Macworld’s Chris Breen offers valuable info in Converting AVCHD files for iMovie. The lack of direct support for AVCHD in out-of-the-box iMovie stinks though. Camcorder manufacturers often include Windows-only conversion utilities, and one commenter suggests installing them using VirtualBox, a free Windows operating system virtual machine. That’s a lot of hassle for an increasingly common video format that will rapidly become ubiquitous.

The fine community at Macintouch points to the Mac-specific area on Old Version Downloads – OldApps.com. Find old versions of lots of software, for Mac and PC: older email programs, audio editors, picture editors, FTP programs, and more. They even have older versions of Apple’s QuickTime. Looks like a great resource, especially if you’re spiffing up an older machine to save money.

And teachers always want to save money.

Based on version 2.1 of Windows Movie Maker, Portable Windows Movie Maker not only lets you use the missing features on Vista and Windows 7 systems, but it includes the missing transitions and effects from Windows XP, as well as several additional features to boot. Portable and stand-alone, you can use it when you need removed features, like analog capture, without messing with your current version of Windows Movie Maker.

Via Lifehacker which was via Download Squad which was via instant fundas which was via dvrexster who gives credit to winmatrix.

In the majority of overall averages of our tests, Parallels Desktop is the clear winner running 14-20% faster than VMware Fusion. The one exception is for those that need to run Windows XP, 32-bit on 2 virtual processors, VMware Fusion runs about 10% faster than Parallels Desktop.

Red the entire test report: Head-to-Head: Parallels Desktop for Mac vs. VMware Fusion. If you’re not running Windows on your Mac, and you’re considering it, there are other options as well.

It’s an annoying six pages to load sequentially. Find the print-formatted version of the article here, but with none of the screenshots that make it so helpful.

This is fabulous. I’ve tried to find out about this, and it’s seemed dodgy based on what I could find. Todd Ogasawara wrote a clear how-to, Read AND Write NTFS Hard Drives Partitions on a Mac for Free in the Mac section of the O’Reilly Digital Media Blog. This is important for Mac users in mixed environments with PCs. I hope to test it out soon.

The Blog from Another Dimension offers this advice for those going From Windows to Mac: Three Biggest Tips for Switchers:

Having helped several people make the switch from Windows to Macs, I have seen pretty clearly some common problems people have when making the switch. Walt Mossberg wrote a short article on this, and his observations are pretty spot-on, albeit abbreviated and limited. I just figured I’d do my own long-winded version.

Modesty doesn’t serve this blogger well. What he calls “long-winded” I find to be thorough, with well-annotated screenshots and good explanations, and more than the three tips he promises. Most Mac users as well as recent switchers and those considering the change will find good information here.

I’ve wanted a solid overview of how to run OS X and Windows together and Macworld has provided it with Best of Both Worlds: OS X and Windows I’m in the market for a good reference about it, too. This article is a good starting place.