Leading up to the release of Mac OS X back in 2001, many users were worried about compatibility with Mac OS 9 and below. Mac OS X was completely different from its predecessors, and only some Mac OS 9 applications that were “Carbonized” would run natively in Mac OS X. Users would have lost access to all of their older applications and documents if Apple didn’t create a Classic environment that emulated Mac OS 9 from within Mac OS X. However, Classic reached its end of life in Mac OS X v10.4, and later versions of OS X didn’t include it at all. Also, since Apple had made the switch from PowerPC to Intel-based machines, any new Apple computers that ran on Intel processors couldn’t use Classic, even if they were running Mac OS X 10.4 or earlier.

For those who have legacy applications that need to be used, there are two possible solutions. If you have a relatively old Macintosh lying around that’s capable of running older versions of Mac OS, you could boot it into OS 9 and run the application on that computer. If you don’t own an older Macintosh or don’t find that to be a practical solution, you can try SheepShaver, a PowerPC emulator that runs under Mac OS X. The project began over 10 years ago as a commercial application for BeOS, and is now free and open-source and runs on multiple platforms, including Windows and Linux. The Mac version of SheepShaver is a universal binary that can run natively on any Intel-based Mac.

Before you decide to try SheepShaver though, keep in mind that it is not intended for a typical Mac user, and requires users to obtain a ROM file and perform a variety of steps, which is outlined in this helpful step-by-step tutorial. If you decide to try SheepShaver out for yourself, let us know how it goes in the comments.

For more details on SheepShaver, including the somewhat complicated set up process, read TidBITS.

Product [SheepShaver]

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Apple has released an update to Boot Camp.  The update is pretty slim on details. Here’s what it has to say…

This update improves the performance of the Apple Multi-Touch trackpad when running Microsoft Windows XP and Windows Vista on a Mac computer using Boot Camp.

The release also has a link to additional information about the update, but the link is currently broken. Though details are a little less verbose than they could be, I think it’s safe to say this is a welcomed update to all new MacBook owners who use Boot Camp considering how badly the trackpad has worked under Windows in the past. Though, if ArsTechnica is correct, this update just swaps one kind of broken for another.

Originally, the cursor moved erratically no matter what, but now that’s been fixed. The problems now relate to recognition between left and right clicks, and moving the cursor and scrolling.  If you ask me, this is still an improvement. You could solve all of these problems by getting VMWare Fusion and virtualizing Windows. Or, better yet, buy a mouse.

Read [support.apple.com] Via [ArsTechnica]

Full Story » | Written by Jake Gaecke for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Today, Parallels announced the availability of their virtualization software Desktop version 4.0. It has a slew of new features, such as Modality, Smart Mount, 64 bit support and Speech Recognition. It’s also said to be 50% faster than version 3.0. You can buy the package for $79.99, or upgrade from version 3.0 for $39.99.

I’ve been using VMware Fusion now for almost a year, but the new features included in Parallels Desktop 4.0 are tempting me a bit to switch. Here’s the breakdown of why I’m tempted.

• Modality - This feature allows you to scale the virtualization window down. This is not the same as changing the virtualized resolution. Think of picture in picture for computing. This allows you to see multiple virtualized operating systems at once, though the reduced size will also reduce the usability of said VM. Still, this could prove to be useful.
• Smart Mount - Parallels finally listened to its Mom and started sharing nicely. Smart Mount allows you to have an external HDD or other device mounted to OS X and any running VMs at the same time.
• 64 bit support - Now Windows can go from off to BSOD faster than ever before!
• Speech Recognition - The idea of talking to a computer and getting it to do something sounds awesome but never ends up working for me. I feel too dumb talking to my computer, especially when it doesn’t work all of the time. It has to work at least 95% of the time for it to even be an option for me. Right now, I see this as a gimicky feature, but I like the idea, and the technology has to start from somewhere. Maybe in the future this will prove to be amazing.
• iPhone Access - This is a bit deceiving. You can control if a VM is on or not, and that’s pretty much it. Of course, you could already do with if you buy Jaadu for the iPhone which is infinitely more useful.

