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 MacNow Magazine's
1997 Reviewer's Choice Awards
- by WilliamLH
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Well folks, it's the end of 1997, and we are beginning
1998. But before 1997 goes, I want to present the first
annual MacNow Magazine Reviewer's Choice Awards. These
awards are for the most outstanding software products, in my
opinion, of 1997.
And now, in no particular order. . .Drum Roll please. .
.the MacNow Magazine Reviewer's Choice Award winners for
1997 are. . . .
Apple
Computer, Inc.'s Mac OS 8
The best Operating System of the decade, as far as I can
see! ;->
Yes, it has a 5xxx-6xxx bug (which Apple says will be fixed
with the release of Mac OS 8.1), and there are several other
issues with it, but even so, it is by far the easiest and
best Operating System on the planet! Kudos to the Apple OS
development team. Now, keep it up; we're expecting the same
greatness in future releases!
Claris
Corp.'s ClarisWorks Office 5.0
Office 5.0 is a killer new application program from Claris
that leaves its competition in the dust. If you have used
any other ClarisWorks versions, this one will blow you away.
With its Internet and document linking abilities, it is a
strong multi-purpose application for business or home.
Claris
Corp.'s FileMaker Pro 4.0
Do you do databases? Do you do the web? Do you do databases
on the web? Then do FileMaker Pro 4.0, the most
comprehensive database program on the market! If you are
using 3.0 and already porting your databases to the Web, you
don't really have to upgrade to 4.0. But if you are in need
of a database-to-web solution, FileMaker Pro 4.0 is a
worthwhile investment. And it is cross-compatible, with both
Win95 and WinNT versions! (Unfortunately, FileMaker Pro 4.0
does not run on UNIX-based servers at this time, and there
are no plans from Claris to make a UNIX port any time in the
future.)
Claris
Corp.'s Em@iler 2.0.1
Since Netscape Navigator came with Netscape Mail, I'd always
stayed with the Netscape product for my e-mail. Then came
Claris Em@iler 2.0, and I said, "See ya later, Netscape
Mail!"
Adobe
Systems, Inc.'s PhotoShop
4.0.1
What can I say? With its new non-destructive layers,
recordable actions, automatic PDF ability, and mega included
filter effects, Adobe PhotoShop 4.0.1 stays at the top of
the image editing market. Although some much-used functions
such as the crop tool are often hidden, PhotoShop 4.0.1 is
the only true pro photo editing package around. But it costs
a bundle, and craves mucho RAM.
Honorable Mention:
MicroFrontier,
Inc.'s Enhance 4.0
Though we all know Adobe PhotoShop 4.0.1 is the industry
standard, I have to give an Honorable Mention to Enhance
4.0. It's PhotoShop Lite for the pro and non-pro. No, it
does not do all that PhotoShop does (yet!), but for those
without a PhotoShop budget, Enhance 4.0 is the next best
thing. And future versions may give Adobe a run for their
money, now that MicroFrontier has gone public!
Casady
& Greene, Inc.'s Conflict Catcher
4.0
If you own a Macintosh, and it has more than one extension,
you'd better have Conflict Catcher 4.0 -- don't start up
your Mac without it. It also appears to help smooth out some
of the System 7-to-Mac OS 8 conflicts that might exist,
though there are not many that I have seen to date. (Notice
I say to date. ;->)
Hotline
Communications, Ltd.'s HotLine Client
1.2GM
HotLine Client is a new technology that allows a registered
user access to HotLine Servers and chat (a Personal Server
is available as a separate software purchase, and only
requires that your Mac or PC have a TCP/IP connection). You
can also download files, and continue the downloads where
you left off if you get disconnected. It's hard to describe
-- it's like IRC on steroids; definitely a good
communications product for individuals or for businesses
with on-the-road or telecommuting employees. (You do need
Open Transport for both the 68K and Power PC versions.)
Sienna
Software, Inc.'s Starry Night
Deluxe
This piece of software is something that knocked my socks
off the first time I saw it at MacWorld Expo in Boston, and
continues to amaze me every time I load it! Starry Night
Deluxe is an astronomy program that allows you to view the
heavens from several different points of view, explore
stars, see QuickTime movies of planets, fly-by the Earth,
and view many other celestial scenes too numerous to mention
here. You can travel forward or back in time to see what the
sky looked like on almost any given day or night in recorded
history (a slight exaggeration, but you won't be able to
tell!), and you can watch the sky in time lapse. This
program not only allows you to look at the heavens as they
were on your birth date with incredible accuracy, it lets
you have fun and learn in the process, while exploring
thousands of celestial objects. NASA could not have done
much better!
