Mac Treat #70: Get Widescreen Email With WideMail!

_Dear Friends,_

We learned this week that the iPhone is finally coming to Vermont. The complicated deal that culminated in AT &T buying Unicel’s GSM network and stores in Vermont has gotten all of their approvals and we are told that as early as the middle of January the iPhone will finally be in the last state. We literally answer hundreds of questions each week about the iPhone and while we do stock a complete selection of iPhone accessories, Apple has not opened the iPhone for sales by its independent resellers. Unfortunately, that means we will not be offering the product at our stores until such a time as we can convince Apple or AT&T to bring the iPhone to where their customers like to shop. I guess we’ll just have to refer them to the new AT&T store just down the street.

I didn’t notice last week that we had done over 600 issues of Kibbles & Bytes. It seems like eons ago that we started sending out our price list as an email with a bit of commentary. Those early issues of Kibbles are still in the archives and we have come a long way with you! I love the new HTML format and we are working this year to increase our subscription base, so please tell your friends and Mac neighbors! As we wrap up 2008 I want to wish each of you the very best for the holidays and send our warmest wishes for a happy, safe an prosperous new year! I’ll be reviewing my 2008 predictions in this issue of Kibbles & Bytes and next week in the first 2009 issue of Kibbles we’ll talk about the coming year.

*SPORTS*

MLB Baseball: Okay I’m getting really tired of saying “wait until next year” so this is absolutely the year that the Cubs make it to the World Series and beat the Boston Red Sox in 7 games. Geoff and the rest of the Red Sox fans will paper my wall with signed $1 bills. How can they miss with a new right fielder named Kosuke Fukudome? Lou Piniella will have a powerful line-up with Fukudome, Soriano, Lee and Ramirez. – ??Wrong again, just wait until next year!??

NBA Basketball: The Boston Celtics will have the best record of any Celtics team ever, will have the best record in the NBA and will go all the way to hang the 17th NBA title banner in the Garden by beating the Spurs in 6. Kevin Garnett will be MVP. – ??The Boston Celtics hung #17 and are the world champs well on their way to #18??

NFL Football: Some Pats fans are okay but some of the Pats fans are incredibly obnoxious. The Pats look like one of the best football teams ever and will post the undefeated record and the SuperBowl win. Next fall, look for the Pats to have their first loss within the first two games of the season. – ??Wrong – they lost the third game but won the first two??

Olympics – the summer Olympics in China will be simply spectacular and the USA will dominate the gold medals. – ??The USA did great at a great Olympics??

*WEATHER*

After the great start to the snow season, Vermont will have one of the snowiest winters in years with three “dumps” of over two feet before spring. Temperatures will remain mild with little below 0° F. Spring will be here early again and I’ll be riding my motorcycle in Vermont by the end of March. More storms and freak weather will be seen in most parts of the country as Mother Nature tries to shake off her hot flashes. – ??All True??

*POLITICS*

Not much will happen in Congress during this election year with a lame duck President. The deficit will soar due to declining economic growth and the continued demands of the wars and the escalating cost of health care.

Barack Obama will win the democratic nomination by May and John McCain will win the republican nod. Obama will be elected in a close election with at least two third party candidates drawing votes from both sides.

Vermont Governor Jim Douglas will be only the second incumbent governor in the state’s history to be voted out of office.

Democrats will control both houses of congress but not by a veto-proof margin.

??I did pretty good here — all right except the close election and Governor Douglas was re-elected by a strong margin versus two liberal candidates??

*WORLD*

In a tragic repeat of last year, Iraq will continue to drain resources and kill young soldiers and innocent civilians, and the Iraqi people will continue to suffer. (This is unfortunately, the identical prediction from the last two years!) What a tragic waste of resources! – ??OMG – yes, sad but true.??

In the face of new scientific evidence that climate change is much worse and getting worse faster, more countries will join the fight against climate change. Climate change will begin to influence everyone’s life. – ??I calling this one as right.??

Pakistan will be the scene of the next major conflict driven by religious extremism. – ??Close, unfortunately.??

Israel and the Palestinians will finally sign a peace deal and there will be a two-state solution. – ??Not yet, unfortunately. Can we peacefully end this conflict, please???

