Bill Gates
had already announced it at the CES in January, Microsoft is about to get into the market of Operating Systems for portable multimedia devices. It is actually a version of Windows XP that's been modified for that type of devices, à la Windows CE for PDAs or XP Tablet Edition for Tablet PCs.
We, now, know a little more
about the release of these products, which will happen in the 2nd semester of 2004 in Europe.
They only need to find partners to build these devices, but there's no doubt that a lot will jump in that train. Creative, which was already there at the CES with a prototype of the
Creative Zen Portable Media Center, and also iRiver have already signed.
It would be a shame if Apple missed the chance to challenge Microsoft on a ground where the iPod is King. Music is fine, but with the increase of the bandwidths and the dematerialization of media which begins to get into the norms, portable video would be the logical sequel to the story.
In the same way that Microsoft is going, we could easily imagine a lite version of Mac OS X for this type of device, completely integrated with an iApp by the name of iMedia (for example), which not only will manage music but also motion and still pictures. All the cards are in Steve's hand, they just need a good marketing scheme to keep Microsoft in the followers seat.
Sony is about to launch an online music service in June called ''Connect'', this info comes along with the anounced evolution of Mini Discs to capacities of 1GB. Supposedly, the music store will have songs from all the music production majors. The store will open in June 2004, worldwide.
This will probably urge Apple in the process of opening the European version of the iTMS...
Thanks to Changala for this software trick.
E-mails are managed by Mail in the following folder: "UserAccount/Library/Mail".
How to change this path, so as to manage all your e-mails on some external disk, and therefore have them always with you ?
I found the answer starting from an article in Macworld [trad: probably the French edition], and here it is (different steps are described for people not used to XML):
1) Get the application Property List Editor. It is available if you installed the DevTools on Panther, but you can also download it.
2) Move the whole Mail folder from the Library folder to your external drive (at the root of the device, in the example).
3)Localize the file named "com.apple.mail.plist" in "UserAccount/Library/Preferences" and duplicate it (never know, it's safer that way...)
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4) Open the original pref file with Property List Editor, and modify the access path you'll find there, using triangles if needed. That way, on the screenshot, the value "~/Library/Mail/Mailboxes" of the parameter "AccountPath" will be turned into "~/Volumes/MyOtherDrive/Mail/Mailboxes". Make the same changes with every access path found in the file, and make sure you haven't forgotten any (there are several ones).
5) Save the modified file and quit. Launch Mail, and Cowabunga! that's it!
6) Copy this pref file on your external drive, and copy it in any other "Host" Mac where you have an account. Now, your "Mail" folder is ready to follow you everywhere.
7) If ever this hack failed because of some typrewriting mistake, you can always throw the modified file, and rename the copied file (cf. 3) in "com.apple.mail.plist".
I made sure it works, starting with on the second partition of my internal drive, then using an external drive as a shuttle between workplace and home, where I have accounts on Mac servers. At work, I put the pref file in "UserAccountOnTheServer/Library/Preferences". Everything works just fine.
May this hack on preferences files give some ideas to others MacHackers, not only about Mail... That's all I hope!
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