Ask TUAW: Key remapping in Boot Camp, iPad tethering, file-sharing with a media extender, and more

I have MobileMe account and I don't use the storage (246MB out of 20GB) that I pay for. So, now I want to store all my mail in MobilMe instead of my computer. That way I always have all that information available.

In my computer I have about 3GB of Mail in different folders "Under My Mac" but I want to move it all to MobileMe. What's the best way to do this?

I've made a test just by dragging a folder with 256 messages from "Under My Mac" to MobileMe to test it out and it only copied 157, and to try and figure out which mail was copied was a pain and gave up. Please help!

Jerry

Question-
I have a total of three HD and I notice that under Spotlight Preferences>Privacy, I see a two folders named "FlowData," I have no idea what that they are.

When I put my cursor over it, it shows the folder is under my second or third drive: /Volumes/Macintosh HD2/FlowData. when I open those FlowData folders there are a bunch of folders and files that make no sense to me. I just want to know what application is using that? or if it's just from the operating system? (10.6.2)

Blue Skies!
Jerry

My 27" iMac's hard drive is slow. I've decided to replace it with an SSD. OS X, applications and my Aperture Library are the only things that will live on the SSD. Everything else, which is just my user's home folder, will live on a FW800 external drive.

I just moved my user home folder onto the FW800 drive and configured Time Machine properly, and configured my user account to point to the external drive. It's all working great.

My question is this: When I get the SSD and install a fresh copy of Snow Leopard, do I create a new user with the same name as my current user then point that account to the external drive or will SL see the user account that's already on the external drive? What's important in the Advanced Options for a user account- i.e. should I note the User ID, Group ID, Short Name, Login Shell, and UUID of my current user and replicate that with the new install?

FWIW: I see no difference in performance with my home folder on a FW800 drive which is a first gen 1TB WD Green inside a OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro. It's a sweet setup and should allow future growth as my iTunes library grows very quickly.

I have a question - I have a iPhone 3G 8GB. There are 11 home screens on my device now and I noticed that when I install new apps they don't appear anywhere and are only available if I search for them. How can I rectify this? Does this mean that 11 is the maximum number of home screens? Thank you

'Debayo

I don't get the whole 3G/WiFi version of the iPad.

If the device comes with BlueTooth and iPhone tethering (in general) is supported in your country then the only point of selling a 3G compatible iPad is if you don't own a mobile phone.

Based on this why would you own an iPad but not a mobile phone?

Granted there are people who may be on pre-paid plans that proves tethering is too expensive, but VHA here in Australia has no tethering restrictions on an iPhone for contract subscribers at all making the 3G iPad pretty much redundant - I'm sure a 3G iPad will cost the same per MB downloaded as an iPhone's data plan.

I'm open to the fact there are uses for the 3G version even here in Australia, but to come up with a pricing model to satisfy both is going to be a nightmare unless both charge the same amount.

Surely Bluetooth tethering with a device like the iPhone is going to be up to the providers discretion?

If they offer no 3G tethering here in Australia then you have to pay 2 monthly service fees (iPhone and iPad) and have 2 separate caps.

If tethering is allowed then you will only have to pay 1 monthly service fee but share you data cap across 2 devices - though you would be more inclined to use the iPad for data access than your iPhone - or would you?

Dear TUAW,
I want to purchase a new 27" iMac with the i7 processor. However, the reports of DOA units and yellow screens on various forums has me worried. I have decided to pull the trigger and buy one in the next couple of weeks, UNLESS(!) there is reason to believe that the iMacs will receive a small spec bump in the coming months.
A slightly more powerful i7 chip as well as the addition of an eSATA port and SSD options have been rumors. Do I have any reason to believe that any of these rumored rumors might have some truth to them, and that I might see any one of them happening in the first half of this year?

Sincerely yours,

Jake

I'm not sure if PDANet will work for tethering the iPad to the iPhone. IIRC, PDANet requires that the non-iPhone device create an AdHoc WiFi network, which I doubt the iPad will be able to.

I love the idea of the 'find my iPhone' for mobileme but was wondering if there was a 'find my MacBook' feature as well? I recently had my MacBook stolen and replaced it, but would like to be prepared if it happens again. If mobileme does not support 'find my MacBook' who would I voice my request to at Apple?

I also am rather irked with the Google Buzz fiasco, and was thinking about mobileme as an alternative to gmail. I felt like gmail was the premier web based email service, so I was curious, how does mobileme stack up gmail, Yahoo or any other service you guys could recommend? Please note, I have a MacBook and an iPhone, so how well email services work on all 3 would be helpful. (I now realize I want a full email for Apple comparison so maybe I'm posting this in the wrong thread.)

PS I have Hotmail and I don't consider it a competitor. I use it for my 360 and as a junk email account.

Don't forget... PDAnet will not be able to connect to the iPad, at least in it's current form. Unless something changed that I am unaware of recently. PDAnet has to connect to a network set up from the mac or pc side then PDAnet connects to it (ADHoc).

On using Services and control clicking on an image in Safari...

I tried and couldn't get to work. I talked to Sal Soghoian, the VP at Apple in charge or Automator and Applescript, and a services attached to an image in a browser currently can't be done. If I remember correctly, The Service Engine see html code in that instance, but definitely does not see the image. So the image service is not available from the service menu.

Sorry