Main Features:

• Military-Grade Encryption
• Stealth Browsing with Firefox
• Built-in Password Manager
• Rugged and Waterproof Device
• Windows 7/Vista/XP, Mac OS X, and Linux
• 1GB, 2GB, 4GB, 8GB, and 16GB models

Security Features:
The IronKey is like most flash drives, just plug it in and copy data over. However unlike typical devices, any stored data is encrypted with IronKey’s Cryptochip technology. If you’re a computer security whiz, then you’ll be impressed to hear that it meets Level 3 of the Federal Process Information Standardization 140 (FIPS). The IronKey isn’t just limited to software encryption either, it also uses a 256-bit AES hardware encryption. That means that for the most part, unless you’re working for the NSA or are a hardcore hacker, any data on this device will be unreadable without the right password.

IronKey even takes extra precautions. All the software needed to run the IronKey is stored on-board the flash memory. No data is left over on a host computer’s hard drive or RAM. With an on-screen virtual keyboard, the device is immune to key-loggers. To prevent brute force dictionary attacks, if there are over 10 concurrent incorrect attempts to login, it self-destructs. It won’t explode into pieces, but the insides will become destroyed. It won’t be readable, writable, or usable ever again.

The unit is now also made from a single piece of metal, making it quite durable. The original model was slightly more flimsy with a rear plate. The unit has also passed military-grade waterproof testing. (Electromagnetic shielding too!) And just like the original model, if someone were to pry the unit open to extract the flash memory chip, it will detect their presence and self-destruct upon contact.

Software Tools:
In addition to the durable build quality and hardware security, there’s plenty of useful software on the device. There’s a built-in anonymous Firefox browser. It runs off the device with no installation required. No data remnants will be left over on the user’s computer. Plus, with a built-in password manager, you’ll never need to remember all your passwords. The device will store a secured copy of all your logins for important websites. Of course, it requires a master password to utilize any of the credentials.

The Firefox browser also has a specially built encrypted tunnel for browsing. When enabled, all data is sent through a triple-encrypted connection, routed through multiple servers, and eventually directed to the website you visited. (A high-performance dedicated Tor network.) With a masked DNS, it will be nearly impossible to track who you are or your location. So this means, if you are using an unsecure WiFi network or public HotSpot, there’s nothing to worry about.

How It Works:
It’s this simple. Just plug it in and if the software an auto-run dialog should popup in Windows 7. Just click on it and an IronKey window will appear, prompting the user for a password. If the correct key is entered, a second hidden partition on the drive becomes accessible. Just like any other flash drive copy any data over. The read and write speeds were also impressively faster than most flash drives I have used. (About 25Mb/s for both read and write speeds.) The IronKey portable app launcher will remain in the taskbar. It offers a simple interface to launch applications such as Firefox, the backup tool, and any other portable app you install. There’s also a control panel to change passwords, update the on-board IronKey software, and much more. When you’re done with a session, just press the Lock Drive item. It immediately secures and makes the partition vanish.

Conclusion:
The IronKey S200 is simply an awesome gadget. It’s the most secure flash drive I’ve come across. There’s nothing groundbreaking that sets it apart from the last iteration, but the simple changes and upgrades are appreciated. That being said, this is still a bit of an overkill for the average person. Unless you’re carrying sensitive corporate data, top-secret information, or are just plain paranoid, you probably don’t need this. The combination of the excellent hardware and software makes this a great device. The only downside is the price. While an average 1GB flash drive costs merely nothing in 2009, the IronKey S200 1GB model has a MSRP of $79. A 2GB, 4GB, 8GB, and 16GB capacity models follow priced at $99, $149, $199, and $299, respectively. Even so, it’s a small trade-off if you have something to protect. If your IronKey gets stolen or lost, it’s pretty much guaranteed that your data is secure.

Buy: IronKey Model S200 on Amazon.com
Links: IronKey.com | Watch Demo

Users will notice refinements including a more responsive Finder; Mail that loads messages up to twice as fast; Time Machine with an up to 80 percent faster initial backup; a Dock with Exposé integration; QuickTime X with a redesigned player that allows users to easily view, record, trim and share video; and a 64-bit version of Safari 4 that is up to 50 percent faster and resistant to crashes caused by plug-ins. Snow Leopard is half the size of the previous version and frees up to 7GB of drive space once installed. System applications including Finder, Mail, iCal®, iChat® and Safari are 64-bit and Snow Leopard’s support for 64-bit processors makes use of large amounts of RAM, increases performance and improves security while remaining compatible with 32-bit applications.

