Holiday Sights and Sounds at Small Dog…

At Small Dog Electronics, it’s obvious we love animals. So when we discovered that there was a little girl who was committed to feeding hungry dogs and cats, we thought we could provide some support!

Mimi Ausland, a 12 year old girl from Bend, Oregon, was inspired by the website “freerice.com”:http://www.freekibble.com, which uses word games to help feed those in need. She figured the same could apply to animals, so she came up with an easy (and fun) way to provide food through playing trivia games on the website.

“Check it out!”:http://www.freekibble.com

In a few days, many thousands of people will unwrap shiny new iPods. iTunes and the iPod are fairly easy to use, with fairly intuitive interfaces, but first-time iPod owners may still be confused about how to use them. This is espeacully true for people who rarely use a computer.

Also, even long-time iTunes/iPod owners might not be getting the most out their iPods. For example, many iTunes users don’t know they can manually manage songs and playlists on their iPods, rather than having iTunes automatically sync media (which sometimes results in media being improperly removed from the iPod). Following are a few links from Apple.com that will help new and experienced iPod owners to get the most out of their iPods.

* “New User’s Guide For iPod”:http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1345
* “iPod tutorials from Apple.”:http://www.apple.com/support/ipod/tutorials/
* “Apple’s iPod Support Page”:http://www.apple.com/support/ipod/
* “Syncing Content to iPod”:http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2209
* “Using iPod with multiple computers”:http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1202
* “Safely disconnect iPod”:http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1853
* “Adding and Deleting Songs and playlists from your iPod”:http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1855
* “How to use your iPod to move your music to a new computer”:http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1329

I’m heading up to my mom’s place on Sunday to celebrate the start of Chanukah and will be playing Santa for my grandkids on Christmas. One of the presents I got them was a basketball hoop. Autumn was a star b’ball player in high school and I went to every one of her games. She was the starting center and her point guard, Kim Blodgett, was living with us at the time so we spent a lot of time on basketball.
Khadija took me aside the other day and told me she was going to play basketball once she got to middle school, so I guess it’s time for a hoop! As soon as the snow melts a bit, I’ll go up and install it on their garage. Autumn and I have plans to paint a key and three-point line, too.

All of us at Small Dog Electronics send the very best wishes for the holidays from our family to yours. We know that it is you who pays our wages and we appreciate the loyalty and support that we have been fortunate to enjoy.

Thank you for reading this issue of Kibbles & Bytes!

Your Kibbles & Bytes team,
_Don, Kali & Ed_

There’s no time like the present to give the gift of a charitable donation to reach those in need. Small Dog Electronics believes that giving back to the community (both local and global) is an integral part of our business, and we will match your donation dollar-for-dollar up to $200.

Be inspired! Give to others less fortunate–you’ll be glad you did. ‘Tis the season, after all!

Some of our featured charities:

* Amnesty International
* Doctors Without Borders
* EarthTrust
* Planned Parenthood
* Vermont Foodbank
* VPIRG

Read more about Small Dog’s Charitable Giving Program:
“Smalldog.com/charity”:http://www.smalldog.com/charity

Make a donation:
“Charitable Giving Program Donation Page”:http://www.smalldog.com/category/x/x/x/Gifts_and_Swag|Charitable_Donations

I’m sure you’ve seen “PRODUCT RED”:http://www.joinred.com/Home.aspx special edition products that, when bought, the manufacturers donate a percentage of the profits to the Global Fund to help eliminate AIDS in Africa. (Apple’s red iPod nano and shuffle are good examples–if they would let us carry them, we would!)

*GREAT MUSIC, DELIVERED WEEKLY, SAVES LIVES*

Now, there’s more to (RED), and more ways to help! Their new weekly digital music magazine, (RED)WIRE, launches today. With each issue, you’ll receive exclusive music from artists around the world, and people living with HIV in Africa will receive the medicine they need.

“Sign up now and get two free issues.”:http://www.joinredwire.com/givegettry.html

How it works:
Every Wednesday, you’ll receive your new music via the (RED)WIRE player – which also places each song automatically in your iTunes. All music is yours forever, since they are unprotected digital files. You’ll be able to play them on your computer, iPod as well as burn them to CD or DVD.

It’s all only $5 per month (that’s about what you’d pay for iTunes music anyway in a month!) and half your membership fee goes to buy medicine to keep people living with HIV in Africa alive.

What you’ll receive:
* You get an exclusive song from a major artist.
* A song by a showcased artist.
* A fun or inspiring piece that’s not music–a short video of someone telling a story, a slideshow of great photography, someone reading something they love.
* And frequent updates from Africa–a window into the culture of the people getting the medicine.

“Check out (RED)WIRE here!”:http://www.joinredwire.com/
“Shop (PRODUCT) RED.”:http://www.joinred.com/Shop.aspx/