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When Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) was first released to the public, it became the first client version of Mac OS X that Apple expressly allowed to run within a virtual machine—on Mac hardware, of course. The big names, Parallels and VMware, immediately updated their Mac virtualization software to support the installation of Lion, but now, a recent update to VMware Fusion has begun allowing the installation of previous versions of Mac OS X (hat tip to Macworld), despite the lack of Apple’s OK on the matter.

VMware released its 4.1 update to Fusion on Thursday last week with relatively benign release notes. The highlights include native full screen mode when running under Lion, the return of the automatic-on option when starting Fusion, and a plethora of performance improvements. What wasn’t documented in the release notes was the software’s newfound support for non-server versions of Snow Leopard (Mac OS X 10.6) and Leopard (10.5), allowing those versions of Mac OS X to be installed in their own virtual machines on Mac hardware.

Previously, Apple made it clear that it would only allow the installation of Snow Leopard Server and Leopard Server within virtual machines until this July—at that time, Lion and Lion Server joined the list of acceptable virtual Macs. Those attempting to install regular client versions of Leopard or Snow Leopard were previously stopped at the outset, but VMware has apparently decided to start being more liberal with its Mac OS X installation policies as part of Fusion 4.1. Now, users trying to install either of the two operating systems are met with a confirmation screen reminding them to “verify that the operating system is licensed to run in a virtual machine,” but there are no other checks in order to make sure Apple’s agreement is enforced.

Now, the onus is entirely on the user to confirm whether their license agreements would allow them to perform such an action. And as confirmed by Macworld, Apple appears to be remaining steadfast on its own policy regarding Leopard and Snow Leopard running in virtual machines—that is, the company only “permit[s] properly licensed copies of Mac OS X Lion, Snow Leopard Server and Leopard Server to be virtualized on Apple-branded hardware only.”

Whether Apple will take any action against VMware for its recent update is anyone’s guess. Considering that Leopard and Snow Leopard are already “outdated” versions of Mac OS X, however, Apple may end up letting the update slide.

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from Ars Technica http://arstechnica.com/index.php http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2011/11/vmware-fusion-users-can-now-install-leopard-snow-leopard-in-vms.ars?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+arstechnica%2Findex+%28Ars+Technica+-+Featured+Content%29

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VMware released the latest dot update to its flagship Mac virtualization product today. The free update, Fusion 4.1, improves Lion full-screen compatibility, graphics performance and startup options; it can be downloaded immediately for all Fusion customers. While those changes are certainly nice, they aren’t the big story in this build.

Macworld’s Jason Snell has discovered that alongside the acknowledged changes and improvements, a less obvious adjustment has appeared in Fusion 4.1 in the area of virtualizing Mac OS X itself. Unlike previous versions of Fusion (and other virtualization products for the Mac like Parallels and VirtualBox), which included a built-in limiter to prevent users from installing a non-server version of Mac OS X 10.5 or 10.6 in a virtual machine, the new Fusion build simply reminds you to respect Apple’s licensing restrictions — and then lets you go ahead and install vanilla Leopard or Snow Leopard anyway. Up until now, the only versions of 10.5 or 10.6 that were considered ‘legal’ for virtualization were the pricey Mac OS X Server versions.

This may seem like a small difference, but it’s a seismic shift in the Mac OS X virtualization landscape, and one that could have a major impact for specific ‘abandonware’ applications on the Mac platform. With the ability to virtualize Snow Leopard easily, VMware users can create a virtual machine that retains the Rosetta code translation stack Apple removed in Lion — giving those people back the ability to run PowerPC applications. Quicken Deluxe is the most prominent app on the PPC roster, but older versions of Adobe’s Creative Suite and QuarkXPress are also up for revitalization in a 10.6 VM.

When I spoke to the Fusion product team during the Fusion 4 announcement, they were somewhat coy about the possibilities for virtualizing Rosetta-capable builds of Mac OS X other than the server versions; the decision on licensing was up to Apple, they said, while they would of course continue to explore their options and keep the lines of communication open to Cupertino. I don’t know whether this move towards liberalizing the install was done with or without Apple’s knowledge and consent, but I’ll ask.

In the meantime, if you’re still holding off on your Lion upgrade because you’ve got PowerPC applications that aren’t ready (or willing) to make the leap to Intel code, your options just got much more interesting.