Don’t know if your computer is compatible with the new OS? It’s quite simple to figure that out. Just click on “About This Mac” from the “Apple Menu.” If you are running Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard on an Intel based machine, you are good to go! All you’ll have to do is purchase Snow Leopard and pop in the disk to upgrade! So what are you waiting for? Head on over to Apple’s Online Store which even guarantees FREE delivery to your door on August 28th, 2009!

Buy: Snow Leopard – Apple Store | Snow Leopard – Amazon
More Info: $10 Up-To Date Program | Snow Leopard Info

Feature Comparison:

Price Comparison:

For the prices, the totals were the cost shown after configuring the machine straight off Apple.com and Dell.com before taxes were calculated in. Both companies are offering free shipping which is a plus. Dell is offering the next generation Operating System, Windows 7, for free. Apple will charge just $9.95 for those who purchased a qualifying computer after June 8th, 2009 to upgrade Snow Leopard. Even with those details set aside, the Studio XPS 13 totals in $273 less than the same configuration for the MacBook Pro 13. Plus if you are willing to shell out more cash, there’s a lot more features Dell seems to offer with their model than Apple does. What are your thoughts on this?

Links: Apple MacBook Pro | Dell Studio XPS

Note: This article was co-written by Sahas Katta and Sharath Shroff

Update: Since publication, we have updated a few elements of the chart and article. These changes include: Apple OS X Snow Leopard Price is $10, not $29 for purchases of MacBook Pros since June 8th, 2009. The screen resolution is WXGA for 16:10 aspect ratio, meaning a 1280×800 resolution, not 1366×768. The Studio XPS also has a multi-touch trackpad, similar to the MacBook Pro.

The Cruzer Contour is a bit heavier than most flash drives, but this is due to the aluminum encased back-side. The top front was made of glossy plastic, which unfortunately had a “cheap” feel to it. To open the drive, you’ll have to slide it backwards then forwards. To close it, you’ll have to slide the top forward then back. Overall the build quality was superb. It isn’t an IronKey, but it is more than enough for the average consumer. I also personally felt that this looks much better than most flash drives I’ve seen. The only other physical caveat I had was that the “cheap” plastic on top kept creaking when opening and closing the flash drive. I also appreciated the fact that SanDisk threw in a leather protective case with a key chain loop along with the flash drive. The whole package looks “executive” enough for me.

http://skattertech.com/media/2008/07/sandisk-cruzer-contour-demo.mp4

As I mentioned previously, the unit’s performance is an important factor. SanDisk officially stated that the drive has 25 MB/sec read speeds and 18 MB/sec write speeds. I used a benchmarking tool (HD Tune) and found that the transfer rate was actually 22.1 MB/sec, about 4 MB/sec faster than they had stated. The read and write speeds were sure enough much faster than generic SanDisk Cruzer Micro I had lying around, but was on par with the IronKey. SanDisk included a set of U3 applications on the drive, these included: Avast! Anti-Virus, Skype, HP Photosmart, some games, and a password manager. I wasn’t a fan of the idea of the launcher starting up each time I plug in the drive nor to have applications I don’t plan on using on my flash drive. As a result I downloaded and ran the U3 uninstaller, which I was able to easily find on SanDisk’s website. All traces of the launcher and applications were quickly erased leaving me with space for my data and media. Keeping the U3 apps would allow me to encrypt the drive, however the downside would be that I would only access my data on a Windows-based machine, no OS X support. Despite that, from some quick tests proved that the default security was quite robust. The partition on the flash drive with encrypted data was completely inaccessible without the correct password.

Overall all the entire idea of the SanDisk Cruzer Contour deserves a thumbs up. Although I happened to not be a fan of the pre-installed apps since I preferred to use my own tools and encrypt my data with TrueCrypt, most consumers will appreciate it. As for the unit’s lifespan, I won’t be able to say how long the flash drive will survive under standard wear and tear, however I would assume it will keep running much longer than cheap generic flash drives. Fortunately it comes with a lifetime warranty, however that won’t cover any data lost due to defects. As for the physical aspect, I found the opening and closing to be a bit tricky at first and is a bit difficult to operate with one hand, however it isn’t an issue after a couple of uses. The unit I reviewed had 4GB storage capacity, however SanDisk also has 8GB and 16GB models available. The drives are available for purchase for as low as $43 for 4GB, $55 for 8GB, and $112 for 16GB on Amazon, however MSRP is much higher for each of the models.

