The PC Report

For everyone not using Windows, the wait to access Google’s Chrome as your web browser (officially) is now over, as Google has released a public beta for all you Mac OS X and Linux users. Unfortunately, the Mac/Linux versions aren’t as feature-filled as their Windows counterpart, but still carry enough features to make it a good enough browser to replace your current one.

While the speed and process per tab benefits of Chrome are in the Mac/Linux versions, things such as extensions, the bookmark manager and support for Google Gears are still missing. However it looks like the Mac Chrome edition integrates well with the OS X interface and utilises some key features such as native spell-check, keychain support and Mac-specific animations. The interface also fits in well with the overall Mac look, and the Linux version isn’t too bad either.

You can download the beta version of Chrome for Mac (OS X 10.5 or later) or Linux (Debian/Ubuntu/Fedora/openSUSE) from the respective downloads pages.

Now is the time to update your Snow Leopard machine; the Mac OS X 10.6.2 update is out now via Apple Software Update. The biggest change to Snow Leopard in 10.6.2 is the fix to that crippling bug that happened to delete your account data after you used the guest account. The update also kills your Atom machine, just as the rumours predicted.

The update comes in at a hefty 157.7MB if you’re on 10.6.1, but if you’re on an earlier version of Snow Leopard, you’ll need the combo updater which weighs in at around 500MB (sometimes less, sometimes more). Open up Software Update to download the much needed update, but for Atom users we recommend that you stay on 10.6.1 to keep your machine alive until someone finds a work around.

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Are you a Hackintosh user running Mac OS X on an Intel Atom powered machine? If so, you should be worried, as the next update to Apple’s Snow Leopard OS will drop support for Atom processors completely, rendering your OS X installation useless. Not surprising really, considering the Atom 330 wasn’t supported officially since Mac OS X 10.5.7

So, you Atom Snow Leopard users have two choices when the 10.6.2 update comes around. Either you can not update and stick with 10.6.1, or update to 10.6.2 but use an earlier kernel (or a custom kernel) so that you can continue to enjoy the latest Mac OS X on your Atom machine. Hopefully Atom support will be re-introduced in a later update, but I doubt it as Apple only needs to look after CPUs they actually ship in their machines.

Update: Looks like the latest developer build has brought back Atom support.

Update 2: Support is gone again, and it looks like it won’t be coming back any time soon

It appears as though that if you have Mac running Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you’ll be able to run the newest version of VMware’s Windows-on-a-Mac virtualization software which will be packing some pretty cool features. VMware Fusion 3 will support DirectX 9.0c, Shader Model 3 and OpenGL 2.1, allowing you to play some of the latest games on your beloved Mac system in a Windows virtualized environment.

Fusion 3 also will officially support Windows 7, unlike previous versions and its main competitor, Parallels Desktop 4.0. It also supports Aero and Flip 3D if you desire these features on your Mac. While 3D gaming is still not the greatest on Mac systems even with this update to VMware’s Fusion software, you can still grab the software for US$79.99 pre-order, shipping October 27.