Yes, you heard right...PARALLELS DESKTOP 3.0 IS ALMOST HERE!
About 3 hours ago we let the world know that for the last few months, we've been quietly building and testing an entirely new version of Parallels Desktop for Mac. Named Desktop for Mac 3.0, this forthcoming major update - due in a few weeks - has over 50 great new features. Since we're still in beta testing I won't go into all of them, but I did want to highlight two of them:
SmartSelect: A wicked cool new feature that lets you assign any OS X or Windows application as the default for any Mac or Windows file type. This means that when you right-click on any file in either OS and selects “open with”, SmartSelect automatically populates the recommended application list with compatible applications from both operating systems.
With SmartSelect, I set Word for Windows to be my default application to work with .doc, .rtf and .txt files, so when I double click a file with that extension in either OS – even if it is an email attachment in Apple Mail – the file instantly opens the file in Word. I've also configure SmartSelect to open all hyperlinks clicked in either OS to open in Firefox for Mac, and for all email to route through Apple Mail. This is total OS integration on a file and application level...put it together with Coherence, and you have the most seamless user experience possible.
3D Graphics: You asked for it, and we delivered. Kick around your favorite Windows-only OpenGL and DirectX games and apps in a virtual machine on your Mac, without shutting down OS X!
Here's Quake 4 running full-speed in my virtual machine on my test Mac. Yes, as shocking as it may be, I took one for the team and played Windows games in my VM for a whole day to make sure that they run well. Aren't I noble?
There's a lot more (as in, more than 50 new features in all) in 3.0. You can learn more about everything that's coming in the final version at the Desktop for Mac 3.0 Upgrade Page.
The new version will be available in just a few weeks at the regular price of $79.99, but current users can upgrade for only $49.99. And, now through the release date (very soon...), you can actually upgrade for only $39.99, which, for those of you who aren't math savvy (like me), is 1/2 the regular retail price. We're doing this as a formal thank-you to everyone who's supported us over the past year. We figured that you'd like this better than just another "thank you" blog post. :)
If you want to buy now and save some dough, hit the Upgrade Page.
Stay tuned for news about the final release of 3.0 in the next few weeks. Oh, and I'll see you all at WWDC, where we'll have more big news for you.
_____________________________
Become a friend of Parallels on MySpace!
Join us at www.myspace.com/parallelsinc!
SmartSelect: A wicked cool new feature that lets you assign any OS X or Windows application as the default for any Mac or Windows file type. This means that when you right-click on any file in either OS and selects “open with”, SmartSelect automatically populates the recommended application list with compatible applications from both operating systems.
With SmartSelect, I set Word for Windows to be my default application to work with .doc, .rtf and .txt files, so when I double click a file with that extension in either OS – even if it is an email attachment in Apple Mail – the file instantly opens the file in Word. I've also configure SmartSelect to open all hyperlinks clicked in either OS to open in Firefox for Mac, and for all email to route through Apple Mail. This is total OS integration on a file and application level...put it together with Coherence, and you have the most seamless user experience possible.
3D Graphics: You asked for it, and we delivered. Kick around your favorite Windows-only OpenGL and DirectX games and apps in a virtual machine on your Mac, without shutting down OS X!
Here's Quake 4 running full-speed in my virtual machine on my test Mac. Yes, as shocking as it may be, I took one for the team and played Windows games in my VM for a whole day to make sure that they run well. Aren't I noble?The new version will be available in just a few weeks at the regular price of $79.99, but current users can upgrade for only $49.99. And, now through the release date (very soon...), you can actually upgrade for only $39.99, which, for those of you who aren't math savvy (like me), is 1/2 the regular retail price. We're doing this as a formal thank-you to everyone who's supported us over the past year. We figured that you'd like this better than just another "thank you" blog post. :)
If you want to buy now and save some dough, hit the Upgrade Page.
Stay tuned for news about the final release of 3.0 in the next few weeks. Oh, and I'll see you all at WWDC, where we'll have more big news for you.
