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Windows RT 32GB tablets actually only have 16GB of usable space nullifying storage cost advantage over iPad

Here’s the Fun FAQ for Microsoft Surface users who are wondering why the 32GB version they bought actually only has 16GB of usable space:

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While Microsoft will certainly get off on the wrong foot here in terms of customer expectations, they are still technically accurate—at least in the old desktop world. When you buy a Windows/Mac machine with a 100GB HDD, you expect some of that (but certainly not half of it!) to be used by system software.  However, with the paired-down iOS/Android OSes currently so optimized, you pretty much get what it says on the box.

We reported on a Microsoft Engineer last month, saying users would have more than 20 GB of space.

This is part of Microsoft’s no compromises approach. You get a bunch of legacy stuff that requires a lot of legacy space.

[Via Engadget]


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Parallels warns Mac users to not upgrade to Windows 8

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Parallels for Mac virtualization software has been getting major updates this year with the recent release of version 8, making it even easier to run Mac and Windows apps side by side. In version 7, it made it a lot easier to upgrade and buy copies of Windows directly from within the app, and we even had a Windows 8 developer preview up and running. Unfortunately, with today’s launch of Microsoft’s Windows 8, Parallel’s is warning Mac users that the app is not ready to update to the new OS.

In a support document on the company’s website, it issued a “critical and urgent Windows 8 service advisory” telling customers it should wait before upgrading from an existing installation of Windows to Windows 8:
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Microsoft’s Surface OS is large, just like the pixels on display

The 32 GB Surface tablet costs the same as the 16GB iPad, but it also comes with twice the storage capacity—or at least that’s what everyone thought until Microsoft’s AMA on Reddit yesterday.

Daring Fireball just linked to one of the Surface Team’s responses that regarded how much free space the tablet actually has available:

So, the entry-level Surface delivers 20 GB of free space with Office and a few apps, eh?

In case you did not know, the iPad’s OS consumes around 1 GB of space. But that’s not all: Microsoft’s Steven Bathiche handled more questions as to whether the Surface’s display stands up to the new iPad’s Retina display.

After giving a long-winded description of Microsoft’s ClearType display technology, Bathiche concluded, “[sic] Doing a side by side with the new iPad in a consistently lit room, we have had many people see more detail on Surface RT than on the Ipad with more resolution.”

Again, in case you did not know, the current iPad offers a 2,048-by-1,536-pixel resolution. Surface for Windows RT has a 1,366-by-768-pixel resolution.

The full AMA thread: IAm Panos Panay, GM of Microsoft Surface, AMAA – Ask Me or My Team Almost Anything


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Apple’s recently acquired fingerprint tech exposed as Windows security risk

Apple acquired Authentec in July. It is a company that held the rights to fingerprint-reading technology since 2010, but the tech was originally developed by a company called UPEK. According to a report from ArsTechnica, citing several security researchers, a product that uses the fingerprint technology now owned by Apple, UPEK Protector Suite, has been exposed as a serious security threat for Windows users:

Security consultants have independently confirmed a serious security weakness that makes it trivial for hackers with physical control of many computers sold by Dell, Acer, and at least 14 other manufacturers to quickly recover Windows account passwords…The weakness came to light no later than September, but Apple has yet to acknowledge it or warn end users how to work around it. No one has accused Apple of being responsible for the underlying design of fingerprint-reading software.

ArsTechnica has the full story. 

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Intel’s answer to iPad’s ARM processors sees delays due to power management software

Image representing Intel as depicted in CrunchBase

A new report by Bloomberg, citing unnamed inside sources, revealed Intel’s software for a new processor, codenamed “Clover Trail,” which would give the iPad’s ARM processors a run for their money while preserving battery life in Windows 8-based tablets, is reportedly running into delays.

According to Bloomberg:

Intel Corp. (INTC)’s delayed delivery of software that conserves computer battery life is holding up development of some tablets running the latest version of Microsoft Corp. (MSFT)’s Windows operating system, a person with knowledge of the matter said.

