Top stories

Apple Now Accepting iPad Apps, Planning “Grand Opening” of iPad App Store

Apple is now accepting iPad apps for a “grand opening” of the iPad App Store, according to an email just sent to registered developers.
“iPad will begin shipping soon and your opportunity to be part of the grand opening of the iPad App Store starts today,” the email says.
There’s no details about when the store’s grand [...]

Security Expert: “Mac OS X Is Safer, But Less Secure”

20100319-ipwned.jpg

Tech site H-Online has an interesting story today, quoting security expert Charlie Miller about his forthcoming talk at the CanSecWest conference next week.
He says OS X is full of security holes. There are lots more than in Windows, he claims.
And yet: OS X is a safer system to use. Why? Because, in the words [...]

Apple Devotes Entire Home Page To Jerome York Obituary

20100318-york.jpg

If ever you needed a sign that Apple was a different kind of technology company, this is it.
What other computer manufacturer would remove its top-selling, hype-inducing, industry-altering new product from the prime spot on its website home page, and replace it with an obituary to an investor?
This is one of those “Here’s to the [...]

Coming Soon: Steve Jobs, the Sitcom

Fake Steve creator Dan Lyons just signed a deal to bring Steve Jobs to another small screen near you.
The half-hour series called “iCon” is billed by the presser as “a savage satire centering on a fictional Silicon Valley CEO whose ego is a study in power and greed.”
Making sure the barbs prick will be the [...]

Sun VirtualBox Makes Virtualization on Mac Free

20090112-pk96tguyk9tj7b4fdfs3t2tfw1.jpg

Months ago, I wrote about my wrestling match to get the 64-Bit Windows 7 Public Beta installed on my MacBook. It took all day, and then, well, I had a copy of Windows on my computer that required a reboot to access. It was, as it turns out, every bit as pointless as many commenters accused my activity of being. I deleted my partition and never really gave it a second thought — even though I could use a Windows install to debug stuff for work.

Until today, that is, when Sun blogger The Fat Bloke provided detailed instructions for installing the most recent revision of the WIndows 7 Release Candidate on VirtualBox, the company’s totally free virtualization system. And I have to say, it works like a charm. I was up and running within about two hours, and I didn’t even need to follow the secondary instructions about Vista mode or whatever. If you’re curious at all, it’s absolutely the best way to get a Windows installation on your Mac for free.

Whether it’s useful remains to be seen. I might find myself deleting this next Sunday.

If you enjoyed this article:
Subscribe via RSS or email, or follow us on Facebook and Twitter

About the author

Petemortensen

Pete Mortensen is a design strategist for consulting firm Jump Associates and the co-author of Wired to Care: How Companies Prosper When They Create Widespread Empathy, a book and blog that are significantly more interesting than you might initially think. Pete's particular Apple avocations are both around design--interface and industrial. Follow him on Twitter!

Email the author | Read more posts by Pete Mortensen.

7 comments

    The real question is whether Oracle will keep Virtual Box alive.

    Windows 7 is interesting for about 5 minutes. It’s just Vista with a simpler interface. It really should be Vista SP2 given all the issues people have had with Vista.

    >> it’s absolutely the best way to get a Windows installation on your Mac for free

    Cool, I didn’t realize Windows 7 was going to be free, I had wrongly assumed I’d have to buy a Windows license.

    Microsoft did with Windows Vista/Windows 7 what they did with Halo 2 and Halo 3.

    Can I run it on my G4? I haven’t found anything on this.

    I got the new ubuntu release installed and running using virtualbox in less than 30 minutes. I have Windows 7 at work, it’s very irritating. I’ve seen so many comments that it is zippy and a pleasure to use. Whatever. Neither is true, although it could be the hardware’s fault. My preference is not to use any flavor of Windows – and then I can’t figure out what’s so great about Linux, except that it’s free… I wish I could find the definitive guide to why certain OSs are so great…

    windows 7 will not be free. only the current release candidate is and it will expire in june of next year. and no, it will not run on a non-intel mac.
    i played around some with virtualbox, and it’s pretty amazing for freeware. however, i think i will continue to pony up for parallels. there were just some things about virtualbox that really annoyed me. i use parallels at work and have had very little trouble with it.

Buy Inside Steve's Brain Buy from Amazon.com Buy from Barnes & Noble