Telstra has revealed the addition of almost one million new mobile services in the six months to December 2011, but Sensis revenues plummeted 24 percent in 12 months.
A new product from a US-based startup threatens to steal the thunder of Apple's dual boot Windows and Mac OSX software Boot Camp before it even gets started in earnest. The product, from Parallels Inc, is called Parallels Desktop for Mac and is the first solution that gives Intel-based Apple users the ability to run Windows at the same time as Mac OS X in an isolated virtual machine.
Unlike Boot Camp, which requires users to reboot their computer if they
want to switch between operating systems, Parallels Desktop for Mac
allows users to run Windows inside a separate virtual window within Mac
OSX. Thus, unlike Boot Camp, users can run Mac and Windows applications
at the same time and switch between them freely, as well as cut and
paste and share information between the two systems.
Windows emulation programs for Mac environments have been around for
some time but poor performance has been a big detractor because Windows
was never designed to run on anything other than Intel processors. Now
that Mac has moved to the Intel platform, virtualisation requires much
less overhead and early reports from reviewers indicate very good
performance for Windows running side by side with Mac OSX.
While some commentators have suggested a rivalry between Apple and
Parallels could emerge, in fact the release of Parallel is very good
news for Apple. It has removed the last technical obstacle standing in
the way of Windows users who may want consider buying a Mac instead of
a solely Windows PC. It also allows Mac users who may need to use a PC
on occasions to have just the one machine.
The news for PC manufacturers, however, does not appear to be good.
Unfortunately for them, Apple does not license Mac OSX to anyone but
itself. So while it is technically feasible to run Mac OSX in a virtual
window within Windows, it is not legal.
Finally, the limits of Parallels Desktop for Mac don't just extend to
running one virtual machine inside Mac OSX. In fact, hardware
configuraion permitting, users can run a number of virtual machines
simultaneously. What's more Parallels permits users to run any version
of Windows, as well as Linux, in a Mac OSX environment.
At US$79, Parallels Desktop for Mac ironically could well be a bigger
money spinner for Apple than Parallels Inc itself. In fact, if it
hasn't already considered it, Apple may do well to just buy the startup
instead of developing its own virtualization product as has been
rumoured.
David Bass
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A new product from a US-based startup threatens to steal the thunder of Apple's dual boot Windows and Mac OSX software Boot Camp before it even gets started in earnest. The product, from Parallels Inc, is called Parallels Desktop for Mac and is the first solution that gives Intel-based Apple users the ability to run Windows at the same time as Mac OS X in an isolated virtual machine.
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