Buy Now: SanDisk Cruzer Contour on Amazon
Link: SanDisk Cruzer Contour Flash Drives
Related: IronKey Review

Yesterday, Apple announced that the final release of the Mac OS X series, Leopard, will go on sale on Friday October 26th 2007. OS X Leopard has over 300 new features including desktop Stacks, a newly designed finder, QuickLook, Spaces, and Time Machine.

“Leopard, the sixth major release of Mac OS X, is the best upgrade we’ve ever released,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “And everyone gets the ‘Ultimate’ version [...] for just $129.”

Just to go over some of the features, we’re going to start with Stacks. Stacks allows accessing and placing files right onto the new 3D dock to keep the desktop clean. With one click, the Stack will spread out cleanly, displaying all the files in it. The finder now borrows a neat feature from iTunes, Cover Flow. In addition, once setup, Mac users can easily search, browse, copy, and transfer files between any other Mac or even a Vista machine. Another feature which will save a lot of time is Quick Look. This pre-installed application will allow fully viewing any image, pdf, or document and even watching or listening to music or videos without having to startup the associated application. This means you can instantly open up a Word Document to read without having to startup Word. However if you wish to modify or edit the file, you will have to open the actual program. If you have used Linux, you probably know that most distributions allow creating multiple virtual desktops. Spaces does just the same thing for Macs, except now it is much more interactive as well as powerful. You can now do neat things such as drag a window from one virtual desktop to another. Although there are ton of more neat features, the final important feature we’ll touch on is Time Machine. This application is a built-in backup tool which allows visually browsing your backups. Instead of having to an entire system restore, Time Machine will allow searching or browsing through your archives to bring the file you wanted “back to the future.” The more hard drive space you offer Time Machine, the better of a job it can do creating more detailed backups.

As mentioned it will be available on the 26th of October at 6:00pm for $129 (single license). Apple is already accepting pre-orders through their online store. If you happened to purchase a new Mac after October 1st, Apple will include the upgrade for just $10 (shipping charge).

Links: Apple OS X Leopard | See 300 New Features
Pre-Order: $109 OS X Leopard by Apple (save $20)

Open Source applications are a great cost-free alternative to commercial applications. In many instances they are even better than paid versions of the same application. Today we bring you a list of a great applications from browsers to video players for both Windows XP/Vista and Macintosh OS X. All items on the list of course are completely FREE and have NO adware or spyware.

Web Browsing:

• Mozilla Firefox – tabbed browsing, customizable, and large plugin library – (Win+Mac)
• Camino – mozilla-like mac-styled browser with rss, spell check, tabs & more – (Mac)

Email:

• Mozilla Thunderbird – secure emails, fight spam, tags, rss, and more – (Win+Mac)

RSS Reader:

• FeedReader – handle large amount of feeds, simple, auto updates, and fast – (Win)
• Vienna – rss + atom, tabbed viewer, customize layouts, and global search – (Mac)
• RSSOwl – opml, bookmarks, export function, search, and alerts – (Win+Mac)

Instant Messaging:

• Pidgin – all in one chat client supporting over 15 major chatting services – (Win)
• Adium – also an all in one client, which supports 13 chatting protocols – (Mac)

BitTorrent:

• Azureus – very powerful, customizable, plugins, and tracker support – (Win+Mac)

Media Player:

• Miro – plays any video file, hd content, free tv, youtube downloads, and torrents – (Win+Mac)
• VLC – plays tons of media formats, powerful converter, and streams anything – (Win+Mac)

Office Suites:

• OpenOffice – word processor, spreadsheets, presentations, and illustrator – (Win+Mac)
• AbiWord – a powerful word processor which supports many formats – (Win+Mac)
• Bean – a simple and free word processor more feature packed than text edit – (Mac)

Virus Scan:

• ClamWin – great virus protection tool for windows based machiens – (Win)
• ClamAV – anti-virus scanning tool for Unix-based machines – (Mac)

DVD Rippers / Encode:

• Handbrake – rips and converts to any format. supports psp, ipod, and iphone – (Win+Mac)
• Media Coder – rip, encode anything to anything, simple encoding for portable devices – (Win)

CD / DVD Burners:

• Burn – burn data, video, audio, and images. also can copy discs – (Mac)
• InfraRecorder – burn any type of data or media, dual layer support, and create ISOs – (Win)

Sound Editor + Recorder:

• Audacity – a powerful sound recorder and editing tool – (Win+Mac)

FTP Client:

