Target Mode

This feature, target mode, saved my life.

What is it?

Target mode is a working mode of the Mac that turns it into an external disc drive.

I recently bought a new Mac Studio, as my good old iMac 27″ mid-2011 was dead, or at least, wouldn’t boot. It keeps looping between the start Bong and a grey empty screen.

I have a good backup (Time Machine) as well as iCloud copy of my files. I feel comfy about this migration to the brand new Mac. However, what I thought was a good Time Machine backup revealed unrecognized on the new Mac. Migration Assistant wouldn’t find the data on the disk. Or did I not wait long enough, since it is a 4TB USB 3 drive with lots of data on it, and may OSX has to kind of make its mind.

So I installed the new Mac without a restore from Time Machine, just the iCloud connection. That’s already good, since my Desktop and Documents were rapidly sync’ed from the cloud. Excellent.

But some of my important files, such as secondary Photos libraries were thus missing.

Here comes Target Mode

By pressing the T key at boot, the (old) Mac would enter the Target Mode and share the internal drive(s) over the Thunderbolt or Firewire ports. Great!

Problem, on the iMac 2011, Thunderbolt is a Thunderbolt 2 connector and my new Mac Studio has Thunderbolt 4 ports (on USB-C connector). Fortunately enough, my wife uses also an iMac 2011 with the proper Thunderbolt 2 connector and I managed to access the files on my old iMac on my wife’s iMac. The old iMac “Macintosh HD” disk just mounts on the other iMac as an external drive and I can read all the files on it.

However when I tried to share the said drive over the network in order to access it from the new Mac Studio, no luck. The shared drive looks empty. Maybe again I did not wait long enough for the authorization of sharing be applied.

So I copied the files I needed from the old iMac to my wife’s iMac local drive (130 GB of files) and then copied them again over the network to the Studio. Thank you Target Mode!

Postscriptum

I eventually bought from Apple an adapter Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) to Thunderbolt 2 and it worked just fine: my old iMac’s drives mount on the Mac Studio, pico bello.

Instant translation

You are visiting a foreign website in a language you do not understand. How to translate it without using an app or another website such as Google Translate?

Safari, your favorite browser offers instant and “in situ” translation with just one click! Let’s see how.

Let’s say you visit a German site that gives the latest corona info for your trip, at random https://www.land.nrw/de/wichtige-fragen-und-antworten-zum-corona-virus.

The site is in German and the English version does not contain the information you are looking for.

Fortunately, Safari tells you that the translation is available (for this language).

Choose your language:

And voila!

The good news? it also works on your iPhone!

Traduction instantanée

Vous visitez un site web étranger dans une langue que vous ne maitrisez pas. Comment le traduire sans faire appel à une app ou un autre site web tel que Google Translate?

Safari, votre navigateur préféré offre la traduction instantanée et in situ en un seul click! Voyons comment.

Disons que vous visitez un site allemand qui donne les dernières infos sur le corona pour votre voyage, au hasard https://www.land.nrw/de/wichtige-fragen-und-antworten-zum-corona-virus.

Le site est en allemand et la version française ne contient pas ces infos qui vous intéressent.

Heureusement, Safari vous annonce que la traduction est disponible (pour cette langue).

Choisissez votre langue:

Et le tour est joué!

La bonne nouvelle? ça marche aussi sur votre iPhone!

How to rename your Magic Mouse?

Strangely enough, the System Preference mouse menu does not allow to rename your Magic Mouse, typically called “John Smith’s Magic Mouse”. In order to rename it, go to the Bluetooth menu in System Preference. Right clicking your Magic Mouse in the list of Bluetooth devices, opens a contextual menu where your can select “Rename”.

That’s it. As simple as that.

Comment renommer sa souris Magic Mouse?

Etonnament, le menu de gestion de la souris dans les préférences systèmes ne permet pas de renommer la souris, typiquement appelée “Magic Mouse de Jean Dupont”.

Pour la renommer, passer par les préférences système Bluetooth. Un clic droit sur la souris dans la liste des appareils Bluetooth disponibles, offre la possibilité de renommer la souris.

Et le tour est joué.