January 11, 1998

Brought to you by Macs Only! Copyright 1999 by Bill Fox

I actually think naming the "Best of XXXX" is a bit pretentious for web sites. Most major ones have done it already. Macs Only! has done it for the past couple of years (here's 1997) and I've been thinking about it. Major magazines have always done this but they present their awards at a public event in a formal way, usually over a dinner, with something tangible for the winners. This is the way it should be done but web sites or columns on web sites just list their picks, either done by the columnist, editorial staff or by reader nominations/votes.

After thinking it over, I decided that it is worth doing, not so much because the "recipients" will feel particularly honored by Macs Only!'s opinion, although many have written back in the past to say that they do, but mostly because the major magazines occasionally overlook those deserving special recognition. And, after all, Macs Only! has an annual "circulation" of nearly a million which is not insignificant. The other reason is that doing so defines an editorial direction, i.e. what Macs Only! thinks is important provides a context for readers who venture to the site.

Okay, so here goes:

Best Computer Under $2,000 -- Apple iMac

This is a no-brainer. The iMac is the Apple paradigm of "elegant simplicity" personified. It recaptured that Apple mantra that had been lost during years of drifting away and towards the confusing complexity of the PC world. With a general consumer price point and a blazingly fast G3 processor it resonated further with computer consumers. From what I can tell, the iMac has been a quality computer as well. Finally, it taps innovation by completely embodying USB ports, shedding Apple ADB and serial ports, and eschewing the floppy diskette drive as passé. Best of all, Apple has sold hundreds of thousands of them recapturing a significant portion of its lost market share. Yes, there still is "the rest of us" whom will gladly sacrifice flexibility and the confusing intricacies that it brings for something that easily, quickly, cheaply and always does the few simple tasks that we want a computer to.

Honorable Mention: Apple PowerBook G3 Series 233/12.1"--While the iMac is it for Apple this year, one can't ignore the beautiful new PowerBook G3 Series with its black color emblazoned with the large white Apple logo, superfast G3 processors running from 233 to 300 MHz and beautiful active matrix screens running from 12.1" to 14.1". Apple finally got it right at the entry end with a 233 MHz G3 CPU, 512K backside cache and 12.1" active matrix screen for a penny under $2000.

Best Computer Accelerator -- A 5-way Tie, well, kind of:

Thankfully, speed has become a major factor of Apple's paradigm with the PowerMac G3's last year and the G3 CPU cards that have allowed "legacy" Power Macintoshes and clones to keep and even exceed pace. Macs Only! troubled over which is best and couldn't decide on just one with several significant and different directions taken by the CPU upgrade card manufacturers. So Macs Only! took the easiest way out and declared a 5-way tie.

PowerLogix PowerForce G3 220/110 and PowerForce ZIF G3 400 -- PowerLogix is recognized for capturing both ends of the G3 upgrade scale for the most recent PowerMacs and clones, including Apple's newest PowerMac G3s. The PowerForce G3 220/110 brought speedy and low-cost G3 CPU upgrades to the masses. This card is legendary for its ability to be tweaked to 300 MHz and beyond, runs in the ubiquitous PowerComputing PowerBase computers as well as the 604-based Macs and clones and most recently costs under $320. At the other end of the spectrum, PowerLogix produced the first G3 CPU upgrade ZIF cards for the PowerMac G3s. This remarkable development allows PowerMac G3 owners to keep from getting lost in the dust of the rapidly increasing MHz race.

NewerTech MAXpowr G3 PDS and NUpowr G3 -- Newer Technology, Inc., pioneered the technology for bringing G3 power to the original NuBus PowerMacs and received a best of show award at Macworld SF '98 for the G3 CPU upgrade cards. Unfortunately, Newer had manufacturing problems and it took over 6 months to get them out in quantities. Newer is given Macs Only!'s recognition for the idea and the guts to be first to commit even if they were beaten to the shipping market by Sonnet Technology. Newer also was first to bring G3 power to two older PowerBooks, the 1400 and 2400, turning them into speed demons almost as fast as the newer PowerBook G3 and G3 Series.

Vimage Vpower PF/PM 240 -- Vimage made its mark with remarkable technology to bring G3 speed to the last of the Performas and 603e-based PowerMacs, the 4400, 5x00, 6360, 6400 and 6500's, and Tanzania-based Mac clones like APS M*Powers and Motorola Starmaxes. The G3 cards designed and built by Interware, fit into the L2 cache slot on these computers. This ingenious design filled out the range of PowerMacs that can be upgraded to G3 CPUs so that almost every recent PowerMac, Performa, PowerBook and clone has a G3 option.

