March Specials

Congratulations to Taiwan V. of Milton, VT! He has been randomly selected to win a $25.00 Gift Card from Small Dog for subscribing to our newsletters.

Each month, we’ll pick a winner from the new subscribers to any of our three newsletters:

* **Kibbles & Bytes:** __Apple news, tips & tricks, specials & more for our Mac__ community
* **Tech Tails:** __Apple news straight from the Small Dog Electronics Tech Room__
* **Best in Showroom:** __Blue Ribbon sales, news and more from the Retail floor__

It’s easy to enter–come into our S. Burlington retail store and sign up today!

__The following is an excerpt from our “Barkings!”:http://blog.smalldog.com blog.__

Apple has released the fourth version of its Safari web browser as a “public beta”:http://www.apple.com/safari/download/ for both Macs and PCs. This impressive new version of Safari builds on its previous core features (speed, clean interface, integration with Apple’s other OS X-native services and programs).

It also adds a bunch of new features, many of which are both fun and useful.

**Notable Features:**
* **Extremely fast** (Cnet independently benchmarked Safari 4 and found it was the fastest mainstream browser on Mac or PC)
* **Top Sites preview page** (automatically identifies your favorite sites and displays them as “a wall of stunning graphical previews”)
* **New ways for managing and navigating bookmarks** (including the addition of Cover Flow to the bookmarks window)
* **HTML 5 offline support** (web developers can now create applications that can be used even when there is no access to the internet.)
* **Location of Tabs** (a somewhat controversial feature–Tabs have now moved from under the bookmarks bar to the top of the window)

I’ve been using Safari 4 for a few days, and so far I absolutely love it. It actually makes the act of browsing the web fun again.

The other great new features (and speed) make up for the odd change of Tabs. (It’s worth noting that Google’s Chrome browser also has tabs placed at the top of the browsing window.)

Obviously, I’m smitten with Safari. Between this new version of Safari and iLife ’09, I feel like I have a speedy new computer.

Read more and download the Safari 4 beta “by clicking here.”:http://www.apple.com/safari/whats-new.html#tabs

__Note: “Click here”:http://blog.smalldog.com/article/mini-review-safari-4-beta-rules/ to read the article in its entirety.__

…It’s back for a 3rd year!

**The 3rd Annual FREE eWaste Recycling Event will be held on Saturday, April 18 from 9am – 1pm at S. Burlington High School in S. Burlington, VT.**

We want you to recycle your old electronics responsibly! This year, we have a brand-new location and some new rules, so please pay attention–we will be keeping you updated with all the details in the coming weeks.

**Those with large loads must pre-register with me before the event.** “See our website for more details.”:http://www.smalldog.com/ewaste2009

For more information on our ewaste initiatives, our event, ewaste statistics as well as national ewaste recycling resources, “click here.”:http://smalldog.com/ewaste

*March 2009*

Each class is taught by an Apple Product Professional and features take-home materials.

Mac Basics Level One
“Sun. 3/15/09 5:15pm to 6:45”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/73065
S. Burlington

Mac Basics Level One
“Sun. 3/22/09 5:15pm to 6:45”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/73067
S. Burlington

Mac Basics Level One
“Sun. 3/29/09 5:15pm to 6:45”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/73068
S. Burlington

For a detailed description of our classes, “find out more here.”:http://www.smalldog.com/classes

*Greetings!*

It’s Tony writing to you this month as a first-time contributor to our Best in Showroom newsletter. I am the Waitsfield Sales Manager, in charge of our Waitsfield, VT Retail Store as well as our Web & Phone Sales Departments.

We have a great team of Mac enthusiasts working at our Waitsfield location and you will have the opportunity to meet each of them in upcoming Best in Showroom issues. You may have already spoken to (or exchanged emails with) some of these great folks when you have contacted Small Dog.

We have lots of great changes and promotions planned for the month of March, including all of the previous generation Apple products in at great deals:

* MacBooks from $949.99
* MacBook Airs from $1299.99
* 1st Generation 16GB iPod touches for $229.99

Plus, be sure to check out the selected specials below! As always, come on in to either of our retail stores if you have a question or email us at “sales@smalldog.com”:mailto:sales@smalldog.com. If you’re in the central Vermont area, be sure to make a trip to the Mad River Valley to visit us in person.

Thanks for reading, and hope to see you in the store!

Tony
“tony@smalldog.com”:mailto:tony@smalldog.com

For those who haven’t taken the plunge into the wonderful world of the iPhone and are still “stuck back in the stone age” with the 2nd generation iPod touch, you may have realized that your Pod has no built-in microphone. Luckily, Griffin has released an excellent solution to allow iPod touch owners to record audio directly into the device.

The Griffin SmartTalk has a microphone/remote/headphone jack/shirt clip on one end and a 3.5mm mini audio plug on the other. The mini plug goes right into the headphone jack of your iPod and the headphones you normally wear plug into the end with the little remote and clip.

For the iPod touch users, this allows you to use any app found on the App Store that requires a microphone. (Midomi, Shazam, Fring, iTalk etc…) This accessory also works for the newest iPod nanos and classics, but the mic features are restricted to the built-in voice memo menu. Not only will the SmartTalk allow you to use mic features, but it also has remote functionality.

There is a little gray click button on one end of the wire (as shown in the picture) which allows the user to control his or her iPod without removing it from a pocket or bag. Simply click the button once to play/pause, click twice to skip to the next track, and click three times to go back to the previous track. The device also acts as a headphone wire extender which gives you a few extra feet of wire (helpful for keeping your Pod in your bag while you listen to it.)

All around, the Griffin SmartTalk is a very simple device, but adds some extremely useful functionality for the newest generation iPods.

__NOTE: SmartTalk will only work with the most current generation iPods!__