With Netflix’s introduction of instant streaming on the Mac, I had to install Microsoft Silverlight 2 in order for it to work. The install was very straight forward on my macbook, but I came across some minor complications when performing the same install on my hackintosh (MSI Wind). Because Silverlight 2 verifies your processor before install, it was registering my hackintosh as a non-intel device (PPC) and refuse to install. To install Silverlight 2 on older PowerPC or non Apple hardware (OSX running on Windows hardware), you simply have remove the CPU check in the installation package.

To do this:

1. Download Silverlight 2 from Microsoft Website
2. Mount the Silverlight 2 DMG file by double click it
3. Right-click on the .pkg file and choose “Show Package Contents”
   
4. Navigate to: Contents > Resources
5. In Resources, locate the file “InstallationCheck” and trash it
   

Now that the CPU check has been removed, rerun the Silverlight modified .pkg and it should install without any complications.

Google + Mac = Awesome. The day has finally come. Google has awesome products but there Mac support could be a lot better. I guess that’s what they envisioned with this new Mac blog: Better Google products and support for Macs. It took a while but Google, we Mac nerds need love too.

“The fastest, most configurable Mac ever” indeed. Apple has just introduced the all-new Mac Pro. It Sports a quad Xeon, 64-bit desktop workstation featuring two new Dual-Core Intel Xeon processors running up to 3.0 GHz and a new system architecture that delivers up to twice the performance of the Power Mac G5 Quad. With advanced performance, greater expansion, higher performance graphics options and unprecedented customization, the newly designed Mac Pro is the ideal system for the most demanding user. The introduction of the Mac Pro marks the completion of a rapid and seamless transition for Apple, with the entire Mac family now using Intel’s latest processors.

Note: Apple is only offering the base configuration, which now starts at $2499, and hopping you click ‘configure’.

OSX Leopard AKA Vista 2.0 is almost here, Now Due to release Spring of 2007 (Apple promised a Fall 2006 release ). Til then, we’ll have to settle for Apple’s preview of Leopard’s top 10 features:

• Time Machine – a new built-in backup system that will back up your entire system and allow you to restore the whole thing or just selected files.
• Enhancements to iChat – including a tabbed interface, custom still or video backdrops for your video iChat, iChat Theater (which lets you show iPhoto pics or a Keynote presentation during an iChat), and Photo Booth effects to make yourself look silly during a chat. Other iChat enhancements that were mentioned but not demoed include video recording (yes!), invisible mode, and animated buddy icons. The Apple site also shows the ability to share your desktop during an iChat. Now just let me figure out how to use these features to do screen recordings and machinima — hmmm.
• Two dashboard additions – Web Clip, which allows you to build dynamically updating widgets from any Web page (examples — a cartoon or bestseller list that updates every day); and DashCode for widget development, complete with modifiable widget templates (for RSS, podcasts, and more), and a library of parts to pop into your widget.
• Additions to Mail.app — a To-Do list made automatically from emails and that ties into iCal and other apps; Stationery (rich HTML email templates); and Notes (to replace those reminder emails you’ve been sending yourself).
• Universal Access features – natural sounding voiceover, closed captioning in QuickTime, and braille support.
• Core Animation – with features like keyframing and tweening to help developers create animations.
• Spotlight enhancement - Spotlight will be able to search other machines on your network, do Boolean search, and will launch your applications for you.
• Virtual desktop Spaces - letting you combine task-based applications into separate logical desktop configurations. That means you can have one group of apps running for Web design, another for print production, and yet another for podcast creation and editing. You’ll be able to drag items between Spaces.
• Complete package – of built-in apps, including Boot Camp, Front Row, and PhotoBooth.
• 64 bit processing

Introducing the all new iMac for Education! Teachers and students will love this iMac created just for them. Experience digital life in the fast lane with the iMac for Education, featuring:

The new $899 17-inch iMac for education replaces the eMac, Apple’s last CRT based computer, providing students and teachers everything they need to learn and create in today’s digital classroom, all in the ultra-efficient iMac design.

Since Apple’s switch to the Intel Platform, people were wait for a solution to be release that allowed Microsoft Windows to run on Apple Hardware.

Apple was first to the Market with “Boot Camp” which allows users to run Windows and other operating systems natively on an Apple computer. While Parallels and a host of other companies have created virtualization software that allows you to run an operating system inside Apple OSX. Both are great products and are sure to boost Apples market share but, you may tend to favor one over the other, depending on your needs.

I have used both of these options and I like Parallels Desktop over Boot Camp. Why? Because I tend to use a lot of windows applications for programming and business so I tend to switch back and forth from Mac OSX and Windows frequently. Parallels provides the best solution given that it’s a virtualization software and not an emulator like Virtual PC. With Parallels desktop you are getting close to native performance, without the need to reboot every time you desire to use a different OS, unlike Apple’s Boot Camp. With that said Apple’s Boot camp is suitable for users that spend large amounts of time on a single platform and don’t feel the need to transfer frequently from one OS to another. It’s a great solution to run games natively on an environment other then OSX without performance loss. However, the draw back of running an OS natively means that you must house it on a separate hard drive or on one that is partitioned versus Parallels option of a virtual drive.

One important note to keep in mind when running Windows is even on an Apple Machine you will get viruses. Please do invest in Anti Virus software!

Installation

Apple’s Boot Camp is a Beta release that will be incorporated into Apples next major OSX update, 10.5 Leopard. The installation is precise and must be followed in order for it to work properly. You begin by downloading the necessary software from the Official Apple Site. Once the download is completed run the install file in OSX. You will need a blank cd-r when prompted to burn the drivers for your machine. After this process your machine will restart and you will then have to go through the typical Windows install (About 25-35 Minutes excluding updates and service packs). Lastly it will prompt you to install the drivers with the cd that you created earlier on. And that’s it, your all done! The Next time you start your computer a Boot loader will appear prompting you to use the OS of choice you wish to Boot. Again with this option you will be running Windows or a 2nd OS natively so you will be getting 100% performance, just as you would running it on a PC.

Parallels Desktop is also under Beta but and will soon be a final release (Price at $79.99, $39.99 if you pre-order). Installation for Parallels is a breeze. You begin by going to Parallels official website to download their latest release client and request an activation key. The activation key will be sent to your email within a matter of seconds. To install Parallels you launch the installer in OSX and it takes you through a process of windows with simple directions to follow (Less then 2 minute). When that is completed you can then launch the application and create a guest OS profile. With the guest OS profile the user can allocate virtual memory to the OS they wish to run as well as a host of other features. Once that is done you would then be required to install the OS of choice by going through the ordinary OS install procedures (Windows would take 25 to 35 minutes excluding updates).

Another virtualization option available is OPenOSX WinTel. It’s similar to Parallel’s Desktop however it lacks the support and features Parallel’s provides.