This seems to be a pretty solid update to Parallels Desktop. I’m still not sure if it’s enough to take me away from VMware Fusion, but I’m thinking about it.

A note to Parallels Desktop 3.0 users. If you purchased your software after September 1, 2008 then you are entitled to a free upgrade. Congrats!

Product [Parallels Desktop 4.0]

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Been wanting to run Windows applications on your Mac or Linux machine? Well, on Tuesday, October 28th, you’ll be able to download the full version Crossovers, the corporate-supported version of Wine, from Codeweavers for free.

And you have President Bush to thank for it. Kind of.

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports:

In July, St. Paul software developer CodeWeavers came up with the gimmick to make its products available free for a day if any one of five positive (but seemingly unlikely at the time) things happened during Bush’s last six months in office: gas drops to $2.79 a gallon, milk drops to $3.50 a gallon, U.S. jobs exceed 138 million, the Twin Cities median home price returns to $233,000 or Osama bin Laden is captured.

Bingo on No. 1.

Codeweaver’s goal is “... to make Unix (including Linux and Mac OS X) a fully Windows-compatible operating system. All Windows applications should be able to be run on Unix: cleanly, harmoniously, within the native environment, and without using an emulator. To that end, we maintain this Compatibility Center. Here, you can learn the exact status of any given Windows application vis-a-vis Wine.” Crossover Mac and Linux are available in standard editions for $39.95, which are apparently the versions being given away as the reward.

You can browse the applications currently supported (which include 27 games and 69 productivity apps). The Minnesota-based company states that it will offer the downloads free for 24 hours (presumably in Central Standard Time).

Read Codewavers. Story via The Star-Tribune.

Full Story » | Written by Bill Stiteler for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

It seems that Mac application bundles are the new fad, and I’m not complaining. If you act quickly, you can get a super deal on a collection of 9 Mac apps from Parallels.

They’re calling it the Green Bundle. Here are the details.

The applications offered in the bundle are:

• Parallels Desktop 3.0 for Mac: Run Windows on your Mac without rebooting and save on Windows machine!
• MacScan: Detects, isolates and removes spyware from your Mac. Feel safe!
• PasswordWallet: Stores ALL your passwords in one secure place! Save time and keep your private data safe!
• Macintosh Explorer: The easiest-to-use and most convenient Mac file browser. Make it easy!
• Macaroni: Macaroni is a tool which handles regular maintenance for Mac OS X. You could do this yourself, but don’t you have more interesting things to do?
• Drive-In: Create disc images, search info and comfortably browse your DVD library on your Mac!
• PageSender: Go paperless by faxing or emailing anything you can print. Save on paper, ink, fax machines and TIME!
• Default Folder X: Save your files effortlessly and open your folders instantly-makes Mac OS X’s Open and Save dialogs work as quickly as you do.
• docXConverter 3.1 Premium: Received Office 2007 or Appleworks files you cannot open? Never again with this conversion tool.

Parallels is a virtualization program for running Windows and other operating systems on your Mac without rebooting to use Boot Camp.

These apps retail separately for $299.81, but you can get the bundle for only $49.99.

So what do you think of the bundle? Tempting enough for you? If nothing else, you can at least be getting a good deal on Parallels.

Product [Parallels]

Full Story » | Written by Jake Gaecke for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

VMware Fusion, which allows Intel Macs to run Windows in a, well, Window alongside OS X, has been upgraded to version 2. This is a free upgrade to users of Fusion 1.x (woot!), and you will not have to reinstall your virtual machine after the upgrade. The 248MB download is available now.

The release notes detail several major improvements, the first of which is the ability to take an unlimited amount of “Snapshots” of your virtual machine (formerly, you could only have one). The Snapshot feature allows you to save the machine’s settings in a particular state, and return it to that exact state (useful in testing software). Fusion 2 can now also be set up to take Snapshots at regular intervals.

