Hi-Tech Squad

VirtualBox 3.0 has been released by Sun. This major update introduces Symmetrical Multiprocessing (SMP) in virtual machines as well improved 3D support.

VirtualBox is an x86 virtualization solution, developed by Sun Microsystems (it was originally created by German software company Innotek). When it is installed on an existing host operating system (known as the host) additional guest operating systems can be loaded and run, each with its own virtual environment.

VirtualBox the only professional x86 virtualization solution that is freely available as Open Source Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL).

VirtualBox runs on Windows, Linux, Macintosh and OpenSolaris hosts and supports a large number of guest operating systems including but not limited to Windows (NT 4.0, 2000, XP, Server 2003, Vista, Windows 7), DOS/Windows 3.x, Linux (2.4 and 2.6), Solaris and OpenSolaris, and OpenBSD.

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gary Downloads, Linux, OS X, Open Source, Windows

CrossOver 8.0 (a commercial version of Wine) allows you to install many popular Windows productivity applications, plugins and games in OS X or Linux. CrossOver 8.0 includes an easy to use, single click interface, which makes installing a Windows application simple and fast. Once installed, your application integrate seamlessly with your desktop. Because CrossOver 8.0 isn’t based on Microsoft technology you can install these Windows programs without needing a Microsoft operating system license.
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gary Linux, OS X

IBM has announced the release of Lotus Symphony 1.3, an alternative suite to Microsoft Office. The productivity tool suite consists of three component applications, Documents, Spreadsheets and Presentations

Lotus Symphony 1.3 includes several usability and functionality enhancements and has also improved interoperability with Microsoft Office 2007. The release now supports the importing of Microsoft Office 2007 files and includes enhancements to DataPilot tables in spreadsheets. Password protection support has been added for Microsoft Office and IBM Lotus SmartSuite spreadsheets and significant improvements have been made to improve the overall performance on Mac OS X systems.

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gary Linux, OS X, Windows

Today Apple released an updated range of iMacs, Mac Minis and Mac Pros. Since I am a Mac Mini user (and so are several of my friends) I am going to take a deeper look at the new Mac Mini.

The Mac Mini line was last refreshed in 2007 and came in two models the 1.83Ghz and the 2.0Ghz model.

The new Mac Mini also has two models but interestingly they both are running at 2.0Ghz. This makes sense as it means that Apple has less parts and inventory to manage. The main difference between the two Mac Mini models is one comes with 1GB of memory and a 120GB hard drive and the other 2GB memory with a 320GB hard drive. So as they roll down the assembly line some will have more memory added and a different hard drive, that’s all. This makes for a very simple, lean and cost effective manufacturing process. Having said that both models can be upgraded to the 2.26GHz Intel Core 2 Duo for $150.00. The maximum memory in the new Mac Mini is 4GB compared to 2GB in the previous line.

Other than the speed, memory and disk improvements the big change in the Mac Mini is the use of the 9400M nVidia graphics chip. The previous range of Mac Minis used the Intel GMA 950, which didn’t support hardware T&L and wasn’t a very good 3D performer. The new nVidia GeForce 9400M brings up to five times faster graphics performance to Mac mini.

Another interesting feature of the Mac Mini is its power consumption.
Mac mini uses 45 percent less power than the previous model — less than 13W while it’s idle. This makes Mac mini the most energy-efficient desktop computer in the world.

The Mac Mini comes with WiFi, Bluetooth, Gigabit Ethernet, FireWire 800, Five USB 2.0 ports and a Mini DisplayPort video out (like on the Mac Books).

When compared to the iMacs the Mini isn’t that small… Ignoring the lack of incorporated screen the level entry iMac is almost identical to the higher end Mac Mini (in terms of memory, hard disk, DVD and graphics) with the only exception being that the iMac has a 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo.

However interestingly enough, if you take the 2GB/320GB Mac Mini and add a 24 inch Apple display it will cost you $1,796.00 which is nearly $300 more than the entry level 24 inch iMac!

Like all Macs, the Mini comes with Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard and iLife ’09 pre-installed. Prices start from $599.00 for the 1GB/120GB model and $799.00 for the 2GB/320GB model.

So, what does it mean. The first upgrades any Mac Mini user makes are to buy an external hard drive and add more memory. Sadly there was nothing that could be done about the graphics. So the new Mac Minis have more memory and bigger hard disks (and so should nullify the need to upgrade these) and now the graphics is much, much, much better.

All round the new Mac Mini looks like a great deal and a good improvement over the previous incarnation.

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gary Apple, Hardware, OS X

The week the Omni Group, the people behind the popular OmniGraffle diagraming software, released four of their applications as freeware. OmniWeb, OmniDazzle, OmniDiskSweeper, and OmniObjectMeter are all now available with no licensing restrictions and are fully functional.

• OmniWeb is an advanced web browsing that’s easy and fun.
  
• OmniDazzle is a set of fun and useful enhancements that help you highlight certain areas of your screen, create visual effects, and track the location of your mouse pointer.
  
• OmniDiskSweeper is a utility for quickly finding and deleting big, useless files and thus making space on your hard disks.
  
