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

For the past few days, I’ve been attending both the Interactive and Film Festivals at South By Southwest in Austin, Texas. It’s been an inspiring, educational, and amazingly fun experience. This is the first extended trip I’ve taken with an iPhone 3G. It’s proven to be far more useful than I ever expected, in almost every way.

From getting around town, to keeping up to date with SXSW’s complicated and ever-evolving schedule, to getting locations and reviews of restaurants, to staying on top of business at home, to taking notes, to updating and reading Twitter feeds, the iPhone has hardly left my hand. That became especially true when my digital camera inexplicably stopped working, leaving me with only the iPhone’s built-in (and admittedly mediocre) camera.

In a hyper-connected setting like SXSW, the iPhone (or iPod touch or other brand of powerful smartphone) is practically essential. For example, Twitter has usurped the role of business cards here. Don’t get me wrong, cards are still exchanged at lightning speed and face-to-face time is as important as ever. Yet the ability to use your iPhone-Twitter-application-of-choice to instantly connect and follow other people and businesses has proved (to me) to be extremely useful.

After this intense period of dedicated, on-the-spot use, I only have two complaints about the iPhone (and neither has to do with the lack of cut and paste). One is that the battery could be a lot better. At home it’s easy to keep it charged up, and there have been plenty of open outlets and opportunities for charging here. However, there were two times when the battery was finally exhausted at the end of my day.

We’ll post a top ten tips for maximizing your iPhone’s battery next week.

In the meantime, before my next long trip I am definitely buying the “TruePower iV Extended Battery and Portable Charger for iPhone 2G/3G and iPod touch”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/73133 It claims to offer up to 24 hours of talk time, is compact, and is very nicely built (in the USA no less).

Second, I wish the iPhone had a better camera. The iPhone’s camera is mostly “good enough,” but it would be a revelation to have a three (or why not, five or seven) megapixel camera built in. A flash and the ability to capture video would be even better. Imagine being able to truly leave your digital camera at home! I did end up taking many iPhone photos since that was my only option. I enjoyed the option to instantly upload these to my Flickr page. I have to admit, there were a couple late-night instant uploads I deleted first thing the morning after.

Another nice feature of the “TruePower iV Extended Battery for iPhone”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/73133 is that it actually has a built in flash. I’m definitely getting one before my next trip!

*Currently on the road at SXSW!*

For a limited time, get free shipping on the TruePower iV Battery and Portable Charger for iPhone 2G/3G and iPod touch.

* Extended Battery adds up to 24 hours of talk time
* Allows Charging using the Dock Connector
* Adds a flash to your iPhone’s camera
* Will feel just like your old cell phone from the ’90s or your cordless phone!

At Tuesday’s iPhone 3.0 event in Cupertino, CA, Apple announced changes to the iPhone software and a new version of the Apple Developer Kit. Here’s a rundown of what we can expect:

*For End-Users*

* *Cut and Paste capabilities.* To copy and select, users will double-tap (or tap and drag to select longer parts of text) and then paste. It will work between applications.
* Spotlight searching.* Big news! Now you can search your Mail: To, From, Subject and Entire Message, just like in Apple Mail. Calendar, Notes and even iPod will support the search feature as well.
* *Landscape Orientation.* All main applications will be able to support landscape orientation. Safari already features this, as well as many other third-party apps. (My husband will definitely appreciate this since he hates the small typepad!)
* *MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) support.* Users will be able to send and receive photos, audio files and contact info. Plus, the new Messages application will be able to forward and delete messages (either individually or multiples) in addition to its MMS support.
* *Shake-to-Shuffle.* Now, shaking your iPhone or iPod touch will shuffle your music–a key feature in the iPod nano and iPod shuffle.

Other features include automatic updating, networking/sharing between iPhones/iPod touches (see below), Parental Controls, YouTube enhancements and more. It’s also been reported that the iPhone also will be able to support new accessories, such as FM transmitters.