Other improvements include:

• Map key folders in Windows Vista and Windows XP (Desktop, My Documents, My Music, My Pictures) to their corresponding Mac folders (Desktop, Documents, Music, and Pictures)
• Click on a URL in a virtual machine and open it in your favorite Mac browser, or configure your Mac to open its links in a virtual machine
• Allow your Mac to open applications in the virtual machine—Finder can now open your Mac’s files directly in Windows applications like Microsoft Word and Windows Media Player
• Allow the virtual machine to open applications on your Mac—VMware Fusion can configure virtual machines to open their files in Mac applications like Preview and iTunes
• VMware Fusion can directly open Windows programs (.exe) and installers (.msi) in a virtual machine just by double-clicking on them in Finder

And while I don’t like to spread rumors, there have been unsubstantiated tales of… gasp! Viruses existing on the Windows platform. Fortunately, Fusion 2 also includes a complimentary 12 month subscription to McAfee VirusScan Plus. But that’s just a sampling. Check the release notes for a host of other enhancements.

Fusion 2 is available as a 30 day trial, or you can purchase a license online.

Product [VMware Fusion 2]

Full Story » | Written by Bill Stiteler for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

If you’ve ever found yourself in the position where you need or want to install Windows (natively) on your Mac, you are probably familiar with Apple’s Boot Camp software. Boot Camp allows you to set a native Windows installation on your Mac easily. The application takes care of everything, and makes the process of creating a target partition, beginning the installation process and installing the right drivers, a very simple task.

But, if you are a Windows user on a Mac with Boot Camp, you may also be familiar with a common problem involving disk space. As soon as you begin installing software (productivity apps, games, antivirus, antispam, and general utilities), you become aware that free space will be eventually gone, forcing you to take action and solve the situation.

The only choice you have so far to deal with this is to back up the Windows files, remove the partition with Boot Camp (and every effort of OS tuning and customization), re-launch the Boot Camp to create a new (and bigger) partition, install Windows from scratch, and finally restore the previously backed up files. This method will solve your problem for sure, but it’s not a pleasure to do and it won’t prevent the same situation from occurring in the future.

The guys at Paragon Software have come with a solution for this problem—a real solution, that would make us forget the days where adding a few more gigabytes of space to our Windows (or Mac OS X) partition meant hours of tedious and risky duty.

The application offered by Paragon Software is called CampTune. It reminds me of my days as a Windows user, when I learned to love Partition Magic. CampTune makes it possible to resize the partition without having to delete it, and gives us the chance to increase or decrease hard disk space with a few clicks.

The way it works is really easy. You’ll have to create a bootable CD guided by CampTune. Then, you’ll have to reboot your Mac and boot through the newly created disk. As you do with Boot Camp, you’ll select the desired size of the new partition, then just click the Apply button.

It’s just as simple as it is useful. The CampTune creators also assure that resizing your partition with its software is as secure and stable as you could wish, stating the unprecedented high level of stability achieved in their latest products.

So far, it’s a complete, free-of-charge app you can download as a part of their beta program.  If you’re convinced by its performance, you can decide later to buy it for your home or office systems.

Product [CampTune]

Full Story » | Written by Juan Gonzalez for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

The people at VMWare have just released the second beta for VMWare Fusion 2.0, the company’s popular virtualization program for Macs.

The new beta adds a ton of new features, as the video below demonstrates. Here are some of the highlights of the new beta:

• Unity 2.0 - The newest version of VMWare Fusion is really focused on better Windows integration into the Mac OS X environment. You can now launch Windows applications from the dock or access Mac programs from within your virtual machine. You can also link folders like Documents, Pictures and Music on your Windows virtual machine with those folders on your Mac.
• Multiple snapshots - VMWare has been working really hard to bring a feature similar to Time Machine for easily backing up and protecting your virtual machine. You can now specify how often you want to take full system snapshots of your virtual machine (once an hour, once a day or once a week), and how many copies you want to keep.
• Better video and graphics and shading support has been improved for Macs with higher-end graphics cards, and even integrated Macs can now play 1080p HD video in virtual machines with considerably less CPU usage.
• Support for more client OSs, including Leopard Server - You can now run Leopard Server as a virtual machine in Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5, even on client machines (virtualizing Mac OS X client is blocked by Apple’s license terms). Support for the latest version of Ubuntu (Hardy Heron) is also available right out of the box with Unity integration. Power users can now designate up to four virtual CPUs per virtual machine, which is great for anyone wanting to take an XServe or Mac Pro to the next level.

