VMWare, the virtualization powerhouse that brought its Fusion software to Mac in late 2006, is now just about ready to roll its second major version of the program for OS X. Late this afternoon, VMWare sent over info and download links for a public beta of Fusion 2.0, and, I have to say, it’s looking hawt. More comprehensive DirectX 9 support for seamless PC gaming, insane levels of multimonitor support (ten screens!) and easy importing of Parallels, Virtual PC and even Boot Camp partitions.

Better yet, VMWare has announced that Fusion 2.0 will be free to all existing Mac customers once the final version ships. Of the three big updates, the monitor support is the big one. Parallels doesn’t support multiple displays for Windows, and the Fusion implementation looks nicer than multiple displays for most native PCs. Parallels can do Mac in one screen, Windows in another, but not Windows on two displays for the same virtual machine. Granted, this is a fairly niche feature, but its really well put together, as you can see in the video I’ve thrown up at the top.

The beta is wide open, so if you want in on the action and can live with a few beta quirks, hit the link.

Apple’s alliance with American Idol has caused me some discomfort this year, so I always do my best to mock the entire enterprise. As eagle-eyed reader Scott noticed, the recent iTunes and Idol charity event Idol Gives Back tends to, ahem, “borrow” the design language of a York Peppermint Patty. I’m sure this was Fox’s designers rather than Apple, but still…

You know, I’m mostly proud to be associated with everyone else who loves Macs. I’ve got my problems with Rush Limbaugh, but he’s done plenty to make people realize that Macs aren’t just for left-wing latte-sipping liberals from San Francisco like myself. A little balance to the card never hurt a bit.

Well, that’s mostly true. You see, in an interview with NewsBusters, Darth Tyrannus himself, Karl Rove, has revealed that he is a born-again Apple lover, carrying both an iPhone and a MacBook Air.

NB: All right, I’ve got just one more quick question for you. Last time I saw you, you’d just gotten an iPhone. How’s that working out for you?

ROVE: I love it. My life has changed. I have a shred of coolness. I’ve got my 3,500 people in my addressbook on the phone, I can sync my calendar. I keep track of my modest little stock investments. I can check the weather of my house in Washington, my house in Florida, my boy at school, my hunt-lease in south Texas. I can surf the web, I’m just–I get part of my email there.

Rove had no comment on what effect, if any, his toxic touch had on the performance of either device. Let us never speak of this again.

FORTUNE: Apple 2.0 Karl Rove loves his iPhone

Found via Apple Finance Board

Tags: rove, apple, iphone, macbook air, evil

Thank you for all of your entries (23 in all!), but the winner of our recent Bill Gates retiring contest winner is Church of Apple, who managed to slyly take down all of Microsoft without getting juvenile. Nicely done.

I do have a soft spot for DJ Rizzo’s “The iPhone has nothing on Microsoft’s newest user interface: we call it the ‘multi-clapper.’ Not only can you ‘clap-on’ and ‘clap-off’ but you can also clap ‘ctrl-alt-delete’!” Strong second place. Well done.

Celebrating the growing Hackintosh community, the small but prominent group of closeted Mac-lovers finding ways to put unauthorized installs of OS X onto garden-variety PCs, Willowhaven, a user at Insanely Mac, has created a set of logos to print out and slap on the side of your beige box to show your true heart.

They all look pretty good, except for that horrifying Apple + Dell logo. Some things simply can’t get redeemed.

Via Begley

A Guy Named Joe wants to kill us all. Slideshow after the jump.

Via Digg.
Read the rest of this entry »

DListed gets the pics as Woz and his lady love Kathy Griffin show up together at the new Diablo’s Cantina at the Monte Carlo in Las Vegas. I guess this is real. Weird, huh?

Via the Raw Feed.

A guide to what’s new in the Mac OS X Leopard Finder (AppleInsider, pictured)
Man Files Class-Action Lawsuit Over iPhone Bricking (ArsTechnica)
Other Man Claims iPod nano Set His Pants on Fire (NetworkWorld)
Apple Stock Hits $167 a Share — For No Reason (Daring Fireball)
Why I Won’t Buy an iPhone (BusinessWeek)
Apple Classifies Windows a Virus (Flickr)
Leopard Could Add $240 Million in Revenue in Q4 (Fortune)
Anti-Caps Lock Feature in new Apple Keyboards is Hardware-Based (Rentzsch)

What can send dozens of Mac-heads and Apple Geniuses running faster than a basket full of free iPhones? Why a fire alarm, of course. Sunday morning at the main Apple Store in San Francisco, everybody hit the street after a two-alarm ire cleared the space and firefighters tramped around the space.

Some Life Blog has the complete story, but the video above is worth watching just to see the parade of Apple Store employees returning to work after getting the all-clear sign. I don’t know if I’ve seen that many black T-shirts since I last went to a Raiders game!

Via SFist.