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Apple Details Windows 7-Boot Camp Compatibility

Cory Bohon — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:58:09 -0500

Apple has announced that official Boot Camp support for Windows 7 will be coming by the end of this year.

According to a knowledge base article on Apple's support site, "Apple will support Microsoft Windows 7 (Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate) with Boot Camp in Mac OS X Snow Leopard before the end of the year. This support will require a software update to Boot Camp."

Of course the compatibility of Windows 7 means that some initial Intel Mac models will not be supported, mainly the following models:

- iMac (17-inch, Early 2006)
- iMac (17-inch, Late 2006)
- iMac (20-inch, Early 2006)
- iMac (20-inch, Late 2006)
- MacBook Pro (15-inch, Early 2006)
- MacBook Pro (17-inch, Late 2006)
- MacBook Pro (15-inch, Late 2006)
- MacBook Pro (17-inch, Early 2006)
- Mac Pro (Mid 2006, Intel Xeon Dual-core 2.66GHz or 3GHz)

If you have already purchased Windows 7 and are wanting to run it on your Mac, we have found that Windows 7 does in fact run on some newer models like the unibody MacBook Pro. However, some features like the Multi-Touch trackpad are a bit finicky. You can also run Windows 7 in virtual machine software like VMWare Fusion or Parallels Desktop.

Via MacRumors

Boot Camp 3.0 Plays Nicer with Windows

Arvind Srinivasan — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 12:28:42 -0500

Even though PC and Mac will continue to argue over the merits of their chosen OS in Apple's commercials, in reality Apple has realized over the past few years that neglecting the majority of computer users is probably a bad idea. Even though Steve Jobs put it best, saying "It’s like giving a glass of ice water to somebody in hell," referring to iTunes on Windows.

A lot of Apple’s core software has slowly been ported over to Windows, like Bonjour, iTunes, and Safari, to name a few.The ultimate cross-platform integration, though, is Boot Camp, Apple’s built in utility to run Windows on your Mac.

However, since it was released as a standalone beta download in 2006, it has been rife with bugs. With each major hardware update, drivers become dated, and Apple has never given Boot Camp, or Windows drivers for that matter, as much attention as OS X.

The upcoming release of Snow Leopard with Boot Camp 3.0, ushers in a new age of running Windows on your Mac. Apple seems to be truly committed to providing an integrated solution for running Windows on your Mac.

After installing Windows 7 on our developer build of Snow Leopard, we came up with the most noteworthy aspects of the new Boot Camp software.

Click to embiggen

1. Filesystem Drivers

Copying files between OS X and Windows on the same computer has always been an unnecessary hassle. Since Apple is the only hardware vendor that ships with pre-formatted HFS Journaled drives, nobody has bothered writing any drivers for the HFS filesystem.

You could find workarounds, like copying files onto a USB drive, and then copying them back to the Windows Partition, but plugging the same USB stick into the same computer is, quite frankly, ridiculous, and moreover, wouldn’t be able to handle files larger than 4GB, because FAT32 was the only filesystem which both OSes supported.

There were also third party solutions like HFS Explorer, but with Windows 7, these stopped working, and they were clunky in the first place: you had to use the tool to copy the files onto the Windows partition before you could actually use them, unnecessarily cluttering up your hard drive with redundant data.

Now, both Boot Camp and Snow Leopard offer two-way filesystem support. What this means is that you can read NTFS natively in OS X, and read HFS Journaled natively in Windows Explorer. The only problem is that this access is read-only, presumably because you could accidentally modify key system files if you had write privileges.

However, you can still do several useful things with the read-only support. For example, we were able to import a 25 GB music library into Songbird in Windows, without moving any files.

2) Device Drivers

One of the biggest problems with Windows on a Unibody Macbook, previously, was that the new button-less track pad wreaked havoc on the Windows experience. Right clicking was near impossible, and tap to click was a nightmare. Furthermore, there were rarer problems (that we experienced) wherein conflicts between the track pad driver and the NVIDIA graphics drivers would cause random lockups and crashes.

Furthermore, in Windows, the AirPort drivers would cause random audio feedback and dropouts. With the new drivers included in Boot Camp 3.0, all of these problems go away, and Apple has increased the granularity of control for the track pad. However, there are still shortcomings. Though there is now a control panel to make the right side of the track pad secondary click, you can’t enable three or four finger gestures with it, meaning that the synaptic track pad functionality is unnecessarily crippled. They have also made Windows more compatible with Cinema Displays (an additional control panel), if you are so lucky to have one.

Click to embiggen

3) Increased Stability

With this release, Apple has committed itself to the next iteration of Windows, and has increased Windows 7’s stability under BootCamp. Even just making most things work under Windows would have been a major accomplishment, but the new features will make running Windows in a dedicated partition, versus a VM, a better decision than ever.