VMWare Fusion 2.0 beta 2 is available for Intel Macs running Mac OS X 10.4 or OS X 10.5. New users can try the beta for free, and upgrading to the newest beta (including future betas and the full version of Fusion 2.0) is free for everyone with an older version of VMWare Fusion. Here is a video outlining the new features in the new beta of VMWare Fusion:

Via [Ars Technica], Product [VMWare Fusion]

Full Story » | Written by Patrick Lutz for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Parallel’s Server for Mac, “the world’s first server virtualization solution for the Mac platform,” is now available for $1,255.74. This is a huge step for Parallels as it will allow companies to optimize their IT infrastructures by giving them the opportunity to virtually run both Windows and Linux on their Mac machines. “Parallels Server for Mac will be a catalyst in driving Mac server adoption in the enterprise, as it is the first product ever to enable IT professionals and developers to capitalize on the power of OS X Server while keeping the flexibility to run Windows and Linux workloads,” said Serguei Beloussov, CEO of Parallels. Fore more information, download their data sheet (664K PDF).

Here are some of the key features:

• The ability to run any combination of more than 50 different x86 (32-bit) and x64 (64-bit) guest operating systems, including the just released Windows Server 2008 in secure, high-performing virtual machines.
• A Powerful SDK that enables third party vendors to integrate Parallels Server support into their products. The SDK is the same one used by Parallels engineers to build the Parallels Management Console.
• Virtual Support for 4-way Symmetric Multi-processing (SMP), which lets users assign up to 4 virtual cores to a virtual machine for exceptional performance under heavy workloads. 2-way SMP is also supported, giving users an unsurpassed level of virtual machine customization.

I bet this has your company’s IT guys jumping for joy. This sounds like it would be a great addition to any company who needs to use a Windows or Linux based operating system but needs the power of a Mac and can’t afford losing their data to viruses. If your company uses this, let us know what it’s like.

Via [MacDailyNews] Product [Parallel’s Server for Mac]

Full Story » | Written by Josh Holat for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

MacPractice, purveyors of medical technology for Macintosh, has unveiled its new “intraoral” camera for dental practitioners who utilize Macs. After a long collaboration with National Dental, they have unveiled their “no focus” camera, which features “one touch Macro close up” for highly zoomed in pictures of a patients chompers.

“National Dental is pleased to be working closely with MacPractice on the release of the newest member of our DocPortMacro line of Cameras, and we believe that our new camera is the perfect fit for Mac lovers that have become accustom to having quality and ease of use….DocPortMacro and the Mac are a perfect fit,” commented Neil Magneson, President of National Dental, Inc.

A preview video is available from the MacPractice website (free registration required), and pricing info can be obtained from the National Dental website.

Via [MacNN]

Full Story » | Written by Mark Rowland for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Recently, the newest version of Parallels for Mac OS X was released. The latest build of the virtualization software is build 5608, and is available for Mac only, while Parallels Transporter is available for Windows and GNU/Linux. The biggest features of the new program are added support for guest Parallel Tools for the latest iterations of Linux. It also adds more support for 3D graphics rendering when using Vista through Mac OS 10.5.3.

A new build of Parallels Server for Mac was also announced. “We’re pretty excited about this newest build since it includes faster performance and some extra goodies to play with, like data compression and Common Address Redundancy Protocol,” Parallels officials said as part of the announcement. “Also, the restriction to virtualize OS X Server only on OS X Server has been lifted. You can now virtualize Leopard Server on either Leopard Server or Leopard client!”

