The Cube's not the only Appleite to win an award recently. Sure, it's great when the stars win their accolades, because it keeps the whole show in the public eye and really tugs at the heartstrings. But what of the unsung heroes behind the scenes? What about all those tireless techs who worked so hard to make the production a success? The average shmoe may overlook the "Best Sound Editing" award when there's a close race for "Best Actor," but nevertheless, the technical awards are an important way to honor the nameless, faceless folks who scramble like mad to make sure the stars get their chance to shine.

That's why we're proud to announce that Apple Computer has just won ZDNet's Support Star Award, which serves to recognize outstanding achievement in the fields of customer satisfaction and technical support. What's even more gratifying is that this is a "User's Choice" award, which means that the winner is chosen by actual customers who use the company's products and services-- so you know it means something real, since it comes from the trenches. In addition to finding Apple's support web site "extremely easy" to navigate, reportedly users who needed to phone Apple for tech support spent less time on hold and wound up speaking to technicians who were both "courteous and knowledgeable." Based on those factors, most respondents agreed that they'd "recommend purchasing another Apple computer" in the future.

So, kudos to Apple's support staff! Sometimes it's easy to forget that while Apple's tech support policies have declined somewhat over the years, the company's technical support engineers are still head and shoulders above the rest. Or, at least, most of the rest; as any longtime AtAT viewer knows, wherever Apple goes, Dell follows, and this is no exception. Dell is Apple's Support Star co-winner this year, actually surpassing Apple's ranking when it comes to the "professional courtesy" of its support engineers. (Hey, that's not too surprising; we imagine fielding so many calls about "cracks" in G4 Cubes would make anyone a little cranky.) But even though Apple has to share the spotlight with Dell, that in no way diminishes the accomplishment of the brave souls manning its phones. Congratulations, people... and thanks. Now, about that crash-on-wake problem on our PowerBook...