Mac users seem to be getting a lot of attention these days what with Parallels and VMware going back and forth updating their Mac virtualization platforms in a relatively quick fashion as they battle for dominance in that market.

If you are just joining the party, VMware and Parallels both offer a desktop virtualization platform to allow Intel-based Macs to run virtual machines that operate Linux or Windows operating systems so that you can easily run your favorite applications that work on those operating systems.

VMware's latest Beta version of its Fusion product, version 1.1, includes a number of new features and bug fixes. Most notable of these new features are:

• New experimental support for DirectX 9.0 3-D graphics (without shader support).
  
• Improved USB support for syncing the iPhone in Microsoft Windows virtual machines
  
• Improvements to Unity such as the option to show or hide the Windows taskbar and Start menu in the View menu and the VMware Fusion "Launch Applications" window no longer appears automatically when no Unity windows are open
  
• Eject key now automatically ejects the optical drive, even if the optical drive is attached to a virtual machine
  
• Improved support for running on Mac OS X Leopard hosts
  
• VMware Shared Folders created with Windows Easy Install now default to "Read Only" access of the Mac's home directory for maximum security

Check out the Fusion Beta site for more information, here. And you can register and download the Beta product from VMware, here.

Posted by David Marshall on September 26, 2007 06:11 AM