Like Fusion, Parallels supports OpenGL 2.1 and DirectX 9 Shader Model 3.0 for the full Aero 3D interface and 7x better graphics performance than before. It also has a migration tool to move a PC’s info to your virtual machine. Overall performance-wise, it’s three times faster than before, supports eight virtual CPUs and automatically pauses the virtual machine whenever no Windows apps are running.

The new Crystal mode promises to make “Windows completely disappear” so apps run feel completely native, with full support for multitouch trackpad gestures and the Apple Remote, and a persistent Windows apps folder in the Dock. Parallels 5 is out today for $US80 for the full version or $US50 for the upgrade, though we don’t blame you if you can’t tell it apart from Fusion 3, so we’ll be checking them out head to head soon. [Parallels]

For more details, click through to the seminar web page and register.

Did we mention it includes breakfast?

[Citrix]

That’s despite the fact that the Intel Core 2 Duo processors that they use support Intel’s Virtual Technology (VT), which is needed to run the Windows XP Mode included in Windows 7 Pro and above. Of course, many users have been looking forward to Windows 7’s XP Mode because it allows software designed for XP to run without breaking like it might in Vista.

Over at the Windows 7 blog, Sony’s Senior manager for product marketing, Xavier Lauwaert, responded that it had:

…received very little if any requests to enable VT technology up until very recently.
In addition, our engineers and QA people were very concerned that enabling VT would expose our systems to malicious code that could go very deep in the Operating System structure of the PC and completely disable the latter.

For these two reasons we have decided, until recently, not to enable VT.
However, with the advent of XP Virtualization, there is impetus for us to relook at the situation and I can share with you that we will enable VT on select models.

Though, I fear to say that the Z series will not be part of our VT-enabling effort. Indeed, we will focus on more recent models.

Some good news: There are online guides that claim to run through re-enabling hardware virtualisation on models that use either a Phoenix BIOS, or the Insyde H2O UEFI framework (like the Vaio Z). [The Register via Engadget]

We talked about XP Mode—which runs programs that work in XP but not in Vista—in our Windows 7 RC1’s hands-on. Now Microsoft is coming up with details about what hardware and licenses this will need.

• A CPU that has true chip-level virtualisation from Intel or AMD.
• 2GB of RAM minimum.
• While XP Mode will be a free download for buyers of Windows 7 Professional, Windows 7 Enterprise, and Windows 7 Ultimate, you will need a licensed copy of Windows XP Service Pack 3.

All seems very straightforward except the virtualisation part. According to Microsoft’s Scott Woodgate, “Some PCs have [chip-level virtualisation] and some don’t. It’s not as clear as it should be relative to which PCs have support and which don’t.” Hopefully, they will release a tester program along with Windows 7. [cnet]

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, virtualisation. 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 virtualisation, 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 licence this tech in their handsets. Hardware virtualisation, 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]

The virtualisation engine itself promises to use 15-30% fewer resources as well, while adding the option to run a Leopard Server in a virtual machine and including support for DirectX 9, DirectX Pixel Shader 2.0 and OpenGL 2.0. There are 50 new features and enhancements in all.

Parallels 4 is available now for $US80, existing Parallels customers can pick it up for $US40 and if you bought Paralells 3 on or after September 1st, you actually qualify for a free upgrade. Two months of lead time on free software upgrades? Not bad! [Parallels via MacWorld]

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]

Microsoft’s relaxed their ruling, which was previously justified by saying that virtualisation wasn’t mature enough for consumer adoption, which allowed them to clamp down on only the supposedly more pro or business SKUs of Vista. Combine this with the news of 64-bit Vista support yesterday and this is a good week for people who want to run Windows on Macs. [Ars Technica]