View this article at: http://dev.macnn.com/articles/08/05/30/mac.o.be.renamed
Friday, May 30, 2008 10:15am

.Mac service to be renamed?

Apple's .Mac online service -- which provides functions such as web hosting, file storage and data sync -- may be nearing a substantial revision, code exploration indicates. Buried within the new v10.5.3 update for Mac OS X are several strings of code which imply that the .Mac name will be dropped, although a new name has not yet been chosen. In iCal's Localizable.strings file, for example, code can be found that reads: "/* Label of .Mac button in iCal’s General preferences. %@ is the new name of Apple’s online service (was .Mac) (remove -XX02)."

This ambiguity extends to the Localizable file for Safari: "/* Title of .Mac alert sheet, with .Mac brand name subsituted */ "You need a %@ account that has syncing enabled" = "You need a %@ account that has syncing enabled";." Finally, Mail's Prefs.strings file has been altered, and now contains: "/* Title of button used to open the .Mac system preference pane. */ “AOS_SYNC_BUTTON_FORMAT” = “%@…”;" "/* Descriptive text for .Mac Sync. */ “AOS_SYNC_FORMAT” = “Use %@ to synchronize Accounts, Rules, Notes, Signatures, and Smart Mailboxes.”; ." Apple may be intending to announce a revised .Mac at its WWDC conference on June 9th, but no evidence to this effect has so far appeared. This could also require a v10.5.4 update to the Mac OS, which would likely take at least one or two months to implement.