dual-boot
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Hands-on with TechFaith's QiGi i6 in Android mode
Remember that mysterious dual-boot QiGi i6 from a few months back? If you dream of Windows Mobile / Android dual-boot devices at night, then odds are you do, and we've been able to spend a little time with one humming along in Android mode today. It turns out that the i6's manufacturer is none other than TechFaith Wireless, an ODM more closely associated with WinMo devices -- but like so many other manufacturers these days, TechFaith is apparently looking to branch out by adding another platform into the mix.Anyhow, let's just be straight about this: odds are you don't really want this phone, even if you think you do. The physical design feels one or two iterations behind, but the real problem stems from the fact that you're rocking QVGA resolution here; yes, granted, Android runs -- but in its default layout, it's clearly designed for a few more pixels both horizontally and vertically. Furthermore, we're told that end users can't swap ROMs themselves (in other words, distributors would choose one platform or the other and be done with it) -- the hardware is designed to run both Android and Windows Mobile, but it's not like you get some fancy Boot Camp-style setup for booting into either environment. Also, since the i6 features no physical keyboard and Cupcake was little more than a twinkle in Google's eye by the time the phone was released, you're dealing with a pretty poorly-designed soft keyboard that's been grafted onto the build; individual keys are small enough so that you need a stylus to press them, and when you call up the keyboard, it takes up the full screen so you can't see whatever app you were in while you're typing. Check it all out (for the hilarious power-on splash screen, if nothing else) in our video after the break!%Gallery-44988%
Microsoft sez no OLPC dual-boot, still committed to XP on XO
Those of you who participated in OLPC's "Give One, Get One" program will probably be disappointed to learn that, despite earlier reports to the contrary, Microsoft has no intention of developing dual-boot Windows / Linux support for the XO laptop. According to a statement sent to BetaNews, Redmond flat out denied any work on such a project, instead claiming that it "plans to publish formal design guidelines early this year that will assist [any] flash-based device manufacturers in designing machines that enable a high-quality Windows experience." The blurb goes on to say that the company will be conducting limited XP-on-XO field tests later this month, although BetaNews notes that notebook's hardware limitations have proven problematic for the software giant, which may be forced to offer the OS on an SD card -- a move that would require a new BIOS for the XO to enable booting from removable storage.[Via Slashdot]
Toshiba's Satellite T31 arrives with Vista, Windows XP in box
Tired of fretting about which flavor of Windows will work best for you? Toshiba's apparently feeling your pain, and is looking to remedy said quandary by tossing in both operating systems with its new 15.4-inch Dynabook Satellite T31. Apparently, the unit includes Vista Business and XP Professional recovery discs, giving the buyer the option when they finally get it home. Specs wise, you'll be looking at a 2GHz Core 2 Duo T7250 on the high side (with a 1.86GHz Celeron 540 on the low-end), as well as optional WiFi, a WXGA (1,280 x 800) resolution panel, 512MB of RAM, an 80GB hard drive, DVD burner and a rechargeable Li-ion good for around 1.3 hours. Additionally, the unit touts four USB 2.0 sockets, Ethernet, PCMCIA, a multicard reader, VGA / S-Video outputs and a FireWire port to boot. Check it out right now for between ¥175,350 ($1,573) and ¥206,850 ($1,856).[Via AkihabaraNews]
24 hours of Leopard: Boot Camp
Features: Boot CampWhat it does: Atten-HUT! No more whinin' about how yer Mac won't run Windows without kickin' it around the block a few times. Leopard now comes with Boot Camp so you can tell your machine whether to come to the party dressed in its Leopard or Windows togs. (You, Soldier, better be wearin' yer camo!)Stop yer complainin' that yer drivers won't work right, neither. Our fine Admirals up at the Cupertino H-Q got ya covered. The Leopard DVD comes with everythin' you need -- if ya think you've got what it takes to handle it.Already running Boot Camp Beta? Well, ain't you special? Leopard walks you through the upgrade and gives you the new drivers that ya need. Who will use it: Soldiers who alternate OS X and Windows Vista or XP. Too much dual-bootin' goodness for ya? Toughen up! Get used to it. This is Leopard, ya big lug. Now drop and give me 20!
Much love for Mike Bombich -- Bootpicker 1.3 makes Mac/XP choice easier
Let us count the ways that the Mac sysadmin community hearts Mike B: we relish his reliable and full-featured Carbon Copy Cloner, we depend absolutely upon his fast and simple NetRestore, we puzzle through his instructions for deploying dual-boot machines and for working with Active Directory. Most of all, we love that all this snazzy management goodness is free. Now, for everyone tired of telling dual-boot users "just hold down the option key," Mike has released a Boot Camp OS selector tool called (unsurprisingly) BootPicker. It's open source, free and delightfully slick.What differentiates BootPicker from a simple option-boot, or from more elaborate tools like rEFIt, is its manageability and simplicity. Installed as a preference pane, BootPicker actually boots to Mac OS X every time and lets the user click a button for the OS they want (or, if administratively desired, reboots automatically to Mac OS X or Windows without user input). This gets around a couple of tricky problems; normally, setting a permanent boot OS requires an admin password, and a machine set to always boot in Windows is immune to the management oversight of tools like ARD or Workgroup Manager (you can manage both sides of the fence with LANrev or similar tools, but that can be a pain). By booting into Mac OS X first, there's an opportunity to change the preferences for BootPicker itself and modify the behavior for the next boot cycle.There's a very solid Read Me for BootPicker that (unfortunately) is only included in the install distribution, so you'll have to download it to peruse the details. Mike includes a candid evaluation of the security risks involved with something like BootPicker, which runs as root before the normal login window is presented to the user; please use discretion and care if you decide to deploy it. Check it out, and take a moment to appreciate what Mr. Bombich has done to make our lives a little bit easier.
