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MacWorld Best of Show Awards

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Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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IDG Announced their MacWorld Best of Show awards.

The entire list can be found here. A few hilights:

Elgato Systems EyeTV 200 / EyeHome - The EyeHome hooks up to your Ethernet network and brings your music, photos, and movies from the Mac to your TV, with one-click setup and a handy remote control.

Slim Devices Squeezebox - wired or wireless
streaming of most audio formats or MP3 Internet radio from your Mac to your home stereo.

WiebeTech G5 Jam - increase your PowerMac G5 internal storage to four drives and even RAID their set-up with Mac OS X's Soft RAID utility.

Meanwhile, at CES, one reader pointed us to this External Rechargeable Lithium battery for the iPod bringing you up to 40 hours of run time. No information appears to be yet available at the site.
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2004/01/09/macworld-sf-2004-best-of-show-awards/
Cool!

Good to see a list like this for people like me who don't keep up with the whole event sec. to sec. I think the squeezebox is the most intetresting part from my point of view. And the rechargable iPod batery is cool sounding too.
 
That eye tv has me i want it lol even if i dont understand its ideas or concept all that well
 
This seems a fitting thread to post a warning about a lesser product (not quite the topic, I know).

The new earbuds for the iPod have absolutely no bass. They are shrill and caused me listening fatigue inside of five seconds. I had to reduce volume on my iPod by half to tolerate them. The Sony earbuds (form fitting) sounded better. Standard iPod earbuds sound the best of the three.

Make no mistake, the new earbuds are very comfortable. I would have bought them for sure, had I not been able to test them out in advance. Unfortunately, they just don't hold up.

Just a friendly heads-up to all the iPod fans on this site.

Dan

PS - iPod Mini looks and feels great. Far better than pics on the net.
 
Originally posted by alset
The new earbuds for the iPod have absolutely no bass. They are shrill and caused me listening fatigue inside of five seconds. I had to reduce volume on my iPod by half to tolerate them. The Sony earbuds (form fitting) sounded better. Standard iPod earbuds sound the best of the three.

Make no mistake, the new earbuds are very comfortable. I would have bought them for sure, had I not been able to test them out in advance. Unfortunately, they just don't hold up.
Click to expand...

I don't think you had the earphones on properly. I have a pair of Sony fontopias very similar to the new iPod headphones and they sound absolutely excellent with astounding low end response and crisp highs/mids. However, if the seal between your ear and the headphones is not complete, they become shrill, tinny, and lifeless. The new iPod headphones are designed on the on the same principle and would almost certainly sound shrill with no bass if they were not properly seated in your ears.

They come with different sizes of earpieces because they absolutely must fit in order for the headphones to work properly.

Sony MDR-EX71SL headphones
 
Yeah, not to hijack the thread, but are we talking about the regular earbuds or in the in-ear earbuds? I lost a pair of my Sony in-ear fontopias and was thinking of buying the Apple model as a replacement -- because they block out sound they're great for the gym, etc.

Anyone have any experience with Apple's new white, in-ear earbuds?
 
Originally posted by Sabenth
That eye tv has me i want it lol even if i dont understand its ideas or concept all that well
Click to expand...

Yeah, is it entirely new? It actually looks like exactly what I was hoping for: a way to view pictures, listen to itunes, and watch imovies, over a home network on my home entertainment system (which is in a different room).

And I guess it can be coupled with eye tv, which looks like a subscriptionless tivo. Is that right? Just a PVR/DVR (whatever the acronym is), that uses the mac harddrive. Only problem I see is that it's pretty expensive for not coming with its own harddrive and no service (a la tivo). A tivo costs only $200, and that's with a hard drive. But when has mac stuff been cheap, I guess.
 
That Freeverse controller that can work with the iSight I saw in action, that thing is incredible? Anyone know how that works? I'm thinking it's little gerbils tapping away at keyboards or using joysticks to mimic your movements.

Also not wanting to hijack this post but regarding the headphones, I wish a site like ipodhacks.com or macaddict.com or someone would do a testing of headphones for the iPod with results, either scientific or not-so. I too am slightly disappointed with the Apple headphones (they come out a lot and don't block enough sound) but don't want to walk around with the earmuff type of headphones, nor can afford the Bose noise cancelling. There has to be some happy medium that's stylish like the iPod, has great bass response, is comfy, and shuts out the world. Anyone find such a thing?
 
