One of the trends I saw on the floor at Macworld | iWorld 2012 is an increasing number of companies producing high-end audio and home theater equipment to use with your Mac and/or iOS devices. Here are some standouts from the show floor.

iTunes may be great for syncing your iOS devices, or buying songs, movies, apps and books, but it’s not exactly the most nimble music player anymore. Here are five great Mac-compatible alternatives that focus on the music, without the bloat that iTunes brings.

President Obama’s State of the Union address will be carried on all the major broadcast networks, as well as on all the cable news channels. But if you’re unable to watch on TV, the speech will be available online and on multiple mobile and connected platforms.

R Stevens, an independent web comic creator who pens Diesel Sweeties, has already created an iBooks edition of his most recent monthly archive that’s available free to read on the iPad. It shows a side of the tool that could catch on with independent artists and creators.

Following Apple’s unveiling of e-book publishing platform iBooks Author Thursday, I reached out to Vook, the startup founded in 2009 by Brad Inman that provides a top-to-bottom publishing experience using a Software-as-a-Service model. Vook sees both flattery and opportunity in Apple’s e-book software.

Although devices that shoot high-definition video are cheaper and more ubiquitous than ever, amateur videos themselves have not gotten any better to watch. That’s where a new iPhone app called Magisto comes in: It turns any simple iPhone video into a fully edited movie in minutes.

Apple has finally made it very clear exactly which media content can be made available in the cloud in which countries for Automatic Downloads and Apple TV streaming, as well as listing the 17 countries where iTunes Match is available.