• Filzezilla – supports ftp, ftps, sftp, and supports large file transfers. can resume files – (Win+Mac)
• Cyberduck – supports standard ftp protocols and integrated with OS X features – (Mac)

Photo Editors:

• Gimp – great for creating and editing images. good photoshop alternative – (Win+Mac)
• Paint.net – a powerful windows photo editing / manipulation tool – (Win)
• Seashore – a mac os x photo editor with tons of features – (Mac)

Publishing Tools:

• Scribus - neat professional publishing and page layout tool – (Win+Mac)

File Tools:

• 7-zip – unzip or zip up just about any type of package you can imagine – (Win)
• Unarchiver – can unzip anything and works better than OS X’s default tool – (Mac)
• Eraser – securely delete any file from your HDD beyond point of recovery – (Win)
• Permanent Eraser – completely wipe any data using DoD specifications – (Mac)

PDF Tools:

• PDFCreator – create pdf files from any just about program that can print – (Win)

These are just a few of the tons of programs out there. We specifically choose these since we felt that these will be useful for most people. If you know of any neat open source applications or ones better than the ones mentioned in our article, please feel free to let us know by replying in the comments!

I recently got a Segate FreeAgent Desktop 320GB external hard drive and I’m pleased to say I’ve been quite happy with it so far. There are many other similar external storage devices in the same price range & category such as the Western Digital My Book and the LaCie Hard Drive, but I ended up going with Seagate because of the price and for some of the items mentioned in this review.

The packaging was clean and secure. Other than the hard drive itself, only the power supply, USB 2.0 cable, and Warranty Card are included in the box. The FreeAgent’s body is made of plastic, but was quite robust. The unit has a fancy design with a glossy top and upper base. The front of the hard-drive light ups with a neat orange-colored light making it looks like some sort of DVD drive. The light only turns on when the USB cable is plugged in. In fact the hard drive actually turns itself off as soon as it is disconnected from a computer. I’m no expert, but some say it is better for the drive to turn itself off as this one does and others argue that it is better to have a drive running constantly at the same speed with a constant temperature. Speaking of temperature, the base of the unit is the FreeAgent’s heat exhaust. It probably do the job better if it was placed on the back, but the drive didn’t seem to warm up too much during the stress test anyways. Either way don’t complain since LaCie doesn’t even have a fan and many of their drives have ended up overheating (causing data loss) during heavy use.

The setup process was as simple as it could get for Windows XP and Vista users. Just plug it in and it was ready! However Mac OS X users unfortunately have to waste a few minutes reformatting the NTFS drive. On the bright side, no drives or software was needed for either operating system. Performance-wise, it was pretty acceptable. For example most real-life users wouldn’t be able to notice the speed difference between the Seagate FreeAgent or the Western Digital My Book. However when benchmarked, the My Book did in fact performed slightly better. As mentioned previously, our unit was the 320GB model, however Seagate also offers the FreeAgent Desktop in 250GB and 500GB capacities. All three models are SATA II drives running at 7200RPM with 16mb of cache. Seagate also offers a 5-year warranty which covers any hardware malfunctions, but NOT data loss. The drive has been available for a few months and costs only $85 for 250GB, $99 for 320GB, and $130 for 500GB.

If you don’t already backup your data we highly recommend investing a bit of money into it. If your hard drive with all its important content happens to fail, restoring the data can cost as much as a few thousand dollars! Whether it be the Seagate FreeAgent, LaCie Porsche, or Western Digital My Book, BACK UP!

Links: Seagate FreeAgent Desktop
Buy Now: Seagate FreeAgent Hard Drives

One of my favorite FTP Clients, Filezilla, recently got updated to version 3. The application, which began development in 2001, has now reached a new level. The client is now cross platform, supporting Linux and Mac OS X machines in addition to Windows. And to top that, Filezilla is still open source.

The application has received a makeover and now has a bunch of new features. It remains easy enough for novices to use, but is packed with advance features. In addition to FTP, it also allows using FTP over SSL/TLS and SSH FTP. The client includes a Site Manager for saving addresses and passwords, supports pausing/resuming files even larger than 4GB, and features a neatly organized transfer queue. In addition Filezilla supports “dragging and dropping” of files in and out of the program, configuring upload and download speeds, and plenty more. As this application is open source, it remains entirely FREE. In my opinion it is much better than many paid FTP clients such as cuteFTP and others.