Imagedrome,
Inc.'s 3D Objects
Imagedrome has a line of royalty-free 3D objects for use in
print media, Internet or any other application that requires
a 3D object. These folks do excellent 3D rendering, and put
out a quality product consisting of low, medium and high
resolution images in 3D.
DeLorme's
Phone Search USA
Always looking for phone numbers for those long lost friends
and family members, or that business you visited while at
MacWorld Expo? Phone Search USA is your answer.
GoLive
Systems, Inc.'s GoLive CyberStudio
2.0
GoLive Cyberstudio 2.0 is the best HTML/Site editor on the
market today. You can add new tags as they come out, use
WebObjects or Java applets, and create site projects to keep
big sites under control. This is a professional's web
editor, and the price reflects this, but with two updates
out in under a year, the programmers at GoLive seem to want
to remain number one for a long time to come.
Extensis
Corp.'s Intellihance 3.0
This PhotoShop-compliant plug-in is a scanner's best friend.
It allows several general adjustments, and automatically
makes those adjustments as you scan an image in, giving you
a clean scan. Intellihance 3.0 requires some tweaking of
settings on your individual machine, but the included manual
gives some very good basics from which you can start.
Extensis
Corp.'s Portfolio 3.0
This product is for the graphics, multimedia or sound
designer. It allows the cataloging of graphics, sounds,
QuickTime Movies and QuickTime VR Files, text documents,
etc., in almost any quantity. It then allows you to share
the resulting file/catalog with other machines over networks
or the Internet, so that all involved with the project at
hand have access to the same files. The only downside to
this program is that it does not allow the exporting of
thumbnails. If Extensis adds this feature, they will have a
product second to none, and hard to catch!
Metrowerks,
Inc.'s CodeWarrior Discover
Programming Edition 2
If you want to learn programming on the Macintosh, and
eventually (once you've learned the basics) be able to
program for different platforms, start with CodeWarrior
Discover Programming Edition 2. The price on this program is
quite attractive, and the included online documentation is
superb. This is a very good beginner's program, and
Metrowerks also offers more advanced programming products.
(Note that this program takes up to 94 Megabytes of hard
drive space, so be sure you have that much free. . .and I
recommend quite a bit more.)
Symantec
Corp.'s Norton Utilities 3.5.1
Do you own a Macintosh with a hard drive? Have you just
upgraded to Mac OS 8? Then you should own Norton Utilities
3.5.1. Norton Utilities 3.5.1 is so good that it should come
bundled with all Mac OS computers. I did run into some
problems with NU 3.5.1 on a PowerBook 520c with Mac OS 8
installed -- the 520c has a 68LC040 processor -- but on all
other machines that I tested it on, it did its jobs and did
them well. (If you are using NU 3.5, there is no reason to
upgrade to this new version unless you also upgraded to Mac
OS 8.)
Mainstay's
PageCharmer 1.0
This first version of PageCharmer is surprising. It makes it
simple to create and use Java applets, whether for inclusion
into Web pages, CD-ROM content or any other place you can
use Java. Its minimum requirements should be read and
adhered to, and a basic working knowledge of file structure
is needed, but it is a very good Java-based application
program -- for a first version, that is. Keep it up,
Mainstay.
Alien
Skin Software's Eye Candy 3.0
If you use PhotoShop, Enhance or another PhotoShop-compliant
image editing program, Eye Candy 3.0 is your plug-in. With
twenty different filters packed into this release, special
effects become fun instead of tedious. It boasts one of the
friendliest interfaces of any plug-in I've worked with, and
custom effects/settings can be saved and reused.
DataViz,
Inc.'s MacLink Plus Translators Pro
9.7
Do you have friends or clients who are on a PC? Do they send
you PC files? If the answer to these questions is yes, then
you must have MacLink Plus Translators Pro 9.7. It will
automatically convert PC files to Mac files, and vice
versa.
WilliamLH
<reviewer@mymac2u.com>
http://www.macnow.com/issues/1998/01/revchoice97.html
This article is Copyright © 1998 WilliamLH. All rights
reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission is prohibited.
WilliamLH's reviews can be viewed at WilliamLH's Reviews, and he is the creator of The Mac Trading Post (tm).
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