SPECIALS | 08/28/09 – 09/08/09

I installed Snow Leopard on my MacBook Pro as soon as possible this morning. Installation took just over 45 minutes. As others have noted, Snow Leopard is sightly (but noticeably) faster and more responsive than Leopard with nice usability touches scattered about. For example, I like having Expose available in the Dock, and I appreciate how windows gathered by Expose are highlighted when moused over. The new contextual menus in the Dock pop are easier to scan. I really like QuickTime X; playback of HD video is silky smooth, and the new minimalist playback pane is excellent.

Bootup time is improved by about 20 seconds, and it’s 20 seconds I can really feel. Also, because of the substantial under-the-hood improvements in Snow Leopard, I expect speed enhancements to be more pronounced in the near future with application and general software updates.

Out of curiosity, I launched an old version PowerPC version of Dreamweaver to see what would happen. Snow Leopard simply asked asked if I wanted to install the Rosetta code required to run older PowerPC apps. I chose not to, to save hard drive space; it’s nice to know I have this option in the future, though I don’t anticipate installing or uing older PowerPC-based software.

We’ll test Snow Leopard in depth and report our findings in a future article!

AppleCare is one of the most outstanding values that Apple has to offer. While Apple products are among the most reliable in the world, mechanical and electrical things do fail from time to time. Apple only provides a 1-year warranty to help keep prices low but offers AppleCare to increase that hardware warranty to three years. Almost anything that will fail in your new Mac will cost more than the cost of AppleCare should it fail outside of the 1-year warranty. That should be reason enough to buy AppleCare but wait, there’s more!

Your new Mac purchase comes with 90 days of free technical support from Apple. This includes support for Apple operating system software, iLife or iWork or connecting to printers and wireless networks. After those 90 days, Apple technical support will ask for your credit card before they will talk to you for any incidents. AppleCare takes that 90-days and extends it to 3 years! This is a fantastic value and gives you peace of mind that you have Apple’s award-winning technical support locked in for the whole three years.

I feel so strongly that AppleCare is a great value that we are having a one-week sale for *Kibbles & Bytes readers only* to reward our subscribers with something that really matters. You haven’t seen prices this low for AppleCare before and we are unlikely to do it again, so if you are on the fence about buying this protection for your Mac, I hope this pushes you over!

*Kibbles & Bytes Exclusives:*

“Save $30: AppleCare Protection Plan for Mac mini”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag19412/at_kb
“Save $35: AppleCare Protection Plan for iMac”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag19413/at_kb
“Save $45: AppleCare Protection Plan for Mac Pro”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag19414/at_kb
“Save $45: AppleCare Protection Plan for MacBook, MacBook Air, 13-in MacBook Pro”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag19415/at_kb
“Save $70: AppleCare Protection Plan for 15/17-in MacBook Pro”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag19416/at_kb

__Offers end Thursday, 9/3. Valid through this link only.__

Our Governor in Vermont, Jim Douglas announced that he is not seeking re-election, which will really throw open the election for next year. I disagree with Governor Douglas in many public policy issues, but I have tremendous respect for him as a public servant and as an individual. We share a passionate love for our state and for Vermonters and that really does transcend politics. We all wish him well.

It looks like rain for this weekend but I hope to get out on the bikes at least a little bit and perhaps I’ll just have to check out one of the fairs in our state. Meanwhile, I have some work to do in my shop at home. I just found a 1970 Norton Commando to restore as a winter project so I want the shop to be ready for some late night mechanics.

Thank you so much for reading this issue of Kibbles & Bytes!

Your Kibbles & Bytes Team,
_Don, Kali & Ed_

_Dear Friends,_

Snow Leopard mania! We’ve been scrambling to get “Snow Leopard upgrades, Snow Leopard Family Packs, Snow Leopard Mac Box Sets and Snow Leopard Mac Box Set Family Packs”:http://www.smalldog.com/snowleopard into stock for the Friday launch. We have the inventory ready to go, so if you placed a pre-order or made the 3PM ET order cut off today, we have started shipping them now!

This is the most affordable upgrade in some time at only $29.99. While there are not the same “wow” applications such as Time Machine in this upgrade, the important “under the hood” changes are significant in terms of stability, speed, security and over-all performance. I highly recommend this very affordable upgrade!

We had a tremendous tax-free holiday here in Vermont. We did about 10% more business this year in a single day than we did in the two-day holiday last year. We had lines at our doors at the opening at 8AM and were answering the phones until midnight. Both stores were jammed and the Small Dog team was on the very top of it game so we had a lot of fun talking to our customers and making sure every customer received personal attention.

I worked up in the S. Burlington store most of the day with my partner, Hammerhead, who served as the official “greeter.” He occupied the kids while the parents shopped. He was so tired when we got home that he crashed out on the couch and didn’t even come to bed at night. It’s his birthday today, by the way, so in honor of that, we’ve put our Hammerhead sleeves on sale (50% off) through the weekend!

“Click here for more details.”:http://www.smalldog.com/search/?find=hammerhead

The first mention of the “F” word was in the weather forecast last night. That is, F as in frost! The low-lying mountain hollows can expect some frost, yikes! We haven’t really had summer yet so now we are in for cooler temps that are normal by the end of August. But hey, it is sweet corn season and Artie took the day off today to help out in haying.

Did you know that it’s possible to burn to one CD or DVD multiple times? The trick is to use the “Leave Disk Appendable” option in Disk Utility, located in the Utilities folder on every Mac. First step is to create a folder and fill it with the stuff you want to burn. From there, open up Disk Utility (*Macintosh HD/Applications/Utilities*), pull down the File Menu, select New, and then Disk Image From Folder in the sub-menu.

When the resulting window opens, find that folder you just created and click the Image button. Select a destination for your image, and click Save. The disk image, ending with .dmg, will shortly appear on your desktop and along the left side of the Disk Utility window. Click once on its icon in Disk Utility, then click the Burn button at the top left of the Disk Utility window.

Here’s the trick: When you click the Burn button, a dialog box will pop up asking you to insert a disc–go ahead and insert the disc, then click the blue triangle on the right side of the window and click the box next to Leave Disk Appendable before hitting Burn. Next time you need to burn a disk, just repeat the process; when you get to the final step, the button will say Append instead of Burn.

We’ll be posting our own review of Snow Leopard next week after we get to spend some quality hands-on time with it. In the meantime, here are some reviews from around the web:

* “Wired.com – 6 Things You Need to Know About Mac OS X Snow Leopard”:http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/08/6-things-snow-leopard/

* “Gizmodo – Snow Leopard Review: Lightened and Enlightened”:http://gizmodo.com/5346418/snow-leopard-review-lightened-and-enlightened

* “Wall Street Journal – Apple Changes Leopard’s Spots”:http://ptech.allthingsd.com/20090826/apple-changes-leopards-spots/

* “New York Times – Apple’s Sleek Upgrade”:http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/27/technology/personaltech/27pogue.html

* “C|Net – Apple Mac OS X Snow Leopard”:http://reviews.cnet.com/macintosh-os/apple-mac-os-x/4505-3673_7-33676737.html?tag=mncol;txt

* “Engadget – Snow Leopard review”:http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/26/snow-leopard-review/

* “Physorg First Look: New Mac ‘Snow Leopard’ software not a dramatic change”:http://www.physorg.com/news170527795.html

And then there’s this ridiculous link-bait article over at PC World. Personally, this makes me glad Small Dog Electronics no longer advertises over there!

“Snow Leopard Is a Pale Imitation of Windows 7”:http://www.pcworld.com/article/170783/snow_leopard_is_a_pale_imitation_of_windows_7.html