SigSays - All Things Reviewed

Since I’ve gotten my Macbook, I’ve been using OS X Snow Leopard as my primary OS. The only problem is that I need to use some old windows only applications from time to time at work, probably 3 or 4 times a day. I installed Windows 7 using Bootcamp, which works very well, but you have to reboot every time you want to switch to Windows or back to OS X. Not exactly an ideal solution.

I’ve used VMware Fusion for Windows before, and it’s cool, but I didn’t really have a need for it then. I decided to try the Mac version, and I’m blown away.

Upon install, it automatically detects your bootcamp installation of Windows, and asks if you want to run it as a virtual machine. Select yes, and it sets everything up automagically. Once it goes through the initial setup and installs VMware Tools, you’re set. Just open VMware and you can boot into your Bootcamp windows installation inside of OSX.

The pictures do a much better job of explaining, so here ya go.

Click the VMware icon in your top bar. BootCamp will automatically be selected, just hit “Start Up”.

You’ll get a new window and your Windows BootCamp installation will begin booting.

It boots to your Windows Desktop, just like you’re booting a physical install.

And you can open IE, go to websites (Including those that require ActiveX), run windows programs, even use the USB and Optical hardware on your Mac.

Absolutely amazing software if you’re a Mac user that occasionally needs Windows. There’s advanced settings to decide how much of the CPU and RAM you’re willing to let the Windows Virtual Machine use, etc, but I figured I would just cover the basics here, as those things will depend heavily on what you intend to do with the virtual machine, and the hardware you install it on.

I would give this 6 stars if I could, it’s easily the most useful software I’ve seen for OS X.

Buy VMware Fusion on Amazon!

Rating:

Just checking out automator on the new Macbook, so I thought I would share what I learned. The video is fairly self explainitory, but here’s the gist:

Open Automator.

Pick “Service”

In the right hand pane, at the top, set it so it reads receives (Files or Folders) from (Finder)

Now move to the far left and pick the Mail section.

In the next pane to your right, find “New Mail Message”, and drag it to the right.

Now save as something that makes sense, in my case “Send to mail recipient”

You’re done. Right click any file or folder on your computer, and at the bottom you’ll see “Send to email recipient” or whatever you named it.

Sounds complicated, but it’s really insanely simple, the video does a better job of illustrating how easy it is.

I recently decided to replace my 10″ EeePC with a 13″ Macbook. Not wanting it to get beat up, I ordered a Speck Hard Cover for it.

I was immediately impressed with the fit and finish. No extra material, no sharp edges. Care was taken so that you never notice the case, other than the fact that your laptop still looks perfect. All the proper holes are there for cooling and access to all ports, the only reason to take it off is to swap battery/ram/hdd.

Fit on the computer is about as good as it gets. It snaps onto the laptop securely, leaving no “play” at all, and it fits very close to the computer itself, with little to no gap in any place. The added size isn’t at all noticeable, at maybe 2mm tops. I highly suggest it. At $20-30, it’s certainly cheap insurance.

On to the pics.

Edit- Lots of people have commented on how thick the case is because the macro shots make it look pretty hefty. Here’s one with a quarter to show scale. It’s so thin you don’t notice the case at all.

Buy it on Amazon

Rating: