Yes that’s Million as in $25 Million smackeroos.

Okay to understand it helps to read this item from the Globe and Mail online column, but basically the story goes like this:

Young hotshot tech-genius unlocks an Apple iPhone by performing a 2-hour, fairly complex and highly technical hardware and software modification, and is now using it on T-Mobile, instead of AT&T. Cool.

AND he was smart enough to buy TWO iPhones, unlock them both, and sell the second one on eBay. Even cooler.

But – according to the story – the bidding was (as of posting date) at somewhere north of $25 million dollars for the unlocked Apple iPhone.

Now to be fair, I’m preeety sure that some of the bids that are in excess of, oh lets say a few thousand dollars, simply MUST be fake bids, but come on people! Let’s do the math here. You can cancel your T-Mobile contract, pay their exhorbitant cancellation fee, buy a new iPhone, and sign up for AT&T’s Top of the Line contract and all for WAAAYY less than $25 million dollars???? To top it off, this guy is very kindly and generously giving away his instructions on how to do it yourself for FREE people – did you get that? FREE – you could buy several phones and try unlocking your own for WAAAYY less than $25 million dollars!

Okay so even taking into account the novelty factor that spurs collectors to get into a crazed bidding frenzy to “be the first to own an unlocked Apple iPhone” – is it really worth $25 million dollars?

What am I missing here?

I received an email from a friend who is new to Macs, and he asked me for my opinion on using Parallels virtualization software to run Windows on a Mac (which doesn’t require rebooting) versus Boot Camp, which does.

I wasn’t able to give him an opinion, because I won’t put the Windows OS on any of my Macs (however, in case you’re interested, here is a very well written review of Parallels from MacWorld magazine), but I thought the question would make an interesting topic to write about. Of the 6 or 7 other Mac users I know, only 2 run Windows on their Macs, both using Parallels.

My day job is web design and development, as well as some general [Windows] tech support for other members of my team. In general I have not run into any software needs that were not fully met with applications available for the Mac, with only ONE exception – a superb auto-responder application from Xtreeme.com that we love SO much we call it “Otto”. Unfortunately, while there are plenty of made-for-Mac auto responder programs, Xtreeme does not have a Mac version, so Otto lives all by himself on a Windows PC that sits in the corner of my office. We have coffee together every morning. Otto runs so well and reliably that he stays behind when I travel, just keeps chugging along all “mr. dependable”-like, and keeps an eye on things for me too. 😉

My point, however, is that I don’t need Windows for anything (aside from Otto), so I don’t use it. Oh sure I have a few PCs around, running various Windows OS’ and versions of IE, that I test my web designs on, but none run any mission critical apps (just Otto). So even though I think the concept of both Boot Camp and Parallels is a great one, I choose not to run Windows on my Mac.

I’m curious to know how other Mac users feel about running Windows using either Parallels or Boot Camp……….do you or don’t you? And why? And if you do, how do they work for you?

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