|
By Graham K. Rogers
In the latest version of OS X - 10.9, Mavericks - some System Preferences have seen changes. There are also some additions. Some preferences have been renamed and some adapted. Although many new Macs no longer have internal disk drives, the CDs & DVDs preferences panel is available to control the actions of the computer when a disk is used.
The CDs & DVDs panel is almost unchanged from the previous version of OS X, 10.8, Mountain Lion. A close look, however, will reveal that the minute icons used on buttons have been updated (e.g. iPhoto). These preferences allow users to control how the computer will behave when blank disks - or disks that have media on them - are inserted in a drive. Five disk options are included in the control: blanks CDs, blank DVDs, music CDs, picture CDs and video DVDs. As before, blank disks are separated slightly on the panel from media disks. Buttons for the blank disks have more options.
Beside each of the two blank disk items is a button with a number of choices, the top in each being, "Ask what to do": the Finder will alert a user and the user can then open an application, or deal with the disk in another way.
Other options available are: Open Finder, Open iTunes, Open Disk Utility, Open other application, Run script and Ignore. The blank DVD menu also has the additional item, Open iDVD. As an example of thoroughness, the tiny icons for iTunes and iPhoto actions have been updated from the previous versions in Mountain Lion.
The specific media items (music, pictures, video) each have as the top selection the probable default application for most users: iTunes, iPhoto or DVD Player (respectively). The user may select other applications, depending on the software installed on the computer. The buttons also allow a user to run a script or "Ignore".
This preference pane is also available for machines that do not have a drive, such as the MacBook Air, presumably for those owners who buy external drives. However only the three bottom functions (for music CD, picture CD and DVD) are shown. I am still unable to confirm if this changes when an external drive is attached and a blank disk is inserted.
See Also:
Graham K. Rogers teaches at the Faculty of Engineering, Mahidol University in Thailand where he is also Assistant Dean. He wrote in the Bangkok Post, Database supplement on IT subjects. For the last seven years of Database he wrote a column on Apple and Macs.
|
|
