When thinking about virtualizing solutions on our Mac, one will immediately think of the 2 most renowned one,
WMware Fusion and
Parallels Desktop. Both companies are heavily demonstrating their own solutions at the Apple Expo. While Parallels Desktop v4.0 is reported to be currently in beta test, the company was not demoing it at the event, so visitors already knowing the current version 3.0 could follow a demo of Parallels Server. WMware was showing how the recetly released Fusion 2 have amazingly improved the performance level of the solution when compared to first version. We had the chance to discuss with Serge Robe (Senior marketing product manager Apple products EMEA) about Fusion2, its development and how good interaction between WMware and Apple can at the end make Mac users life and experience easier. We were impressed by the in-depth integration with OS X as well as new features (such as support for multiple displays and core management).
If we could not get a lot of information concerning Parallels Desktop 4.0 and its associated new features and functions (due to its restricted beta testing status), the new version is expected to come out within couple of weeks. On its side, WMware is already working on Fusion3 and according to our information it looks very promising too.
Last Thursday, we had the chance to sit and discuss at the Apple Expo with some members of Realmac Software known for their renowned application
Rapidweaver. While the version 4 of the mentioned easy-to-use website-design application was released couple of months ago, and version 4.2 is currently being prepared for release, the team wanted to demo a new application named
LittleSnapper.
In short, it is intended to be your library of snapshots, but not only, and probably not limited to the snapshots obtained from Capture. If LittleSnapper is originally defined to be the designer's digital scrapbook, allowing you to capture, organize, annotate and share screenshots from your desktop and the web; it might of interest for more users than one could thought. For example, LittleSnapper can capture an entire webpage, not only the visible part displayed on your screen, but the entire content. In addition hyperlinks remain active. Of course, as one could expect it nowadays with Mac application, it includes powerful management tools and feature, letting you organize your snapshot collection via different parameters. It can for example make use of either user-defined keywords or metadata. Another nice feature is the vector-based annotation tool to let you add text and graphic comments on a snapshot. If this application will mostly attract user making heavy use of snapshot in their everyday job, such as web designers or UI developers, almost everybody having a blog or maintaining a small website could benefit from such tool. To be informed about future news related to LittleSnapper, visit the following
dedicated webpage
Last but not least, while Realmac is expecting to release Rapidweaver 4.2 in October, we had the chance to comment and discuss with them about the forthcoming Rapidweaver 5 and some new integrated features (even though at that stage it is too early to report them here).
Apple announced a large recall campaign for its ulta-compact chargers (these were not available in France).
A manufacturing defect creates a weakness that affects the connectors entering into the plug, these can easily break. Apple asks its customers to cease using them immediately.
http://www.apple.com/support/usbadapter/exchangeprogram/?sr=hotnews/
Today, we decided to visit the Apple Expo, and to share with you interesting products being demoed and announced during the event.
We will first have probably one of the largest booth at the AE 2008, the one dedicated to one of the most expensive iPod/iPhone peripherals: The Mini Cooper:
We then had the chance to have Griffin showing 2 new products, not yet available but potentially very interesting for many iPhone owners:
Then I went around to different booths, mostly dedicated to iPod/iPhone: JBL, Logitech, Nike and a hit, the iMini by Ozaki:
Then 2 interesting product either by their ease of use or potential: WD MyBook RAID0/1 and the STM Solar cell bagpack:
