The Headless Parallels Mode: Use your iPhone with Parallels Desktop

This blog was written by Preston de Guise.  Read more by de Guise at "The NetWorker Blog."

I made a fortuitous discovery with Parallels Desktop v5 for Mac overnight. I had been patching my Mac Pro, and thought one of the patches was going to need a reboot, so of course I shutdown Parallels. After the patching was completed, it turned out I didn't need to reboot, and I got distracted so I never got back around to launching Parallels.

Last night I needed to check something on one of my Linux virtual machines that I run in Parallels Desktop, and rather than use screen sharing to my Mac Pro, I pulled out my handy iPhone application for Parallels, jumped into the virtual machine list and turned the Linux guest on. 10 seconds or so later I was able to ssh into it, do what I needed to do, then didn't think about it again.

I came back to my Mac Pro this morning and again logged onto the Linux virtual machine via ssh, and ran a bunch of tests without once noticing: Parallels Desktop for Mac was not running. I'm not saying that the virtual machine window wasn't visible – the application itself wasn't running, the console for my virtual machine wasn't running, and the virtual machine was happily chugging away.

Here you can see my dock showing that Parallels isn't running:

So, is this good or bad? I have to say it falls into the category of sheer awesome.

If you run multiple virtual machines in Parallels – particularly if you're running a bunch of Linux virtual machines, being able to go headless is really useful. You don't end up with so many windows (minimised or otherwise) cluttering up the desktop, and you can still access the virtual machines just how you want.

So in order to run virtual machines headless, you're going to need the iPhone Parallels application, which means you'll need an iPhone. (But we all have one of those, right? :-) )

Once you've got the iPhone application for Parallels installed, and connected to your Parallels Desktop system, you can quit Parallels and use the iPhone application to start and stop virtual machines:

Obviously this doesn't give you the full flexibility of running the Parallels application completely, but if you're only wanting to run virtual machines without a console, or you just need to quickly fire up a single virtual machine regardless of whether Parallels is running or not, using the Parallels iPhone application can be a real time saver.

No Scuttlebutt Here: Read about who was talking about Parallels in January

After the holiday season and new year's, there always seems to be a dry spell where there are no federal holidays aka days to take off from work. Even though we are approaching this season, people are still very busy blogging away about Parallels. January was a productive month for many bloggers discussing Parallels.  Here is a round up of discussion regarding Parallels:

January 26, 2009: Parallels Wins Red Herring Global 100 Award

What does this mean?

The Red Herring's Global 100 list is composed of companies or entrepreneurs that are being distinguished for having promising potential in innovations and technologies from private companies from North America, Europe, and Asia in respective industries. Previously, many Red Herring editors were the first to be able to recognize the future of companies like Google, Yahoo, Netscape, Salesforce.com, Youtube and eBay. 

Virtualization: Which one to use? by Rob Griffiths

Parallels is the undisputed speed king, it supports a wide variety of Windows games (an avocation of mine), has OpenGL acceleration available almost everywhere, and offers a ton of features...Still, when I consider overall performance, feature set, and 3D gaming support (probably the tie breaker), Parallels 5 is my pick as the cream of the current crop...[via Macworld]

Parallels Desktop 5 Review (Mac OS X) by John Thompson

Before Parallels 5, I wouldn’t have recommended virtual gaming to anyone wanting decent performance, but with Parallels 5, I struggle to find any major complaints when running GPU intensive applications. Using the Macbook, I was able to play any game ranging from FarCry to even Call of Duty 4 with decent performance. Obviously, you still won’t get performance as you would running Windows from a separate partition, but you’ll definitely notice a performance boost from Parallels 4. [via Zath]

For those of you who speak French:

En Francais: Test de Parallels Desktop 5, VMware Fusion 3 et VirtualBox 3.1 par La Rédaction

À l’heure du verdict, lequel choisir ? Chacun a ses mérites : VirtualBox est gratuit, VMware Fusion est celui qui s’intègre le mieux à Mac OS X et Parallels Desktop est le plus performant. [via MacGeneration]

Wake up! It’s iPad+1 Day

Well, we’ve had the news of iPad for 30 hours now, and I have to say that the product and its name are starting to really grow on me.  We watched all the live blogging along with you and then went back to watch Steve and Jonathan give a little more background on our new touchscreen wonder.  Alright, I’m impressed.