_____________________________
Become a friend of Parallels on MySpace!
Join us at www.myspace.com/parallelsinc!
— Ben Rudolph | Thursday, May 31, 2007
87 Comments:
I would encourage Parallels to extend the beta for immediate release and to be more open on development. It worked well in the past, and made record sales--why go another route?
I can now satisfy my inner gamer and my inner Mac snob at the same time, WITHOUT rebooting ;) !
Congratulations..This is truly becoming foot-in-the-door leverage point of the consumer computer market for Mac. I have already turned one of my friends towards the light because of Parallels 2.5 (he purchased a Mac back in March). Wait till he hears about this new version!
Keep up the great work!
Also, can you please confirm that this will be a free upgrade for the Christmas sale customers?
But as i don[t (yet) own an Intel Mac. I need to bash you guys for the low attention to the PC side of things.
I'm run Windows becouse I have hardware imcompatible with linux(As you can see by a the lack of a Mac I'm not Rich:))
I'm don't bought the software on the end of the test time for 2 reasons.
- A slow machine(Not your fault)
- A pour (I mean it) integration witch a linus guest.
Please I want to buy good software, gi'me some :)
Ps: If you guys put 3D acceleration on Linux HOST I'm going to buy this thing with my new linux fiendly computer O.ô
Keep up the great work, can't wait for the release!
Is there any information about improvements for Linux? The upgrade page mentions Linux Tools, but nothing more. A detailed description with screenshots would be great.
BTW are there any overall performance improvements? I would like to load Vista onto my Mac, but it's a resource hog.
And, yes, great work!
I love the software, but I'm not too impressed with the upgrade policy for new purchases.
Best regards
Jens
Parallels, please open the beta process.
I believe it runs, hence the screenshot, but how well? I'm not asking for benchmarks but a rough estimate of gaming speed as opposed to Bootcamp'd be splendid.
Quake 4 is just an Open GL game.
Another feature I'm wondering about... I think you once mentioned that multi-cpu support inside virtual machines was in development, but this doesn't appear in this version. Will this be available as a free upgrade, just as coherence was? Hmm, maybe I'm asking too much...
Probably more interesting than adding suport for 3D, it's the speed of it.
Cleverly avoiding mentioning that fact :)
Anyway good work to the team at parallels. I have the older version and may upgrade :)
I would like to see some more detail with regards the Direct X and Open GL stuff though.
How about running some of those gaming/graphic benchmarking apps to grind us up some numbers across a range of Mac models?
Seriously considering the prepay for the upgrade if the numbers look good.
How bout tubing us up some video as well :)
Coz at the moment all I see is talk and text.
Thanks in advance
Dave
Believe me when I tell you that your answer to this question will determine whether I continue to support your cause, after all, the majority of games that most people will want to play are Direct X 9 based (soon to be DX 10).
Paul
Half-Life 2 is only DX7, so it's possible to use your competitors software to do exactly the same thing.
Can you advise what DX version that Parallels v3 will support on release, and any possible hints as to whether we will see DX9/10 support (I understand that DX10 will rely heavily on video cards anyhow - but DX9 should be good??)
Thanks,
Paul
I'm really only interested in the 3D support since I know all other support that I need from a VM is available. Right now VirtualBox and Parallels are neck and neck.. this would shoot Parallels way ahead.
One thing that I really would like in a desktop VM solution, now that you and "those other guys" are offering virtualized 3D support, is OpenGL support for virtual Linux VMs.
Being able to play my favorite Windows games on my MacBook Pro without rebooting is great, and because of Coherence, it's even better than "those other guys."
But I'd also very much love to run Compiz or Beryl, and other Linux OpenGL apps, at native speed in my virtualized Linux instance.
I only use Windows for games, I use Mac OS and Linux for work as a web and open source developer. I'd really like it if I could turn on the eye candy in all the real or virtual operating systems I run on my Mac, as well as run full 3D apps and games at native speeds on all of them.
