Apple has released Boot Camp 3.2 Update for iMac (Early 2011) – the iMacs that were released earlier today.
It’s for Microsoft Windows 7, and it addresses issues with Japanese and Korean keyboards on the latest iMacs.
The download weighs in at 638 KB and the download ID is DL1384. This might be available through Software Update, but if not, check below.
Download and more information: Support.Apple.com
Apple made a major update to the iMacs line today. While the Macs are cosmetically the same as the previous generation, all are now quad-core, and all are based on Intel’s so-called “Sandy Bridge” CPUs, as well shipping wiht the latest “Thunderbolt” I/O ports, which are very high-speed.
They are claiming speeds up to 70% faster than existing iMacs, and video card updates that are up to three times faster.
It’s still using a 21.5-inch or 27-inch IPS LED-backlit display.
Additions/Changes/Information:
* Starting CPU: Intel Core i5 (Core i7 up to 3.4GHz)
* Thunderbolt I/O (21.5-inch has one port, 27-inch has two)
* Facetime HD camera and software. Full HD between the latest Macs, standard between iPads, iPhone 4, and older Macs.
I believe the iMac is the first desktop to offer Thunderbolt, which came out in the new MacBook Pros a few months ago. It’s up to 10Gbps (not 10GBps) and is over 10 times faster than FireWire 800 and up to 20 times faster than existing USB 2.0. It’s quite a bit faster than USB 3.0 as well. You could run VMs off of a Thunderbolt connected hard drive.
One very unique aspect of Thunderbolt, it’s capable of supporting Gigabit ethernet and high resolution DisplayPort connections with the right adapters.
Low-End 21.5-inch Model:
* Starting Price: $1,199 US
* 21.5-inch Display
* AMD Radeon HD 6750M with 512 MB GDDR5 Memory
* 2.5GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5
* 4GB DDR 3 (up to 16GB) Memory
* 500 GB Hard Drive
Next 21.5-inch Model:
* Starting Price: $1,499 US
* 21.5-inch Display
* AMD Radeon HD 6770M with 512 MB GDDR5 Memory
* 2.7GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5
* 4GB DDR 3 (up to 16GB) Memory
* 1 TB Hard Drive
27-inch iMac
* Starting Price: $1,699 US
* AMD Radeon HD 6750M with 512 MB GDDR5 Memory
* 2.7GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5
* 4GB DDR 3 (up to 16GB) Memory
* 1 TB Hard Drive
27-inch iMac – Top-End
* Starting Price: $1,999 US
* AMD Radeon HD 6970M with 1 MB GDDR5 Memory
* 3.1GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5
* 4GB DDR 3 (up to 16GB) Memory
* 1 TB Hard Drive
The more expensive models of both the 21.5-inch and 27-inch iMacs can have the CPUs upgraded, with the 21.5-inch taking up to a 2.8GHz Quad-Core i7 and the 27-inch taking up to a 3.4GHz Quad-Core i7.
You also get a choice of a Magic Mouse or a Magic Trackpad for the input device, in addition to the cordless keyboard.
All in all a very powerful upgrade, and one that’s sure to interest quite a few VM users.
CodeWeavers have updated CrossOver for Mac, bringing it to version 10.0.3.
CrossOver is an environment/Windows emulator of sorts, based on WINE. It’s not a full Virtual Machine (VM) environment and it’s not quite a emulator. It allows you to run Windows software without the need for a Windows OS, and it does so seamlessly within Mac OS X.
10.0.3 is mainly minor improvements, including areas dealing with upgrading/installing applications, and upgrading from an older version of CrossOver
Straight from the changelog:
* Fixed an installation issue with Project 2007 which produced a ‘Not installed for the Current User’ error message.
* Updated several built-in CrossTies. (These upgrades have been available online for a while.)
* Improved the MojoSetup (.bin installer) upgrade path.
* Added a progress dialog during initial open of a CrossTie on the Mac.
* Added support for the ‘installer’ keyword which supports CrossTies for stand-alone executables.
* Added RAR support to CrossTie installation.
* Added a ‘recreate’ button to the menus control panel.
* Fixed some menu issues on the upgrade path from CrossOver 9.2.
Download/Update
* If you have CrossOver, you can go into the help menu and “Check for Updates…”
* New users: Trial Download/Update
* Existing users: My Downloads page
I was hoping that the next major update to CrossOver Games was going to include Mac OS X 10.7 Lion support, at least for the preview versions, but it looks like that will probably not happen until we get closer to Lion’s release.
Mac OS X fans who wanted to play Rift will be happy to know that this officially supports the installation and playing of Rift. Also, World of Warcraft fans can install through the download client, although to be honest, there is already a Mac OS X client for World of Warcraft available. Still, it’s another option and there are definitely reasons to support it.
New games support:
* Rift now installs and runs.
Other changes:
* Added the ability to install World of Warcraft via the download client. There are some issues with the launcher, but the game runs well when launched via WoW.exe.
* Some improvements have been made to the Star Trek Online launcher. The game still suffers from performance problems.
* Added CrossTie support for RAR files.
* Made several improvements to menu and association handling.
Download for new users: Trial Download/Update
Download for existing users: Downloads page
After over a year with the over 100+ stories offline and in need of a major overhaul, MacVM is about to be re-launched.