VMware Fusion now virtualizes standard builds of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard and 10.6 Snow Leopard originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 18 Nov 2011 21:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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from TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog http://www.tuaw.com http://www.tuaw.com/2011/11/18/vmware-fusion-now-virtualizes-standard-builds-of-mac-os-x-10-5-l/

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This just about the most awesome DIY drag car we’ve seen. Clearly, being an old skool Volkswagen Golf, it gets a big tick here at AUSmotive HQ. But it’s more that this innocent and humble looking Mk2 is hiding a 16 valve 1.8 litre engine with a monster Garrett GTX4202R turbo bolted on. How does 900hp sound! That’s around 1hp per kilogram.

Throw in a 4 motion all-wheel drive system and you end up with a Veyron-basher; 0-100km/h in 2.7 seconds and, get this, 0-250km/h in just 8.87 seconds.

Take the jump to see this beast in action.

[via autoblog]

from AUSmotive.com http://www.ausmotive.com http://www.ausmotive.com/2011/11/15/old-skool-golf-defies-laws-of-physics.html

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Remarkably apt.

 ? 

from Daring Fireball http://daringfireball.net/ http://slyoyster.hypervocal.com/cheap-thrills/2011/decades-old-calvin-and-hobbes-strip-succinctly-explains-occupy-wall-street-movement/

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karthikmns writes with word of an amazing demo presented last week at Adobe’s annual MAX convention. You’ll have to watch the video, but the enthusiastic crowd reaction seems genuine (or at least justified), even in an audience full of Photoshop enthusiasts, as photographs are algorithmically deblurred. (Maybe in the future, cameras will keep records of their own motion in metadata to assist such software efforts, rather than relying on in-built anti-shake software.) No word about when this will turn up for consumers in anything besides demo form, but I suspect similar software’s already in use at Ft. Meade and Langley.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

from Slashdot http://slashdot.org/ http://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/10/11/148216/Adobe-Demos-Photo-Unblurring-At-MAX-2011?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Slashdot%2Fslashdot+%28Slashdot%29

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We have don’t know just how long MTV has been releasing old Liquid TV shorts on their website, but what we do know is that this news is pure, uncut awesome. After years of watching crummy youtubes of the most f-ed up cartoons and shorts ever made, MTV has finally decided to release all the contents of Liquid Television online. Which means, all the Psycho-Grams and Winter Steele episodes you want! More »

from io9 http://io9.com http://io9.com/5848426/mtv-releases-the-insane-liquid-television-archives-to-the-masses

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Still confused by the twists and turns inside Shane Carruth’s time traveling indie Primer? Never fear, someone has finally made the ultimate guide to Abe’s wild time-traveling ride. Behold the world’s most complicated tim-travel movie, solved. (Sort of.) More »

from io9 http://io9.com http://io9.com/5847205/the-definitive-graph-of-all-of-primers-intersecting-timelines

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Let’s face it, cleaning your desktop can be a right chore. Clean makes it easy by automating the process for those who simply can’t face it.

Some of us are more prone to desktop clutter than others. I have seen some horrors in my time, desktops were you simply can’t see the wallpaper for the side-to-side mess of icons. How does anyone find anything in that mess?

Like other cleaning tasks, sometimes you simply can’t face weeding through all the files, separating important from rubbish and that’s where Clean comes in. It’s a tiny app that you can either set up to clear out your desktop on a daily, weekly or monthly rotation, or fire it up manually when it all gets too much.

Clean will move all the files on your desktop to a user-specified folder and will organize them by day or month. You can tell it to ignore files with labels, which means you can keep files on your desktop that you really want to stay by just applying a label to them in Finder.

By moving, not trashing your files, Clean gives you the opportunity to evaluate whether you really need those files. If you haven’t accessed them for a couple of months for instance, perhaps it’s time to trash them and reclaim some hard disk space.

Yes you can do all this manually, and no Clean doesn’t do anything revolutionary, but it’s a free app that gets the job done for those that have a mess of files on their desktop and can’t face sorting them manually.

Daily Mac App: Clean originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 03 Oct 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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from TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog http://www.tuaw.com http://www.tuaw.com/2011/10/03/daily-mac-app-clean/