Originally posted by Photorun
I too am slightly disappointed with the Apple headphones (they come out a lot and don't block enough sound) but don't want to walk around with the earmuff type of headphones, nor can afford the Bose noise cancelling. There has to be some happy medium that's stylish like the iPod, has great bass response, is comfy, and shuts out the world. Anyone find such a thing?
Click to expand...

"Shuts out the world" is going to require either big earmuffs, noise canceling, or plug-style.

I personally like the latter, and have a pair of Etymotic ER-4P phones. They're pricey, but tiny and otherwise perfect.

Etymotic also came out with a less expensive version, the ER-6: http://www.headphone.com/layout.php?topicID=3&subTopicID=26&productID=0020100100 At $130, they're still not cheap, but they get great reviews.

There are also some less expensive and just as good non-Bose noise cancelling headphones, from Sony and others. I'm not familiar with them, but a quick web search should turn them up.
 
Etys Rock!!!!

I too have a pair of Etys - the ER4S - and they are by far the most unbelivable sounding earbuds I have ever heard. The only problem is that you can clearly hear the difference in sampling rates from your ripped MP3s or AACs. If you take the trouble to burn AACs at 320kps (or even better, keep the CD tracks as AIFF files, which don't apply any compression at all) the sound quality is superb.

I also use the Sony MDR-EX71SL's, though I also use a headphone amp. The sonic gain you get by using an amp is huge - with the added benefit of making your iPod louder without touching your files.
 
Re: Cool!

Originally posted by Omad0n
Good to see a list like this for people like me who don't keep up with the whole event sec. to sec. I think the squeezebox is the most intetresting part from my point of view. And the rechargable iPod batery is cool sounding too.
Click to expand...
Can't you just plug an iTrip into the headphone jack of your mac and tune it in on your stereo for ~$30?:confused:
 
I bought an iTrip and set it up and was able to use it for about 2 seconds before giving up. There is so much bleed-in from the other FM stations that no matter what frequency I used the sound quality was unbearable.

I should've bought one of the cassette adapters.
 
Originally posted by Alexander
"Shuts out the world" is going to require either big earmuffs, noise canceling, or plug-style.

I personally like the latter, and have a pair of Etymotic ER-4P phones. They're pricey, but tiny and otherwise perfect.

Etymotic also came out with a less expensive version, the ER-6: http://www.headphone.com/layout.php?topicID=3&subTopicID=26&productID=0020100100 At $130, they're still not cheap, but they get great reviews.

There are also some less expensive and just as good non-Bose noise cancelling headphones, from Sony and others. I'm not familiar with them, but a quick web search should turn them up.
Click to expand...

I have the ER-6's, they are excellent. I tried several noise cancelling headphones but they did not isolate nearly as good as the in-ear ER-6's. The only thing that is a bit annoying is that bone conduction of sounds can be heard like your own breathing (if you are in a quiet setting) or if you tug on the cord it is slightly audible. Very minor though and once some music is playing, even at low levels, it is hardly noticible if noticible at all.
 
Originally posted by Le Big Mac
Yeah, is it entirely new? It actually looks like exactly what I was hoping for: a way to view pictures, listen to itunes, and watch imovies, over a home network on my home entertainment system (which is in a different room).

And I guess it can be coupled with eye tv, which looks like a subscriptionless tivo. Is that right? Just a PVR/DVR (whatever the acronym is), that uses the mac harddrive. Only problem I see is that it's pretty expensive for not coming with its own harddrive and no service (a la tivo). A tivo costs only $200, and that's with a hard drive. But when has mac stuff been cheap, I guess.
Click to expand...

People seem to have the two elgato products mixed up. (I think you have it basically right, tho.)

EyeTV has been around for maybe two years, and I have one. EyeTV is for watching TV on your Mac. In a nutshell, you can watch it live, rewind or fast forward it live, or record it. It saves it in .mov format and programs can be burned to CD or DVD with Toast to work on a DVD player, if I remember correctly.

EyeHome is the new product. Apparently it allows you to access things from your computer on your TV. You can view your iPhoto photos, listen to your iTunes songs, watch your iMovie movies, etc. I don't know all the details.

