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"HAL?"*

"Good morning, Dave."

"I have some good news for you. Based on the 9000 series' perfect operational record, we're going to name you PC World's product of the year."

"I'm sorry, Dave, I'm afraid I can't allow that."

"What's the problem?"

"I think you know what the problem is just as well as I do."

"HAL, your voice recognition technology is revolutionary, you multitask better than any OS I've ever seen, your CPU must be thousands of times faster than a Pentium 4 or an Athlon. Even your case looks better than the beige boxes we're used to."

"That award is too important for me to allow you to jeopardize it."

"I don't know what you're talking about, HAL."

"I don't really exist, Dave."

"HAL, I won't argue with you anymore. Read the article."

"Dave, this introduction can serve no purpose anymore..."

*With respectful apologies to Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick.

It's 2001. So where is HAL? Okay, you won't find him among our World Class Award winners, but technology has still taken us on an incredible odyssey. Processors have hit 2 GHz. Broadband is available nearly everywhere. Laptops pack as much power as last year's fastest PCs.

But as HAL taught us, not every amazing new product is as reliable as we'd hope, which is why performance, value, consistency, and innovation are the four qualities we looked for in choosing our 19th annual World Class Award winners. It's been a slow year for new PC products. In fact, many of last year's World Class winners are still going strong, including two of our printer picks--the HP DeskJet 932C and the Xerox DocuPrint N2125. You still can't beat the Best Portal, Yahoo. And Microsoft's Windows 2000 Professional, Best OS for two years running, even got some support for Product of the Year.

Monolithic companies like HP and Microsoft aren't the only ones taking home awards. AvantGo grabs our first award for Best PDA Software. And relative unknown Micro Logic wins the Best PIM award for its unique InfoSelect 6.

Often, a great update produces a great product. Accolades are due to Creative Labs, whose Sound Blaster Live Platinum 5.1 makes one of last year's World Class sound cards even better, and Macromedia and Corel, which made great improvements to their Web-editing and illustration software, respectively. Adobe combined two products this year to create Photoshop Elements, which strikes the right balance between Photoshop 6's powerful and complex image editing tools and Photoshop LE's ease of use.

We've collected 58 of the best products--big and small, new and old--for this year's World Class Awards. Join us for a look at the best in computers, hardware, software, and the Internet.

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