on the headphones themselves - provides a completely cord-free experience. (Booth 807)

Griffin Technology SmartDeck (www.griffintechnology.com/products/smartdeck/index.php)

A spate of (expensive) adapters have been released to let iPod users control their players from their car stereos. But if your auto has a good ol' cassette deck, Griffin's SmartDeck uses special sensing technology to let you use your car stereo's controls to play/pause, skip to the next or previous track, and stop. (Ejecting the adapter or switching to another input even pauses the unit.) You get much of the functionality of expensive adapters at a fraction of the price; you also get better sound quality than other cassette adapters thanks to automatic volume control. (Booth 1917)

Apple Mac mini (www.apple.com)

Truly the most affordable Mac ever at $499 or $599, this tiny (6.5 inch square by 2 inches tall) silver box can plug right into your existing monitor, keyboard, and mouse. Switchers, get ready for the big event. (Booth 1317)

Roxio Popcorn (www.roxio.com)

Popcorn puts a friendly face on the backup of unencrypted DVDs, using Roxio's proven Toast engine and an intuitive visual interface. You can select which video, audio and language tracks you wish to back up, and Popcorn will compress the video of an entire 9GB dual-layer DVD to fit a standard 4.7GB DVD while maintaining high quality and full audio fidelity. (Booth 517)

ATI Radeon X800 XT Mac Edition (www.ati.com)

ATI Technologies Inc. now offers a graphics card that can keep up with the Power Mac G5. About twice as fast as its predecessor, the X800 can drive a 30-inch Apple Cinema HD display and a legacy Apple 23-inch Cinema HD display together thanks to dual-link DVI and ADC connectors. More than just a great card for gaming, the Radeon X800 has practical applications for 3D designers, users of Apple's Motion, and other applications that leverage OpenGL. (Booth 2217)

MacSoft Close Combat: First to Fight (www.macsoftgames.com)

MacSoft's forthcoming squad-based tactical action shooter, Close Combat: First to Fight, lets gamers experience what it's like to be a marine working in close-quarters urban combat using the same tactics and techniques real Marines use when under fire. The game will be released simultaneously for Mac, PC and Xbox. (Games Pavilion)

Bare Bones Software TextWrangler (www.barebones.com/products/textwrangler/index.shtml)

With the latest additions to TextWrangler, Bare Bones Software's consumer level text editor, Bare Bones has significantly raised the bar for what people expect from an application. Not only has TextWrangler boosted its feature set, but the company has also decided to give it away free from its Web site. (Booth 849)

Panic Inc. Transmit (www.panic.com/transmit)

Panic has taken one of the best ftp applications and made it even better by incorporating many features that Mac users expect from their applications. The look and feel and numerous additions to the application are sure to make it a favorite among users. (Booth 1951)

Corriente Networks Elektron (www.corriente.net)

Elektron protects your small business' wireless network with RADIUS/802.1X authentication. To assure that your network is free from snoops and unauthorized users, Elektron requires each user to have a unique name and password in order to gain access. The product generates a separate encryption key for each user to keep network traffic private. (Booth 849)

Better Energy Systems Solio (www.solio.com)

Solio is a solar powered battery recharger for small electronic products such as iPods, cell phones, PDAs, digital cameras, GPS systems, game consoles, and more, which connect to the unit via interchangeable adapters. The device, when closed, sits in the palm of your hand. To charge it, simply expose the three solar panels to the sun's rays. If no sun is available, you can always charge it via the wall socket.

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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 garners an average of 1.6 million unique visitors. The Mac Publishing sites include: Macworld.com, MacCentral.com, ProductFinder.com, PlaylistMag.com, and JavaWorld.com.

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