Download: Filezilla | Links: Official Site

Today at the WWDC “06 Keynote, Apple announced the long awaited Mac Pro. The new Mac Pro, a G5 replacement, features a Intel Dual Core Xeon 3GHz Processor, 16GB RAM, NVIDIA 512MB Video Card, Up To 2TB (terabytes) of Storage, a 16x Dual Layer DVD SuperDrive, and PCI Express Expansion Slots. This new 64bit system is supposedly 2x the speed of the top of the line configuration of its predecessor. Also note that with the launch of this machine, Apple has finally fully transitioned over to Intel.

Apple Mac Pro Specs:

• Processor: Two 2/2.66/3GHz Dual Core Intel Xeon
• Memory: 2GB / 4GB / 8GB / 16GB Configurations
• Graphics: NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 512MB w/ Dual-DVI
• Displays: Dual-Screen Support (8 displays max)
• Hard Drive: Max 2TB (w/ 4 bays 500GB in each)
• SuperDrive: 16x DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW (2 max)
• Wireless: Bluetooth 2.0 + AirPort Extreme 802.11b/g
• Wired Communication: Two 1GB Ethernet / Optional Modem
• Peripherals: 2 FireWire 800 / 2 FireWire 400 / 5 USB 2.0
• Audio: Analog In/Out + Optical Digital In/Out
• Software: Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger

As stated at the keynote, the Mac Pro will begin to ship today and pricing will start at $2,500 with the bare minimum configuration. Apple also released a new Mac OS Xserve Server and previewed the upcoming Mac OS X Leopard. Getting back on track, this is an extremely powerful machine and therefore is expensive. However if you are like most average consumers you probably can’t afford to spend that much. I wouldn’t worry because knowing Apple, they most likley release a new product called the “Mac” within a few months just as they did by launching a low-end “MacBook” after the launch of the pricey “MacBook Pro”.

Links: Apple Mac Pro | Mac Pro Specs
Related: Apple Press Release | Bluetooth Mighty Mouse

On July 25, 2006, Apple released a wireless bluetooth, laser guided, and AA powered Mighty Mouse. The new and improved Mighty Mouse has many changes from its predecessor, which was released in August ‘05 and was still wired. The Mighty Mouse’s bluetooth will work up to 30 feet away, uses laser precision tracking for improved accuracy, has a touch sensitive left/right-click buttons, a 360° scroll wheel, and extra side “squeeze” buttons. All buttons can be manually programmed in System Preferences.

One problem with this product is the fact that it still requires 2 AA batteries. Most other wireless mouses these days usually have a special built-in rechargeable battery and a dock on which to charge it upon. Although this may be a wise solution for those who travel, it may not be the best for those who spend long hours on their computer. However some innovative features include the right/left-click which are detected using touch sensitivity and without any hardware buttons.

The Mighty Mouse is already available from the Apple Store and is priced at $69. The bluetooth Mighty Mouse will unfortunately only work on Mac OS X, luckily there is a cheaper ($49) USB-wired version which will work on Windows and older Mac OS machines and has most of the features.

Links: Apple Mighty Mouse | QuickTime VR
Recent: PSP Firmware v2.80 | Digg Search Widget

A few months ago we published an article entitled How To: “Stream Your iTunes Library To PSP“. The article, which demonstrated how to share music from your windows machine to your PlayStation Portable (PSP), became an extreme hit. Today we are here to demonstrate a new alternative, which is in fact more powerful and functions smoothly on both Windows and Macintosh machines. After reading through this tutorial, you will be able to easily stream as much DRM-Free music as you want from any networked computer to your Playstation Portable (PSP) via WiFi.

The software we are using today, MyTunesRSS, has been developed by our friends at Codewave Software. This new MyTunesRSS software is completely free and offers even more features than the software used in our previous tutorial. To use this application you will need the items mentioned below. (MyTunesRSS is currently on v2.1)

To get started you’ll need the following:

• PSP with Firmware 2.60/2.70 or Above
• Networked XP Pro/Home or Mac OS X
• Java Runtime 1.5 or Above Installed
• WiFi (802.11b-compatible) Network Router
• Apple iTunes v6.0.4 or Above Installed
• DRM-Free Songs In The iTunes Library

The 3-Setup Procedure:

Windows:
1) Download MyTunesRSSwin.zip to your desktop. Unzip (extract) all contents into a new folder. Open it folder, but do not modify its contents.
2) Press on the on the MyTunesRSS Icon and wait until it starts up.
3) Under General -> iTunes browse to the location of your “iTunes Music Library.xml”. (Usually located in My Documents -> My Music -> iTunes.)

