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A useability tip for laptop manufacturers April 23, 2006

Posted by James Webster in : gadgets , add a comment

Dear Laptop Manufacturers of the World,

Would it be so hard to print symbols identifying the type and location of each port on the lid of the laptop near the hinge, such that I can tilt the lid/screen down, pick up a cable and plug it in without dragging it across several other ports in the process. This is especially important in light of the fact that some ports on your laptops are not shielded from power surges and therefore prone to being fried by a misguided attempt to plug in the power.

Thank you.

A word on Boot Camp April 6, 2006

Posted by James Webster in : apple, windows , add a comment

I don’t know what upsets me more about the announcement Boot Camp (Apple’s solution to XP dual-boot on Intel Macs); the fact that so much of the the blogosphere is ranting about it being the best thing since sliced bread (my opinion on this, dear reader, I believe you already know; virtualization yadda yadda yadda) or that AAPL jumped 8% on the announcement and I don’t own any!

Windows XP virtualization for OS X coming from Parallels April 5, 2006

Posted by James Webster in : apple, virtualization , 4 comments

UPDATE: As per the rumour, Parallels have made a beta download of Parallels Workstation for Intel OS X. Now where’s my credit card…

Via virtualization.info; Techworld is reporting that Parallels, a competitor to VMware (albeit on the desktop end of the virtualization spectrum), will be announcing the details of a product that will support virtualization of Windows XP, Linux and presumably other x86 operating systems under Intel Mac OS X. W00t! Time to put in an order for a revision D MacBook Pro methinks?

The question remains; will this spur on VMware to produce a similar product for OS X? The more I think about it, I consider it less likely to happen. Although VMware are still making big money out of Workstation they are focusing on the enterprise space and sales of ESX Server. Intel-based Xserve’s and OS X Server have yet to be announced by Apple. The general view is that Apple (read: Steve Jobs) is increasingly uninterested in the enterprise market and focusing purely on the consumer.

So no free VMware Player for OS X then? Well, there is still Q, which may add true virtualization soon, and the rumours that Leopard will include virtualization support.