SPECIALS | 09/03/09 – 09/10/09

Beginning Tuesday, September 15, start looking for a special wooden apple at select Vermont pick-your-own orchards. In partnership with the VT Departments of…

For readers of Kibbles & Bytes, this week we’re offering 10% savings on both the “1TB”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag19422/atXX/ and “2TB”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag19423/Apple Time Capsule. We’re also offering free shipping on the “Small Dog Refurbished 500GB base station,”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag19421/
which was recently reduced to just $149.99.

Time Capsule is Apple’s innovative Wi-Fi AirPort Base Station that includes a built-in hard drive. This drive allows for simple wireless file sharing at home or in an office, but it also allows for automatic wireless backup on Macs running Leopard or Snow Leopard.

Apple says that Snow Leopard makes Time Machine up to 80 percent faster and reduces the time it takes to complete your initial backup to Time Capsule. Several of the reviews I’ve read about Snow Leopard note that Time Capsule backups are speedier than they were under Leopard, but I’ve not yet seen hard numbers in this regard.

Many Small Dog Electronics employees use Time Capsule to keep their Macs backed up at home. Likewise, Small Dog has many customers who are happily (and seamlessly) using Time Capsule at home and in their businesses.

“Save 10% – Apple Time Capsule 1TB Dualband (2009) – Just $269.99 (normally $299.99) plus FREE shipping!!”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag19422/atXX/

“Save 10% – Apple Time Capsule 2TB Dualband (2009) – Just $449.99 (normally $499.99) plus FREE shipping!”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag19423/

“Apple Time Capsule 500GB – Small Dog Refurbished, Just $149.99 plus FREE Shipping (price reductions for $249.99)!”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag19421/

We’re still prepping for our Famous Semi-Annual Garage Sale, set to happen two weeks from now, on September 18! “Click here to read more about the Garage Sale.”:http://www.smalldog.com/garagesale

*WHEN:* Tuesday, 9/18, beginning at 8AM ET.

*WHERE:* “http://www.smalldog.com/garagesale”:http://www.smalldog.com/garagesale

Next week, we’ll be posting the entire sale list, as always.

__In the meantime,__ if you’re in the market for a 17″ (or larger, if you have a PC) notebook sleeve, *we’re offering our neoprene Hammerhead sleeves for FREE* (you only pay shipping). The fit is a tad large for the 17″ MacBook Pro, so they’re ideal if you also want to protect it with a fitted case (“such as a Speck case”:http://www.smalldog.com/search/?find=17in+speck), or if you have a bulkier laptop.

Stay tuned!

After Snow Leopard was released last week, several people have written in to learn how to figure out if their Mac was ready for the upgrade. That’s because Snow Leopard will only run on Intel Macs with at least 1GB of RAM (though 2GB or higher is recommended) and a DVD drive.

It’s very easy to determine your Mac’s specs. Once you determine these specs, I recommend writing them down for future reference. First, click on the Apple in the upper left corner of your Mac’s screen. Then click “About This Mac.” You will now have a screen that shows your Mac’s software version, processor speed, and (at least in Leopard), your Mac’s memory. If you click the text that shows your software Version (for example, version 10.4.5 or version 10.5.6), the text will transform to reveal your Mac’s serial number.

If you click “more info,” you will get a more comprehensive overview of system specs. The important information here includes your Mac’s serial number, processor type and speed, amount of installed memory, hard drive size and type (ATA or Serial-ATA), optical drive type (which is under ATA), and type of graphics card. Write these down and save for future reference. It can make upgrading to new software or hardware a little easier, and you’ll thank yourself in the morning.

I think we’ll have to make one more pilgrimage to Onion Flats before they close this weekend, but I’ll have to sacrifice some of my allotted carbs and calories. My nurse practitioner gave me some strict orders yesterday on managing my diabetes since I was getting out of control. So, I am back to counting calories and carbs trying to get my blood sugar and my weight down.

I found some excellent apps for the iPhone that will help. “Tap & Track Calorie, Weight & Exercise Tracker”:http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=307749752&mt=8 ($2.99) has a huge database of foods with nutritional data and “Blood Sugar”:http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=302554655&mt=8 ($.99) is a great little utility to record my sugars that can also email the data and charts and graphs.
__Lose It! is also great app to manage food and exercise. Review in a future Kibbles & Bytes. – Editor__

I hope the you enjoy this long holiday weekend and thank you so much for reading this issue of Kibbles & Bytes. I hope that you find it useful and informative!

Your Kibbles & Bytes Team,
_Don, Kali & Ed_

_Dear Friends,_

It is hard to believe that it is September already. There are already a few maple trees changing color as we head into the last couple official weeks of summer. This coming Labor Day weekend is truly a weekend of change. The students are all back at school, school buses are present in the morning as I make my way on the back roads to work.

I have one of the most pleasurable commutes; many times I do not see any cars until I get to Route 100. This time of year, I take the Waitsfield Common road through the covered bridge and past the neighboring Neil farm, which is now sporting a homemade sweet corn sign.

We will be closed on September 7th so our employees can enjoy Labor Day. The website will be up and operating and orders taken over the long weekend will ship out on Tuesday.

The first Labor Day in the US was born out of the violent Pullman strikes in 1882. President Grover Cleveland made reconciliation with labor his top legislative priority and rushed through the national holiday. Maybe we’ll have a Health Day soon if our current President is able to get true health care reform passed.

Many of the drive-ins close on Labor Day for the season including my favorite over in Bristol–Onion Flats. They have the best fried whole belly clams in the state and it is a perfect short motorcycle ride over the mountain. Labor Day does celebrate the productivity of our workers that have made our country strong.

Honest Abe said it best:
__”If any man tells you he loves America, yet hates labor, he is a liar. If any man tells you he trusts America, yet fears labor, he is a fool.”__
-Abraham Lincoln

Do you back up your work? There are so many times that customers come in for repairs where their hard drives have had a catastrophic failure and weeks and/or years of irreplaceable data has been lost. Sometimes our friends over at DriveSavers can retrieve the data, but it comes at a very high price.

You can avoid this easily if you have a Mac running Snow Leopard. Time Machine is one of the most innovative and important pieces of Apple’s operating system. With an external hard drive or a Time Capsule, you can rest assured that your data is safe and being constantly being updated. We have some great bargains right now on external LaCie hard drives and have Time Capsules from 500GB to the new 2TB units in stock for immediate delivery!

With the rapid conversion of photos and music and video to digital format, it is more important than ever to make sure you have a reliable and automatic backup system in place.