Parallels Desktop for Mac is officially out, and it looks a lot like the beta release we told you about a few weeks ago. Parallels, for the uninitiated, is software that lets you install multiple operating systems on a Mac, and lets you launch an operating system from inside of Mac OS X without needing to reboot the computer, like you would with Boot Camp.

Here's some of the updates in the newest version:

• Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard host support
• Windows Vista guest OS support
• Ability to launch Windows applications on the Mac desktop and launch them from Dock
• Drag and drop

There's a 15-day free trial available. The full version will set you back $80 plus whatever it cost to get your hands on the guest operating system you're installing.

[via Infinite Loop]

Despite the heated OSX war this week after the release of Windows Vista, there are still some Mac users who would like the ability to run Windows on their Apple machine.

For that, many Mac users turn to Parallels which has just released its newest beta, Parallels Desktop for Mac Release Candidate 2 (Build 3150), the last version (3036) having been just released in early December. This beta version is only available for US residents, while everyone else has to get the 30-day official trial that is also free. It features tons of improvements from the previous version such as:

• USB 2.0 Support
• True Drag and Drop Functionality
• Full-Feature Virtual CD/DVD drive
• Transporter RC2 Bundled
  
• And tons more. Check out a full list of improvements here

Once huge difference in the new version is Coherence, which makes it possible for you to run Windows applications as if they were running natively on your Mac without actually having to move between Windows and OSX; as some say, it's "Windows without seeing Windows."

Parallels Desktop for Mac Release Candidate 2 (Build 3150) can be downloaded for free off of the Parallels website.

[via Engadget]

Parallels Desktop, in my humble opinion, is a killer virtualization app that allows you to run virtually any OS, and even multiple OSes, in their own environments within Mac OS X. We've been following Parallels Desktop's development pretty closely over on TUAW, and today a new beta has been released with some rocking new features, including:

• Booting a Boot Camp Windows XP installation, allowing you to have the best of both worlds (Boot Camp is Apple's free utility for allowing you to run Windows XP on a separate partition - not in virtualization)
• Drag and drop files/folders between Windows and Mac OS X (previous, Parallels Desktop allowed you to set up a Shared Folder to accomplish this sharing task. This new feature, of course, is far cooler)
• Read/Write of aforementioned Boot Camp partition
• Parallels Transporter Beta - a new tool for migrating a Windows PC image, VMWare or Microsoft Virtual PC VM into Parallels
• Graphics performance and improvements (though, unfortunately, no full 3D hardware acceleration support - yet)

These Parallels guys just don't quit; since they introduced this Desktop product for Mac OS X, they have consistently added killer, innovative virtualization features like this. I can't wait to see full 3D support land "in a few months." I can't find an official announcement or link at Parallels' site yet, but here is a direct link to the 33MB download. If any of you try out the new features, share your experience in the comments.