Parallels announced today that it was releasing a much sought after update to its Parallels Desktop for Mac product, the first virtualization software solution that enables Intel-based Macs to run Windows and other x86-compatible operating systems at the same time as Mac OS X, without re-booting. The update release candidate is free for all Parallels Desktop for Mac users. The suggested retail price is $79.99. T Parallels announced today that it was releasing a much sought after update to its Parallels Desktop for Mac product, the first virtualization software solution that enables Intel-based Macs to run Windows and other x86-compatible operating systems at the same time as Mac OS X, without re-booting. The update release candidate is free for all Parallels Desktop for Mac users. The suggested retail price is $79.99.The update RC answers many of the questions that have been raised as of late about future product support. With the announced update RC, the company has added support for the recently released quad-processor Mac Pro Tower outfitted with up to 3.5GB of memory. Also new with this release is full compatibility with the developer builds of Mac OS X v10.5, code-named “Leopard”, which is expected to ship in Spring 2007. “By adding support for Mac Pro towers and OS X ‘Leopard’, we’ve shown once again that Parallels Desktop is not only a great productivity tool for any Intel-Mac user, but also for Mac software developers who need to work with Apple’s next-generation OS.” said Benjamin Rudolph, Marketing Manager, Parallels. “Now, anyone using a Mac Pro, Mac Mini, MacBook, MacBook Pro or iMac can run any version of Windows alongside any Intel-compatible version of OS X, including 10.4 ‘Tiger’ or the upcoming 10.5 ‘Leopard’.” Parallels has also added experimental support for the beta builds of Microsoft Windows Vista, which is due out sometime in 2007, as a guest operating system.This latest update also offers a number of other important performance-enhancing upgrades, including a fix for a Solaris guest operating system so that it no longer hangs after a suspend/resume, an improved Parallels Tools package, full support for OpenBSD 3.8 as a guest operating system, and support for G4U hard disk cloning in virtual machines.More information about other new features and product improvements can be found on the company’s Web site. The final release of the update is expected sometime in the next few weeks. Users who already own Parallels Desktop for Mac can receive the final update automatically via the auto-update function or by manually clicking “Check for Updates” in the Help Tab of the Parallels menu bar. As usual, Parallels is offering a free 15-day trial version that is available for download. Software Development