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VMware Fusion 4 brings full Lion support, wants to make Windows act less like Windows
Leave it to VMware to put the spotlight back on Lion when this is, without a doubt, Windows 8's week. The company just announced Fusion 4, the latest version of its virtualization software, and, as you'd expect, it pledges to play nice with Apple's newly minted OS. In addition to fully supporting Lion features like Spotlight, though, it makes Windows look more like, well, a Mac. The software includes improved support for Expose and Spaces on the Windows side, and adds the ability to use Mission Control and launch Windows apps from Launchpad. Additionally, you can run Lion as a virtual machine within Snow Leopard and VMware makes vague claims about improved performance, 3D graphics and resource-hogging. It'll cost $50 through the end of the year, with the price jumping up to $80 in January. Fittingly enough, VMware picked up on the fact that Apple's moving away from optical drives, and instead chose to ship the software with a USB drive (you can also download it and do the whole drag-and-drop installation thing). Oh, and if you bought the last-gen version of the software on July 20th or later, you'll get the new version gratis. Lots of screen shots below, and full PR after the break.%Gallery-133556%
Patent hints at Apple's Spaces on the iPad
PatentlyApple has dug up a patent application Apple filed with the USPTO, which demonstrates that Apple is at least considering bringing Spaces to the iPad. While not mentioning the iPad by name, the patent does say that "In some embodiments, the device [for this patent application] is a desktop computer. In some embodiments, the device is portable (e.g., a notebook computer, a tablet, or a handheld device)." Apple notes that the current method of switching between windows or applications on a device are "cumbersome and inefficient," requiring multiple presses or clicks which "create a significant cognitive burden on a user" and take longer than necessary, therefore wasting energy. Apple suggests implementing Spaces on touch screen devices via a two-finger pinch in the corner of the screen. This two-finger pinch would display a grid of all open spaces or virtual desktops. The user could then use a single finger to swipe the selected Spaces grid into full screen view, thus enabling that Space. Once again, we remind readers that Apple typically patents things that never see the light of day, but this hypothetical Spaces technology on the iPad would by much more user friendly than the current multitasking options available, which require the user to double-press the iPad's Home button then swipe a row of apps at the bottom of the screen before finally selecting an app to activate.
VMware brings virtual machines to iPad
Earlier today, VMware, Inc. announced the availability of VMware View Client for iPad on Apple's App Store. The free app enables enterprise and government users to securely access their virtual desktops, applications and data from anywhere with wireless internet access. Unlike VNC clients that allow iPad users to remotely control a personal computer, VMware's solution displays the desktop of a virtual machine hosted online. VMware View Client for iPad uses a combination of on-screen input devices and multi-touch gestures to offer precise, intuitive controls for interacting with a PC interface on the iPad. The app fully supports Wi-Fi or 3G connections. VMware View allows IT departments to centrally host virtual machines that can be accessed from a variety of computing devices. VMware's press release cites Children's Hospital Central California's use of VMware View as an example. "Recently, the Hospital has deployed VMware View to provide secure, 'Follow-me Desktops,' that move from room-to-room with clinicians and staff as they treat their patients." VMware View Client for iPad simply and securely connects users to their virtual machines centrally hosted with the VMware View solution. The iPad app is offered as a free companion to VMware's enterprise-class virtual computing platform. "Now all of us iPad aficionados can use our iPads to access our desktops and get an awesome user experience without giving IT a heart attack about security," says VMware's official blog.
Neverware's Juicebox 100 squeezes new life into aging school computers (video)
Your typical school computer is probably not a machine you'd like to use on a daily basis -- perennially behind the curve in terms of technology, since educators can't afford smokin' hot video cards and primo processors year after year. Budgets and the resulting reluctance inevitably lead to stale hardware which then goes obsolete... but a tiny startup called Neverware thinks it can end the cycle of woe with virtualization technology. Its single product, the Juicebox a100, can serve up one hundred Windows 7 virtual desktops to existing hardware, pretty much regardless of its age -- all computers need is a working LAN jack, a 500MHz processor and 128MB of memory, so schools could keep their beige boxes and just upgrade the Juicebox instead. Founder Jonathan Hefter doesn't have pricing worked out yet -- and his tiny company only has three of the boxes working at present -- but he's piloted the technology in a pair of schools and is planning a beta soon -- all the while dreaming about how our mountains of e-waste could be transformed into useful computers for the poorer nations of the world. Good luck, dude! Video after the break.
VirtueDesktops Developer Calls It Quits
Tony Arnold, the developer of the free virtual desktop program VirtueDesktops, on Saturday announced that he is no longer going to develop the software. Citing Leopard's forthcoming Spaces and the time necessary to work on the project as reasons, he has decided to stop development at this time. He says he doesn't want to kill the project and so invites other developers to take it up. It's sad to see development end on a nice piece of software (though, personally I thought the commercial You Control: Desktops was considerably more stable), but as Tony says, the writing was on the wall pretty much as soon as Spaces was announced at WWDC last year.[Via Digg]
VirtueDesktops update brings lots of changes, bug fixes
VirtueDesktops, the virtual desktop manager of choice, recently updated to version 0.54 beta 2 with a major set of changes and bug fixes. This forum post at cocoaforge rounds up all the changes of a few recent builds, including this latest beta. To summarize: the main gist is a lot of focus on UI tweaks and improvements. Rearranging desktops, desktop inspector improvements, crash fixes and plugs for memory leaks are all on the table. If you want to download the new version and are interested in the details, hit the forum post for everything you need to know. Otherwise the VirtueDesktops downloads page should do you just fine, but don't forget to donate to show your appreciation.
