Small Dog Flag Football – Columbus Day 2006!

I would have continued on as I was, a dedicated cat person. Used to their combined aloofness and occasional demands for attention. Then…

Dogs of any size are always welcome at all of our or Small Dog Electronics locations and on our website at the Dog…

As an Apple fan, I don’t think I’ve ever been as excited as I am now. If I could roll the clock ahead to April right now then I would, and woe be it to anyone who tried to stop me. Why am I so excited? Well, two things really.

First, obviously, is the iPad. Somehow in the last week I have gone from staunch iPad skeptic to literally “in a froth” to get my hands on one (thanks Penny Arcade for the excellent descriptor of my frenzied state). I’ll be the first to admit that as it was presented it is a fairly unassuming device. It doesn’t really do anything that you can’t do with an iPhone and a MacBook, and falls awkwardly somewhere between. But oh, the promise! The sheer potential of such a device is astounding. My intent is to purchase one as a statement, if nothing else. A statement to developers that I need them to develop great apps for it. But enough about the iPad.

What really has me excited for April is the announcement that Valve, creators of Half Life, Portal, and Left for Dead, will be bringing its steam delivery service to the Mac platform, and its Source engine along with it. If you’re a Mac gamer, or wish you were, then this is amazing news. It’s no secret that our platform of choice is routinely ignored by game developers.

Apple themselves have also ignored us by refusing to offer us more powerful graphics options (yes, I really do need 1GB of VRAM). Blizzard has really been the sole supporter of Macs in the game realm, steadily releasing their Mac versions simultaneously with their Windows counterparts… on the same discs even. For a company the size of Valve to start building Mac-native versions of their games and really support the platform should encourage other companies to follow suit.

It’s already panning out like I expected. Razer has already announced they will fully support Mac OS X with their line of gamer centric peripherals (I’m a huge fan of their mice). My guess is that next we’ll see some of the larger publishers such as EA and Ubisoft (though please leave your draconian DRM behind) start to pick up Mac knowledgeable programmers and start to build native versions of their games rather than the bogged down ports we receive now.

Even if other developers don’t jump on board immediately, I can’t express in words how excited I am to be able to download my already large library of Source games without launching bootcamp first. And when Portal 2 releases around the holidays, I’ll finally be able to consider myself a Mac gamer instead of a gamer who likes Macs.

I recognize on a daily basis how time flies while I’m working on the showroom floor here at our South Burlington Retail Showroom,…

I know that you can view various characters through the Character Palette (done through the International preference pane) but I usually don’t have…

There are two things that I am constantly interacting with every day: Vermont’s bitter cold and my iPhone. Apple officially states you can safely use your iPhone between the temperatures of 32 and 95 degrees (F), but if you are like me and live in the real world, you’re probably popping these guys out during times where the radio is trying to tell you to stay inside (yeah right; I’m from Vermont, after all).

It’s no surprise that the past four years have put a smartphone into the pockets of most Vermonters, but as we drift through these gruesome winter months, a mystery still remains: What are we mountain folk actually subjecting these devices to?

The first thing to consider — and most important to me — is the battery. The chemicals in the Lithium-Ion batteries totally hate extreme temperatures and will drain much faster than they should. In some cases, your battery will display a decent amount of a charge but in reality, will be on its final leg, and you will discover your phone dying out of nowhere.

If this does happen, DO NOT TURN IT ON.

Wait until you get inside and your phone warms up to room temp. Although the effect of cold weather draining your battery is temporary (phew!), you can permanently shorten your battery’s lifespan by trying to power it on immediately after it shuts down. Grandma’s Facebook comments on your pics aren’t going anywhere, so just wait until your phone warms up to check out what she said!

The next thing the cold will try to kill is your screen! Cold temperatures tend to make your LCD screen way more sensitive then it usually is. Watch how you are applying pressure to your screen, especially if you have any pre-existing cracks and knicks! I had a customer come into the store last week and tell me about how she was talking on her iPhone outside and all of a sudden, heard this pop in her ear. When she looked, the pressure from her fingers mixed with the cold had cracked her screen in half! Definitely keep chats on your phone outside to a minimum!

One final thing to look out for is condensation. Liquid is the number one enemy to your electronics. Much like your windows, condensation will form underneath your display as your phone travels from the cold to your warm houses. This will cause liquid to damage and corrode your internal parts! This will literally break your phone beyond repair, causing you to have to purchase a new one!

There are some simple ways to avoid these catastrophes:

# Keep your phone in a pocket close to your body — DO NOT leave your phone in a bag or in the car
# Turn it off — your phone can endure a wider temperature range from -4 to 113 degrees (F) if it’s off
# Purchase a case — not only do these guys provide physical protection, in some cases they provide insulation
# Charge your iPhone before bringing it outside — this will give your battery the strength it needs to survive
# Finally, do not get it wet in the snow — perhaps the most obvious one, but please watch where you are busting that phone out!

So, as a reminder, keep it safe everyone — and be mindful about when you answer that text. Is it really worth replacing your iPhone because you had to check on that smiley emoticon text from mom?