Parallels has released beta three of its Windows emulation software, Parallels Desktop for Mac. The beta, a 34.5 megabyte download available through its beta page, provides several fixes to the previously released betas, a more polished interface (even with unusually shaped windows) and better USB device support.

A more complete list of fixes and version notes includes the following:
-Improved USB 2.0 support - “Plug and play” popular USB devices like external hard drives, printers, and scanners, and use them at full native speed.
-Note: Current Build 3106 doesn’t support isochronous devices such as web cameras, microphones, etc.
-Full-feature virtual CD/DVD drive - Burn CDs and DVDs directly in virtual machines, and play any copy-protected CD or DVD just like you would on a real PC.
-Improved Coherence mode - The groundbreaking feature that lets you run Windows applications without seeing Windows just got better!
-Better Boot Camp support - Using your Boot Camp partition in Parallels Desktop is now easier than ever.
-Full support for FAT32 and NTFS partitions.
-Easy offline configuration. Simply tell Parallels Desktop that you want to create a virtual machine from a Boot Camp Partition and click start.
-No need to re-activate Windows each time you switch between Boot Camp and Parallels. Activate Windows only once inside Parallels and work in both environments
-Note: It is not possible to suspend a Virtual Machine that is connected to Boot Camp as it could result in an unstable system.
-Note: Beta1 (build 3036) users must boot natively into Boot Camp and uninstall Parallels Tools for Boot Camp prior to running it in Beta3 (build 3106).
-Transporter Beta3 bundled - migrate your real Windows PC, or existing VMware or Virtual PC VMs to Parallels virtual machines!
-Note: Beta1 users MUST upgrade their Transporter package on their Windows source machine before using Transporter in Beta3. Failing to do so may result in a system crash and loss of data.
-Added keyboard remapping configuration.
-New Look and Feel - completely redesigned windows and easier to follow dialogues to make Desktop for Mac more user-friendly than ever.
-True "Drag and Drop" functionality - a long awaited feature that lets you seamlessly drag and drop files and folders from Windows to Mac OS X and vice versa.
-Read/Write Boot Camp partition - use your Apple Boot Camp Partition as a virtual HDD for Parallels Desktop for Mac.
-Virtual Machine Catalogue - now all of your virtual machines are available through a centralized VM catalogue which appears on each Parallels Desktop for Mac instance.
-One-click Virtual Machine Aliases - automatically create a desktop shortcut for your virtual machine with the OS Installation Assistant, by dragging-and-dropping from title bar, or by pressing Command-Option keys combination. Clicking on Alias automatically starts the Virtual Machine.
-Resizable Main Window - resize the Parallels Desktop for Mac main window as you do with any other Mac application.
-Auto-Adjusting Screen Resolution - Windows auto-adjusts its screen resolution to the actual main window size.
-Improved graphic performance - up to 50% faster!
-Connect/disconnect USB devices schema improved - no more annoying "wait 5-10 seconds" message on USB device connecting to Parallels Desktop for Mac!
-Up to 5 Virtual NICs - now each Virtual Machine can have up to five virtual network interfaces.
-Enhanced Shared Networking Mode - run Cisco VPN and many other complex networking applications in conjunction with Connection Sharing Mode.

Users will need to have a valid activation key to use the new version of the bet, although a trail key can be optained from the beta web site.

Parallels Desktop for Mac retails for $79.99 and requires an Intel-based Mac and Mac OS X 10.4 or later to run.

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