FEATURED SPECIAL | 07/10/09 – 07/17/09

We measure our success by the triple bottom line of People, Planet and Profit with our social mission being as important to our success as our commercial goals.

We look at our “money machine” of Small Dog Electronics as a tool to provide livable jobs to our employees, build an extraordinary workplace and to provide the fuel for our social mission by supporting local and national organizations and by continuing our ewaste initiative that allows us to be the only electronics retailer that can boast that we recycle more electronic ewaste than we sell.

Our employees are active in the communities we serve. While we provide a mandatory paid day off to perform community service, we have found that many of our employees put in time well in excess of the company-sponsored community service program.

Our charitable giving program grew out of an employee suggestion and is customer driven. We have a number of “pet charities” that we support by matching customer donations from our active web site.

Our social mission defines our soul and is an essential part of Small Dog Electronics. Our commercial mission supports our social mission and vice versa. It is who we are.

Our friends at “EpikOne”:http://www.epikone.com/summit are about to host their third annual Seminar for Success Summit (formerly OM Boot Camp) in Burlington, Vermont from August 11 to August 14.

The Seminar for Success Summit includes four days of in-depth training on Google’s online marketing suite of tools (Analytics, AdWords, Optimizer and more) from Google experts. This is a great chance to “Ask the Experts” and learn from Google Analytics Authorized Consultants. The final day is a thought leadership event, where participants harvest strategic insights. At night, participants experience the best Vermont has to offer while socializing with peers.

I’m going to attend August 11 to August 14 Seminar for Success Summit, and I can’t wait. Rather than stuffy panels and boring workshops, EpikOne Seminars feature practical, specific action items that can be implemented immediately.

Whether you’re just getting started using Google Analytics or a seasoned veteran ready to take your website performance to the next level, the EpikOne Seminars For Success will help you make the most out of your online efforts.

Request information “by clicking here!”:http://www.epikone.com/summit/request_info

Or, go ahead and register online “by clicking here.”:http://s4s-summit-vt.eventbrite.com/

*Get 25% off any day(s) or full summit by typing “smalldog” into the online discount field when registering!*

EpikOne was selected as one of only five original Google Analytics Authorized Consultants (GAAC’s). EpikOne has since expanded its relationship with Google and is also a Google Enterprise Professional, Website Optimizer Authorized Consultant and AdWords Qualified Company. As a team, EpikOne has successfully propelled client accounts ranging from start-up status to multi-million dollar international conglomerates.

*Tomorrow, July 11, the App Store turns one year old.* To date, well over 1 billion apps have been downloaded from the App Store (Apple celebrated that milestone in April 2009).

In Apple’s own words:

bq. Light a candle and cue the music. Okay, forgive us for sounding like doting parents, but we’re just so proud–having watched the App Store go from promising newcomer to full-fledged revolutionary. To celebrate its first birthday, we’ve gathered some of our favorite games and apps. Part fun. Part function. Entirely amazing.

“See their favorite apps here.”:http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewRoom?fcId=321249751&id=25204&mt=8
“See their favorite games here.”:http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewRoom?fcId=321249752&id=25204&mt=8

“Click here for our Top 10 list of paid apps.”:http://blog.smalldog.com/article/2041/top-10-paid-iphone-apps

Happy Birthday, App Store! Here’s to many more!

_Dear Friends,_

The weather has not been very summery here in the Green Mountains, as we have received a lot of rain and cooler temperatures. This has impacted some farmers who cannot get into their fields to harvest their first cut of hay both because the tractors don’t work that well in mud and because the sun is an important element in hay harvesting. Back when I first moved to Vermont and was a student at Goddard College, I worked at many odd jobs, including helping a French-Canadian farmer with his haying. On a sunny summer day, he would call and say in his heavily accented voice “time to pick up da bales.” I’d gather together a few friends and we would spend a hot summer day loading hay bales onto a trailer and then haul them to his barn and to stack them. Hard work, but a very fond memory.

The 4th of July was wet, too, although the gigantic slug we had for the Prickly Mountain float made it through the parade without getting rained upon. We have some interesting traditions for our float. We cannot come up with the idea more than 4 or 5 days before it is built, it must be people-powered and we have a strict $300 budget. Nevertheless, we have created some amazing floats and usually win the “Best Overall” award. I was inside the slug helping to carry it down the parade route. I haven’t been in the Prickly float for a couple of years since we have ridden our bikes in the parade in support of the local motorcycle rally. This year, I noticed that the inside of our float had been upgraded with duct tape cup holders and other accoutrements.

As you may have heard, the great news is that Steve Jobs is back on the job at Apple. Reports coming from the campus in Cupertino say he is looking good and energetic. While Apple seemed to roll on while Steve was on his medical leave, there is no question that he is the heart and soul of Apple. It is his vision and business sense that have led one of the most remarkable business stories in history. Welcome back, Steve!

In other Apple news, the latest “Guide to Greener Electronics”:http://members.greenpeace.org/blog/greenpeaceusa_blog/2009/07/01/guide_to_greener_electronics_12th_editio from “Greenpeace”:http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/ continues a trend in reversing their pointed criticism of Apple by giving them higher marks. While Dell, HP and others are delaying plans to remove PVC and brominated flame retardants (BFR), Macs are nearly free of PVC and have no BFRs whatsoever. We encourage Apple to continue to lead in this important area!

Today, Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs and GTalk had their beta labels removed.

Gmail, in particular, has been operating in beta mode for a considerable amount of time–it launched in 2004–so it seems Google finally feels ready to release it officially into the wild…?

The beta label clearly doesn’t mean as much as it used to, since there was no big announcement to speak of when the apps switched over from their former mode. They all look and behave the same way they did yesterday, as far as I can tell.

However, there are changes, and they’re aimed specifically at businesses. Google wants their offerings to be viewed as legitimate competitors to Microsoft et al. It’s understandable that no matter how reliable a service may seem, the beta label would still keep many companies from utilizing it on a professional level. Again, Gmail is a good example.

Gmail now has offline access to mail and calendars, among other new features. There’s better contact management for Google Apps and better compatibility with Microsoft Outlook.

“Check out Google’s blog about the topic here.”:http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/google-apps-is-out-of-beta-yes-really.html
“Read more about their changes for enterprise here.”:http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2009/07/paving-road-to-apps-adoption-in-large.html

Check out the apps for yourself:

“Gmail”:http://mail.google.com/mail/help/intl/en/about.html
“Google Calendar”:http://www.google.com/googlecalendar/about.html
“Google Docs”:http://www.google.com/google-d-s/whatsnew.html
“GTalk”:http://www.google.com/talk/about.html

It was a quiet switch, but welcome to life beyond beta, Google Apps!

__P.S. If you really miss it, Google has provided a way for Google Labs users to re-enable the beta label under Settings!__