Macintosh:
1) Download MyTunesRSSmac.zip. Extract all contents into a new folder.
2) Open the folder, press on MyTunesRSS, and wait for it to start up.
3) Under General -> iTunes browse to the location of your “iTunes Music Library.xml”. (This is normally located in Music -> iTunes)

Final Setup Steps (mac and win):
1) Choose a port number such as “1234″ and enter any password.
2) Under Options -> Automation, check Auto Update Database (10 mins).
3) Open any standard browser (IE/Safari/Firefox) and enter either http://localhost:[port number] (ex: http://localhost:1234) or the URL displayed on the General Tab. A MyTunesRSS page should appear shortly.

Note: If you successfully accomplished the above (without any errors), you may proceed to the next step. If you do run into errors make sure you meet the requirements and are using the correct software for your OS. If the MyTunesRSS page didn’t appear, open the port you choose previously and give MyTunesRSS permission to access the web in your firewall settings.

PSP Setup Procedure:
1) PSP should already be setup on your LAN and should be able to access the web, if so start up your PSP and go to Network -> Internet Browser.
2) Enter “http://[IP Address]:[Port Number]” into your PSP Browser. “IP Address” represents the IP of the machine running the MyTunesRSS server and the “Port Number” is the number you selected during setup. URL can also be found under “General” in MyTunesRSS. (ex: http://192.168.1.101:1234)
3) Once the MyTunesRSS page appears, enter your password and login.
4) Browse around and select the RSS icon on any playlist/album/artist and say “Yes” to “Add This Channel” to your PSP’s RSS Channel.
5) Close your PSP browser and go to Network -> RSS Channel. Select an item you had added to your library and enjoy the music!

Note: If the previous procedure didn’t work, make sure you followed all the instructions properly and that your firewall settings are properly configured. Also note that this will not work for music purchased on the iTunes Music Store and will only work on any DRM-free music. This tutorial only demonstrated how to access your music on your LAN, if you wish to access it from “hotspots” or elsewhere you will need to do a little port forwarding in your router.

Downloads: MyTunesRSS (by CodeWave) | Support Forum
Links: Stream iTunes Library To PSP, Pt. 1 | Digg This Article

Today, 04.24.06, Apple unveiled a new 17″ MacBook Pro, which is about 5x faster than the original 15″ model. The new MacBook Pro has a 2.16GHz Intel Core Duo processor, a whopping 1680×1050 display, 1GB RAM, 8x Dual-Layer SuperDrive, ATI Mobility Radeon 256MB, and a 120GB Hard Drive. This new laptop will run you about $2,799, but the specs speak for themselves. Although many were hoping for a smaller and cheaper MacBook Pro, a larger and more expensive one was released. However, this may be popular for those that wish to have a powerful portable machine that can now run both Mac OS X and Windows XP. Overall this new addition is an exact replica of the previous 15″ models, which still exist, except this model has a bigger/brighter display and better hardware specs. The 17″ MacBook Pro still has all standard MacBook Pro features such as the iSight Cam, MagSafe Power, Front Row Remote, Bluetooth, WiFi, etc. If you do wish to purchase it, Apple will begin shipping them next week.

Links: Apple MacBook Pro | Apple Store
Coverage: Gizmodo | Engadget | TUAW | Slashdot
Related: Boot Camp | MacBook Problems

On Wednesday, (04/05/06), Apple released a new program, Boot Camp, which allows running Microsoft Windows on any of their Intel-based machines. Although the software is still in BETA, Apple has already included most of the standard drivers necessary to run Windows on their hardware. Boot Camp works by allowing the user to choose from either Mac OS X or Windows XP during startup. The performance of Windows XP on the Intel-based Macs should be equivalent to any standard Windows Computer since it is not emulation, but runs natively. People who want to dual boot on these new Intel-based machines will need to purchase a new copy of either Windows XP Home/Pro (Full Edition).

“Apple has no desire or plan to sell or support Windows, but many customers have expressed their interest to run Windows on Apple’s superior hardware,” Philip Schiller – Apple VP Marketing

A few weeks ago a hackers figured out how to do this using his own boot loader, but there was a risk of damaging machine data since it wasn’t created by Apple. Since this is an official update, which is supported by Apple, any Intel-Mac owner can safely create a dual boot. Apple has included every tool necessary, even including an easy to use partioner, making it simple for even novice computer users to use. If you do own a Intel Mac and want to run XP, I do recommend downloading Boot Camp (83MB) since it is very easy to setup and is completely free.

Links: Apple Boot Camp BETA
Related: Uneasy Slience Installation Video Tutorial