*ECONOMY*

Gasoline prices will exceed $5/gallon by the end of the summer – ??High and then low??

More high efficiency cars will make it to market – ??Not very many, just wait a couple years??

Renewable energy and conservation/efficiency companies will create thousands of jobs and create a new sector of economic growth – ??Yes, wind turbines, energy conservation and other renewables are creating non-exportable jobs NOW and will be even more next year??

The will be a sharp correction in the stock market with the Dow losing 20%. – ??And then some…??

*APPLE*

Apple stock will be split 4 to 1 and will reach $100 a share ($400 adjusted) – ??nope AAPL lost over 50% of its value??

Apple will post its best operating results ever for 2008 and 2009 – ??YES??

Apple’s Macintosh market share will continue to grow and will exceed 12% – ??YES??

Apple will expand its hand-held computing/cell phone platform with new offerings – ??not yet, soon to come perhaps??

The iPhone will see two new models – ??Yes if you count black and white 3G models??

An Apple subcompact featuring flash memory drives will be introduced – ??MacBook Air!??

AppleTV will be enhanced – ??Yes, if you count AppleTV Take 2??

Apple will make one surprising major acquisition – ??Nope??

*SMALL DOG ELECTRONICS*

Small Dog Electronics will post record sales for the 3rd year in a row – ??Yes??

Small Dog will unveil a new web site with new looks and functionality – ??Yes??

Small Dog will open two additional retail stores – ??Not yet??

Small Dog Electronics will have 65 employees by the end of the year – ??up to 40??
Small Dog Electronics will recycle over 75 tons of eWaste – ??Blasted through that one with 155 Tons at one event – we are now the only electronics retailer that can claim to have recycled more electronics than we have sold!??

*PERSONAL*

I will go on a motorcycle trip of over 3000 miles – ??Yup – Sturgis, SD and back??

I will not wear a tie all year – ??Another year under my belt??

I will have two new computers – ??Two MacBook Airs and a MacBook Pro??

*35 predictions, 21 right, 13 wrong, batting .600 for 2008. See next week’s Kibbles for my prognostications on 2009.*

Continuing an end-of-year Small Dog tradition, the following is a timeline of notable events for Apple Inc. in 2008.

It’s worth noting that while Apple’s market share continued to expand rapidly in 2008, the value of Apple’s shares (AAPL) took a beating. As of this writing, AAPL is down 56% for the year. It started at $193, and is trading at $85.50 today. At its lowest point, it was trading at $80.00 on November 20. The stock was strong mid-spring through the summer, but crashed along with the rest of the market in the autumn.

*January 08* Apple announces Penryn Mac Pros and Xserves. “With 3.2 GHz 8-core Xeon processing, a 1600 MHz front side bus and 800 MHz memory, the new Mac Pro uses the fastest Intel Xeon architecture on the market.” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing.

*January 09* Warner, Paramount, Disney, Fox, Lions Gate to Join iTunes Rentals

*January 15* At Macworld San Francisco, Apple announces several new products, including Time Capsule, iTunes movie rentals, AppleTV Take 2, MacBook Air, and iTunes 7.6. Apple also announces Phone Software Update & SDK Release date.

*January 16* Microsoft launches Mac Office 2008

*February 01* Microsoft Makes $44.6 Billion Bid to Acquire Yahoo

*February 05* Apple Announces a 16GB iPhone and 32GB iPod touch

*February 05* Canalys reports that iPhone has 28% of U.S. Smartphone Marketshare for Q4 2007.

*February 09* Yahoo Says ‘No’ to Microsoft’s Bid

*February 11* Mac OS X (Leopard) 10.5.2 Update Released

*February 12* Apple releases Aperture 2.0

*February 12* Apple releases Apple TV ‘Take 2’ software update. Apple TV owners can now rent movies without the use of a computer in standard and high definition formats.

*February 26* Apple Releases Intel Penryn-Based MacBook Pros with Multitouch – MacBook Pro includes the latest NVIDIA graphics processors, now with up to 512MB of video memory,and Apple’s innovative Multi-Touch trackpad, first introduced in MacBook Air. Processor speeds up to a 2.6 GHz. The 17″ model offers an optional LED screen.

*February 26* Apple Releases New Penryn Based MacBooks with faster processors and larger hard drives.