Via [MacNN]

Full Story » | Written by Mark Rowland for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

As if the MacHeist Bundle wasn’t an amazingly good deal already, MacHeist has added two more great apps to the mix.  Those apps are Vector Designer from TweakerSoft and Sound Studio from Freeverse. These apps bring the total number of apps in the bundle up to a whopping 14, with the value now weighing in at almost $500. There is an almost 90% discount on the bundle, which sinks the price to a measly $49. To put the icing on the cake, the purchase of the bundle will also help your karma, as 25% of the profits are donated to a charity. The charities to which you can choose to donate to include Direct Relief International, Save Darfur, The Humane Society, Action Against Hunger, The Natural Conservancy, Save the Children, World Wildlife Foundation, Prevent Cancer Foundation, AIDS Research Alliance and the Alliance for Climate Protection.

Although Vector Designer is available in the Bundle now, Sound Studio will not be available until $50,000 has been donated to charity, which is about $15,000 away.

Via [Mac OS X Rumors]   

Full Story » | Written by Mark Rowland for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Parallels, Inc. introduced a new update to its popular Parallels Desktop application on Friday. The latest version, 3.0.5600, brings support for Windows Vista SP1 and Windows XP Sp3. It also fixes some other issues, including: Kernal panics, unusually high CPU usage, and improvements to shared folders. This update should have automatically downloaded for existing registered Parallels Desktop users - if not, you can download the update here as a DMG (88MB)

If you’re not a fan of Parallels Desktop, there’s always alternatives like Apple’s own Boot Camp and VMware Fusion. Boot Camp is included in Mac OS X Leopard and VMware Fusion costs $60.

Via [TUAW]

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VMware have announced the relesase of Fusion 1.1.2, with added support for Time Machine backups of your virtual machines. According to VMware, Mac OS X Leopard update 10.5.2 included a fix that prevented virtual machines from backing up properly. You can now back up your virtual machines correctly with 1.1.2. A word of warning though, virtual machines will start to eat up your external hard drive’s disk space - as Time Machine backs up all changes to all files. You may want to uncheck a few folders that don’t need backing up.

1.1.2 also brings support for the MacBook Air, Windows XP Service Pack 3, and simplified Chinese, as well as the standard bug fixes. You can download a free trial of VMware Fusion from their website. If you are already a registered user, this update is free - otherwise it’s $79.99.

Via [TUAW]

Full Story » | Written by Stephen Chinnadorai for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

After Microsoft’s Beta 2 of Remote Desktop Connection expired last week, leaving only limited functionality, Microsoft’s Mac BU has released Remote Desktop Connection Beta 3, which has no expiration.

Remote Desktop Connection is a tool made by Microsoft that is essentially Screen Sharing designed specifically for access to a Windows PC through a Mac. The Mac BU has said that they have decided not to forego features to hasten delivery date. One that they were apparently planning to forego was the ability to double-click on a RDC file and have it immediately start the connection. They say due to feedback, they realized they needed to leave these features in.

Via [Ars Technica]

Full Story » | Written by Adam Fisher-Cox for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Parallels, the creators of the popular virtualization software for Mac, are offering a $15 rebate on their Parallels Desktop Premium 3.0 software. The full premium package includes Parallels Desktop 3.0 plus extra software: Kaspersky Internet Security for Windows,  Acronis Disk Director Suite, and Acronis Image Home. The new Premium version of Parallels sells for $99, and includes $175 worth of software. With the rebate it now costs just $84.99, making the offer seem more than reasonable.

If you have a powerful enough Intel Mac, and you don’t want to do any processor or graphics intensive work on Windows, then you should check out Parallels Desktop or its competitor, VMware Fusion. This type of virtualization allows you to run Windows XP or Vista whilst running Mac OS X in the background, eliminating the need for a restart. Unfortunately, this means it will be half the speed of doing the same in Boot Camp - and therefore I don’t recommend doing it if you intend to play games on Windows.

