SnapperTalk

With Apple finally releasing the first Intel-based macs – the new iMac and MacBook Pro – those hoping to at last be able to have a machine capable of natively booting both OSX & Windows should have been pretty happy. There have been ways before – OSX for Intel Developer Preview on a standar Intel machine, Windows running emulated under VirtualPC – but this was hoped to be the first “proper” way.

But if dual-booting OSX/XP is crucial for your needs, you might want to hold off on throwing down your hard cash for the new machines – at least until a few issues are clarified. Some recent discussion on messageboards suggests that because the new machines use the newer & better EFI instead of BIOS as the low-level firmware interface and Windows XP (32-bit) doesn’t support EFI at this time, natively booting Windows might not be possible yet – at least until Microsoft Vista comes out. It seems likely this issue will get quickly resolved one way or another (i.e. officially or un-officially) but if such an ability is critical it might be wise to hold off – at least until matters are clearer.

Photographers in particular should also note the switch from PCMCIA slot to new-style ExpressCard/34 slot, and the magnetic MagSafe power connector designed to avoid damage when tripping over power leads. O’Grady’s Powerpage has a brief hardware-change summary.

Further discussion of the Windows-on-Macbook subject in this MacRumors thread, this Digg thread, this BetaNews thread and others such as the MacNN forums.

Update 13/03/06: Ars Technica has posted a very extensive review of the machine here