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What is RSS, you ask? RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. And, according to Wikipedia, “an RSS document (which is called a ‘feed’) includes full or summarized text” that is updated immediately.

What’s great about an RSS feed is that one can subscribe to it and receive instant updates about a chosen topic. Safari has built-in RSS support, and you can subscribe using the web-based reader of your choice (I like NetVibes and Google).

We currently feature twelve RSS feeds, including:
* “New Products”:http://feeds.feedburner.com/SmallDog-NewProducts
* “All Specials”:http://feeds.feedburner.com/SmallDog-AllSpecials
* “Refurbished”:http://feeds.feedburner.com/SmallDog-Refurbished and “Clearance”:http://feeds.feedburner.com/SmallDog-Clearance
* “Rebates”:http://feeds.feedburner.com/SmallDog-Rebates
* “Barkings blog”:feed://blog.smalldog.com/rss/?limit=10
* “Twitter”:feed://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/16420518.rss

“Click here”:http://www.smalldog.com/rss to find out more. Subscribe now for instantaneous updates and news on our sales, specials, new products, news, contests and more!

_Dear Friends,_

Black Friday and Cyber Monday were a huge success here at Small Dog Electronics, with thoughts of the troubled economy temporarily pushed aside as our stores and website were crowded with shoppers. The free shipping promotion on our website was so successful that the website broke for a couple of hours, but Mark quickly re-wrote the code to get us back quickly. You, our customers, gave us such positive feedback on the shipping promotion that in addition to the other special values, we have decided to offer free ground shipping in the 48 contiguous states through the end of the year for all orders over $99!

I’m finally making the transition back to a single Mac. I have been using a MacBook Pro at the office and carrying around my MacBook Air. With MobileMe syncing and IMAP mail servers, this is an acceptable and manageable set-up, but it is also extravagant. I now have one of the latest generation MacBook Airs with the 128GB solid state drive and have enough storage capacity to make the switch. I’m waiting for one of Apple’s new 24″ displays, and I’ll be back to a one Mac guy.

This new MacBook Air seems to be much faster than the older version, even though the processor is not that much of an improvement. I think that this speed is due to the new NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics chip. It provides a 4X boost over the original MacBook Air, and in terms of speed-perception it makes transitions and window draws seem to just ‘pop.’ The new 1066MHz frontside bus with more cache and faster RAM also contributes to the speed enhancements.

I dropped in at the new Apple Store in Montreal when I was there to see Neil Young on Monday (the show was fantastic, by the way!). The new store on St. Catherine St. was looking good with lots of customers and the same great look and feel that has marked Apple Retail in the US.

I talk frequently about how Apple “invents” markets and even more evidence came out this week that underlines the strength that Apple has developed. While the US automakers are on the verge of collapse due to lack of innovation and swollen overhead, Apple continues to innovate and create new business. Forrseter Research claimed this week that digital music accounts for 18% of the total of all music sales in the USA (and project that growing to 40% within 5 years), and since Apple owns about a 70% market-share of digital music, we can conclude Apple has a 12.6% share of all music sold in the USA.

That is an amazing number and a paradigm change that is a direct result of Apple’s innovation. Apparently, people are still buying a lot of iPods since we have seen some spot shortages of specific models and our sales this past weekend were significantly above last year’s numbers. Apple is not recession-proof, but they seem to be doing a lot better than many other businesses!

It’s back! We have gathered our troops and tested some of the hottest gifts of the year to share with you in this gift-giving season. We’ll feature a handful of products in each issue of Kibbles & Bytes. Enjoy!

We have the Top 10 lists for gifts this year on our Holiday page as well:
“www.smalldog.com/holiday”:http://www.smalldog.com/holiday

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Vroom, Vroom, said the Logitech Racer Mouse
By katie@smalldog.com

Well, normally I wouldn’t purchase a wired mouse that is stickered up to look like a Race Car, but in this case, I couldn’t resist. The mouse is pretty small and portable which is key for a laptop or for someone with smaller hands, but the main thing that attracted me to this mouse is the fact that it’s only $9.99!

If you use your machine for everyday things like e-mail, surfing the web, iTunes maybe some iPhoto business, then well, a mouse is a mouse is a mouse–you don’t need to spend a lot of dough. Why not only spend $9.99 and have a little fun white your mouse while your at it? Just don’t get pulled over for having too much fun…

“See it here!”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/71814

********************************************************************Philips 150W Auto Power Inverter
By jeremiah@smalldog.com

This product is amazing! I hate having to buy car chargers for my electronics, so the Philips 150W Auto Power Inverter eliminates the need to buy a second charger when you’re on the road.

I use it for charging my cell phone, iPod and even my MacBook. You could even use it with a oven toaster or TV, but I wouldn’t recommend it. It’s a great buy, and a perfect stocking stuffer!

“See it here!”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/71604

Here’s a tip for using your Mac’s ability to cut and paste text much more efficiently.

First, a little appreciative history. Back in 1984, the ability to “cut and paste” (or “copy and paste”) text was one of the Macintosh’s original killer applications. Apple actually introduced this ability on the earlier, unsuccessful Lisa, after Steve Jobs had seen it used experimentally at the Xerox Corporation Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). However, it was the original Mac that popularized this now-essential computer function (and yes, I find it ironic that there isn’t yet a cut and paste feature on the iPhone/iPod touch.)

Typically when you copy text from one document or application and paste it into a new document or application, the original font, font size, and font color is preserved, possibly clashing with the formating of the new document. This means you have to go back and reformat the pasted text to match the surrounding text’s font.

However, for many Mac applications (Pages, Mail, TextEdit) there is a simple way to force the copied text to match the font of document it’s being pasted into. After copying text, navigate to the Menu bar at the top of the screen, click on Edit, and choose “Paste and Match Style” from the drop down menu.

If you prefer to use a keyboard shortcut to paste your text , hold down the following keys at the same time: Command-Option-Shift-V. Normally to paste text, you simply hold down Command-V at the same time. Note that the Command key is stamped with an Apple on many Apple keyboards, and is located next to the Spacebar.

Our free shipping promotion on Thanksgiving weekend was so popular that we decided to bring it back. From now through the end of 2008, Small Dog Electronics is offering FREE ground shipping to the contiguous 48 States on every order over $99!

In addition to free shipping on orders over $99, we have posted hundreds of special offers on Smalldog.com. These include discounts, savings on pre-configured Mac and iPod bundles, and both mail-in and instant rebates.

As always, Small Dog does not charge sales tax on any orders that ship out of Vermont! We ship 99% of orders on the same business day as the order is placed, and our warehouse team takes exceptional care when packaging orders.

“View our special holiday page here.”:http://www.smalldog.com/holiday
“View all of our specials here.”:http://www.smalldog.com/specials

Happy Holidays from Small Dog Electronics!