One solution is Dropbox. As Dropbox works on OS X, Windows, and Linux, all you have to do is install Dropbox on your Boot Camp Windows installation, then drop or save any files in theree; they will automatically transfer into OS X the next time you boot back into the Mac OS.

Source: MacOSXHints

There are a variety of enhancements and refinements introduced in Snow Leopard, the next version of Mac OS X, which Apple announced will be available this Friday (August 28). The Mac is generally viewed as a consumer or niche platform, but some of the features in Snow Leopard show a maturity that makes the Mac better than ever for the enterprise.

1. Annotations in Preview. New tools enable you to annotate and markup PDF files using Preview. The annotation tools include comments, links, highlighting, strikethrough text, shapes, text, and arrows.

2. Restore deleted items to original locations. This seems long overdue. In Windows data restored from the Recycle Bin is automatically restored to its original location. With Snow Leopard restoring to the original location is now an option on the Mac as well.

3. Sortable search results. Snow Leopard adds the ability to sort Spotlight search results for more efficient searching. You can sort search data by name, date modified, date created, size, type of file, or label.

4. Nearby printers. When printing Snow Leopard displays the printers that are detected nearby, enabling you to identify and configure the best available device for printing your document.

5. Automatic update for printer drivers. When a printer is connected Snow Leopard connects to the Internet and downloads the most current driver for the device. Snow Leopard also periodically checks via Software Update to ensure that the most up-to-date driver is installed.

6. AirPort menu signal strength. Connecting to the best available wireless network is easier with Snow Leopard. The menu bar item for AirPort displays signal strength for all available wireless networks so you can choose the strongest possible connection.

7. HFS+ read in Boot Camp. Users who use Boot Camp to dual boot between Windows and Mac now have support to be able to share data between the two operating systems and access files from the Mac partition while running in Windows. The functionality is read-only to ensure that any Windows-based viruses can not write malicious software or data to the Mac files.

8. Improved 64-bit support. Snow Leopard extends the Mac’s support of 64-bit hardware. Key system files and applications have been rewritten in 64-bit code, and the Mac OS is now capable of accessing significantly more memory.

9. Cisco VPN support. One of the cooler updates for Snow Leopard is built-in support for Cisco VPN connectivity. Cisco VPN’s are common in enterprise networks and now Snow Leopard users can connect securely with corporate networks without needing any additional software.

10. Exchange support. Last, but not least. The ‘piece de resistance’ of Snow Leopard which arguably makes it more enterprise-ready even than Windows 7: Snow Leopard has native support for connecting with Exchange. That’s right. No need for Entourage. It makes Microsoft’s announcement to include Outlook in the next version of Office for Mac a little like shutting the barn door after the horses escape.

Boot Camp
Apple’s Boot Camp is dual-boot software that’s included with today’s Intel-based Macs. Boot Camp allows users to partition their hard drives into separate Mac and Windows volumes and install Windows XP or Vista. The catch is that you can’t run Mac OS X and Windows simultaneously.

VirtualBox

Virtualization software, on the other hand, allows Windows to run alongside Mac OS X as a guest OS in a virtual PC. Sun’s open-source VirtualBox offers roughly the same core feature set as commercial virtualization software such as Parallels Desktop and VMWare Fusion. Some add-on features aren’t matched, but VirtualBox is a solid program that comes at no cost. Installation is also generally simple and straightforward.

Over the years, I’ve covered a number of utilities that provide this functionality, but my new favorite is Thoughtful Tree Software’s aptly named Docks, mainly because of its ease of use and its clear and attractive interface.

The first time you launch Docks, you take a snapshot of your current Dock and give it a name. Next you customize the Dock for another task—for example, for media consumption, or for writing, or for Internet activities—and take another snapshot. You repeat this process as many times as you need different Dock configurations. (Note that programs currently running that aren’t permanently in the Dock aren’t captured as part of a snapshot.)

Unlike similar utilities I’ve seen, Docks’s main window shows your various Dock configurations in all their grandeur. A nice touch: moving the mouse cursor over an icon you don’t recognize displays the name of that item.

When you use Docks as a standard application, you switch between Dock configurations by double-clicking on a configuration in the Docks window, or by selecting a configuration and clicking Restore Snapshot. But I prefer menu-bar mode, which hides Docks’s own Dock icon and gives you a systemwide menu that lists your Dock configurations. Choose a configuration from this menu and the current Dock is swapped out for the chosen one. You can also assign keyboard shortcuts for taking a snapshot of the current Dock and for showing the Docks window.

A feature fans of OS X’s Spaces will love is the capability to assign each Dock configuration to a specific Spaces workspace; when you switch to a new workspace, the Dock is automatically swapped to match. Unfortunately, you can’t assign a particular Dock configuration to multiple spaces. To accomplish this task, you must create multiple duplicate Dock configurations and assign each to a different space.

A minor limitation of Docks is that items minimized to the Dock aren’t saved with snapshots; they aren’t lost when switching Docks, but they are “maximized” out of the Dock when you switch. But Docks’s biggest limitation, at least for me, is that there’s no way to add a stock Dock; I had to delete the Dock’s preferences in the Finder and quit the Dock using Activity Monitor—a procedure that forces OS X to recreate the Dock’s stock configuration. Hopefully the developer will add this option in a future update.

Those beefs aside, if you’ve ever wanted multiple Docks but found other utilities confusing or a hassle to use, Docks is worth a look—it gets the interface right.

Source From: MacWorld.com

Amazon put Snow Leopard up for pre-order a few weeks ago with the following note: “Please note: Official release date has not been announced by Apple, though they have indicated this product will be released sometime in September.” September is also the timetable that Apple gave at its WWDC event in early June. But with the GM version already out there, there are whispers that Apple may have beaten that goal. Friday, August 28 is the day Daring Fireball’s John Gruber is hearing, and he has a very good track record of being right about such things.

As we noted last week, OS X 10.5.8 was likely to be the last update before OS X 10.6 dropped. But an August ship date would certainly be a welcomed surprise. That would also mean nearly a full 2 month head start over Windows 7, which is scheduled to ship October 22. August 28 is also just two weeks from this Friday, so if Apple is really going to launch it then, expect some kind of press release in the next few days.

Earlier today, AppleInsider gave some details about the Snow Leopard installation process, which apparently has quite a few differences from the OS X Leopard install.

OS X Snow Leopard is going to sell for only $29.99, as Apple is considering it mostly a performance upgrade over OS X Leopard. But the performance improvements are expected to be significant, and the footprint of the install has been significantly reduced (due mostly to the fact that it’s Intel-only).

From: TechCrunch