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Perian, the rightfully named “Swiss-Army knife of QuickTime components,” has been updated to version 1.1.1 bringing along additional codec support and the fixes you would expect from a point release.

Perian is one of the few items I install on every Mac that I use (Flip4Mac and Growl being others). For the uninitiated, Perian is a component that adds support to QuickTime to play pretty much any media type. That includes DivX, XviD, MKV, FLV, 3ivx, and AVIs, to name a few. It installs as a preference pane in System Preferences.

You can download Perian here. It’s open-source and requires at least Mac OS X 10.4.7.

Regardless of the cheesy copy (With EFI-X^TM you will be able to enter a new computing dimension), I am so excited about the possibilities of EFi-X. EFi-X allows you to build a PC and run Mac OS X without any modifications. The supported list of motherboards is small at the moment (limited to Gigabyte mobos), but I’m sure it will grow in time. EFi-X promises the ability to install from a retail Leopard DVD, firmware updates within Mac OS X as well as the ability to install Mac OS X software updates via, well, Software Update.

Every time I run a Mac OS X updater, I fear for my Hackintosh’s well-being. It’s upgraded fine so far and I have my SuperDuper bootable image + Time Machine backup in case things go awry, but it would be nice to be able to update my software like I do on my real Macs.

I’m not sure who the target market is (people that know enough to install Mac OS X on a PC don’t need EFi-X, and people that want a Mac that know nothing of the Hackintosh world will probably buy a real Mac.) I could see enthusiasts building these hassle-free Hackintoshes for their non-technical family/friends or. Whatever the case may be, I decided to be a guinea pig and pick up the EFi-X v2. I’ll let you know when I receive it and will try it on my current Hackintosh (my mobo is not supported) as well as a supported Gigabyte mobo and let you know how it goes.

I’ll leave you with this nugget from the EFi-X US website.

It costs a lot to us, and it costs a lot to you.

EFi-X is selling for $155 +$5 shipping.