Via [The Mac Observer]

Full Story » | Written by Stephen Chinnadorai for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

The mEgg Hunt, “brings seasonal fun” where Mac users will surf a Mac developer’s site and try to find an egg. Once they find an egg they’ll receive a code towards 20% off the purchase of the software. The Easter mEgg Hunt just revealed the list of participants, so once you see them, get hunting! (Then reading Apple news)

Apokalypse Software Corp. - Mori - Your notes, organized / Clockwork - On time, in style
Azure Talon Software - Exces - file encryption made easy
Black Cat Systems - Productivity Software for the Macintosh
Boinx Software Ltd. - Makers of iStopMotion FotoMagico and Mousepose
Chimp Software - Turn your Mac into a $2000 alarm clock with iRooster
Critical Matter, Inc. - Color Picker Pro: professional CSS and HTML color picker
www.x-tables.eu - Developer of Tables
DayTime Software - Makers of Differencia, The Data Comparison Tool
Dejal Systems - Simon, Time Out, Caboodle, Narrator, BlogAssist & Macfilink
Fluidmac - Creativity tools for Mac OS X
GroupSmarts, LLC. - MemoryMiner: Award-winning Digital Storytellin
Houdah Software - Makers of HoudahGeo & HoudahSpot
Indev Software - Revolutionary Enhancements for OS X Mail.app
Karelia Software - Sandvox - Easy, Elegant Website Creation
Lemke Software GmbH. - GraphicConverter & CADintosh
MildMannered Industries - Software for Superheroes
nova media MDS GmbH. - Worldwide mobile Internet access
Outer Level - LicenseKeeper - Keep your serial numbers safe outerlevel.com
Volitans Software - Makers of SMART Utility
Yellow Mug Software - Maker of
YourView - FileChute, EasyBatchPhoto, and more

Wow, that is quite a bit of software, and some good discounts Mac users can benefit from.

Via [macPRcaster]

Full Story » | Written by Nicholas Montgomery for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Parallels, the makers of the most popular virtualization software for Mac, have just announced Parallels Server Beta 2 available for public download, due to positive results from the private beta testing beforehand. Parallels Server enables efficient and easy-to-use server virtualization. They managed to bring virtualization to the consumer world, their server alternative looks promising too. One of the biggest concerns with server virtualization is the fact that a lot of resources are used, Parallels have done a good job on trying to reduce the amount of resources used by their software. It also offers virtual support for four-way symmetric multi-processing, which allows users to assign up to four virtual cores to a virtual machine; providing enhanced performance under heavy workloads. Parallels Server beta 2 is available for download from their website.

Via [MacNN]

Full Story » | Written by Stephen Chinnadorai for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Two important Boot Camp-related announcements were made this week, one by Microsoft and one by Apple. Firstly, it was reported Monday that Apple was including 64 Bit Vista support in it’s Mac Pro editions of Mac OS X. It quietly introduced this, with no mention of it other than this snippet from the installation instructions:

Important: You must use a single full-install Windows installation disc (Service Pack 2 is required for Windows XP installations). Do not use an upgrade version of Windows and do not install an earlier version of Windows XP and attempt to update it later to SP2 or later. Use only 32-bit versions of Windows. If you have a Mac Pro introduced in late 2007 or later, you can use a 64-bit version of Windows Vista.

Secondly, Microsoft announced that they would be allowing Windows Vista Home Basic and Home Premium to run in virtualization in programs like Boot Camp. Boot Camp would need an update to take advantage of this, which may come along with 64 bit support for all, in Mac OS X 10.5.2.

These news items, especially the latter, are great news for people wanting to use an try out Boot Camp and virtualization, but who aren’t willing to shell out the exorbitant rates for the high-end editions of Vista.

Full Story » | Written by Adam Fisher-Cox for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Parallels and VMware seem to be working in an effort to one up each other. This time Parallels is following up quickly with Parallels Desktop 3.0 beta 2, which is coming just about a month after their last beta release. In the latest beta 2 release they have improved Shared Folders and also Coherence mode. With Shared Folders you are quickly and easily able to move your files to and from Windows and OS X. The update in beta 2 includes a shared folder in your My Documents folder in Windows and this folder has the same organization as your OS X home directory, which is very nice for regular Mac users having to use Windows. The other update allows you to minimize Windows programs to the dock with a preview just like you can with OS X when running Parallels in Coherence mode.

Parallels Desktop 3.0 beta 2 is available as a free trial for those who currently have the full version of Desktop 3.0.

Read [ars technica]

Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Does anyone remember back 12 months and the speculation and ‘rush’ to get Windows on the new Intel Mac’s?