I had a funny experience a few years ago when buying a house.  My home inspector showed up to poke around, measure, assess (actually I have no idea what he was really doing), and right after showing up on my doorstep, he whipped out his... Newton.  The guy carried his Newton wherever he went, clicking off all the details of the house, making notes, checking lists, and so on.  I was floored, since I had never seen a Newton out in the wild in my entire life.  I asked, he smiled, and he told me that there was no other device ever created that allowed him to simply do his home inspecting.  No screen was big enough, no device was as easy to hold, no proprietary device would have software as good as his little Newton app.  At the end of the day he syncs it with his Mac (or Apple 2E?) and it spits out a very detailed report filling in the blanks with Newton’s yield.  Yes, he did break one of his Newtons, and had to go on eBay to buy another, but he was sold.

When I think of that, it makes me think that there may actually be a lot of uses for this device that go well beyond the iLife-style apps focused on in the Keynote.  I'm guessing that for all the housing inspectors out there I can firmly say: Yes, there will be an app for that.

So, fast forward to today.  Some are crying iHype and others are pleading iNeed.  Seattle’s own Ben Elowitz (Wetpaint, Blue Nile) looked up the hill and shouted at Jeff Bezos his Top 10 Reasons the Apple iPad will Put Amazon’s Kindle Out of Business.  Looking at the early hands on, I’d say this thing is pretty special.  When I hear “bigger iPhone built with unibody construction” I start to geek out.

Of course, we always look at what Parallels can do to jump in and work with Apple products.  I would love to crack open Outlook on the couch or at the table and breeze through my emails with just a little more fun.  Or maybe run a Powerpoint with a swipe of my finger.  I’d love to run my favorite PC games... while lying down... in bed... “working from home.”  

At any rate, back to work.  I’ve already signed up for the pre-sale of the pre-sale.  But I figure if I drink Parallels drip coffee instead of Starbucks til summer, I’ll be ready to plunk down my card and snap one up.

[image via CNet]

PWNing N00bs Through Parallels Desktop

This blog was written by Derek Housman.  To read more from Housman, go here. 

A little over a year ago I made the switch from PC to Mac. It wasn't a hard decision, as I work in the Film/TV industry and most of the tools I needed to learn and use were Mac based. Having never been a big gamer, I didn't really think about all the options I was losing when I made the switch. But when push came to shove, I realized I did miss a few games, the most important being Counter-Strike.

Those unfamiliar with Counter-Strike should know that it's one of the most widely played First Person Shooters.  Originally developed as an user-created mod for Half-Life, it gained a cult following and grew into a commercial property. Steam is the content delivery system, and therefore Counter-Strike is a Windows native game. I needed to find a solution so that I could once again "pwn n00bs".

Buying a second computer to play one game is never really an option, but finding an elegant software solution can save you a lot of hassle. Parallels wasn't the first thing I tried, but it was the only one that worked well.

The Setup

A MacBook 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 2GB RAM. I'm running Mac OS X 10.6.2. I've got an external display in the form of a Sony Bravia HDTV, so that's added a lot of real estate to my desktop, allowing me to run a window for Parallels on one screen, and maintain my Mac display on another.

The Install

I had an old copy of Windows XP that I installed into Parallels 5. 30 minutes later I'm downloading Counter-Strike. This was by and far the quickest XP install I've ever done, and it ran smoother then on any of my old computers. Not to say that the entire process was perfect, but it left very little in the way of wanting. After the slow Steam download finished and installed, I was playing Counter-Strike like I had never left it. Again, I found that it ran better then ever before.

 

Now I can look forward to playing more Windows native games on a better gaming machine, my MacBook.

Jobs Shows That There Is No Glass Ceiling: Apple stock is on the rise

In the gilded land of the Wall Street Stock Exchange, Apple stocks are proving to be a booming investment. With:

a 50% jump in first-quarter profit after the close of trading Jan. 25, buoyed by holiday orders for the Macintosh and iPhone. Net income advanced to $3.38 billion, or $3.67 a share, as sales increased 32% to $15.7 billion. [via BusinessWeek] 

During the first fiscal quarter of 2010 ending December 26, 2009, “Apple sold 3.36 million Macintosh® computers during the quarter, representing a 33 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter” [via Apple].  According the Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO, Apple generated $5.8 billion during the first quarter and Oppenheimer predicts that during the second fiscal quarter that Apple with expect a revenue of $11.0 billion.  Oppenheimer’s fiscal projections are not surprising considering that tomorrow is the release of Apple’s “latest creation.”

