Parallels Workstation 2.1 beta 6

Improvements and Fixes in Beta 6:
USB fixes (more devices supported: PDA, scanner, etc.)
Shared Folders fixes (added support for guest Windows 2000)
Network improvements: host-only networking
Custom video resolutions support added
Image Tool introduced
Autoupdate introduced
Kernel panic in virtual memory manager fixed
Shutdown in fullscreen mode hang fixed
Virtual disk sync() problem with Linux guests fixed

(Via macmegasite.)

Sync OSX Address Book: “The Plaxo Toolbar for Mac synchronizes your Mac OS X Address Book with your Plaxo Universal Address Book. Wherever you install a Plaxo toolbar, your address book will be consistent and stay up-to-date automatically. You can also access your address book on the web through Plaxo Online.”

(Via plaxo.)

Think Secret – Aperture future in question as Apple axes bulk of team

Apple recently asked the engineering team behind its Aperture photo editing and management software to leave, Think Secret has learned. The move, which resulted in the departure of several engineers while others were transferred to different projects inside Apple, raises questions about the future of Aperture, Apple’s most heavily criticized and bug-ridden software release in recent years.

(Via thinksecret.)

Explorer Destroyer,

A group of self-titled “political activists” in Massachusetts has started an aggressive campaign to get browser users to switch from Microsoft’s Internet Explorer to Mozilla’s Firefox.

(Via cio.)

Information:

“Gawker is an application for Mac OS X that creates time-lapse movies using an iSight camera. Images from your camera can be shared, allowing other users to record your image stream. Streams can also be combined to create a time-lapse movie with two locations side-by-side.”

(Via gawker.)

TMO Quick Tip – Set Your Widgets Free! || The Mac Observer: “If you have a favorite widget that you want available even when Dashboard isn’t taking over your whole Desktop, all you have to do is liberate it.

Here’s how:

Press the F12 key to display the Dashboard layer.
Click the plus symbol in the lower left corner of your display to open the widget drawer.
Click and drag the widget you want on your Desktop out of the drawer.
Before releasing the mouse button, press and release the F12 key.”

(Via macobserver.)

Speed Download 4 marks the next generation of powerful and reliable, time-saving download managers. Faster and more secure, more features, easier to use and sporting a new look, this latest Speed Download release sets a new standard for download manager innovation, and is designed to be your central, unified hub for almost all the downloading and file transfer activities you do online.

Some of the new features include the following:

a gorgeous new interface,
a re-engineered ‘universal’ download engine optimized for maximum performance,
a powerful database to manage all your downloads, uploads, and file transfers,
a FTP client (with SSL) that satisfies the basic FTP needs of most users,
a secure, high performance P2P file sharing utility (with encryption),
a high performance utility for downloading web content for offline viewing,
.Mac iDisk integration,
auto-resuming file transfers all the time,
unlimited UNDOs throughout the entire application,
smart folder technology,
and much more!

As an added bonus, Speed Download now includes a link to Transmission; an incredibly well designed Bittorrent application. Transmission is a free, lightweight BitTorrent client featuring a simple, intuitive interface on top of an efficient, cross-platform back-end.

Speed Download 4 is a universal binary providing top performance on any Mac

Triple Boot via BootCamp – OnMac.net Wiki: “Triple Boot via BootCamp

From OnMac.net Wiki

This procedure allows you to triple boot OSX, Windows XP and Linux. It has been sucessfully used to setup a macbook, but is untested on the imac/mini. Therefore if you try this you do so at your own risk.”

(Via onmac.)

Boinx Software – Press Release: “iStopMotion 1.9.2: RAW fun”

RAW is all the vogue these days and iStopMotion, the well known stop
motion animation package, makes no exception: Version 1.9.2 now imports
all kinds of images from your local harddisk, including RAW images. With
this, for example, users can now import time lapse or animation frames
they shot with their professional digital cameras or use images captured
with a scanner to create movies.

(Via Boinx Software.)

Parallels Workstation 2.1 Beta 4 Released: “

Parallels today released beta 4 of Parallels Workstation 2.1 for the Mac. This version can be downloaded from http://www.parallels.com/en/download/mac/.

(Via MacMegasite.)

Skooby Utilities:

“If you have a broadband internet service with a monthly download limit, you may find SurplusMeter comes in handy. It measures the download and upload traffic on your Internet connection and keeps a record of your traffic volume. It gives you all kinds of useful output statistics, like daily allowance, average daily usage, accumulated surplus, and more.”

(Via Skooby Utilities.)

Firefox Gets Universal Binary Support: “The Firefox Web browser was updated to version 1.5.0.2 on Thursday, adding native support for both Intel and PowerPC-based Macs”

(Via The Mac Observer.)

Google Calendar: real, live, beta: “It’s official: the Google calendar app is now open to the public. Ars pokes and prods the new addition, and sets the stage for you.

(Via Ars Technica.)

Aperture 1.1 comes with US$200 coupon for early adopters: “Apple drops the price on Aperture by US$200, and gives purchasers of version 1.1 a US$200 coupon. What, no apology?

(Via Ars Technica.)

The Seattle Times: Q&A with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak

“Steve Wozniak says he never intended to change the world. That was the other Steve, Steve Jobs.”

(Via seattletimes.)