Monthly Archive for July, 2008

VMWare Fusion 2 Beta 2

It’s got friggin’ Unity for Linux!!! This looks good…

The VMWare team has just released the second beta for VMWare Fusion 2.0, the company’s popular virtualization program for the Mac.

The new beta adds a TON of new features, as the video above demonstrates. I got a chance to talk to VMWare today about the new beta and it is HOT. I’ll be posting a more in-depth overview tomorrow, but until then, here are some of the highlights:

  • Unity 2.0 - The newest version of Fusion is really focused on better Windows-Mac integration. You can now launch Windows programs from the dock or access Mac programs from within your virtual machine. You can also link folders like Documents, Pictures and Music on your virtual machine with those folders on your Mac.
  • Multiple Snapshots VMWare has worked really hard to bring a Time Machine-like ease to backing up and protecting your virtual machine. You can now designate how often you want to take full system snapshots of your VM, whether once an hour, once a day or once a week, and how many copies you want to keep.
  • Better Video and Graphics Graphics and shading support has been improved for Macs that have higher-end graphics cards, and even integrated Macs can now play 1080p HD video in virtual machines with considerably less CPU overhead.
  • Support for more client OSs, including Leopard Server You can now run Leopard Server as a VM in OS X 10.4 and 10.5, even on client machines (virtualizing Mac OS X client is blocked by Apple’s license terms). Support for the latest version of Ubuntu (Hardy Heron) is also available right out of the box with Unity integration. Power users can now designate up to four virtual CPUs per virtual machine, which is great for anyone wanting to take an XServe or Mac Pro to the next level.

VMWare Fusion 2.0 beta 2 is available for Intel Macs running OS X 10.4 or OS X 10.5. New users can try the beta for free and the upgrade path (including future betas and the full version of Fusion 2.0) is free for all existing Fusion 1.0 customers.

via TUAW

Gears of War 2 Introduces “Linked Achievements”

Looks like people better get playing the original Gears leading up to November!!! (I know I will be… ;) )

Gears of War 2 will feature ‘linked Achievements,’ meaning that Achievements earned in the original Gears will help unlock bonuses in the sequel.

Epic’s Cliff Bleszinski took the stage at Comic-Con to demonstrate to a live audience the E3 Sinkhole level and describe a new “linked achievements” feature for Gears 2 where achievements unlocked in the first Gears game would open features in the upcoming sequel.

He offered three examples of how the system would work:

  • Complete Act One in Gears Of War and receive a playable Anthony Carmine in Gears of War 2
  • Find 10 COG tags in Gears Of War and get Minh Young Kim in Gears of War 2
  • Kill Raam in Gears Of War and earn a playable Raam in Gears of War 2

Questions such as whether all Gears of Wars achievements will be linked to the sequel and what other goodies can be grabbed besides characters won’t be answered until closer to the game’s November 7 release.

via The Escapist