mac

If you’re a regular reader, you’ll know that I went through a fairly recent life changing event. I found Mac’s

Since being the proud owner of an exquisite MacBook Pro, I’ve been a user of VMWare’s amazing Fusion, which allows me to run Windows (and just about any other OS) virtually on my Mac. And it’s fast. It’s no exaggeration to say that XP running virtually on my MBP is as fast and responsive (and actually boots quicker) than my dedicated XP box!

So I was delighted to hear that VMWare have just announced Beta 1 of Fusion 2, which has added some remarkable functionality.

This public beta, a free download, boasts a handful of industry firsts for Mac virtualization, including true multi-display support for virtual machines and experimental DirectX 9.0 Shader Model 2 3D acceleration.

The team is also extremely happy to announce that VMware Fusion 2.0, when released, will be a free downloadable upgrade for all VMware Fusion 1.x customers, as a sincere thank you to our early supporters.

Now, “free” is about my most favourite word on the planet, so this is good news. It’s almost as impressive as the Shader Model 2 emulation.

I can’t wait to try this out. You can read the full post with further details over on the VMWare site.

I guess it must be that time of year for Mac software bundles. Following on from my earlier post about the new MacHeist bundle, MacUpdate have announced their latest bundle, where you can get yourself $265 worth of Mac software for only $64.99. Their bundle includes the following apps:

• Hazel
• ArtText (looks good)
• MenuCalendarClock
• StoryMill
• Typinator
• DVDRemaster Pro

Additionally, if enough people purchase the bundle, the following additional apps will be made available:

• Sound Studio
• BannerZest
• Parallels Desktop

This one expires in around 10 days from the date of this post, so don’t leave it too long if you’re interested.

MacHeist have announced their latest bundle - the Retail Bundle Unboxed.

I was lucky enough to be able to take advantage of their last bundle and got some fantastic Mac applications for a stupidly low price. Well, the team have done it again, offering no less than 12 terrific Mac apps for only $49.95!

The applications included in the bundle are:

• Awaken
• Cha-Ching
• CoverSutra
• DEVONThink Personal
• iClip
• Overflow
• Wallet
• WriteRoom
• XSlimmer
• Enigmo
• Bugdom 2
• Nanosaur 2

If you want to get a whole library of Mac apps for the price one program, head over to the MacHeist web site now.

I dearly love my MacBook Pro, but one thing I’m struggling to find is a good blog editor. By good, I mean as good as Windows Live Writer.

I’ve tried many blog editors for the Mac, but none offer the ease of use and functionality of WLW. I’ve been using Qumana for quite a while and I think it’s the best of the bunch, but it really doesn’t like it when you write a post and save it for later use. At best, it seems to lose all the formatting and, at worst, it loses half the post. Not good.

So, I’m now writing this with WLW under Windows XP using VMWare’s Fusion for Mac. And it works a treat. I’m using it in Unity mode, so WLW just appears as a window in my lovely shiny OSX like any other application.

Yes, it means going back to Windows daily for my posts, but I can live with that with Fusion. At least until something better comes along native to the Mac.

So, over to you! Let me know about all those lovely Mac blog editors that I haven’t found yet!

I’ve been a Flickr nut for pretty much as long as it’s been around. I’ve been a Mac nut for a few months. I’m also a desktop wallpaper changing junkie too.

So, to my rescue comes DeskLickr (!), a neat, free program for the Mac that’ll go grab images from Flickr at a time interval of your choice and use it as your Mac desktop. You can grab random pics, or limit it to your own account. How neat is that? I might be wrong, but I think the author - Aaron Wallis - actually wrote it specifically for me. No? Oh well.

Anyway, go grab it now and if you like it, make a donation to buy the author a beer.