Outlook Heads To The Mac, Replaces MS Entourage

Cory Bohon — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 20:52:35 -0500

Microsoft announced that Outlook, the e-mail client distributed with Office for Windows, would be heading to the Mac platform and would replace Entourage in the next version of Office for Mac.

"This new application will deliver significant changes — ultimately allowing for increased productivity across platforms, which continues to be the top request of enterprise customers," the press release notes.

Microsoft also announced some of the key features of the new application, including:

- Cocoa. Built from the ground up using Cocoa providing users with improved integration with the Mac OS

- New database. A high-speed file-based database with support for backing up files with Time Machine and Spotlight searching

- Information Rights Management. Helps prevent sensitive information from being distributed to or read by people who do not have permission to access the content

In addition to announcing Outlook for Mac, they also released a new version of Entourage called "Web Services Edition," which adds new features and support the latest Exchange Server versions. According to the Mac Business Unit at Microsoft, "[The update will] provide more agility in development for the future — marking the first step in delivering Outlook for Mac."

If you're running Office 2008 with SP2 and all the latest fixes, you can download and install the Entourage Web Services Edition by going to Microsoft's Mac website. If you're more inclined to purchase Office 2008 with Entourage WSE included, they will be releasing a "Mac Business Edition" of Office 2008. MBE will be offered up on September 15, 2009 and run around $399.95 ($239.95 for eligible upgrades).

Control Your Mac From A PC

Joe Rybicki — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 11:47:44 -0600

Even your PC can be a Mac.

Though Apple’s share of the computing market is continually growing, it’s still largely a Windows world. For many of us, that means we sit in front of Windows machines at work, at school, while visiting family, or when traveling. But that doesn’t mean we have to be out of touch with our Macs altogether. In fact, with a couple pieces of completely free software and a few easy steps, you can take full control of your Mac from just about any Windows machine, whether it’s on the other side of the room or the other side of the planet.

What you need: A Mac running Mac OS 9 or later, for the Mac: Vine Server (free,  www.redstonesoftware.com), a PC running Windows 95 or later, for the PC: VNC Viewer (free, www.realvnc.com

1. Make Your Mac Receptive

If your Mac and PC are on the same network, this is all you have to do on the Mac side.

Download Vine to your Mac and drag the Vine Server into your Applications folder. When launched, it configures itself to allow control of the main display over port 5900. If you’re looking to control this machine from a PC on the same home network, you’ll need to do little else on this end except set a password: Go to Vine Server > Preferences and enter one in the Connection tab. While you’re there, take a look at the Device tab and make sure you’re fine with the default settings there; if the Mac has a screen of its own you’ll probably want to check the Allow Display Dimming and/or Allow Screen Saver To Start boxes.

2. Get In The Numbers Game

Write down your external (blurred in the screenshot) and internal IP addresses.

Now head back to Vine Server’s main menu. In the middle of the screen you’ll see two IP addresses; one is the number your Mac uses to identify itself on your local network, and the other is the number it uses to identify itself to the Internet. Write both numbers down. (A note about the external IP address: This is something you don’t want made public, so guard it carefully, unless you want to open your machine up to Internet attacks.)

3. Bare Your Soul

Portforward.com can direct you to instructions that will enable your router to work with RealVNC.

If you’re looking to access your Mac from somewhere other than a PC on the same network, you’re going to need to take one more step to allow VNC Viewer to reach your Mac. This involves diving into the settings of your network router—trouble is, every router is different, so we can’t tell you exactly how to do that. Luckily, the Internet can! Head over to portforward.com/english/routers/port_forwarding/routerindex.htm and select your router from the list. On the following screen, select RealVNC as the program and follow the directions.

4. Make Your PC More Outgoing

Your IP address (internal or external) goes in the Server field.

Now, on your PC, download the standalone VNC Viewer. Extract it if necessary and save it someplace memorable. Start it up, and you’ll be presented with a screen asking you to input the server info. If you’re on the same network as your Mac, enter the internal IP address. If you’re trying to access your Mac from anywhere other than your home network, enter the external IP address. A note about the external IP address: Chances are, unless you’ve negotiated a static IP address from your Internet provider, this number will change on a regular basis. So you’ll want to double-check the external IP frequently. A service like Dynamic DNS (free, www.dyndns.com/services/dns/dyndns) will map your dynamic IP address to a hostname you can use instead.

5. Fine-Tune Your Setup

If you’re connecting to your Mac over the Net, dial down the colors.

