Parallels dimension opens Windows to iPad

National tour to bring resellers up to speed with OS X virtualisation.

Parallels will kick off a national tour next week to show Apple resellers the latest tricks in its desktop product that merges the Windows and Mac experiences and included new functions to access remote desktops on iOS devices such as the iPad and iPod touch.

And Conexus and Software Only will run business-to-business training for resellers' customers on demand, the specialist Apple products distributors said at a product demo in Sydney today.

The growth in Apple as a desktop of choice was behind the interest in virtualisation, said Conexus managing director David Murray.

The iPad integration allowed a mobile worker to access their Parallels desktop on the road over a secure HTTPS connection, said Parallels vice president of marketing and alliances John Eng.

Standard touch gestures such as zoom were available on the iPad to allow for different screen sizes and other desktop interactions such as double-click and right-click were emulated on the iPad.

Eng said even remote printing was supported.

The latest version six also included Kaspersky software to protect both sides against internet-borne threats and Acronis True Image Home backup application.

A big plus for IT managers was that Apple's comprehensive Parental Controls could now lock down the Windows side of the equation, Eng said.

Parallels ran in a window on the OS X desktop, as a full screen and in "Coherence" mode that allowed the user to run Microsoft Windows applications in their own windows on the Mac desktop. In this view, Spotlight's search found files under Windows.

Like its rival VMware Fusion, a Boot Camp partition can be adopted by Parallels and there was support for Aero in Windows Vista and 7.

And desktop operating-system images were encrypted for security, Eng said.

Parallels made a play for new Mac users with its migration utilities and a $149.999 RRP "Switch to Mac" edition that included a USB cable and video tutorials to help especially Microsoft-schooled IT managers come to grips with Mac OS X. The standard edition was $109.99 and upgrades were $69.99.