For those of you who have made the Switch to Mac, you have contributed to Apple and Parallels’ success.  So you know what stock you should be buying, since the value of Apple is only going to skyrocket with the Apple Tablet release tomorrow, according to Harold McGraw III, McGraw-Hill’s CEO, who leaked Apple Tablet release. McGraw stated:

Yeah, Very exciting. [Apple will] make their announcement tomorrow on this one. We have worked with Apple for quite a while. And the Tablet is going to be based on the iPhone operating system and so it will be transferable. So what you are going to be able to do now -- we have a consortium of e-books. And we have 95% of all our materials that are in e-book format on that one. So now with the tablet you're going to open up the higher education market, the professional market. The tablet is going to be just really terrific. [via MacRumors]

Watch this breaking footage:

Soap Box Friday: Parallels Desktop Mentions Of The Week

We seem to be the talk of the town this week.  Why are we so popular?  Take a look at the articles discussing Parallels this week:

Parallels Desktop 5 Review (Mac OS X) by John Thompson

Before Parallels 5, I wouldn’t have recommended virtual gaming to anyone wanting decent performance, but with Parallels 5, I struggle to find any major complaints when running GPU intensive applications. Using the Macbook, I was able to play any game ranging from FarCry to even Call of Duty 4 with decent performance. Obviously, you still won’t get performance as you would running Windows from a separate partition, but you’ll definitely notice a performance boost from Parallels 4.

How To Install Google’s Chrome OS On Mac using Parallels Desktop 5 by Sayam Aggarwal

Google’s Chrome Operating System is a Google’s answer to Mac OS X or Windows 7  — a lightweight operating system designed for netbooks and other portable devices. It’s also designed for an always-on connection. The Net is as much a part of the system as the software installed on the computer.

It’s also lightweight, fast, and easy to use. Boot up in just a matter of few seconds, log in and get onto the internet instantly. No distractions at all. Moreover, everything remains in  the cloud so you never have to worry about running out of the disk space.

It’s also fun to play with. Here’s how to install it on a Mac using Parallels Desktop 5 virtualization software. Be aware that Chrome OS is currently in pre-alpha developmental stage. Install at your own risk!

People are even tweeting about us:

@eWytze Upgraded to the latest build of @ParallelsMac last night. Damn that's some good software. Faster than ever before!

@jesperordrup Parallels 5 with Windows7 is a super setup. The last 2 updates helped a lot. Highly recommendable!! Still missing Win7 Bootcamp support thou

@stevekitch @ParallelsMac Loving the latest versions of v5. Fast, stable & solid. I have Mac heaven with easy Windows access when required. Keep it up

[image via LastPrice]

"Parallels-stock": Parallels Desktop 5 New Build 9310

 

Similar to Woodstock, we are sure that users have been waiting for this new build.  Maybe people are not tented outside of the Parallels Corporate building in Renton, but we know that there is still excitement for this build.  We have been listening to our users about their experiences with Parallels Desktop 5 and we have made some changes. 

Some of the changes that have been made in build 9310 are the following:

1.  We have fixed the stability issues in virtual machines with Parallels Internet Security installed on Nehalem-based iMacs and Mac Pros.

AND

2.  We have improved performance of Windows in virtual machines.

Where can you get this build?

1.  Parallels Desktop in-product updater
2.  Parallels Website

If you think that there should be more improvements, let us know.

[Image via TheTripWire]

Different Is Good: What are the differences between the Parallels Desktop 5 viewing modes?

Coherence mode versus crystal mode are not the same. These viewing modes were made to help users with their preference of how to view Windows on a Mac.  Peter Witham, a user of Parallels Desktop 5, has created a detailed video that describes the difference between all of the viewing modes in Parallels Desktop 5. Watch the video:

To see more of Witham's video, please go here.

Parallels Is Bringing Its A Game: Jade Empire

Parallels Desktop 5 is compatible with many games.  This user created a benchmark test on Jade Empire.  Watch the speed of Parallels Desktop 5:

Beam Me Up 2010

New Year's is always a time to reflect and ruminate on what you would like to change for the following year, but how long does it even really last?  Some people want to lose weight, some people think that they should play less or sometimes more World of Warcraft. Wired.com has created a list of 12 new year's resolutions, which are the following:

1.  Go to at least one "Con" this year.

2.  Watch three geeky trilogies back to back to back.

3.  Learn and use Arduino to make something cool.

4.  Continue to support independent artists by not buying their music.

5.  Keep up with monthly comics.

6.  Stop using Star Trek catch phrases in general speech.

7.  Get a geeky book onto a bestseller list.

8.  Defy the Hype.

9.  Finally purchase and construct the LEGO Star Destroyer or Death Star II.

10.  Indoctrinate the kids on the classics.

11.  Go Green, geek style.

12.  Stop being an FPS snob.

To read more about these new years resolution, visit the site here.

I think that I will have to stop using Star Trek catch phrases in my non-Trekkie life.  So happy new year and live long and prosper. 

Survival Rate Of New Year's Resolution = 84 hours and 20 minutes = Resolution Failed.