Over the past several weeks, there was some speculation that the release of Windows Vista would force Apple to delay the launch of Mac OS X Leopard while it resolved Windows Vista compatibility issues with Boot Camp, but the news of Boot Camp update should calm those fears. Boot Camp 1.2 is capable not only of running the 32-bit version of Windows Vista but also of displaying the system's much-touted Aero graphics.
"You can even run Windows software." That's the provocative promise that Apple has been making ever since June 2005, when it shocked its diehard supporters with the news that future Macs would run on Intel processors.
A few months later, Apple backed up its promise by releasing a beta version of "Boot Camp," a program that allowed Mac users to install and run a copy of Windows XP as an alternative operating system on its hardware .
In January, Microsoft dampened Apple's sales pitch slightly when it released its new operating system, Windows Vista, which was incompatible with Boot Camp. On Thursday, however, Apple responded by releasing Boot Camp 1.2, an update that not only supports Vista but also incorporates more advanced drivers to improve the performance of Windows programs on Mac hardware.
The 138-MB download is available for free on the Apple Web site to Mac users with Intel chipsets and at least version 10.4.6 of Mac OS X.
Microsoft Corp. yesterday unveiled a second promotional deal for Windows Vista consumer and small business users, allowing them to buy additional licenses at a 10% discount over the suggested list price and upgrade as many as five more PCs.
The new Windows Vista Additional License program targets customers who obtained Vista at retail -- either the full or upgrade version -- or preinstalled on a PC and lets them buy up to five additional identical licenses at 10% off. Users running Vista Home Premium on a new PC, for instance, are eligible only for more copies of Ultimate. Customers can't move up or down the Vista version scale.
Under the new plan, an extra license for Home Premium costs $143 (upgrade) or $215 (full versions) in the U.S. List prices for those editions are $159 and $236, respectively. Other versions are priced accordingly.
These new prices, however, are only slightly lower than those at large online retailers such as Amazon -- where Home Premium sells for $149.99 for the upgrade and $219.99 for the full version -- and are actually higher than the OEM versions sold online at discount stores like Newegg.com. At Newegg, for example, Home Premium OEM sells for $119.99.
Online retailers also currently sell sans-media Additional License Packs: a license for another PC. On Amazon.com, a Home Premium upgrade pack costs $137.99, which is $12 less than Amazon charges for a separate Premium upgrade and $5 less than Microsoft's new program. When users buy one of these packs, they use their existing Vista DVD to install the operating system on the new machine.
If the company blog that touts the program is any indication, Microsoft is just as interested in making sure users pay for every copy of Vista as in discounting extra licenses. Nick White, the Vista product manager who spelled out the plan, expended 40% of the entry on reminding customers of Vista's licensing requirements and the penalties for noncompliance.
"Windows Vista requires 1 license per device," White said. "When attempting to install and activate the same licensed copy of Windows Vista on another PC, activation won't work. When the activation fails, the user is directed to purchase additional licenses online or by phone. Remember, not properly activating Windows Vista will lead to it running in reduced functionality mode, so this new program is a handy way to avoid that situation."
After paying, customers receive additional product keys, and then use their existing Vista installation DVD to install the extra copies on their other PCs, much as they already could on a single system using Anytime Upgrade.
The additional license program -- the second promotion Microsoft has introduced for the new operating system -- is Family Discount. That offer lets buyers of Ultimate, either the upgrade or full version, purchase one or two Home Premium licenses for $49.99 each.
QFX Software Corporation announces the release of KeyScrambler® 1.2.0, which now supports Windows Vista, Microsoft's new operating system. KeyScrambler® is a browser plugin that encrypts the user's keystrokes at the kernel driver level and decrypts them within the browser itself, giving the keyloggers only indecipherable, encrypted keys to record. KeyScrambler® has had hundreds of thousands of downloads in over 60 countries since its debut in August, 2006, and the Personal edition is free for download at the company's website, http://www.qfxsoftware.com.
Ormond Beach, FL (PRWeb) March 16, 2007 -- QFX Software Corporation is pleased to announce the release of KeyScrambler® 1.2.0, which now supports Windows Vista, Microsoft's new operating system.
KeyScrambler® is a browser plugin that employs a unique technology against both known and unknown keyloggers. Traditional anti-spyware and anti-virus programs typically depend on knowing the signature of an existing keylogger in order to detect and remove it, so they often act after the keyloggers have already stolen the users' information. KeyScrambler works in a radically different way: It encrypts the user's keystrokes at the kernel driver level, before keyloggers can record them, and decrypts them within the browser itself, giving the keyloggers only indecipherable, encrypted keys to record.
The Personal edition of KeyScrambler is absolutely free and can be downloaded at the company's website, http://www.qfxsoftware.com. It protects users' login information against keyloggers on all websites.
KeyScrambler Professional, at $24.99, encrypts everything a user types into a web page, including logins, account numbers, credit card numbers, social security numbers, addresses and phone numbers, and even email messages.
Neither version requires you to do anything differently on your computer. When you type in your user names and passwords, you'll see KeyScrambler® encrypting live, unobtrusively, for your peace of mind.
A developer of security and financial software based in Ormond Beach, Florida, QFX Software Corporation believes in user empowerment and KeyScrambler® is the company's leading product. With support for Internet Explorer 6 and 7 and Mozilla Firefox, KeyScrambler® has had hundreds of thousands of downloads in over 60 countries since its debut in August, 2006.
"Adding Windows Vista means more users worldwide can now enjoy better computing security with our effective anti-keylogger tool," says Qian Z. Wang, the CEO and co-founder of QFX Software, a graduate of M.I.T. with two degrees in Computer Science. "Our goal is to make KeyScrambler serve as many users as possible and I hope those who have been waiting for the new release are happy with it."
Free Download: http://www.qfxsoftware.com
Want to beef up Vista's relatively thin complement of Sidebar Gadgets, those little applets that reside on your desktop and let you do things like track the temperature or play video poker? Now there's a free way to do so, thanks to Google.
The trick is new tool from MesaDynamics called Amnesty Widgets generator. As I explain in my story, 5 Google Tips To Improve Your Search Experience, you can use the Amnesty app to convert Google Desktop gadgets to run under Windows Vista.
In operation, you simply take the Google Gadget's HTML code, available from Google's page, paste it into Amnesty, and viola, out pops a Vista Gadget. I tried it for several myself. It worked fine in most cases, though there were a few which were dead on arrival after conversion (parameter errors, etc.). I explain how, here.
The undeniable appeal of Vista's Gadgets points up for me the importance of the OS's eye-candy features. Many tech observers have criticized this aspect of Vista--I'm referring both to the Sidebar Gadgets and the translucent, 3-D-like Aero interface--especially since they borrow heavily from Apple's Mac OS X. Still, the more I use Vista, the more I like its look and feel. And the fact that I'm running Vista on a dual-core system with a decent graphics card means I'm effectively shielded from any drag on performance that the processing power sucked up by Aero would make apparent on a less powerful machine.
If you're interesting in building your own Gadgets (don't try this at home?) Microsoft offers a tutorial (be advised this will start a zip-file download), here.