Parallels makes switching to Mac easier than ever
What's that whooshing sound? It's the collective sigh of relief from all of the Mac-lovers who've been wrangled into providing unofficial tech support for friends and family switching to Mac. Parallels today announced their latest offering, Parallels Desktop "Switch to Mac" Edition. It's a three-part tool that makes the switch from XP or Vista to OS X so easy that it hurts to think about the last time you tried to show a recent convert where their Start menu went.
The first tool Parallels is offering is a set of interactive tutorials which cater to any learning style. "Watch Saied" is a collection of over 2 hours of video walkthroughs, narrated by Saied Ghaffari of Parallels (also the man behind the It's Time To Learn products we've posted about before). The tutorials are viewable in a non-linear fashion to allow the user to learn what they need -- or want -- to know at any given point in their transition.
These are accompanied by a full simulation of the OS X environment, with tools which allow you to click anything on the screen to find out what it is, what it does, and/or how it works. The "YouTry" feature is perfect for tactile learners (those who "learn by doing"), allowing you to put lessons into practice within the simulation -- without the possibility of "breaking" anything in your working environment. Once you complete a lesson, it's starred and you can move on... following a lesson plan, or skipping to whatever is intriguing or vital at the moment.
The second tool is a new version of Parallels' Transporter tool, appropriately dubbed the "Enhanced Parallels Transporter." The bundle comes with a high-speed USB cable, and the Transporter automates the transition of PC data to a Mac, including your bookmarks, your photos, your documents, even your applications. The process is simple, but it's documented and simulated in the tutorials, so you really can't go wrong. Mom won't even have to call you to figure out where to plug in the cable.
Lastly, the bundle includes a full version of Parallels Desktop for Mac, an excellent means of running Windows applications on your Mac. Many users find comfort in being able to run their old applications while they make the switch, and in some cases you have to run Windows to maintain some vital applications with no Mac counterpart. The whole setup is, of course, also included in the tutorials; an ibuprofen for the headaches of running Windows on a Mac.
This is exciting news for switchers, but especially exciting for me as the family go-to guy for Mac questions. My wife's parents just bought their first Mac, and we'll be putting "Switch to Mac" through its paces. If things go as planned, I'll be gleefully sitting back and letting them report in, gushing about how great their new Mac is, instead of frantically calling to find out what happened to their vacation photos. I'm looking forward to doing a follow-up post and letting you know how it goes.
Parallels Desktop Switch to Mac Edition will be available as a retail box edition in the Apple Store, and available for purchase online (as a boxed bundle), with a suggested retail price of $99.99US.
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Source: http://www.parallels.com/
What's that whooshing sound? It's the collective sigh of relief from all of the Mac-lovers who've been wrangled into providing unofficial...
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I've had it with Parallels since they moved on to v4 and demanded $40 to go with them, while leaving v3 in a laughable state in which it had recently destroyed my Boot Camp partition. I did acquire a v4 upgrade license in a bundle, but I'm not going near it. I've enjoyed seeing the deep and lasting ill-will they generated with that episode.
Not here, though, apparently. Yes, Brett's entitled to his opinion, but yes: this reads like ad copy.
You still need to buy a new copy of Windows to make this work, right?
If they had a tool to move an existing windows install onto a new Mac, I'd probably buy it. Otherwise, Virtualbox seems like a better deal.
According to the Parallels FAQ on their website, it copies the entire windows install - including windows itself.
http://www.parallels.com/eu/products/desktop/stm/resources/faq/#q13
Brett's use of "It's perfect for..." and "excellent means to..." fails to meet the criteria for "balanced" reporting. Just report what the program does (e.g., feature sets, etc.) and let the reader decide whether it's "perfect" and/or "excellent."
August 25 2009 at 1:34 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyParallels is great, too bad it doesn't work on machines with multiple processors!! FML.....
August 25 2009 at 1:25 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyHi Anand
Parallels 4.0 will actually count the number of cores you have and let you dedicate any number of them to your VM. It’s all in the configure menu.
Hope that helps
I'm not talking about multi-core machines, technically, all of Apple's Intel machines are multicore (which would mean I am saying that it doesn't work on any of them!) No, I am saying it doesn't work on multiPROCESSOR eg more then one physical chip (not to be confused with multicore).
My specific model is the 4th gen Mac Pro which has two quad-core processors. You can't seem to even install an OS without causing a kernel panic.
Is this switching from a real PC to a virtual PC running on Mac? So your grandma doesn't even need to know Mac since she will be still running Windows. Beautiful!
Or switching from PC to Mac? Just get rid of damn Windows and forget it!
This assumes that all Windows programs can run on a Mac, I don't think so. Can a Mac run MS Flight Simulator without some type of emulator that degrages performance, I don't think so. If it can, I might consider a Mac as my desk-top; I currently have an iPhone GS and an iTouch, but run a Dell PC for games. If a Mac can have the same capability to run certain Windows desktop games, I'd switch entirely to Apple.
August 25 2009 at 12:38 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyYou absolutely can run all Windows games on a Mac if you choose to boot it into Windows natively (via Boot Camp). Flight Simulator works 100% perfectly in this arrangement.
Using a virtualization tool like VMware Fusion or Parallels, many Windows games will run fine; however high-end 3D games may not.
VirtualBox FTW. This FTL.
August 25 2009 at 12:37 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyYou could have at least explained the alternatives to the $80 Parallels, like VirtualBox and VMWare Fusion, this reads like an advert.
August 25 2009 at 11:56 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyBrett, compare your "article" with MacRumors coverage. It just might be me, but their article seems fairly straight down the middle announcing the product whereas your "article" reads like Parallels marketing. That's the difference.
August 25 2009 at 11:33 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyI think I'll stay with the free Virtualbox for my Windows needs.
August 25 2009 at 11:31 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyHot Apps on TUAW
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