Many of these features are really cool, and I know that many non-OS X users would love to be able to use them on their operating systems too!
I'll be placing my pre order soon, and hopefully we get a release in a week or so!
I already pre-ordered but can we get a more definitive date? Perhaps allowing those who purchased in on the private beta?
that would be nice......
I will upgrade anyway because of the SmartSelect and snapshotting support.
Also I hope this works better with the latest Ubuntu.
Keep up the great work SWSoft!!
life just keeps getting better
I met some of the boys from parallels at WWDC last year. They were cool guys with an even cooler product.
kudos to the fine Russian gents who make all the hypervisor magic happen.
twas a pleasure to meet and talk with u guys!
peace love and respec
u guys make the word a better place!
steven
Looking forward to this great release. Just wanted to let you know that on the upgrade page, it says, "The KILLER APP for Mac is now even BETTER THEN EVER!" Should be "than."
Take care,
Ben
The ability to automatically open attachments and certain filetypes in applications on both windows and mac os x is a real boon for me.
At work we were about to purchase both office 2007 (or 2003) for Windows and office 2004 for Mac. Now we can standardise on the Mac office for Word and Excel and still use Outlook 2003 for email, calendaring, etc. It was a real pain to have to save attachments to a shared drive and then open them up.
If anything I would like to request the ability to drag icons/files from a monitor running Windows/XP in full screen or Coherence mode to another monitor running Mac OS X - either to the Finder or an application windows or application icon in the dock.
Finally the ability to map a users 'my documents' folder directly to a users 'Documents' folder in OS X would be fantastic.
Matt B, London, UK
Just like Mac OSX users.. we deserve the same avelibility on the linux desktop.
Wine and Cedega just don't cut it, and they take to much configuration.
I would apprecitate you reply on the Linux version of this product.
THanks
Thanks.
http://forum.parallels.com/showthread.php?t=11279&highlight=vista+bootcamp
I bought the upgrade because parallels really is that good. But I wouldn't be upset if parallels upgraded me for free. :-)
I bought the upgrade because I really do think parallels is that good. Show me really 3D support and that's just gravy - Guild Wars and Dawn of War anyone??
But I wouldn't be upset if parallels upgraded me for free. :-)
-p-
And now I find out - just TWO WEEKS LATER - that I will not be receiving a free upgrade. This is AWFUL customer service policy - if you were a company of any merit, you would have some sort of rolling support/upgrades for recent customers.
The thing that I did not mention in my email is that I work for an organisation with 3000 macs and that I will be making an active case against buying a volume license of your software. Congratulations, your awful customer service has just lost you a sale of 3000+ licenses. I will be recomending your competitors instead.
Alan.
University of Freiburg
Thanks for testing it for me, I'll wait till 3.1 before spending my money...
What gives? I think myself and about 100,000 other users are not happy.
You can't decide to change the rules mid-stream. I expect to hve 12 months of free upgrades or I have been lied to. I bet thousands feel the same way.
I want my money back! How about 100, 000 users all demand a refund!
If you bought Parallels Desktop with maintenance, you will get ONE FULL YEAR of upgrades - minor and major - for FREE. That means that you'll get this release for free, as well as anything else we come out with upgrade-wise until 12/26/2007.
Even if you don't have maintenance, all of our users get free point upgrades, patches and minor upgrades for free. There's only a cost associated with major upgrades (ie 2.x -> 3.x).
again Mac is your favorite machine. Again I ask you to provide some info for a new Windows version of Parallels. I guess that this is the end of sales for customer using Windows as host, right?
No words about an update/upgrade for Windows users!
cu,
Michael
Help us to survive untile the release will come!
pako
T
Anyone know the DL URL?
Since they won't make a Mac version, I'm stuck running it in Windoze. Prefer to do it in Parallels to Boot Camp since it means not restarting and maintaining a second partition JUST for one game/app.
Yes or no...please don't ignore these postings.
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