Well now you are spoilt for choice, but if you are in the Boot Camp camp then the 1.4 beta will be of interest to you. Free and in beta it comes with the usual ‘warnings’ and according to Apple, but offers:

 
• Support for the MacBook Pro’s backlight keyboard
 
• Apple Remote Pairing
 
• Updated graphics drivers (Windows loves drivers)
 
• Improved Boot Camp driver install, improved international keyboard support

Via [TUAW]

Full Story » | Written by Chris Marshall for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

VMware has released their virtualization app for the Mac, Fusion, as version 1.0. A competitor to Parallels, Fusion emulates and virtualizes Windows, Linux, and more. With features like Unity, Snapshots, and 3D emulation, Fusion makes it easy to run other OS’ on your Mac.

“VMware Fusion combines a very clean and intuitive interface that Mac users expect with the world’s most trusted desktop virtualization platform to allow users to run Mac applications seamlessly alongside PC applications on Intel-based Macs”, said Dan Chu, Vice President of Emerging Products and Markets.

VMware Fusion retails for $79.99, and is available with a $20 rebate, bringing the price tag down to $59.99. A 30 day trial is also available for those who just want to try Fusion out.

Product Page [VMware Fusion]

Full Story » | Written by Alec Feld for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Earlier on Wednesday, the Parallels team released a new beta for Parallels Desktop, that supports syncing an iPhone to a Windows virtual machine. Other additions include Expose and drop shadow support for Windows applications in Coherence Mode. Users also have the option to change the size and state of disk images.

Most readers will be wondering what’s the point of syncing in Windows, when you’re already running a Mac with OS X and iTunes. Fair point; it turns out that some users require syncing with Outlook (according to Ben Rudolph of Parallels), which limits them to either Windows XP or Vista.

The beta is currently free for Parallels 3.0 users.

Read [Paralells Blog]

Full Story » | Written by Marvin Sum for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Apple’s Get a Mac ads are somewhat of a legend; even Parallels is copying the style for their own ads. This time, it’s no longer Mac vs. PC, or John Hodgman vs. Justin Long; the emphasis is on running Windows applications on a Mac. The ads are actually surprisingly well done, without making fun of anyone.

Parallels is one of the most efficient solutions of running Windows on a Macintosh; the program allows users to virtualize Windows while Mac OS X is running. One of the ads also highlights the Parallels Transporter, a great utility to migrate all the data on your existing PC onto your new Mac.

Via [CrunchGear]

Full Story » | Written by Marvin Sum for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Parallels had better watch out. Months ago, when they had a monopoly on the mac virtualization market, they were the only choice for running Windows and Mac OS X side by side. But now there is a new competitor in town—VMware. Known as the industry standard for Windows virtualization, they are trying to take a piece out of Parallels pie. Their product, Fusion, has just gotten out of beta and is now in Release Candidate 1.

VMware continues to enhance their product by improving their “Unity” feature, as well as adding 3D support for the integrated graphics cards. Fusion is now ready to work in Leopard, and also includes a new “Applications” menu so that Windows apps can be launched from the dock. Fusion is expected to ship in late August for $79.99 matching the price of Parallels.

All of this competition in the virtualization market is really healthy, and beneficial for the consumer. Both Parallels and VMware crank out new features every month and continue to enhance the users experience. It should be fun to see them go head-on when they both have shipping products this fall.

Read [Ars Technica]

Full Story » | Written by Michael Mistretta for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Parallels was spotted at WWDC this week giving a demo of a new product. Called Parallels Server for Mac, it is essentially virtualization software for server use. The team showed SuSe Enterprise, Windows 2003, Windows XP, Solaris 10 and FreeBSD 5 happily coexisting on a single XServe.

However, when asked why Mac OS X server was not running in a virtual machine, Ben Rudolph, director of Corporate Communications at Parallels stated that Apple requires its operating systems to run on physical Apple hardware. He further mentioned that “Apple has been a great partner to (them)” and they wouldn’t “want to jeopardize that relationship”.

Expect a beta build of Parallels Server in several months time.

Read [MacWorld]

Full Story » | Written by Marvin Sum for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »