Last week virtualization.info reported about the stealth release of Parallels Desktop 6.0. A few days later the company formally announced the product which is available for download today.
The product introduces 80 new features and improved performance: the Crimson Consulting Group, in a July 2010 study, reports that Desktop 6.0 can launch Windows applications 41% faster than the previous version and that 3D games are 40% faster.
Top new features include:
- 64bit engine
- virtual machines hard drive encryption
- Mac OS keyboard shortcuts mapped to Windows applications
- automated migration of personal data from Windows folders to Mac OS X folders
- automated migration of browser bookmarks from Windows to Mac OS X (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome and Safari supported)
- support for Mac OS X parental control settings
- support for 5.1 surround sound
Parallels Desktop 6.0 also comes with a boatload of complimentary 3rd party products: Kaspersky Internet Security 2011, Kaspersky Anti-Virus for Mac, Acronis True Image Home 2010 and Acronis Disk Director 2011 Home.
Update: As suggested by the retail box spotted last week, Parallels is also shipping some software for Apple iPhone and iPad devices.
Parallels Mobile is a free app that allows to remotely manage (power-on, pause, resume, restart or shutdown) and use the Parallels Desktop virtual machines.