Parallels 3.0 handles 3D gaming, adds SmartSelect integration tool
The folks over at Parallels aren't messing around with these updates, as just about four months after unveiling release candidate 2, the harmony-inducing software is just about ready to hit the big three-o. At long last, the new iteration will purportedly support 3D graphics acceleration, giving Mac users the ability to play OpenGL / DirectX-based games in Windows without having to reboot, and it sounds like you'll be seeing improved shared folder performance as well. Moreover, the SmartSelect integration tool allows you to "open up any file from Windows or Mac OS X using an application from either operating system," which should work nicely alongside Coherence, and the Snapshots feature helps you to store Parallels' virtual machine state so you can roll back when needed and "control levels of integration and isolation using the VM Sentry." Apparently, the software isn't quite ready to hit the masses just yet, but early birds can latch onto the $39.99 upgrade price if you act quickly, while customers who bought in after May 1st will be blessed with the upgrade gratis.[Via Macworld]
Intel, NTT DoCoMo pen multi-OS standard
Managing one smartphone operating system can bring even the most technically competent folks among us to their knees -- but how about two? Intel and NTT DoCoMo have put their noggins together to draw up a standard for dual-booting two platforms on a handset: one of the manufacturer's / carrier's choosing, and another at the user's discretion. Apparently, the standard will ensure that if one OS crashes, the other will still be usable, and calls will be able to be placed and received regardless how badly the user fubars the installation. While we'd like this to ultimately lead to Treo 750s with multiple personality disorder, we suspect the whole initiative will ultimately be restricted to a handful of NTT DoCoMo specials.[Via The Inquirer and WM247]
Not all Macs meet Vista requirements
Julio Ojeda-Zapata of the Pioneer Press points out the system requirements for Microsoft's latest piece of vaporware soon-to-be-released update to Windows, Vista. According to Microsoft, Vista may run on machines that don't meet their "Premium Ready PC" requirements (which referees to machines that can handle all of the eye candy...if you can call it that), but those users won't be able to experience all the ways Vista rips off Aqua and Mac OS X many of the innovative UI features of the OS. The "Premium Ready PC" requirements for Vista are: 1 GHz 32-bit or 64-bit processor 1GB of system memory (!) A graphics processor that runs Windows Aero 128MB of graphics memory 40GB of hard drive space with 15GB free DVD-ROM Drive Audio output capability Internet access capability Hmm. Seems the MacBook and Mac mini fail to meet the video RAM requirements. Not to mention that you're going to need at least a 60GB hard drive. Also note, as Julio points out, that the mini and MacBook share system and video memory, so Vista may be a drag on those machines. So, if you plan on running a dual-boot machine once Vista is released, you may want to look towards a MacBook Pro or iMac.
Switched On: Boot Camp - The Miffing Manual
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a weekly column about the future of technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment:"All right! Listen up, maggot! Welcome to Fort Dragg. I am your Commanding Microsoft Office-er Sgt. Pepper! How do you like that for trademark infringement, Apple Corps? I bet you came here today because you wanted to serve your computer company by beta testing Boot Camp? Well, let me tell you something. It ain't gonna be easy, you puke!"Over the next 50 minutes, I will become your father, your mother, your Apple Specialist, your third-tier tech support person, and your best friend! Your heart may belong to Apple but your butt belongs to me! Your precious vendor won't support other operating systems, so you better be quicker than a FireWire 800 port, because if you ain't, you just may blow your disk up with your laser mouse."You come here as a sack of rotting apples unfit to touch a scroll ball! But I will tear down your hard drive into partitions until you cry. You will feel the burn like a driver CD. You will break like compatibility with classic Mac applications. Your identity will be so far gone that Spotlight won't be able to find it. Remember, there is no Windows ME in 'team.' If you can reset your system clock, you will leave with a time-killing, dual-booting, PC game-running machine! Do you hear me!?""Sir! Yes, sir!"
Call to take the No Windows Booting Pledge
This may appeal only to the 13% of you who told us you think the idea of dual-booting your Mac is pure blasphemy. If you want to make a statement, answer this call from Apple Matters to take the No Windows Booting Pledge. AM rails against the idea of booting Windows on our Macs and begs Mac users to take a pledge of allegiance to the Mac platform. If you're on board, get up from your desk, put your hand over your heart, and repeat:I won’t even think about trying to dual-boot my Mac, now and forever. Amen.