Microsoft hasn’t yet approved any tablets featuring an Intel processor code-named Clover Trail because the chipmaker hasn’t produced necessary power-management software, said the person, who asked not to be named since the process is private.

The delay, following remarks by Intel Chief Executive Officer Paul Otellini, who told employees in Taiwan that Windows 8 needs improvement, underscores how the Wintel alliance that has dominated the personal computer industry for three decades is struggling to respond to the threat of Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s iPad. At stake is the chance to make up for lackluster PC buying by capturing users who are flocking to mobile devices, snappy applications and elegant design.

Software development delays obviously limit manufacturers, as they have less time to prep their tablets for the Holiday season; and thus, they have less of a chance to curb Apple’s 70 percent tablet market share.

“It’s bad news for Microsoft and Intel because it’s not going to present the best light on either one and it will hurt the perception of Windows 8,” said Directions analyst Wes Miller to Bloomberg.

Miller further noted Window’s Clover Trail-based tablets will directly compete with Apple’s ARM-based iPads.

Get the full report at Bloomberg. 


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Parallels 8 is a clear winner vs. VMware Fusion 5 in Ars shootout

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Ars put Parallels 8 against VMware Fusion this week and found there is not much of a contest between the two virtualization powerhouses. Parallels 8 out-gunned VMware across the board (as previous benchmarks have shown) performance-wise and adds full support for Retina displays and dictation among other features.

Neither Parallels Desktop 8 or VMWare Fusion 5 are loaded to the gills with new features, so the PD8 update from version 7 is only a must-have if you are looking for Windows 8 or retina MacBook support in Windows 7 or 8. If you need retina support, this is your best option since Parallels did the extra work and made it a better retina experience than in VMWare Fusion 5. The Mountain Lion dictation and experimental DirectX 10 support show that, while Parallels tends to have more frequent paid updates and a higher price-tag, they try to earn the extra value with well thought out features and engineering. Apart from the bugs I saw in Mountain Lion 8, I think Parallels Desktop 8 earns that extra cost with its solid performance, far superior Linux OpenGL support, and existing feature set. But if your needs are more big-business-oriented, VMWare Fusion 5 Pro might be more your thing.

VMware Fusion might fit better into cross-platform installations or for folks with legacy VMware images.

Parallels 8 is available for download or trial here for $79. VMware starts at $49.
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Parallels 8 vs. VMWare Fusion 5 Benchmarks

The Mac Observer just benchmarked Parallels Desktop 8 against its main Mac Desktop virtualization competitor, VMware Fusion 5.

Both applications were configured to virtualize Windows on a 2011 27-inch iMac running on OS X 10.8.1 at 3.4 GHz with 16 GB of RAM for this showdown. The comparison specifically measured their ability to handle the 64-bit versions of Windows 7 Professional and Windows 8 Pro.

Check out the results below: 

The conclusion:

From a purely performance-based perspective, Parallels has won this year’s competition of virtualization software on OS X. The good news for consumers, however, is that Fusion is not far behind in most categories and, while Parallels is indeed faster, Fusion is often fast enough for common tasks.

You can get Parallels 8 here or VMware Fusion 5 here.

Go to The Mac Observer for the full breakdown and more graphs. 


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Poll: Which Mac software do you use for virtualization (Parallels, VMware Fusion, Virtual Box…)?

Both Parallels and VMware announced new versions of their software over the last 12 hours. Which software do you use to run Windows applications, if any? Do you Virtualize Linux or other builds of MacOS X?

Leave comments on your experience.

For the record, I have been using Parallels to deal with @#$% QuickBooks most recently, but off and on for years overall. VMware has also impressed me when I have tried it. Both products are so much better than the slow SoftWindows- type solutions we had in the PowerPC days.


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Parallels 8 virtualization software announced, available September 4, free upgrade to recent Parallels 7 customers

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Parallels just announced the availability of its next generation of virtualization software for the Mac. Although details are scant at this point, it is safe to assume it is optimized for Mountain Lion and Windows 8.