*March 06* Apple Releases iPhone SDK, featuring ActiveSync, Exchange, WPA2, Push Services.

*April 03* Apple becomes #1 music retailer in U.S. Wal-Mart is second, Best Buy third and Amazon is fourth.

*April 08* Apple (finally) ships Final Cut Server

*May 01* Apple TV Update: Buy movies on iTunes the same day as the DVD is released, buy movies directly from Apple TV.

*June 09* WWDC – .Mac becomes MoblieMe with an URL of Me.com, Apple Announces iPhone 3G, Mac OS X ‘Snow Leopard’ is announced.

*July 09* iPhone 3G launch, App Store Launch, MobileMe launch

*July 16* Apple sends apology letter, 30-Day extension to MobileMe customers for botched MobileMe roll-out.

*August 18* Apple now provides 60 day extension to all MobileMe subscribers for botched MobileMe roll-out.

*August 28* Steve Jobs obituary accidentally published by Bloomberg.

*August 19* According to the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), Apple still tops the list as highest in customer satisfaction for personal computers.

*September 09* Apple’s Let’s Rock presentation unveils new 4th Generation iPod Nano, 2nd Generation iPod Touch, 120GB iPod classic, iTunes 8 with HD TV shows, Grid View, Genius Playlists, NBC, refreshed iPod shuffles colors, new in-ear headphones

*September 23* Adobe Unveils Creative Suite CS4, GPU Accelerated Photoshop

*October 14*In an event called “The Spotlight Turns to Notebooks”, Apple intros MacBooks and MacBook Pros with new unibody aluminum cases and an entirely new way of building notebooks from a single block of aluminum. These are touted as the industry’s greenest notebooks.

Beyond unibody enclosure, other features include-Mini DisplayPort for video out, improved NVIDIA graphics across the entire line, instant-on LED-backlit displays, and Glass Multi-Touch trackpad with new Multi-Touch gestures. The unibody MacBooks lose their FireWire port, but FireWire is retained in all MacBook Pros and a $999 white MacBook Apple touts as its entry-level model.

MacBook Airs Get Penryn processors, MacBooks and Pros Intel Montevina Core 2 Duo Processors. MacBook Pros processors now run up to 2.8GHz.

The 17″ MacBook Pro retains the same appearance but now ships with high resolution 1920 x 1200 LED-backlit display and a larger 320GB hard drive, and an option for a 128GB SSD drive.

*October 14* Apple introduces 24″ LED Cinema Display with built-in iSight and innovative streamlined design. The only inputs MiniDisplay Port, making it compatible for new MacBook line.

*October 24* Apple Publicly Opposes California Proposition 8 (Ban on Same Sex Marriage)

*December 01* Simpsons Mock Apple with “Mapple” skit, video from the show goes viral and fills email inboxes around the world.

*December 01* Apple offers free licensing of Mini DisplayPort Spec.

*December 16* Apple announces that Steve Jobs will not give the 2009 Macworld keynote, and that Apple will not have a presence at future Macworld Conferences. Phil Schiller will instead give the Apple keynote. Speculation that Steve Jobs and Apple’s withdrawal has to do with Jobs’ health is shot down when it is revealed that Apple had decided months ago to discontinue its annual Macworld presence, as tradeshows had become a very minor part of Apple’s outreach efforts.

*December 22* iPhone in Vermont – confirmed! And the year ends on a positive note!

Matt talked about our first snowmobile adventure last weekend. Tony, who is the president of the local club convinced us to trailer up to the base of Camel’s Hump in the middle of a blizzard because the trail up there had been groomed. After futzing with the battery on one machine for a couple hours (those little connectors are a pain!) we made it up and had a great ride in the woods until Matt’s machine stopped working about 5 miles from civilization. We tried to tow it out of there but couldn’t make it up the hill so unfortunately, we had to abandon it on the side of the trail in the snow bank and double up going back. We learned a lot and the groomer will haul Matt’s sled out one of these days.

We got a bunch of snow this past week, I think there is over 4 feet at my house already! Thanks for reading this issue of Kibbles & Bytes! Have a wonderful holiday and happy 2009!

Your Kibbles & Bytes Team,

Don, Ed, Kali