My question is... will Parallels allow me to run a WinXP virtual machine that can: a) run Windows-only audio / video apps (like Cool Edit Pro / Adobe Audition, WMV), and b) recognize my dedicated hardware like audio / video interfaces and Firewire hard drives I'm thinking of buying an Intel Mac and if this works, it'd be a perfect solution for me. Thanks in advance for any info.
I think they've already stated no firewire support, and the graphics is never going to be as good as dual booting. If you really need graphic intensive apps, Apple's BootCamp, which requires booting the mac into one OS or the other, might work better for you.