“See Apple’s iPhone OS page
here.”:http://www.apple.com/iphone/preview-iphone-os/
“Read Apple’s press release here.”:http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2009/03/17iphone.html

* *Available this summer* (no further details at this time)
* *Free for iPhone users; $10 for iPod touch users*

*For Developers*

* *More than 1,000 programming interfaces for the iPhone.* That way, they’ll have more ways to create feature-rich applications for the App Store.
* *Peer to Peer Connectivity,* This new framework allows any application to communicate between devices using Bluetooth. Gamers will be able to add a multi-player experience and others will be able to share data between devices.
* *Apple Push Notification service.* Apple is now allowing third-party apps to utilize their “push” service–users will be alerted to new information even when the application isn’t running.
* “See the full list of features in the iPhone SDK here.”:http://developer.apple.com/iphone/program/sdk.html

We’ll update with more info as soon as we hear it!

Ever wonder where those pesky specials characters that aren’t written on your keyboard (e.g. ¢, ©, ®, ™) are when you’re writing? They’re all listed in Character Palette–part of OS X.

Easy access can be found either as a part of your other Apple Apps (such as Mail, TextEdit, Stickies, etc.) or in the International panel of System Preferences. (System Preferences > International > Input Menu)

If you find that you use these symbols a fair amount and would like to see them quickly, check the Character Palette checkbox and “Show input menu in menu bar.” The latter will display a little flag icon in the top righthand corner of your menu bar (how patriotic!).

Another tip for finding some symbols that you use more than others is to remember the keyboard shortcuts. Here’s a cheatsheet for my most popular ones:

* Accent Acute (´): Option-E
* Bullet (•): Option-8
* Cent (¢): Option-4
* Copyright (©): Option-G
* Degree (˚): Option-K
* Registered (®): Option-R
* Trade Mark (™): Option-2

And, for Mac users, one we’ve mentioned before and use a lot of: the Apple symbol (): Shift-Option-K

Note that fonts may handle characters differently!

_Dear Friends,_

Well it is official, it became spring at 7:44AM today. There is still snow in the yard and the roads are muddy but winter is over. The signs of spring are evident from the Robin I spotted in my yard this morning to the crocus buds pushing through the snow. The river is high but the gradual warming has limited the ice jams and we have not had any serious flooding yet (knocking heavily on my wood desk).

With spring comes some heightened activity on our annual Earth Day eWaste recycling day, which will be April 18th this year. We have moved the event to the local high school because last year we pretty much shut down the whole area with traffic as cars were backed up in both directions with people waiting patiently to drop off their ewaste. This year we have support from Apple, Ben & Jerry’s, Green Mountain Coffee, SymQuest, 7th Generation, Chittenden Bank, Canon, Chroma Technology, the Chittenden Solid Waste District and our new recycling partner WeRecycle.

WeRecycle is one of only a handful of eWaste recyclers that has signed the “Basel Action Network’s”:http://ban.org/ e-Stewards Recycler’s Pledge of True Stewardship and has met the strict BAN criteria for ewaste recycling. (e-Stewards website: “www.e-stewards.org”:http://www.e-stewards.org/) We collected over 130 tons of eWaste last year in our 4-hour event, making it the largest one-day event in the USA. This volume also allowed us to be the first and only electronics retailer to be able to claim that we recycle more ewaste than we sell each year.

I am proud to report that the Vermont Retail Association gave us the Greentailer of the Year award yesterday at a ceremony and lunch in Burlington. We are very proud to be recognized for our commitment to one of our bottom lines–planet!

Apple announced the iPhone 3.0 software on Tuesday and the new features include much-desired options such as tethering (using your iPhone as a modem for your Mac), cut and paste, open core location (permitting turn-by-turn GPS) and MMS support. With over 100 new features and 1000 new APIs for developers, this is a major advancement in the iPhone and iPod touch platform that will make it even more compelling and will open the door for additional devices to take advantage of the power and versatility of the software, App Store and Apple’s hardware (more below).

And just in case you were wondering, nope, we still are not allowed to sell the iPhone. It is a constant source of customer inquiry and frustration. It is somewhat unbelievable that Apple feels that a customer would have a better experience at Walmart or Best Buy than at Small Dog Electronics or the other Apple Specialists. We will keep asking, pleading and cajoling Apple and perhaps one of these days, they will see the light.