Mac game devs cautiously optimistic about Boot Camp
Mac gaming website Inside Mac Games has posted a selection of Mac game developers reaction's to Apple's Boot Camp software. The overall feeling from the developers is one of cautious optimism: any loss in interest for OS X specific games could be offset by an increase in overall Mac market share from casual Windows gamers flooding to the platform. Andrew Welch, the founder of Ambrosia Software (creators of classics like the Escape Velocity series of games), doesn't "view it as a threat at all... but then again, we're not in the porting business". Aspyr's Glenda Adams and Brad Oliver are in the porting business. Fortunately they also publish and port games for other platforms. According to Brad "if Mac sales tank, we've got enough revenue coming in from PC and console ports that it probably won't hurt the company too much and we'd just focus on the other platforms." Mac game sales will only tank if people stop buying Mac games and instead play their games in Windows but as Andrew says, "people will get sick of dual-booting, and would prefer to run native games, just like Linux users prefer native games". Ian Lynch Smith of Freeverse points out that this may be only the first step: "Apple is pushing the intel roll out very aggressively, and now aggressively pushing dual boot (and virtualization eventually from someone)". Hopefully in the next 6 months we'll see effective virtualization of Windows games from within OS X. That's the most desirable outcome for both Mac users and developers.[Via TUAW]
TUAW Poll results: Will you dual-boot your Mac?
Many of our informal polls produce fairly even results. Not so with this one. Of the 5,228 of you who responded to the question, "Will you dual-boot your Mac," a full 50% (2,593) of you said, "absolutely." Twenty three percent of you stated that you have no need to do this and fourteen percent said they'd do it just to see it work. Finally, 681 of you (13%), thought the idea was pure blasphemy.Personally, I'd do it just to see it work, but I immediately thought of the financial department at my day job when this news broke. We use nothing but Macs where I work, except for the finance department. They use a proprietary piece of software that is (and will stay) Windows only. So, the person who does payroll must keep both a Mac and a PC on her desk so she can use the payroll software just once every two weeks. A dual-boot Mac seems custom-made for her situation. I'm sure similar scenarios could be found all over the country. Add to that the number of potential new customers who are considering Macs for the very first time, based on Boot Camp's introduction, and we could have a hardware war on our hands.
Boot Camp lets Macs run Windows ... officially
If you want to run Windows on your Intel-based Mac but found narf and blanka's solution a little too intimidating, you now have another option -- and this one's from Apple. The company has released a public beta of a technology called Boot Camp, which will be included in the next version of OS X. As its name implies, Boot Camp is essentially a boot manager, and allows Mac owners to install Windows XP and choose whether to run OS X or Windows at startup. It also includes a selection of Windows drivers for common Mac hardware, along with a utility to let you burn a CD to run the installation and partitioning tools. Yes, you still need your own copy of XP, but it looks like Apple's taken most of the pain out of dual-booting. Great job Steve, but we're sorry to tell you that the $13K bounty's already been won. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Ask TUAW: What will you do with Windows on your Mac?
We've seen a video of Windows on an iMac in action, and this weekend Dave Caolo posted the results from our poll that found the greater majority of TUAW readers were happy, at least to some degree, that Windows XP can run on a Mac. Now we want to ask: what are you going to do with it?Are you an enthusiastic Mac user who can't wait to get in on Half Life 2? Is there an app or two your office (campus/business/etc.) needs you to run? Or might you simply have a hankering for Minesweep? We want to hear why you'll be giving your Mac a split personality, of sorts, but there's one rule: please keep the anti-Windows sentiments to a minimum. Yes, this is a blog about all things Apple and our favorite operating system, but how about we make some room for the visiting team just this once?
XP on a MacBook Pro
You had to know that XP on a MacBook Pro would quickly follow the same on an iMac. Nirlog has a nice, step-by-step how to, including links to the files you'll need to get the job done. Stop worrying about VirtualPC and enjoy the dual-boot goodness.[Via Make]
Another Roadblock in Dual-Booting Mac OS X & Vista
Those hoping to be able to dual-boot the Intel Macs once Microsoft ships Vista (late this year?) may have to wait a bit longer. Today, Dan Warne of APC Magazine reported that Microsoft has announced that the first version of Vista will not have support for computers that use EFI firmware and that Microsoft may include EFI support at a later date for Vista.Why on earth would Microsoft do this? I suppose it could be for technical reasons that we're not aware of, but I don't see why Microsoft couldn't just ship Vista without BIOS support instead, and anyone who wanted to upgrade to Vista would just have to buy a new PC, which is what most people will be doing anyway. Why willingly block machines with EFI to run Vista? But I suppose it might be that Microsoft is afraid to let users see Mac OS X and Vista side-by-side on the same computer.It's quite clear EFI is the future and BIOS is the past. Apple is embracing one while Microsoft seems chained to the other.
