Posted on 04/02/2005 10:31:14 AM PST by quidnunc
While the Apple spotlight has been on the overwhelming and continued success of its iPod, Apple’s albeit “mini” but growing share of the computer marketplace, developers continue to spawn some new and “renewed” products. Here’s a few I’ve been working with that you may want to consider for your Mac’s arsenal.
After having purchased Connectix almost two years ago, this past fall Microsoft’s Macintosh Business Unit once again has shown its commitment to the Mac OS platform, by releasing under its own brand, Virtual PC 7 (VPC7).
Virtual PC, in its various flavours allow you to run Windows on your Macintosh. While previous VPC versions were cursed as being slow and clunky, the latest version, virtually re-written, pardon the pun - has been optimized to take advantage of the processing power of Apple’s G5 64-bit processing power. Depending on your computer and application, expect a performance increase from 10-30%. If you are looking for the full impact of a 3GHZ, Intel processor and want to run the latest 3-D games, VPC7 is not for you. Buy a physical PC if you must.
However, if you do need that cross-platform compatibility, whether to run a specific PC only application or to simplify integration in a Windows environment and don’t want another box on your desktop, then VPC 7 is the right solution.
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Using your computer each day, I’m sure there are a significant number of tasks that you do over and over again. Whether it’s checking your e-mail, the latest sports scores, logging into e-Bay, copying a file or entering your name and address in a text file, wouldn’t it be nice if these tasks could be automated or done with a simple click or a keystroke? If yes, the latest version of Startly Technologies’ QuicKeys X3 (www.quickeys.com) $129 is a product to have a look at. It offers a selection of tools that will allow you to automate a simple task or a series of actions or shortcuts, like a macro.
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FYI
Interesting Mac article on software additions to OSX PING!
If you want on or off the Mac Ping list. Freepmail me.
Too bad Vertual PC is a - "travesty of a mockery of a sham of a mockery of a travesty of two mockeries of a sham."
In your opinion... It is too slow to run the latest games... but works fine on office and enterprise applications. In fact, it worked quite adequately on my old G4 400Mhz Cube for those kind of apps... and that was with the old Connectix version, not the new, improved Microsoft version.
The new version, 30% faster than the old, should fly on my G5.
Like it, do you?
v6.0 connected to one of my other Macs with no problems and browsing the Apache server with Explorer had no problems.
v6.1 started hammering-out calls to some IP which turned out to be a µsoft site which slowed its startup until it figured it wasn't getting anywhere.
"...improved microsoft version."
You so funny!
V6.1 was basically Connectix product with some MS pasted on. The new, improved Microsoft version that is 30% faster is V7 which was rewritten with the G5 in mind.
Yah - but at least the Connectix product minded it's own business and didn't try "calling home" EVERY time it was run! :)
I'll have to borrow an 'evaluation copy' of v7 and compare it to v6.0 on my Mystic (see tagline) for improvement (Connectix never could tell me if there were any G4 or dual-processor 'perks' in v6.0).
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