Best Independent Mac Web Sites

Independent web sites are those that are not published by a major manufacturer or a retailer or their employees. This has been a difficult category and Macs Only! has handled it differently each year so why break with tradition. This year the category was subdivided into several subcategories that reflect my vision for Apple as described last January '98 in Macs Only! "The Good Fight '98" -- i.e. Quality, Elegant Simplicity, Innovation and Speed -- plus news.

QUALITY: MacFixit -- Ted Landau's excellent web site continues to be the very best, timely and comprehensive, web site to learn about software problems and how to deal with them. Honorable Mention: VersionTracker for keeping up with new and improved software versions.

ELEGANT SIMPLICITY: iMac2Day -- I just had to give this award to the best web site focussed on the iMac. iMac2Day was founded by Jeff Keller, who formerly brought us PowerWatch, and is now in the good editorial hands of John Engler. It was not only one of the first iMac sites, has the best graphics and significant iMac news but it persists today while many have fallen by the wayside or are simply an adjunct page to another web site. I couldn't have installed my VRAM, RAM and iPort upgrades without the tutorial in iMac2Day and I am sure that is true for many people. Honorable Mention: The iMac Channel for the broadest collection of news on the iMac.

INNOVATION: Apple Computer's USB Site -- There aren't many, if any, independent Mac sites that I am aware of that are devoted to one or a selection of the emerging personal computing technologies used by Apple like the Universal Serial Bus, FireWire, DVD, RISC processors, LCD monitors or miniaturization. I think Apple did an outstanding job of introducing USB technology on its web site as well as in the iMac. Therefore, I am breaking my own rule to recognize Apple. In a way this is also recognition of the outstanding job Apple has done in making over its web site and making it the most informative and useful web site by a major manufacturer.

SPEED: Accelerate your Mac! -- Mike Breeden continues to produce the very best, most comprehensive and informative web site that is devoted to speed whether cpu accelerators, drives, graphics or anything else related to speed like certain games or computer systems. Mike also gets Macs Only!'s Mac Cojones Award for taking a PowerBook G3 Series to a Windows PC computer show and blowing everyone away with his standup, ad hoc demo. Honorable Mention: Bare Feats for being the fast food of speed, i.e. it's brief and hits the spot.

NEWS: MacSurfer's Headline News -- Newspapers, wire services and web sites are all scoured for the latest news and posted as a click-through headline on Phil Pearson's super news indexing web site. Honorable Mention: deal-mac for providing news on the best deals available for Mac, peripherals, components and software.

 

Best New Mac Software -- Microsoft Office 98 for the Macintosh

There is no question in my mind that this remake of Microsoft's office productivity package was a key development in Apple's recovery. I think it was THE software linchpin for Apple during 1998. In delivering this popular and ubiquitous software suite specially designed for the Mac and not a port, with features only available to the Mac and with a five-year commitment to keep it up to date with the Windows version, the message was clearly that Microsoft thought the Mac had a future and so should everyone else. While Apple has yet to break back into the enterprise market in a big way, a market where office productivity suites reign as the core software, Office 98 at least helped stem the Mac decline and formed the basis for a recovery.

Honorable Mention: Apple Mac OS 8.5/8.5.1 -- The latest version of the Mac OS was touted by Steve Jobs and Apple as a whole new Mac for $99. It does have several great new features like Sherlock, AppleScripting all over the place and a PowerPC-native Finder plus a huge number of lesser but highly useful ones. I love Mac OS 8.5 and recommend it to every one. It is terrific but it is not quite the same leap that 8.0, last year's winner, took from 7.6. Sonata (Mac OS 9?) or Mac OS X will make another great leap later in 1999.

Honorable Mention: Aspyr Media Tomb Raider II -- Games are back on the Mac and 3Dfx has been where it's at! Excellent games are critical to the recovery of the Mac and will be a hot field in 1999. It was a difficult choice to pick a representative because there have finally been a series of excellent games for the Mac. I love playing Quake, Myth and Unreal. However, Tomb Raider II offers the outstanding rendering of 3Dfx graphics combined with fast-paced action, brainers and terrific animation of the lead character Lara Croft.

 

 

Congratulations and many thanks from Macs Only!

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