Before clicking OK, let’s make sure VNC Viewer is set up correctly for your connection. Click Options and choose the Color &  Encoding tab. Make sure the Auto Select box above the Preferred Encoding field is checked; this will ensure the client and host talk to each other as efficiently as possible. The one thing you may want to change here is Color Level. If both your PC and Mac are connected to the same network with wired connections, set Color Level to Full. If both machines are on the same network but one or both has a slow wireless connection, you probably won’t want to go above Medium or you’ll experience some frustrating lag. And if you’re connecting over the Internet, try either Low or Very Low, depending on your connection speed.

6. Behold the Cross-Platform

Running GarageBand inside a window on a PC—that’s Mac-tastic!

Once that’s set, go ahead and click OK. You’ll be prompted for a password; enter the one you set in Step 1. Hey, look, a Mac window! On your PC! You can right-click the program name in your PC’s taskbar to switch to full screen (hit F8 to switch back to window view) or to adjust options like Color Level, in case your connection’s not quite what you thought it’d be. And there you have it: Now you don’t have to be away from your Mac ever again.

Lame Duck Challenge Produces Free CodeWeavers Software

David W. Martin — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 22:35:20 -0500

The Great American Lame Duck Presidential Challenge was issued a few months back. The goals set by Jeremy White, President and CEO of CodeWeavers, laid out some serious challenges to President George Bush. Considering all the pressures of this years elections for some, this publicity stunt is liable to make you forget to even vote, but luckily that's not the case since it's on the Tuesday before November 4th - so there is no excuse for you to not vote next week.

The challenge was that CodeWeavers promised to give away its software for a 24 hour period to all Americans if, and only if, President Bush reached one of the goals set out for him to achieve. The goals were: Reduce the price of gas, reduce the price of food, create more jobs, rejuvenate the housing market, and bring Osama Bin-Laden to justice.

Luckily for us "W", which in this case stands for "Winner," has reached one of those goals. The average price of gas has fallen at, or below, $2.79 in the Twin Cities. So CEO Jeremy White is making good on his challenge. Starting immediately, visitors to the company's site will receive a code using this link entitling them to one free copy of CrossOver Pro software (includes CrossOver Games), complete with licensed support for Linux or the Mac. You get to choose. We of course, chose "Mac."

CrossOver is another option for Mac (versus Parallels, Fusion or Bootcamp) and Linux users that allows you to run Windows applications and games on either of these platforms. It's basically a commercial version of the open-source Windows compatibility layer called Wine. A Windows API is provided by Wine running over Mac OS X or Linux. CrossOver is offered in three different versions: CrossOver Mac, CrossOver Games, and CrossOver Linux.

CodeWeavers site is being hammered pretty hard right now. Please be patient.

Apple's New Heavy Weight "Brick" Could Save You Money and Smash Windows

David W. Martin — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 21:14:46 -0500

Apple fanboys and fangirls love rumors about forthcoming Apple products. One could almost consider that these rumors are another marketing ploy by Apple since the speculation and discussion gives Apple a ton of free exposure. Right now the focus of these rumors is October 14, 2008. Many are claiming that on that date, along with new MacBooks and/or MacBook Pros, Apple will be releasing another product coded-named "brick."

So what exactly is "brick?" No one really knows, although we have a few guesses that we'll mention shortly, but first let's look at the best of the rumors circulating around the web right now.

We think the best guess so far is the one at macenstein.com. Apple's "brick" target is Microsoft and Windows. After all, what better tool to break Windows than a "brick?" We believe Macenstein may have solved the riddle. The actually "brick" has nothing to do with a device - it's about changes in Apple products that will make them irresistible. What's that you say? For most of us that's already true, but what about the rest of the world?

Well remember Steve Jobs warned investors earlier this year that Apple was going to have some new killer products at very aggressive price points. Prices to low to believe. In fact, Jobs and Oppenheimer stated it would effect Apple's future earnings. Imagine an Apple notebook for under $500? Or iMacs for under $1000? Already aggressive sales of Apple notebooks and iMacs would probably go through the roof.

Another rumor suggests a wireless USB hub which isn't a very exciting idea if you ask us - another wireless USB hub. Yawn. 'nuff said? Of course Apple could come up with something innovative here, but I doubt this is going to be the big announcement. Maybe, just maybe, it will be a "brick" of connectivity. An Airport Extreme, Time Capsule and USB hub all-in-one big fat Apple device that makes "bricks" a beautiful product.

Our other favorite rumor is the complete Mac mini redesign. Most owners of the Mac mini love it. It's an inexpensive way of getting a second computer for a variety of uses, and if you've been paying attention, people have found a lot of uses for the smallest of all things Mac. Personally, I've used mine for testing, and I'm currently using it for my Leopard Server certification exams. The last refresh of the mini in 2007 was a good one, but now people are speculating about an Uber-mini, a tiny version of the Mac Pro. Now wouldn't that give the mini a good boost or what?

