VMWare has released Fusion 3, a major version upgrade to its popular virtualization software on the Mac. This version is touted to have more than 50 new features. It is available for $79.99 or $39.99 for the upgrade.

Among the new features:

Snow Leopard Optimization

VMWare Fusion 3 has a new 64-bit core engine to take advantage of Snow Leopard’s 64-bit kernel for improved performance and reduced overhead.

Better Windows 7 Support

VMWare Fusion 3 is the first virtualization software to support Windows Aero user interface effect, including Flip 3D and Aero Peek. Support for DirectX 9.0EX with OpenGL 1.4 enable more Windows games to be playable. You can run both 32-bit or 64-bit Windows 7.

Migration Assistant

VMWare Fusion comes with a built-in Migration Assistant to help you to move a physical PC to a virtual machine. Just connect your PC to your Mac using an Ethernet cable, and you can move the whole PC to Fusion 3 in a few simple steps.

More Mac-like Experience Running Windows App

VMWare Fusion comes with a Application Menu where you can access your Windows App via the Mac menu bar, even when Fusion is not running. Find and launch Windows apps using spotlight just like Mac apps. Fusion 3 supports Expose and Dock Expose for Windows apps, and you can quit Windows app using Command-Q just like Mac app.

Visit VMWare Fusion 3 Home Page.

Wi-Fi Alliance has announced the near completion of Wi-Fi Direct, a new specification that allows devices to connect to each other without joining a Wi-Fi network.

“Wi-Fi Direct represents a leap forward for our industry. Wi-Fi users worldwide will benefit from a single-technology solution to transfer content and share applications quickly and easily among devices, even when a Wi-Fi access point isn’t available,” said Wi-Fi Alliance executive director Edgar Figueroa. “The impact is that Wi-Fi will become even more pervasive and useful for consumers and across the enterprise.”

Wi-Fi Alliance expects to begin certify devices with Wi-Fi Direct specification in mid-2010. Compete directly with Bluetooth for peer-to-peer networking, Wi-Fi Direct is expected to be 30 times faster than Bluetooth (with 802.11n) and has a wider coverage of up to 300 feet radius. Wi-Fi Direct can be implemented as a software upgrade for existing Wi-Fi devices. And Wi-Fi Direct device is able to create connection to hundreds of millions of legacy Wi-Fi devices currently in use.

Apple is a sponsor corporation for the Wi-Fi Alliance, so it is likely that Apple will adopt Wi-Fi Direct on Macs, iPhones, iPod and future Apple equipments.

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Canon has released Canon Easy-PhotoPrint for iPhone (Canon iEPP), a free app that allows you to print photos from your iPhone or iPod touch to Canon PIXMA printer via local Wi-Fi network.

Canon iEPP works with Canon PIXMA printers with wireless features such as PIXMA MP560, MP640 and MP990 models. The app will automatically detect compatible printers on your Wi-Fi network. You can select paper size and paper type supported by the printer, and select to print multiple photos from your iPhone or iPod touch. Other print option you can select include borderless printing.

Canon iEPP iTunes Link

A few users have reported in Apple forums incidents of total data loss using Guest account after upgraded to Snow Leopard. Apple has confirmed on Tuesday that the company is “aware of the issue, which only occurs in extremely rare cases, and we are working on a fix.”

According to reports, the bug occurs when you upgrade from Leopard to Snow Leopard with an existing Guest account in Leopard. After the upgrade, all data are gone after users logged into their Guest accounts and then back to their normal accounts.

PC World has unsuccessfully tried to replicate the bug, suggesting it is indeed rare.

It is better be safe than sorry, make sure there is a usable backup before you upgrade to Snow Leopard. And avoid using Guest account in Snow Leopard until Apple fixes the problem.

Snow Leopard comes with subtle changes that refine the Mac OS X experience, minimize application windows to application icon is one of them.

When you minimize a window under Mac OS X, the default behavior is to shrink the window into the thumbnails of the dock, one icon per window. This leads to irritating Doc clutter if you have a number of minimized windows.

Snow Leopard has an additional entry “Minimize windows into application icon” in its System Preferences > Dock settings where you can select to hide minimize windows into application icon instead of thumbnails of the dock.

You can accessed minimized windows as usual from the application’s Window menu or from the icon menu by Control-Click on the app icon on the Dock. Minimized windows also appear below at the bottom in Dock Expose when you click and hold the app icon on the Dock. Similarly minimized windows appear at the bottom when you activate Expose.

Apple has released iPhone OS 3.1.2 update which fixes a number of issues reported by users including not able to wake up from sleep and battery life hit.

Amazon will release a new Kindle version on Oct 19, dubbed “Kindle U.S. & International Wireless”, that is able to wirelessly download content in over 100 countries. Priced at $279, it is the same 6-inch device as the current Kindle other than the new international wireless feature.

The current Kindle is now called “Kindle U.S. Wireless”, with price fell from $299 to $259.

“With this new Kindle, you can get your books, newspapers, and magazines delivered wirelessly while at home or abroad in over 100 countries. Whether you’re in Paris, Mumbai, or Sao Paulo, you can think of a book and be reading it in less than 60 seconds.” – Jeff Bezos

With the new device, international customers can now order Kindle with international wireless. However content and pricing vary for customers living outside of the U.S. Check if Kindle is available in your country.

Pre-order Kindle U.S. & International Wireless

VMWare has released VMWare Fusion 2.0.6 which fixes multiple issues when running VMware Fusion on Mac OS X Snow Leopard 32-bit kernel mode. It also improves 3D performance on Mac with NVIDIA graphics cards running Snow Leopard. All together there are over 20 bug fixes in this release.

View VMWare Fusion 2.0.6 release notes

Download VMWare Fusion 2.0.6

Skype has released a minor update to Skype 2.8 for Mac OS X that include fixes for Snow Leopard. You can update Skype from within the app itself, or visit the Skype Mac website for the 44MB download.