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_Dear Friends,_

Now that Labor Day is over, we can start looking for signs of autumn. I have spotted Canada geese heading south, the maple tree by my garage has some red leaves and the arctic kiwis are ready for eating. Of course, I notice the days are getting shorter, the mornings are chilly and there is usually a blanket of fog as I head into the valley to come to work. Nevertheless, Tony, Matt and I are going to brave the weather and ride our motorcycles over to Geoff’s “Forest Lake Camp”:http://www.forestlakecamp.com for our management retreat today and tomorrow.

Apple’s “It’s Only Rock and Roll” event was on Wednesday and we were all reading live coverage at various web sites, shouting out the latest announcement as we worked. I wish Apple would go back to a webcast of these events so we could all enjoy the live feed. What other company has this type of following, where announcements of new products are watched with excitement by Apple fans, the press and seemingly, just about everyone? It was great to see Steve Jobs come back on stage with some new products and software but even better to see him well enough to take that leadership role and to talk about his personal gratitude to the donor of his transplanted liver. He says he’s eating like crazy and eating a lot of ice cream. Hopefully, he is filling up on Vermont’s finest Ben & Jerry’s!

I know that Kali and Ed will talk more about the announcements later in Kibbles & Bytes but I want to highlight what I see as the three biggest announcements. One new feature, Home Sharing, is something I have been waiting for and is now in iTunes 9. My wife and I have separate music libraries (and a lot of different musical tastes), but also a wide selection that overlaps. It has been cumbersome to trade songs, even though we authorize each other’s Macs for iTunes. With Home Sharing it is wicked easy to share and update our libraries. Home Sharing displays Grace’s library when we are at home on the same network and the songs that I do not have are highlighted so I can easily copy them. Finally, we do not have to buy the same songs all the time.

I’ll give Apple’s 100 million credit cards on account at the iTunes store the number two position in important announcements. What an amazing asset! I am sure we will see a lot more ways to spend our money at the iTunes store going forward. Number three is the iPod nano. Apple made the nano more compelling, more versatile and more colorful. They hit the sweet spot with the new nano. Now I am going to have to sell my Flip camera–who needs a Flip when you have a device that takes and plays movies, holds thousands of songs and has a built-in FM radio, voice recorder and pedometer?! This is going to be a huge year for the iPod nano!

Just so you don’t think I am a complete Apple fan-boy, I have to give them the thumbs-down for the petty move of making the yellow and Product (red) iPod nano and the special edition stainless steel iPod shuffle exclusive to the Apple Store. It is an unnecessary affront to their loyal independent resellers along the same lines as prohibiting the sale of the iPhone via these same Apple experts.

Loyal Kibbles & Bytes readers: our server has gone a little bonkers in the past few weeks, and many of you have experienced duplicate mailings of Kibbles & Bytes.

We apologize for the inconvenience–we realize you only need __one__ shiny new copy every week. We have been working furiously on this issue, and it should be straightened out by today’s mailing.

If you are still receiving duplicate copies of Kibbles as of today, please contact us at “subscriptions@smalldog.com.”:mailto:subscriptions@smalldog.com

Thank you for your patience!

Hot on the heels of their Snow Leopard release, Apple has made the 10.6.1 update available. Here’s what it features:

* Addresses printer compatibility for printers that do not properly appear in the Add Printer browser. I had this problem last week!
* Fixes an issue that might cause DVD playback to stop unexpectedly
* Fixes a Dock bug that prevented removal of icons from the Dock
* Includes bug fix for account set up and sending mail via SMTP servers in Mail
* Includes bug fix for Sierra Wireless 3G modems
* Addresses an issue in which Motion 4 could become unresponsive
* Adobe Flash Player update (new plug-in version 10.0.32.18) This is especially important, as “Ed referenced last week.”:http://blog.smalldog.com/kibbles/?c=kb636

To download, go to *Software Update…* under the Apple or “click here.”:http://support.apple.com/kb/DL930

We have changed Small Dog Electronic’s fiscal year to match Apple’s, so our year (for financial purposes at least) ends this month. We are holding an off-site management retreat this weekend in Lake George at Uncle Geoff’s holiday camp. We will be planning for 2010 and the busy holiday quarter which will be our first quarter of the next fiscal year this time. I am very grateful to the rest of the Small Dog team who will be holding down the fort and manning the store while we do this essential planning.

Thank you for reading this issue of Kibbles & Bytes!

Your Kibbles & Bytes team,
_Don, Kali & Ed_

The lineup stayed pretty much the same, with a few exceptions: the iPod touch, classic, nano and shuffle are all still around. However, there are some new features worthy of note… here’s a rundown:

*iPod touch*

* *Price changes:* $199 now gets you an 8GB model, and the 16GB has been ditched to make way for the 32GB at the $299 price point. A brand-new 64GB has been added at $399.
* *Games, games, games:* there are over 21K Entertainment titles in the App Store. (That’s a serious amount of games.) Apple is really stepping up the iPod touch (and iPhone) as a gaming device, hoping to compete with Nintendo and Sony. Cool features include gaming with your iPod music in the background and multiplayer options over Bluetooth and WiFi. Gameloft, a presenter, now “ships 35 titles as of today.”:http://ax.search.itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZSearch.woa/wa/search?entity=software&media=all&restrict=true&submit=seeAllLockups&term=gameloft Another game highlight from EA Sports: Madden NFL 10. (As of this posting, it was not yet on the App Store.)
* *Speed increases:* iPod touch will run “Open GL,”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenGL a graphics programming interface, which will make the iPod work and render faster.

“View/purchase iPod touch.”:http://www.smalldog.com/category/x/x/x/Apple|iPod_touch

*iPod classic*

* *More storage:* the hard drive is still around, and Apple has gone back to the 160GB model. With a capacity of 40,000 songs, Apple definitely can’t get rid of the iPod with the biggest storage option just yet–flash memory hasn’t gotten cheap enough.
* *Thinner form factor:* the width measures just 2.4 inches.
* *Same price:* 160GB for $249.

“View/purchase iPod classic.”:http://www.smalldog.com/category/x/x/x/Apple|iPod_classic

*iPod shuffle*

* *New colors:* Pink, Green, Blue (along with Silver and Black). Plus, there’s a polished stainless steel special edition. (Update: Apple Exclusive only, $99)
* *Added capacity:* 2GB and 4GB models at $59.99 and $79.99, respectively.
* *More headphone options:* From Apple: “New headphones will come out and all have the controller for the shuffle.”
* *VoiceOver:* it now tells you when your battery is full, and when it will close the airlock.

“View/purchase iPod shuffle.”:http://www.smalldog.com/category/x/x/x/Apple|iPod_shuffle

And, perhaps the biggest changes of all…

*iPod nano*

* *Built-in video camera:* this is huge!
* *Larger display:* 2.2-inch display is slightly larger than the previous version.
* *Brighter colors:* the glossy colors have been updated, with the Yellow and Red models being held as Apple Exclusives. There are nine total: Silver, Black, Purple, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange, Red and Pink.
* *Built-in pedometer:* will work with the Nike+ and is a great addition to runners and hikers everywhere.
* *FM radio*
* *VoiceOver:* it will tell you who’s singing without interrupting your music, plus additional voice features.
* *Price points:* 8GB for $149, 16GB for $179.

“View/purchase iPod nano.”:http://www.smalldog.com/category/x/x/x/Apple|iPod_nano