Keyboards and Parallels 


When we got the iMac, one of the first accessories we got afterwards was the full size keyboard. The iMac ships with Apples bluetooth keyboard, which is nice, but it doesn't have the normal number keys:

I really wish there was a wireless version of the full keyboard, because I hate having that cable running to the keyboard. I tried putting the big keyboard under the mac and using the little one for day to day use, but Jai and I both use the number keys too much.


So in the draw it goes. At least I can use the bluetooth one with an iPad when if we get one.


The other thing I have been playing with is Parallels for Mac. This software lets you install windows on the mac, and use windows programs. Now I've had experience with Virtual Machines in the past, however Parallels differs in that once the machine is set up, the windows background and task bar fades into the background, and then windows programs run as if they were just running on the mac natively. It's really slick, and the setup is very intuitive. 


I got it all set up with a 64bit version of Windows 7, and all the necessary drivers were installed automatically, and away it went.


But then I had an issue....what do I run on it. Mail, browsing and iTunes are all on the mac, so no need there. Steam is now mac compatible, and while not all the games I own on steam are mac yet, the main ones are (HL2, CS:S etc). Blizzard games are all mac native as well. So I say staring at this great windows explorer screen (which looks awesome on the iMac display).


I went and made a cuppa, to think about how there surely must be some program that I'm missing on the mac that I could use this to run. One of the reasons I had little resistance to purchasing the mac was the fact that programs like Parallels and Bootcamp existed, so if push came to shove, I could always run windows on this if OS X ended up giving me the shits.


But after an hour of staring at this screen, browsing download squad to see what great windows apps were around (which I did with Safari on the mac, ironically), I eventually came to the conclusion that this was, for us at least, and very well executed, highly integrated and professionally developed waste of time. I'm sure there are people out there that use some sort of windows program in day to day life that this would appeal to, but for what we are doing here at home, it just doesn't make sense.


So I uninstalled it...


Carry on OS X.... :)