SPECIALS: 01/30/09 – 02/06/09

_Dear Friends,_

I started playing with the new features in iPhoto, which is part of iLife ’09. I love the Faces feature and started to go through my photo library and identify faces. I started out with my grandkids and it was funny that iPhoto thought the faces were the same as their dad and mom. Once I had identified them, however, it was fast and easy to have a complete library of photos of the kids. I highly recommend this upgrade! All of our new Macs now come with iLife ’09.

I was in Montpelier yesterday to meet with the public policy coordinator for Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility, Andrea Cohen. That’s really just a fancy title for lobbyist, and it is great to have someone as qualified as Andrea representing businesses with a different point of view. There were hearings going on about a number of bills and issues and the state house was full of legislators, lobbyists and advocates.

Every time I go to Vermont State House I am filled with pride for Vermont. I do not know of many other states where I could drive up, park right in front of the State House and before I have a chance to hang up my coat, I am greeted by first name by legislators and state employees. It is the epitome of open citizen led government. I spent some time talking with Andrea about the issues that might come up while I am on vacation, and while we were in the cafeteria, we met several of the principals in the issues we were discussing. Democracy feels good.

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.

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.

Windows. Unfortunately, for some people it’s a fact of life, like death and taxes. Ok, I’m teasing. I’ve always tried to downplay the Mac vs Windows debate, so I shouldn’t even bring it up. I prefer the Mac for a number of reasons, but I know that the various flavors of Windows all have benefits. I do tip my hat to Microsoft for offering a platform that made mass computer ownership feasible, even if some of their best ideas were cribbed from Apple (who in turn cribbed some of them from Xerox).

For a few weeks, Small Dog is offering discounted prices on popular Macs with Parallels 4 and Windows Vista pre-installed. Parallels is an excellent program for running Windows, Linux, and other operating systems on a Mac. It’s a virtualization program, so you can run your Windows apps next to your Mac apps, without having to reboot your Mac. We’ve sold hundreds of copies of Parallels, and users consistently report great results.

The “Home” edition of Vista has the been most popular flavor of Windows that we sell pre-installed on Macs (“XP Pro”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/40086 had that distinction, but Vista Home has caught up).

Again, the bundles include “Windows Vista Home (OEM), Parallels 4 OEM, and installation.”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/42448 for $169.99 (normal cost is $209.99).

For example, here is a “2.0GHz MacBook with 2GB RAM, 160GB hard drive, SuperDrive, Parallels 4.0, Windows Vista Home, installation of those titles, and free shipping, for $1459.99:http://www.smalldog.com/wag/g18792/

Pre-installation of Vista and Parallels is available on in-stock iMacs, MacBooks, MacBook Pros, and Mac Pros. Email Sales@Smalldog.com with questions or a quote.

Next week: Valentine’s Day promos!

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_

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!