MacWorld SF for the most part was all about the new user experience. For long time or power users, finding personal satisfaction required roaming the vast floor space at the Moscone Center.
There were over 275 exhibitors, with recognisable names in software and hardware like Adobe, Extensis, Filemaker, Microsoft, Nikon, and Quark taking up large amounts of floor space. However with the exception of Griffin Technologies and Roxio, most of the exciting offerings at the show were from the smaller manufacturers.
My runners-up in the Best of Show software category are Ambrosia Software; long time shareware manufacturer of games and utilites; and relative newcomer; Panic. These companies both make practical, stable software cheaply, which some of the bigger names might want to take stock of.
Ambrosia recently released their digital recording application WireTap Pro, as well as an OS X version of their classic game Aperion. WireTap Pro allows users record audio from any running application as well as any input device on your Mac including the microphone, line-in or headset and save it in a variety of formats including mp3, AAC, Quicktime or AIFF.
Panic is a newer arrival in the Mac shareware market and produce a number of cool utilities including Transmit; an FTP client; Unison; a USENET client; and some smaller fun utilities like Destastic; which allows you to make notes on a computer desktop like a whiteboard; and Stattoo; which gives users widgets for mail, weather and time in a translucent desktop bar.
However my Best of Show goes to a tiny start-up company called Delicious Monster who have produced a brilliant piece of software called Delicious Library. Delicious Library allows users to catalogue their books, CDs and DVDs into an easily accessible database. What makes this different is armed with UPC or ISBN numbers and an internet connection the application will pull in all the appropriate information, the application also allows users with an Apple iSight to scan the UPC codes directly into the database. The programme also allows you to import other catalogues your may have created in another programme or have saved in a number of formats and if you have stuff that isn`t in Amazon database where Delicious Library pulls their information from your can enter it manually. For people who value their collections this is the ideal tool for managing and keeping track of your library.
Next time Delicious Library vs Books.