• OmniObjectMeter is a tool that makes it easy for Cocoa and Unix developers to find and fix memory leaks.
  

Read more here: OmniWeb, three other Omni apps available as freeware

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gary OS X

Apple has just released a beta of their Safari web browser for the Mac and for the PC. Judging by previous “beta” releases from Apple, the quality should be very high and the browser should be very useable now.

Amongst the raft of cool and new features on Safari 4 are:

Full-Page Zoom - Zoom in or out on web content using keyboard shortcuts, Multi-Touch gestures, or the Zoom toolbar button for more comfortable reading. Images and graphics scale up while your text remains razor sharp, keeping the web page layout consistent as you zoom. To add the Zoom button to your toolbar, simply choose Customize toolbar from the View menu and drag the button onto your toolbar.

Speculative Loading - Safari loads the documents, scripts, and style information required to view a web page ahead of time, so they’re ready when you need them.

Cover Flow for Bookmarks - Using Cover Flow, you can flip through websites as easily as you flip through album art in iTunes. Cover Flow displays your bookmarks and history as large graphical previews, so you can pick out a website instantly.

Smart Address Field - Enter web addresses quickly and easily. As you begin to type an address in the address field, Safari automatically completes it with the most likely match — called the Top Hit — and highlights it. Simply press the Enter key to connect to the site. If the Top Hit is not the site you intended to visit, check the list of relevant suggestions, drawn from your bookmarks and browsing history, that Safari displays. Click to select the site you want to visit.

CSS Effects - Pioneered by Safari, CSS effects help developers add polish to websites by stylizing images and photos with eye-catching gradients, precise masks, and stunning reflections that require only a few lines of code.

Acid 3 Compliance
Safari is the first — and only — web browser to pass Acid 3. Acid 3 tests a browser’s ability to fully render pages using the web standards used to build dynamic, next-generation websites, including CSS, JavaScript, XML, and SVG.

HTML 5 Offline Support - Web developers can now create applications that you can use even when you don’t have access to the Internet. Thanks to HTML 5 offline support, designers can build web applications that store themselves on your computer, where you have immediate access to them. Along with the application, web developers can also choose to store the application’s data on your system, so you always have the information you need. Applications and data can be stored in a traditional SQL-like database serving as an application cache or as a “super cookie,” which stores data in the familiar cookie format.

Nitro JavaScript Engine - Safari 4 introduces the Nitro JavaScript engine, an advanced bytecode JavaScript engine that makes web browsing even faster. In fact, Safari 4 executes JavaScript up to 6 times faster than Internet Explorer 8 and up to 4 times faster than Firefox 3.1.

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gary Apple, OS X, Webmaster, Windows

Hi-Tech Squad have launched a sister site Virtualization News to cover the stories that make the news in the virtualization technology market.

It covers solutions like VMware, VirtualBox, Xen, KVM and others across the full range of operating systems including Windows, Linux, OS X and Unix.

We hope you like it!

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gary Just Cool, Linux, OS X, Windows

Does Microsoft have the upper hand over OS X. Here’s 15 reasons why it doesn’t.

• 1. Reliable sleep mode.
  
• 2. Extremely fast boot times.
  
• 3. Apple uses good quality parts.
  
• 4. Less blinking lights.
  
• 5. OS X + Windows is better than just Windows.
  
• 6. Easier to troubleshoot Macs.
  
• 7. A culture of good quality community software.
  
• 8. More useful apps out of the box.
  
• 9. Neat and contained system settings.
  
• 10. Apple doesn’t load the system up with rubbish.
  
• 11. Tonnes of small reasons make Mac OS X better including every version of OS X has sophisticated screenshot capability built in.
  
• 12. Still no need for additional security software.
  
• 13. Apple seems largely to be lameness free.
  
• 14. Power of the Linux command line with Photoshop CS4
  
• 15. File sharing is much easier.
  

Read more here: 15 reasons Macs are still better than Windows PCs

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gary Apple, OS X

Dan Lyons of Newsweek asks, “Remember how AOL used to be cool, but then became the service used only by people who didn’t know any better? Microsoft is heading down that path.”

He quotes a Microsoft exec who says, “You fly business class today, and it’s nothing but Macs.” Astonishingly, one of those Mac users is the Microsoft exec himself.

If it is true that Microsoft has lost its “cool” factor, and that it is used because of IT department preference, then lots of users are with Windows because they must be, not because they want to be.

His conclusion? That “Windows is IT. It’s Industrial and it’s useful. The Mac is something more, and that is why more and more people choose to buy it.”

Read more here: Windows Is Industrial, Mac Is Something More

(Via Mac Offers.)

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gary Apple, OS X, Windows

A spoof of Microsoft’s “I’m a PC” advert has been posted on YoubTube… This ad starts like the regular Microsoft ad with lots of people saying “I’m a PC” and then cuts to the Apple advert where Mac says “and I’m a PC too”. It then goes on to remind us that Macs can run Windows too. The is a great shot of Bill Gates at the end.

Read more here: Just For Fun: A YouTube Spoof of Microsoft’s “I’m a PC Ad”

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gary Apple, OS X, Windows