Hot on the heels of VMware's release of Fusion 3 (see "VMware Fusion 3," 28 October 2009) comes a new version of Parallels Desktop for Mac. Parallels 5 fully supports Windows 7, and is reportedly up to 300 percent faster than the previous version of Parallels (with even greater gains in 3D graphics performance). It now lets you run 64-bit versions of Windows and Snow Leopard Server as guest operating systems, and lets you assign up to eight virtual cores to virtual machines. Compatibility and performance gains are among over 70 new features, including a MacLook Theme, which gives Windows windows the appearance of Mac windows; Crystal Mode, which extends Coherence view by eliminating the Parallels menus and putting the Windows Start menu in the Mac OS X menu bar; support for the Apple Remote and gestures on multi-touch trackpads; improved copy-and-paste and drag-and-drop features; and expanded support for multiple displays. A free trial version is available, and Parallels now offers a $49.99 competitive upgrade price to owners of VMware Fusion. ($79.99 new, $49.99 upgrade, 219 MB)
Thoughtful, detailed coverage of the Mac, iPhone, and iPad, plus the best-selling Take Control ebooks.
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- Lion Is a Quitter
- Dealing with Lion's Hidden Library
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Avoid Simple Typos
If, like me, you find yourself typing 2911 in place of 2011 entirely too often, you can have Mac OS X (either Lion or Snow Leopard) fix such typos for you automatically. Just open the Language & Text pane of System Preferences, click the Text button at the top, and then add a text substitution by clicking the + button underneath the list. It won't work everywhere (for that you'll want a utility like Smile's TextExpander), but it should work in applications like Pages and TextEdit, and in Save dialog boxes.
Submitted by
John W Baxter
Parallels Desktop 5
by Joe Kissell 
THE MISSING SYNC FOR ANDROID: Sync with iTunes, Address Book,iCal, iPhoto and other Mac applications. Supports HTC EVO,
Motorola Droid, Droid X, Droid 2, Google Nexus One and many
other phones. <http://www.markspace.com/bits>
Dealing with Parallels licensing is so awful (as a legal license owner) that I would never consider paying an upgrade. In the end, I bought VMware which has been a much better experience through both purchase and upgrade.
I echo this! Not only is Parallels licensing awful but getting tech support is nearly impossible. And don't ask me about their so-called rebate system. VirtualBox: volunteer tech support but MORE responsive.
Licensing issues? What licensing issues?
I've been a happy user since version 3, and can't say I have found anything that would cause me to switch to VMWare. Tech support is a little slow, because they are Russians, in different time zones, but they will answer your questions.
I've been a happy user since version 3, and can't say I have found anything that would cause me to switch to VMWare. Tech support is a little slow, because they are Russians, in different time zones, but they will answer your questions.