Notable: If you purchase/purchased Parallels 7 after July 25 (Mountain Lion’s release date), you are eligible for a free copy of Parallels 8. Not too shabby.

Buy a FULL or UPGRADE version of Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac TODAY and you will receive an upgrade to our next version at NO ADDITIONAL CHARGE.

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More on the “TechGuarantee” here…or just download a free trial.
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Twitter updates TweetDeck to be more ‘swift’ [Video]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZuGdsjo44k&feature=player_embedded]

Twitter is keeping busy this summer with a slew of updates to its line of products, and now the microblogging service is tidying up TweetDeck.

The desktop application updated today with a new layout for “swifter navigation,” featuring refreshed columns, expanded actions for tweets, and even a revamped Twitter bird icon.

TweetDeck explained:

  • Today you can more easily discover and react to the information you care about with new navigation features in TweetDeck. You have given us some really useful feedback after using these features on web.tweetdeck.com, and now you can use this swifter TweetDeck on other platforms too.
  • This swifter version of TweetDeck is available now at tweetdeck.com, where you can download TweetDeck for Windows, access the Chrome app or sign in to web.tweetdeck.com. The updated TweetDeck for Mac will be available in the Mac App Store shortly.

Go to the TweetDeck Posterous page for a full breakdown on the latest version, or just check out the video above.

TweetDeck is free at the Mac App Store.


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Nielsen needs to work on its graphics (Update)

Nielsen released smartphone purchasing data yesterday that depicted Apple grabbing more than a third of the total smartphone market in the most recently surveyed month. Android was over 50 percent. That is almost 85 percent of the market together, which is a striking number (and over 90 percent in the last three months). But, you would not know it when looking at Nielsen’s graph:

RIM at 9 percent seems to have almost the same share as Apple. Windows Mobile, Windows 7, Symbian, and Palm only come up with 5.8-percent of the market, but together they have a much larger piece of the pie than Apple. Well, we did a little Photoshopping and put their portions into proportion (Again, the disparity is growing with iOS and Android now over 90 percent):

^That is an entirely different story.
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Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac and Parallels Mobile now support Retina Display [Video]

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJnEguWBYUk&feature=player_embedded]

Parallels announced that its Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac and Parallels Mobile now support Apple’s Retina display.

“We are proud to announce that both Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac and Parallels Mobile have been updated to support Apple’s Retina display and its over 5 million megapixels on the newly released MacBooks and latest iPad,” explained the software firm, which delivers an integrated Windows-on-a-Mac experience, so users can reap the full advantages of Apple’s offering across all their devices.

Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac is able to run multiple operating systems, including Windows 8 Release Preview, Windows 7, Chrome, and Ubuntu, and it will soon provide support for the final versions of Mountain Lion and Windows 8 after their release, while Parallels Mobile allows users to remotely control a computer from an iOS device.


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BlueStacks now lets Android apps run on Macs

BlueStacks, the tool that allows Android apps to run on Windows, is now available for Macs.

The software, which is often touted as the “Parallels for Android”, now supports 17 Android apps on OS X. Pulse and Words With Friends are two of the more notable apps packaged in the launch, while high-resolution support for Retina Macs and additional apps are on the horizon.

The company attempted to court more developers—and celebrate the launch of its Mac Alpha —with a mock wedding for Android and Apple at Google I/O yesterday. The free download is available on the BlueStack’s website.

This aside is cross-posted on 9to5Google.


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Parallels celebrates its birthday by dropping price to $28, giving away iPads and other schwag

From 9to5Toys.com:

From 9am-11am PT, Parallels drops the price of its flagship Parallels 7 desktop virtualization product to just $28 to celebrate its 6th birthday. The price will increase 5% every 2 hours, so obviously you’ll want to jump on this soon. Parallels is the best-selling, most-trusted solution for running Windows applications on your Mac – without rebooting.

