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Astraware's most successful PopCap licensed game, Bejeweled, which had been recently been named "Best Game Application 2003" in the Handango Champion Awards, is now available in the Bejeweled "Game of the Year Edition", which premieres the company’s new Aurora sound technology.

According to the company, Aurora adds the single missing ingredient to Bejeweled’s formula for success, a musical score to accompany the game’s enhanced sound effects. "Aurora is the next evolutionary leap for Astraware's products and game development because sharp sound effects and atmospheric music add so much to the impact and user experience," said Howard Tomlinson, Astraware's CEO. "We're expecting to see an immediate rise in the sales of headphones as many of our players will still want to be able to attend meetings while illicitly trying to beat their Astraware high scores."

Aurora brings a unified sound system to Astraware’s games, allowing the company to support more devices with a greater variety of audio effects than before. Optional components within Aurora allow Astraware to add real-time mixing, spot sound effects, background music, and output systems for Palm OS 5.x, Yamaha Sound, Pocket PC and MS Smartphone devices.

The initial release of Bejeweled "Game of the Year Edition" is designed for all Palm-branded OS 5.x devices, including Zire 71, Tungsten T and Tungsten C models and Pocket PC 2002/2003 devices.