Ask TUAW: iPad VGA out, changing keyboard shortcuts, Time Capsule worries, and more

Just got the iPad VGA adapter expecting to show off the wonders of the iPad to a group of 200 Windows victims. It was a disaster!!! The VGA adapter does not, DOES NOT display the iPad, its screens or apps. Apparently, Keynote and movies play, but I did not know that as I fumbled around and tried to blame the problem on the projector. I doubt I made any converts today. Sad.

What is the point of a VGA adapter that doesn't display the computer screen on a VGA projector? This is BS. Apple should fix this shortcoming or be sued for false advertising. Heck, I'm saying this as an Apple stockholder even.

On scanners: You should check out Doxie…I am looking into it as well.

http://getdoxie.com

Sorry to ask again, but the solution posted to add a keyboard shortcut didn't work.

I can, from the keyboard shortcuts tab of the keyboard preference pane, set any key combination I want to activate the slideshow. However, my goal is not to add a keyboard shortcut (cmd-alt-P was already set), but to make the play/pause button only affect iTunes, and not Keynote. For some reason, regardless of what is set as the Play Slideshow shortcut, the "play/pause" button will also start the slideshow. I checked, the forward/backward buttons will advance and retreat within the slideshow. Is it just treating the buttons on the keyboard like an apple remote?

Question for next week,

I am looking for a good VNC client for my iphone that can carry over well when the iPad comes out. I know there will probably be some specific ones for the iPad but I am in need of one right now.

I have looked into some, mocha is the only one that is free and I really would like to try it first. I use Apple Remote Desktop and am looking to be even more mobile then my laptop.

Which, if any app would you recommend?

I finally upgraded to Snow and want to take advantage of the new behavior of stacks. There's an option to sort by date modified, which works on the stack, but when I click a subfolder of that stack, it's always alphabetical. How can I have all of the subfolders be listed as sorted by date?

Question for next week:

I was curious about where and in what form the backup of my iPhone is stored on my Mac. Say for example I want to back it up to my MobileMe or another cloud-based alternative, but don't want to go to the trouble of backing up my entire iTunes library or purchasing more space on one of these servers to hold it all. I have a 16 GB 3GS so it could potentially fit on my MobileMe iDisk (provided I tweak storage settings).

I also backup using Time Machine, but thought that while I had unused space on MobileMe that it couldn't hurt having an extra backup. I've heard it's stored in ~Library/Application Support/Mobile Sync/Backup, but would those files prove useful if, for example, my computer, my Time Machine and iPhones were to all unmercifully fail around the same time? What would the process be say for example I were to get a new machine and needed/wanted to restore from a backup? Granted as a MobileMe subscriber I already have things like contacts and calendar saved...

I just figured it out.

Embarrassingly enough, iTunes has an option to "Copy Files added to Library to Media Folder."

...I had to uncheck it.

I have a late 2007 Macbook Pro running OS X 10.6.2

My iTunes library consists of about 30 gb of just music, and then roughly 300 gb of TV Shows. I've been keeping everything on a portable hard drive, but I recently upgraded the internal drive to a 500 gb drive.

I don't necessarily want to keep all 330 gb of media information on my laptop drive, because there is a boot camp partition on there and things of the like.

I've tried to tell iTunes that my library is on my Mac in the Music folder, and then have an alias with the TV Shows on an external drive in that Music folder. But when I try to add those files to the library via the "Add a File/Folder" function in iTunes, it instead starts to try to copy those files into the Music folder, which I don't want.

Is there a way to have two separate Libraries? For example iTunes knows when I have my external drive plugged in, to load a library that includes everything, and when the external drive isn't plugged in, to load a library that just includes music I have in the Music Folder?

In short, I'm still looking for a way to have my music on my laptop's hard drive and my TV Shows on an external, and have iTunes know where all of these files are.

I apologize for the very long question, but would really appreciate the help.

I bought a LaCie LaCinema PLAY drive to use as a sort of media server. It has wireless N connectivity and outputs HDMI to my TV. I have an Airport Extreme which is on the other side of the room. I'd like to be able to drag files from my computer (a MacBook 2.2Ghz, using 10.6.2) to the drive, but I can't see it in the Finder. I have another LaCie drive connected via USB to the Airport Extreme which I can see since I guess it can use AirDisk. The PLAY drive can connect to the network via WiFi.

I'm confused because if someone brings another laptop into my house, I can see it in the Finder under 'shared'. How come I can't see the PLAY drive? Does it need to be formatted? I don't think I can since it has software for the remote and wifi on it.

Can anyone help? Thanks!

Hi Glenn, thanks for the reply.

I'm trying to create a chronologically sorted folder based on when the item was added to the folder (downloaded, unzipped, copied). Date created doesn't work the same as some files that have been added to the folder might be documents created last year, but 'added' recently and modified doesn't seem to include files which have been unzipped recently. What 'modifies' a file?