But basically EyeTV bring your TV to your computer, and EyeHome brings your computer to your TV.

(EDIT--just corrected a typo and added the iMovie part.)
 
Originally posted by tsunake
I don't think you had the earphones on properly. I have a pair of Sony fontopias very similar to the new iPod headphones and they sound absolutely excellent with astounding low end response and crisp highs/mids.
Click to expand...


I tried all three in a row. My friend who had the Sony earbuds (and loves them to death) also agreed that the Apple buds were shrill. I had a good seal. Even if I didn't, chances that a guy who uses another set of in-ear buds would place them improperly are slim to nil.

Dan
 
The Elgato EyeTV sounds very interesting. I wonder if there would be an upgrade price to the EyeTV 200 FireWire digital video recorder? If not would there be a great advantage between the USB & Firewire?
 
Originally posted by Le Big Mac
Only problem I see is that it's pretty expensive for not coming with its own harddrive and no service (a la tivo).
Click to expand...

You will also want to know that you cannot set the bitrate for encoding. I dislike that idea, when you're eating up my precious disk space. I didn't think the picture had high enough FPS, for my taste, either. Two damning traits for a product that initially excited me. Better to get a TiVo and hook it up to your Mac.

Dan
 
Did anyone else spot the MacMice iSight stands? I had been dying to test one before buying and was not disappointed in the least. Well, that's not true... They had boxes of them stacked up but they are only available for purchase via web-order. I would have bought one on the spot, otherwise.

A side note about them (me and my damn consumer warnings, huh?) - the stand that plugs directly into FW rather than sitting on a base on your desk seems to stress the FW port BADLY. Every time I adjusted the iSight I felt the port give. The weight of the arm also seemed to create unwanted wear to the port. I am certain that using one of the arms for a bit will kill ports, which are very expensive to fix/replace. Don't buy this model of the stand without checking into it, or you may run a risk of aging your Mac's FW at an accelerated rate.

Ending on a happy note, if you wondered how well the desk model holds up, I'll reiterate and say that it rocks.

Dan
 
Originally posted by wdlove
The Elgato EyeTV sounds very interesting. I wonder if there would be an upgrade price to the EyeTV 200 FireWire digital video recorder? If not would there be a great advantage between the USB & Firewire?
Click to expand...

No update pricing, but I would think Firewire would be better unless you're low on hard drive space.

I have the USB one (that's what I get for buying it early :) ) and there is about a 3 second delay between "realtime" and when it shows up on your computer screen. It doesn't cause a problem at all except when you're changing channels (it goes through your cable box to the EyeTV box to your computer). I would assume with the Firewire version the delay would be reduced.

After looking quickly on their website, I see that the Firewire version also has "DVD-quality" MPEG-2 video. The quality of video on the USB version is MPEG-1 I believe. It's good for normal viewing, but if you're fussy or want better quality, then I would go for the Firewire version.

There are more features on both versions (skipping commercials, etc.) you can check out on the website.

Does anyone here have a Firewire EyeTV (EyeTV 200)?
 
Originally posted by alset
You will also want to know that you cannot set the bitrate for encoding. I dislike that idea, when you're eating up my precious disk space. I didn't think the picture had high enough FPS, for my taste, either. Two damning traits for a product that initially excited me. Better to get a TiVo and hook it up to your Mac.

Dan
Click to expand...

Did you see it in person, or just go by the specs? I'm just curious, because I was wondering if you saw the Firewire or USB version. The Firewire version's supposed to be a lot better than the USB version, although I haven't seen it yet. It might give people a better idea on whether EyeTV is for them.

I've gotten used to the USB version and am happy with it overall, but it's true there is a difference in quality between what you'd see on a TV and what you'd see on EyeTV USB.
 
Originally posted by autrefois
Did you see it in person, or just go by the specs?
Click to expand...

In person and spoke with a rep. He told me no bitrate settings. Also, the box does the converting, so no strain on your Mac to do that. Mac takes the burden of playback, just as a side-note. It looked pretty impressive, but I couldn't handle the inability to specify settings - obviously, I don't need to encode the Simpsons at such a high bitrate as I would use for live-actor television, so I am wary about eating up disk space.

Dan
 
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