We have a few guesses of our own about the new product. Some of them are serious and some of them are outright silly - like a new Mac notebook that's so heavy it puts all the companies making laptop security cables out of business. It's not even luggable like those old transportables with the 5.25" floppy and 5" monochrome screens so no one even considers trying to steal it. Steal-toed shoes recommended.

Now seriously, we tend to agree with the first rumor. "Brick" will be about saving us money. And considering the current financial crisis, we can use all the savings we can get.

25 Reasons Why Non-Mac Users Should Shut Their Damn Pie-Holes

Lisa Weddle — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 12:27:54 -0500

How was your summer? Did you spend it getting tan on the beach with your new iPhone by your side? Did you perfect your paleness by staying indoors and online with your friends on the MacLife.com forums?

Ah, this summer was a rollicking good time for Mac lovers - making new friends in the iPhone 3G lines, playing with all the new apps in the Apps Store, and getting together to crab about the bust that was, is MobileMe.

But now the season is winding down. Some will be heading back to school. Others, will head back to work. Back to the cruel, harsh world we go. A world populated by PC users who believe that Windows rocks and think that harping on and on about it, will make that deluded dream come true.

We know it won’t of course, that’s why we’ve created this list:

25 Reasons Why Non-Mac Users Should Shut Their Damn Pie-Holes

1. Big clunky, cumbersome towers stashed under the desk are so ʼ90s.

2. Not to mention just UGLY UGLY UGLY!

3. No, turning their machines into Satanʼs spawn (or any other case mod they can think of) does NOT make a PC tower any less UGLY.

4. Satanʼs spawn canʼt protect from viruses... the majority of which are written for PCs.

5. Four words: Blue Screen Of Death!

6. They need to wake up and join the new millennium - Macs run on Intel processors just like PCs... except better.

7. Do they really like to watch their computers reboot that much?

8. Cheaper... riiiiight... and how much do they spend on getting that thing ﬁxed and/or upgraded?

9. They gotta get an account with Terminix to deal with all those bugs in their apps! Hyuk yuk yuk!

10. “Plays For Sure”... doesnʼt really play, for sure.

11. Who wants to be bothered with arcane details like - what I/O port a peripheral is assigned to? When it comes to plug-and-play, Macs are the real deal!

12. Weʼve got more important things to do than play games all day.

13. They think they're special just because they have more USB ports. Jerks.

14. They never invite us to their LAN parties... WELL, SCREW LAN PARTIES! WE DONʼT WANT TO SOCIALIZE ON YOUR LOCAL AREA NETWORK ANYWAY!

15. Weʼve got better friends.

16. Almost every show on TV uses an iPhone. When's the last time Windows Mobile solved a CSI case?

17. Envy is one of the seven deadly sins you know.

18. PC stands for “politically correct”, which the classic American ﬁlm, PCU taught us is a lame, lame concept.

19. Not only are the products better, Apple has better ads than PCs too.

20. Hundreds waited in line for the Mac OS X Leopard release. Windows Vista line... not so long.

21. PC users still think the Mac mouse has only one button.

22. Speaking of mice... PC users might want to take a second and thank the success of the Macintosh for the one theyʼve got in their hands today. Yeah, you're welcome.

23. Gadgets are just Widget rip-offs. Do we have to think of everything for PCs to copy?

24. They get excited over “expandability” and “upgradeablility” - well, I hate to tell yaʼ, but most modern day Macs donʼt need any upgrade of their own. In fact, Macs have a longer computing life than most PCs. Just ask Robbie about the eight-year old G4 he uses at home to video edit with. When's the last time you saw an eight-year old PC do anything except crash?

25. The Eternal Shame of Windows Vista: ʻNuff said.

Add your own reasons why Windows users should shut-it in the comments below.

Sneaky iPhone Headline Riles the Internet

Florence Ion and Roberto Baldwin — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 17:45:35 -0500

Robert Palmer of TUAW found a headline from ZDNet Australia that might be overreaching and guilty of being link bait.

The offending headline is, "Photos: iPhone running Windows XP." Sounds exciting right? Right now you're thinking to yourself, "Oh my God, they ported Windows to the iPhone. It's a sign of the coming apocalypse!"

Now before you start praying to your deity of choice, there is a bit information you need to know. The iPhone in question is actually part of a demo of Citrix's thin client technology's capacity for remote desktop at the Citrix Application Delivery Conference in Melbourne. Citrix is controlling a Windows machine with the iPhone over Wi-Fi.

Not exactly an iPhone running Windows.

So what do you think? Is ZDNet Australia guilty of a link bait headline?