Parallels today announced new and thrilling capabilities for the next big version of Parallels Desktop. Version 3.0 of the virtualization software should be available in the next few weeks, for an upgrade cost of $49.99 for existing users ($10 less if you pay before next Thursday).
So what does the extra 50 bucks get you? The biggest and most anticipated feature is without a doubt 3D graphics acceleration with support for both OpenGL and DirectX. 3D games will be finally compatible with Parallels, pretty much eliminating the need to keep a Boot Camp partition for serious gaming. We'll need to wait and see how well it actually works, but it looks very exciting.
Continuing the trend of integrating Windows and Mac OS X, 3.0 also adds "SmartSelect": this will allow you to open files from either OS with apps on either OS. Basically, you could open a Word file from your Mac with the Windows version of Word, or open a JPEG from your Windows virtual machine with Preview. Combined with Coherence mode, this further blurs the line between OSes, for better or worse. Speaking of Coherence, that will see some refinement as well.
Parallels Desktop will still cost $79.99 for a full license, and the website shows additional new features of version 3.0.
It’s back. Remember the Delicious Generation? Well a recent Tweet on the ever-watched Twitter of John Gruber revealed what appeared to be an unfinished ‘Delicious Generation Strikes Back’ post written by Austin Sarner and John Casasanta, two of its biggest promoters/deveopers. Then today, the post went live. Austin and John’s post discussed their marketing-driven approach to creating software (containing such questionable a like “Development Isn't Simply the Key to a Successful App”). They even announced their decision to embrace the term “Delicious Generation,” going so far as creating a spiffy logo.
Unfortunately, the post also stunk of grapes so sour that they managed to all but decimate my sympathies for the two. Austin and John clearly took the label applied to their software personally, and have mistakenly responded accordingly, calling Paul Kafasis’ well-written post in which he coined the phrase a “narcissistic, pessimistic, manipulative, envy-driven rant.” I’d beg to differ.
Continue reading "The Delicious Generational gap"
So there's this flap right now that's making its way around the internets about how Google is freaking everyone out with this Street View feature on Google Maps.
While it's pretty rad that you can see a detailed photo of your front door, there are some creepier moments that the boys and girls in Mountain View have immortalized for all time, such as a cat in the window or the guy possibly breaking into an apartment, the culprit has now been found.
So, if you see either this VW Bug, then you know that you very well might be forever remembered as the guy or girl who blankly stared into the camera, or quite possibly something more embarrasing.
While everyone's all amazed (or not) by Microsoft's new piece of furniture, some may forget that Macworld (or more specifically, yours truly) got a preview of this really slick technology back at the O'Reilly Emerging Technology conference way back in March 2006.
I penned a blog entry on Mr. Han's fun little table, and for good measure, even had him on the podcast.
Now again, I'm not really sure how this translates into a workable product, other than "ooo shiny!"
So Microsoft, the floor's yours.
Are you lamenting missing out on heading to D5? Find our reports on the Gates v. Jobs tête-à-tête lacking in the crucial qualities of being thereness? Well, lucky you: you can swing on over to the All Things Digital website to peruse their extensive list of video content.
You'll find the eight segments of video from last night's exploits of Gates and Jobs, as well as highlights from Steve Jobs's solo talk earlier in the day. And, should you wish, there are a number of other luminaries who have been recorded for posterity, including CBS chief Les Moonves, FOX CEO Peter Chernin, Cisco CEO John "Johnny boy" Chambers, and Emperor himself, George Lucas.
Me, I'll be watching and rewatching Jobs's "ice water in hell" comment with a Zapruder-esque level of devotion. You can almost feel the RDF.
We've spilled digital ink before on the difficulties the Mac has had capturing gamers, but we caught an intriguing tidbit the other day that bodes well for Mac gamers. GameTap, an online game service owned by Turner Broadcasting, is apparently poised to add Mac support to its previously PC-only offering.
GameTap has previously dallied with Mac-compatibility; earlier in the year they announced they'd bring Myst Online to the Mac using TransGaming's Cider technology. But in a conversation with gaming blog Joystiq, GameTap VP of Marketing, David Reid and VP of Content, Rick Sanchez dropped the following bombshell:
Will there be more options available for Mac users in the future other than Myst? Has there been enough of a Mac presence to make it worthwhile?Sweet. Of course, what games will be available is probably still up in the air: GameTap has everything from classic arcade games that run under emulation to brand-new first run titles like Splinter Cell, and original exclusives like Sam & Max. They also provide original streaming television content, GameTap TV.It's definitely something we're looking into -- late summer we'll have a Mac product.
Late summer you'll have a what?
We'll have a Mac product. So yes, late summer Mac users will get use of GameTap.com and our subscription service.
All in all, promising news for gamers on the Mac; while gaming may not exactly be burgeoning on our favorite platform, it's far from dead.
Yesterday, Stevie J. personally spilled the beans on new features coming to the Apple TV, including YouTube downloads in mid-June. He did not mention a new, larger capacity version of the Apple TV, though news of its imminent arrival quickly flooded the Interweb.
As of this morning, you now have your choice of Apple TVs: the original 40GB flavor is unchanged at $299, but if you want to jump that up to 160GB, you can spend a Franklin more, and take it home for $399. Of course, if you're more of a DIYer, you can crack open the 40GB model and pop in any hard drive that fits, but if you prefer not to void warranties willy-nilly, the 160GB option might be appealing.
Is there anything more despicable in life than the sale of ringtones? Not only do vendors demand your firstborn as payment, but deals with carriers also often mean that should you even legitimately own a CD or MP3 of a song, your phone won't easily let you turn that into a ringtone.
Heinous, if I may say so. And yet it appears that Apple itself has become complicit in this outrage. The new Terms of Service for iTunes clearly state (Section 9, Usage Rule VIII):
You may not use Products as a musical “ringer” in connection with phone calls.This change is apparently new to iTunes 7.2, which, of course, also brought us DRM-free tunes that can easily be edited and chopped into ringtone-sized bits.
Whether this is purely Apple's decision or is influenced by its deal with AT&T is a mystery, though I'd suspect the latter. The news does jibe with the screenshot we previously saw of the iTunes management for the iPhone, which included a "Ringtones" tab. Will iTunes enter the ringtone market, or will we all be forced to buy said chimes from AT&T?
[via Daring Fireball]
While the big banner new feature of iTunes 7.2 is the inclusion of support for iTunes Plus (aka DRM free iTunes music), there were other minor changes. I happened to stumble upon one that might throw off your feng shui if you’re as hot on podcasts as I am.
Apple changed the sorting logic for podcast names. It’s a little smarter now. Witness the attached picture. Previously, the word “The” at the beginning of podcast names affected its sorting. As such, The Bitterest Pill ended up further down the list. Now it’s ignored and rightful order is restored.
