SELECTED SPECIALS | 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.

This week we have a *Small Dog Refurbished 2008 Time Capsule on sale for only $169.99!*

Time Capsule includes an AirPort Extreme Wi-Fi base station along with a 500GB hard drive. This allows you to wirelessly back up your Mac (via Time Machine + Leopard) or PC, as well as use Time Capsule as a wireless community-shared hard drive! Time Capsule also serves as a network router.

The refurbished Time Capsule doesn’t include any software discs or manuals, but does include the original packaging and (of course) a power cord. You can download all manuals and software directly from Apple by “clicking here.”:http://www.apple.com/support/airport/ For PC users, you can “download Bonjour for Windows here.”:http://support.apple.com/downloads/Bonjour_for_Windows

These have been throughly inspected and tested by our Service Department.

“Perfect for home or office, and only $169.99!”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag19316/

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.

I almost had to turn on the heat last night, it was so chilly. Grace reminded me that it was “against the law” to heat the house in the summer so I just put on a sweater and cuddled up with Hammerhead to stay warm. We are looking forward to some better weather and so are the plants in my garden!

Your Kibbles & Bytes Team,
Don, Kali & Ed

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!__

*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!