Talkin' 'bout third generation

This week's column assesses Vodafone's consumer 3G launch (see earlier post) and runs the ruler over Virtual PC 7 for Mac, which enables you to run a full Windows machine in emulation on your OSX computer.

While it works brilliantly, it can be dog-slow unless you're blessed with a boatload of RAM (like 1GB). Because you can run any flavour of Windows, the pricing varies according to your requirements:

Virtual PC for Mac 7 Full Version: €194

Virtual PC for Mac 7 Version Upgrade: €139

Virtual PC for Mac 7 with Win XP Pro: €319

Virtual PC for Mac 7 with Win XP Home: €279

Virtual PC for Mac 7 with Win 2000: €319

Of course, if you already own a legitimate copy of anything from Windows 98 up, all you need is the first version. You can even run several different flavours at once.

Microsoft even sells Virtual PC for PC, wherein you can run different versions of Windows on top of Windows. Try to get your head around that one.

Reviewed in games this week: Psi-Ops (hugely enjoyable), Shark Tale (a bit too kiddy-ish), The Getaway 2 (beset with problems) and OutRun 2 (a pixel-perfect recreation of the coin-op).