Apple misses Boot Camp update deadline

Computerworld - Apple has less than 24 hours to meet a self-imposed deadline to produce a version of its Boot Camp software that supports Windows 7.

On the same day in October that rival Microsoft launched Windows 7, Apple promised that it would revise Boot Camp, a utility that lets users run Windows and its applications in a separate disk partition on an Intel-based Mac, before 2009 expired.

"Apple will support Microsoft Windows 7 (Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate) with Boot Camp in Mac OS X Snow Leopard before the end of the year," an Apple support document published Oct. 22 stated. "This support will require a software update to Boot Camp."

As of 9 a.m. ET, Apple had not released a Boot Camp revision to its Software Update service.

Although Microsoft officially unveiled Windows 7 in late October, the company first provided developers with early builds a year before that, and began offering previews to the general public in February 2009.

In the same support document that promised an update to Boot Camp by the end of today, Apple also identified nine older iMac, MacBook Pro and Mac Pro models that will not be able to run Windows 7 with the revised utility. Apple did not elaborate on why they would not support Microsoft's newest operating system.

Gregg Keizer covers Microsoft, security issues, Apple, Web browsers and general technology breaking news for Computerworld. Follow Gregg on Twitter @gkeizer, send e-mail at gkeizer@ix.netcom.com or subscribe to Gregg's RSS feed .

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