It is also nice for running Linux or even another instance of the Mac OS and for $28 why not?
As an added bonus, Parallels is giving away a few ‘party favors’: just by sharing, you’ll have a chance to win an iPad 3, Parallels Mobile, and Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac.

More information is also available at the Parallels Consumer Tech Blog, or by following Parallels Desktop on Facebook and @ParallelsMac on Twitter.

Update: Originally story said 9am ET.

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Will Microsoft try to take on Apple by manufacturing its own tablet?

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Microsoft is allegedly prepping to directly compete with Apple in the tablet market

The Redmond, Wash.-based Company scheduled an event in Los Angeles on Monday to make a “major announcement.” AllThingsD reported earlier this week that the event would unveil Microsoft’s tablet plans:

  • After signaling for months that it would attack the market only through its traditional hardware partners, Microsoft has decided to enter the tablet business more directly. […]
  • Sources say that Microsoft concluded that it needs its own tablet, with the company designing both the hardware and software in an effort to better compete against Apple’s strengths. Microsoft’s tablets may include machines running ARM-based processors as well as models running on traditional PC processors, sources said.

Perhaps more interesting: The Wrap claimed Microsoft will self-manufacture the device, which is an assertion that AllThingsD supports. The move is certainly plausible, because Microsoft snatched a 17.6-percent stake in Barnes and Noble’s Nook eReader business last month for $300 million. One could speculate that Apple and Amazon’s dominating presence in the market causes companies like Microsoft and Barnes and Noble to join forces.

[tweet https://twitter.com/harrymccracken/status/213653354117738497]


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Amazon releases Cloud Drive desktop app for Mac and Windows

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Amazon just launched its Cloud Drive app for Mac and Windows.

The Amazon Cloud service unveiled last year, but now users can play with the desktop app counterpart, rather than their browser, to manage files in the cloud. Folders and files can transfer in the background, but the service does not support syncing or a native desktop browsing client like Google Drive, Dropbox, SkyDrive, and SugarSync.

Cloud Drive offers all customers 5GB of free online storage with unlimited access from any computer. Additional storage plans start at 20GB and extend to 1,000 GB. Unlimited music space is currently available with any paid Cloud Drive storage plan for the duration of an existing plan term. Click here to start installing the free Mac app now.

The install is easy, as seen in the gallery below. There are a few ways to get a file or folder into Amazon’s Cloud once the app is installed: Just drag and drop to the new Cloud icon (looks similar to iCloud) in the Menu bar, or right-click/control-click on files and folders to see a new menu item that allows uploading.


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Kaspersky: Apple is 10 years behind Microsoft on security

The last time security researchers at Kaspersky checked the state of Macs infected with the Flashback malware outbreak, it estimated roughly 140,000 were still infected. At the recent Info Security Europe 2012 conference, CBR quoted CEO and co-founder Eugene Kaspersky as claiming Apple is 10 years behind Microsoft when it comes to security:

“I think they are ten years behind Microsoft in terms of security,” Kaspersky told CBR. “For many years I’ve been saying that from a security point of view there is no big difference between Mac and Windows. It’s always been possible to develop Mac malware, but this one was a bit different. For example it was asking questions about being installed on the system and, using vulnerabilities, it was able to get to the user mode without any alarms…. 

Cyber criminals have now recognised that Mac is an interesting area. Now we have more, it’s not just Flashback or Flashfake. Welcome to Microsoft’s world, Mac. It’s full of malware….Apple is now entering the same world as Microsoft has been in for more than 10 years: updates, security patches and so on,” he added. “We now expect to see more and more because cyber criminals learn from success and this was the first successful one…. They will understand very soon that they have the same problems Microsoft had ten or 12 years ago”

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Good advice: Mossberg says wait on your next Mac purchase

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Good ‘ole Walt Mossberg from The Wall Street Journal warned readers today about not buying a new laptop this spring:

Apple is overdue for redesigned laptops, especially in its MacBook Pro line, and it is a good bet that new, possibly heavily redesigned, models will begin appearing later this year. Current Macs will likely be upgradable to Mountain Lion, but if you buy now, you’ll miss out on the likely new hardware.

