Computer to TV: Can We Talk?

*Save an extra $50 off of the $100 you’re already saving on the closeout aluminum MacBook bundle!*

This week, save a total of $150 off the 2.0GHz aluminum MacBook with 160GB hard drive and 4GB RAM (upgraded from 2GB RAM), plus 3-Year AppleCare Protection Plan and free Hammerhead reversible neoprene protection sleeve.

Plus, there’s free shipping and no sales tax on orders that ship out of Vermont!

_Dear Friends,_

I’m back in the beautiful (but soaked) Green Mountains. We had a wonderful trip through the south and had great visits to three extraordinary Apple Specialists: Springboard Media in Philadelphia, PA, PeachMac in Athens, GA and MacAuthority in Nashville, TN.

In between, we had some extraordinary motorcycle riding and a lot of fun. One unique thing in our industry is the level of cooperation and collaboration between Apple Specialists. There is a lot of sharing of ideas and best practices and I have always found my colleagues in this industry to be willing partners in making our businesses better.

Both MacAuthority and PeachMac were gearing up for their tax-free holidays and we are starting to stock up for our August 22nd tax holiday here in Vermont. On that day only, Vermonters will not have to pay tax on their purchases up to $2,000. We are stocking up with products and even if you are not in Vermont to save the tax, we will have some great bargains and bundles for that day. See our “Tax Holiday FAQ here.”:http://www.smalldog.com/taxholiday

I had an experience of extraordinary customer service on my way into Philly. My motorcycle lost its clutch. I’d pull on the lever and nothing would happen. This is not a problem when you are moving, but try getting a motorcycle going once it has stopped! I thought I had broken a cable, but when I realized that I had a hydraulic clutch, I knew it was more serious. Using my GPS, I located the nearest Victory dealer who just happened to be open on a Sunday afternoon and who volunteered to pull a slave cylinder off of a new motorcycle so that we would be able to get on our way. Paws up to “Rollin’ Fast Cycle”:http://www.rollinfast.com/index.htm in Lebanon, NJ–they get it!

I missed a few new product announcements while I was on the road–Final Cut Studio, Logic and the 2TB Time Capsule–and learned that “deflagrates” is a financial term as referenced in Ed’s coverage of Apple’s spectacular quarterly financials results.

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about “Growl, a notification system for OS X.”:http://blog.smalldog.com/kibbles/?c=kb629 While some of you may have mixed feelings about Growl (I hear you, Mac!), there’s a growing number of people who want to get more out of the push notification technology on their mobile devices.

“Prowl”:http://prowl.weks.net/ is a companion to Growl for the iPhone or iPod touch. Arguably, Prowl is more useful than Growl because people who really care about these notifications want them on the go!

An overview of Prowl’s features:

*Infinitely extensible*
Prowl is as expandable as Growl is.

*Push notifications*
As soon as a Growl notification pops up on your computer, Prowl will forward it to your iPhone or iPod touch over the push notification service found in iPhone OS 3.0.

*Simple, elegant list*
Prowl provides a clean list of all the Growl notifications sent to it from your computer.

*Easily send links to your iPhone*
Whether you need to call a phone number or visit a website, Prowl will link the notifications it displays inside the Growl notifications.

*Customized display of notifications*
Prowl’s Growl plugin can be configured to only send the most important notifications to your iPhone, or any level which you want.

To make everything work, you’ll need to register on the Prowl server. Then, you’ll need to allow push notifications on your iPhone (if you haven’t already).

Some of the best things about Prowl are the preference settings. You have a lot of control over what messages you’ll see popping up on your phone, and one of the most useful features is that you’re able to set a priority for your notifications.

That way, you can avoid seeing messages any less important than “emergency” if you so choose (Prowl will only send notifications that have “at minimum the priority you’ve chosen”).

Prowl is free and works with Growl-compatible operating systems: Mac OS X (10.4+) and Windows (using Growl for Windows or Snarl).

“Read more about Prowl.”:http://prowl.weks.net/faq.php
“Install Prowl.”:http://prowl.weks.net/installation.php
“Download Growl.”:http://growl.info/index.php

*Next week: Fluid, a way to bring your web apps to your desktop.*

It is truly the “dog days of summer”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog_Days now with the county fair season heating up and sweet corn starting to be in season here in Vermont. There was sweet corn just about everywhere else as we were riding home on our trip, but when we got to Vermont, none could be found yet at the farm stands. The massive amount of rain and clouds in July have delayed a lot of crops.

On Tuesday, I just got tired of it and after work, hopped on my motorcycle and vowed to ride until I found some sweet corn. Fortunately, I didn’t have to go too far; corn was available in Montpelier, VT!

Thank you for reading this issue of Kibbles & Bytes!

Your Kibbles & Bytes team,
_Don & Kali_

We got some great responses to last week’s article, “iPhones Go Academic: One School’s Experiment.”:http://blog.smalldog.com/kibbles/?c=kb631

Marisa writes,

__”It’s so much easier to sit in large lectures with my iPhone recording. I end up taking notes, too, but I know that if there’s anything I missed, I’ll have it.”__

Kevin writes,

__”I’m always using it to document life on campus. Between the camera, video (I have a 3GS) and microphone, I have everything I need to remember what life was like in college! My friends who work on the school’s website often ask me for files they can put in the student life section.”__

Lu writes,

__”I’ve been teaching 1st grade for 31 years… love technology and LOVE Apple! Last year, one of my students was autistic, and difficult to motivate. None of my usual rewards would work and get him to complete his work or improve his behavior. That is, until I offered to let him use my iPhone as a reward!__

__Once I realized THAT using the iPhone was an ultimate reward for him, I added some games to the iPhone. He also LOVED music and was quite the singer, so I added an entire playlist on it for him, too. (Silly me–I added the bowling game app on it and it quickly became one of his favorite games to use–until my iPhone was sent flying across the room when he accidentally ‘let go’ of it while bowling.) It was then I realized I cold no longer let him use the iPhone and I wrote a grant for an iPod touch. He never knew the difference!__

__He was allowed to earn the reward 2x/day, and for the last 6 months of the school year, he worked hard on his school work and behavior in order to use the touch. After I added a few 2-player games on the touch, I allowed him to choose a friend to play with him during his reward time with the touch and I started to notice his social interactions with classmates improved tremendously, too!”__

Thanks for your feedback!

“If you have a comment about how you use your iPhone for academics, tell us here.”:http://blog.smalldog.com/article/one-school-s-experiment-free-iphones-for-students/#comment