It now supports OpenGL 2.1 and DirectX 9 Shader Model 3.0, giving you some more graphics powah in Windows, so you can run Windows' Aero interface with Flip3D (and play games, if you're daring). The more integrated Windows apps respond to commands like cmd+q and yes, work with Dock Expose. It's $80 for a fresh copy or $40 for an upgrade. [VMWare via AppleInsider]

If Google's Eric Schmidt doesn't up the ante and throw a table, maybe Ballmer was right in calling him a pussy. [Techcrunch]

The short story is that in most cases, Parallels runs a solid 14-20 percent faster than Fusion, except in the rather limited scenario of running Windows XP 32-bit on two virtual processors.

Overall, running 32-bit Windows OSes with a single virtual processor, Parallels is 14 percent faster; with two virtual processors, Parallels is 20 percent faster with Vista, while Fusion is 10 percent faster with XP; and for 64-bit Vista, Parallels is 15 percent speedier. Depending on the task, the numbers vary—like transcoding MP3s can be up to 30 percent faster on Parallels.

MacTech's tests are ridiculously comprehensive, spanning multiple machines with tons of different applications—the whole them took a couple months—so if you want the full, chart-heavy breakdown, head over there: [MacTech]

What you're watching is, admittedly, virtualization. The MVP hypervisor is a small (20KB) "bare metal" virtual machine which runs beneath the phone's OS(es). What this effectively does is create an identical platform on each and every device it's installed on, allowing OSes to be installed like apps (as in desktop virtualization, they're called "appliances"). Since it's the virtual machine that interfaces with the device's hardware, you can pretty much run any OS without worrying too about driver compatibility, or, as shown above, even run multiple OSes at the same time.

What's especially surprising about this is how well it seems to work. Windows CE, which isn't even technically a mobile OS,(yes, it is, but it's not anything someone could use for a phone) runs well, and Android's 3D spinning globe runs about as quickly as you'd expect it to on the N800's hardware. Though the N800 isn't a phone, the rep in the video makes it very clear that MVP is headed for smartphones, and so it should.

VMWare says they're in talks with manufacturers, who would have to include the hypervisor in their handsets for this to be possible. Problem is, I'm not sure what exactly would motivate a company to pay to license this tech in their handsets. Hardware virtualization, parallel mobile OSes and hypervisors are all a little esoteric for mass marketing, and I'm not sure that "John at Gizmodo totally has a boner for this" will be enough to push HTC over the edge. [ITPro via WindowsForDevices]

For developers, having this VMware abstraction layer is pretty attractive from the start. If the layer is installed in, say, Blackberry, HTC and Motorola smartphones, then the developer will only have to write the software to run on the virtual machine's universal simulated hardware, rather than each phone's different hardware. VMware is promoting this capability as sort of a Java VM on steroids, which — with wide enough deployment and high enough efficiency — could mean an end to platform-specific apps. But that's not the most exciting part.

VMware's European product director told ZDNet that MVP could "make it possible for various mobile operating systems, such as Symbian, varieties of Linux and Windows Mobile, to 'co-exist on the handset as well'." In other words, due to the low-level nature of the solution, a VMware MVP-equipped handset could not just run platform-agnostic programs, it could run entirely different OSes in parallel. Whether anybody will take the time to make that happen remains to be seen, but just the possibility that new hardware could support pretty much any mobile OS is pretty exciting. [ZDNet]

Boot Camp won out for overall speed, where Parallels won for virtualization (running Windows at the same time as Macs) performance. VMWare Fusion, on the other hand, "wins" by keeping your OS X and Window environments separate, which isn't really a feature but more of a lack of a feature—Parallels does a much better and faster job cross-integrating applications and documents. But if you're into keeping up the wall between the two operating systems, there's an option for you. [MacTech]

Parallels has more features than Fusion...But I found Fusion puts less strain on the computer overall.

The only catch is that you need to remove your USB 2.0 driver from Linux before you sync, which means you get to transfer all your songs at USB 1.1 speeds. Nice. This isn't optional—as of right now—and if you don't do this you'll get a nice BSOD in your VMWare window for your troubles. Happy Zunixing. – Jason Chen

Zune on Linux via VMware [Zune-Online]

Product Page [VMware]