Check out what else he predicted in the video above, or go read his full-length WSJ post. 


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Windows 8 Consumer Preview out of the gate: Demoed on 82-inch touchscreen supporting 10 simultaneous users

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Microsoft issued the Windows 8 Consumer Preview today for everyone to download and try. Demonstrating the operating system’s ability to scale from the smartphone screen all the way to high-end PCs and beyond, the Redmond, Wash.-headquartered software giant showcased Windows 8 on a monstrous 82-inch display that is capable of detecting up to 100 simultaneous touch events or 10 simultaneous users.

Unfortunately, AnandTech, which reported the story, does not have a video online yet. However, I think it is safe to take Microsoft’s word. Now, if the operating system only ran Apple’s Keynote, the ninja PC-plus-Windows 8 combo coupled with a huge projector-based display would make for an impressive keynote rig.

By the way, we would love to hear impressions from our tech-savvy readers that have managed to dual-boot Windows 8 Consumer Preview alongside OS X using Boot Camp (go here for the FAQ detailing system requirements).

The Windows 8 Consumer Preview product demonstration video is right below the fold.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aebfjzdLxJA#!]


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VLC 2.0 arriving with all-new UI, native full screen in Lion, Blu-ray support, more

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[slideshow]

VideoLAN, the organization behind the open-source cross-platform VLC media player, is geared to launch VLC 2.0—a total rewrite of the program with new capabilities and an all-new user interface on the Mac platform. Available on Mac OS X, Windows and a variety of Linux/Unix platforms, VLC 2.0 [changelog] includes enhancements such as a native full screen mode in Lion, a redesigned subtitle manager, support for multiple video files inside RAR archives and enhanced video output modes. The Mac version will also support unprotected Blu-ray media, and Windows users will get to enjoy a 64-bit version.

The developers also added support for VLC’s lua-based extensions, letting users get information about movies from Allociné, post to Twitter, fetch subtitles automatically, and so forth. No disc burning features are included because “there are more suited apps for that.” One of the developers on the project Felix Kühne published a series of screenshots (more available on Flickr) highlighting the new Mac interface, credited to designer Damien Erambert. According to Kühne:


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Mac OS 10.7.3 released, includes Safari 5.1.3

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Apple just released Mac OS 10.7.3 via Software update and manual download.  Apple released some peripheral downloads today as well:

Release notes are as follows:
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Mac Superbundle deal. Parallels 7 + nine Mac Apps: $49

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From 9to5Toys.com:

Nova offers its MacSuperbundle Winter Deal for $49. We are picky about our bundles, but Parallels alone makes this one worth noting.  There are some solid extras here as well.

Valued at over $470 if purchased separately, the nine software titles and exciting bonus app in the new 2012 Mac SuperBundle are available for just $49, an 89% savings, and offer innovative solutions no Mac user should be without. Nova’s biggest bundle to date and best consumer deal yet features the award-winning and #1 selling virtualization software Parallels Desktop® 7 for Mac, (a $79.99 value alone), and includes essential Mac maintenance tools and organizational apps, plus audio, video and digital creativity software and much more. The Mac SuperBundle launches on January 25th, 2012 and will be available for 14 days only.

Other applications include:

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Review: Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac

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(We’re offering a $10 discount/free Parallels MacBook Air contest this week)

If you are not new to Parallels, you will already be familiar with its ability to run Windows in a virtual machine within OS X. You might also be familiar with its Coherence view mode that allows you to run Windows and Mac OS applications side by side, rather than a full-blown Windows 7 in a separate window. However, Parallels Desktop 7 takes it to the next level with some of the deepest Windows/OS X integration yet.

The name of the game for the new Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac is definitely OS X Lion integration. Pretty much every new UI feature incorporated into Lion has been integrated into Parallels, and thus Windows 7. We put the new version to the test with both Windows 7 and Windows 8 developer preview on last year’s iMac with 4GB of RAM.


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