Trust us, the irony of someone needing to sync an Apple device through Windows that's running on a Mac is glaringly obvious, but hey, some folks just can't escape Outlook no matter how hard they try. Nevertheless, the new Parallels Desktop beta (which is available now) does add iPhone support in Windows XP and Vista along with a newly fortified Image Tool / Explorer and coherence windows that now work with Expose. Of course, you should recognize that this stuff is indeed still in beta, but if you're the daring (or overly trusting) type, feel free to hit the read link and get your download on.

[Via AppleInsider]

In an aggressive move aimed at wooing the millions of smartphone users who would be interested in owning a BlackBerry -- just not all the time -- RIM will be releasing an innovative piece of software that allows its OS to run inside Windows Mobile 6. To many cellphone addicts this news is the equivalent of Parallels opening up Windows on Apple machines, as Pocket PC phones will not simply be skinned or loaded with BlackBerry Connect, but rather endowed with the full capabilities of a standalone BlackBerry -- including the ability to run third party programs. While so far the virtualization software -- slated for drop this fall, possibly free with subscription -- will only work on Crossbow, it's possible that the company could decide to support other platforms in the future, such as the Palm OS or its Linux-based successor, though no promises have been made. Bottom line is that this looks to be good news all around: RIM gets more unsuspecting users hooked on the Crackberry mentality, consumers can now have the best of both worlds when it comes to hardware / software combos, and even old Microsoft may come out on top, with the new members of the WinMo ecosystem potentially outweighing the flight from Exchange servers.