FEATURE OF THE WEEK | 01/30/09 – 02/06/09

I am off on the adventure of a lifetime on Monday and will be out of communication. It is the first time in at least a decade that I will be traveling without access to my computer or cell phone. I don’t know if I can withstand the technology withdrawal but I’ll bet there aren’t too many wireless hot spots in the Serengeti.

I’ll be visitiing the “Tarangire”:http://www.basecamptanzania.com/NP_Tarangire.htm and “Serengeti”:http://www.basecamptanzania.com/NP_Serengeti.htm National Parks, as well as the “Ngorongoro Crater”:http://www.basecamptanzania.com/NP_NgorongoroCrater.htm and “Oldupai Gorge”:http://www.basecamptanzania.com/NP_OldupaiGorge.htm and a lot of hippo pools before we head to Zanzibar to check out the beach and the spices.

Ed and Kali will keep you informed here in Kibbles & Bytes about the world of Apple and Small Dog while I am away and I’m sure they will do a fantastic job. Thank you for reading this issue of Kibbles & Bytes!

Your Kibbles & Bytes team,
_Don, Kali & Ed_

Make sure your new Mac has the latest version of iLife! As of now, Macs shipped from Small Dog will either have iLife ’09 pre-installed, a DVD insert of the upgrade, or be eligible for an instant $9.95 rebate.**

You can upgrade to iLife ’09 for $9.95 if you have a qualifying Mac with iLife ’08. The Up-To-Date Program ends March 28, 2009, and applies to Macs bought on or after January 6, 2009.

See all qualifying computer models here: http://images.smalldog.com/pdfs/ilife09_qualifying_macs.pdf

Download the iLife ’09 Up-To-Date form here: http://images.smalldog.com/rebates/ilife09_UTD_v2.pdf

Still have questions? Email us at Sales@smalldog.com or give us a call at 800-511-MACS; we’d be happy to assist you.

*Note that the $9.95 coupon applies only to the purchase of the following Mac (all other Macs include iLife ’09 in the box): MacBook Air 1.6GHz 2GB/80GB
http://www.smalldog.com/product/70760

iLife Retail Boxes are also in stock:
http://www.smalldog.com/product/72885

**The iLife Up-To-Date program (and subsequent coupon) is applicable for new Macs only; not valid for demo or used product.

In last week’s Kibbles & Bytes, we wrote about Vermont outlawing slavery. Indeed, “Vermont abolished slavery in 1777”:http://www.slavenorth.com/vermont.htm (not 1977), via the newly-formed state’s constitution. We apologize for the error (and as reader Joel noted, we must still be “stuck in the Carter years!”).

Thanks to all who wrote in!

The blogosphere has been abuzz with claims that the first Mac virus or trojan has been identified in the wild. It’s been reported that many users downloading iWork ’09 or Adobe Creative Suite 4 programs from less-than-legal sources (read: pirating it) got more than they bargained for.

It’s been reported through several outlets that the installer packages contain more than what they advertise. These snippets are rumored to “call home” to the programmer who created it, but it is not clear exactly what information is transmitted.

Basically, the code is a trojan, not a virus. Morgan Aldridge, Developer, Admin, and IT for Small Dog, says “a trojan is a malicious program that someone actually has to run on their computer thinking it’s something else (hence the name), but a virus uses security holes to infect someone’s computer and/or files and then further spreads itself in the same manner without any interaction from the user.” The jist here is that the trojan is not able to spread itself, and it requires a user to authorize its installation by entering an administrator password.

You are in no danger if you surf responsibly; use common sense, and do not download software illegally. To be clear, the Mac remains a virus-free platform, and right now there’s no reason to think that is going to change any time soon!

Do you ever have two or more PDF documents that you’d like to merge together into one single PDF? It’s actually very easy to do this with Preview in OS 10.5 Leopard. I’ve not tested merging PDFs in Preview with Tiger, but I suspect it works.

To do this, open one of the PDF’s in Preview. Make sure Preview has the Sidebar open. Open the Sidebar in Preview by clicking View > Sidebar, or by clicking the button at the top of the Preview window labeled “Sidebar.”

Now, drag the icon of the second PDF from your Documents folder or Desktop (or wherever you have the PDF stored) into the Sidebar of the open PDF in Preview. That should be it – you’ve now got a single document with all the pages of both PDFs. Depending on the permissions of the PDFs, you can reorder pages as needed. Make sure to save the PDF with a new name by clicking on File > Save As in the menu bar.

Note that if you have duplex printer that’s capable of printing both sides of a sheet of paper, you can use this technique to make single-page PDFs into two-sided documents. You’d then typically select Long Edge Binding under Layout when you print the PDF to get a two-sided document. This is a easy way to save paper when you have two separate single-page PDFs to print.

View specials while on-hand supplies last. Please note that some specials may not be available in our retail stores; check for availability.

See all specials on our “Specials Page.”:http://www.smalldog.com/specials