It’s been a while since our last “App of the Week,”:http://blog.smalldog.com/kibbles/?c=kb627 so we figured it was time for another one.

Going forward, due to the large number of apps out there (and the fact that there are so many great ones), we’re going to be highlighting one app (most) every week. Hey, we may even alternate with our Site of the Week feature!

This week’s App of the Week is “myPANTONE,”:http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=329515634&mt=8 from–who else, but the color masters themselves–Pantone. “Pantone colors,”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantone for those of you who aren’t familiar, are the gold standard for color matching. The company developed the Pantone Color Matching (PMS) System to standardize colors for print.

myPANTONE gives users the ability to create color palettes on the iPhone/iPod touch. Anyone who has ever been inspired by the sights of a vacation destination or even every day life on-the-go will appreciate this app.

With the myPANTONE app, you can:

* Create color palettes of up to 5 colors
* Create up to 10 palettes at a time
* Extract colors from photos (awesome for the iPhone)
* Email colors and palettes*
* Post new palettes on Twitter and Facebook
* GPS tagging of palettes
* Auto-generate harmonious palettes
* View palettes on various backgrounds

And more… Plus, Pantone offers a myPANTONE section of their website where registered users can use the forum to share their creative inspirations, talk shop and sync data from their iPhone/iPod touch.

It’s important to note that the colors as viewed on your mobile device are not necessarily color-accurate for printing, so it’s no replacement for an actual Pantone color guide. However, it’s been a convenient and fun way for me to brainstorm and just play around with colors and color palettes. (Good thing I have the job I do, because I get as excited about color “as I do about fonts…”:http://blog.smalldog.com/kibbles/?c=kb624)

*Bottom line: myPANTONE is a must-have for designers or color lovers!*

*myPANTONE*
*$9.99*

» “Buy it on iTunes.”:http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=329515634&mt=8
» “View the Pantone website.”:http://www.pantone.com/pages/pantone/index.aspx
» “Register for a myPANTONE account.”:http://www.pantone.com/pages/MYP_myPantone/mypantone.aspx

__*I *just* used this yesterday when I emailed Don the Pantone colors for our new Hammerhead sleeves. Coming soon…__

_Dear Friends,_

It’s Kali writing for Don “(or 唐/Táng)”:http://www.chinese-tools.com/names/search.html this week. Our fearless leader is still abroad in China (“at least, that’s his story and he’s sticking to it”:http://blog.smalldog.com/kibbles/?c=kb641), so Ed and I continue to cover the news over here.

“View the newest round of Don’s trip photos on Flickr.”:http://www.flickr.com/photos/smalldog/

In obligatory weather news, Vermont received an early dusting of snow this week, which prompted both cheers and grumbles in the office. There was no shortage of documentation of the fresh snow Tuesday morning, as Brian “took some photos”:http://blog.smalldog.com/article/first-snow-photos-from-brian-shippee/ and Ed made a “short video on his iPod nano.”:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DK8p2pq9cI

And just as quickly as the snow melted in the Valley, we got back to work (that is, until we were distracted by “balloon boy…”:http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/10/15/colorado.boy.balloon/index.html). After all, the busiest time of the year is almost upon us. Before we jump the gun on the holiday season, though, there are some highlights of fall that we don’t want you to miss.

The “Apples to iPods Event,”:http://www.vermontvacation.com/farms/apple_contest.asp the annual contest sponsored in partnership with the Vermont Departments of Tourism and Agriculture (and this year, Woodchuck Cider), is still going strong, with several iPods still left to win! If you’re nearby, we encourage you to head out to a Vermont apple orchard for your chance to win (and grab some delicious apples before the season ends). “Read details here.”:http://www.vermontvacation.com/farms/apple_contest.asp

Our “Annual Garage Sale”:http://www.smalldog.com/garagesale is also winding down, but there’s still time to buy before it ends this Sunday at midnight. We have added some new products and lowered prices in the last week, and we’re hoping to clear out as much as we can! “See all items here.”:http://www.smalldog.com/garagesale

Plus, just because we like giving things away as a way of saying “thank you” to our customers, we’re having a *Facebook/Twitter/newsletter contest over the next two weeks.* Also, remember that we’re giving away a t-shirt to two people a week who write reviews of a purchase until the end of the month. See below for details!

Of course our annual Halloween Costume Contest is coming up at the end of the month–we’ll be dressing up Friday, October 30, since Halloween is on a Saturday this year–where we’ll be holding a contest both for our own best-dressed (as voted by you, our customers) and a lucky voter! “Get geared up by checking out costumes of years past here.”:http://www.flickr.com/photos/smalldog/sets/72157608539879461/ Prizes and details to come.

Now on to Mac news, tips and specials…

There are several easy-to-use solutions for emailing very large files (files that are larger than 20MB.) “Dropbox”:https://www.getdropbox.com and “YouSendIt”:http://www.yousendit.com are among the most popular solutions. However Apple’s MobileMe service has an excellent, easy-to-use service for uploading and emailing large files. If you already use MobileMe (or are considering using it) I recommend giving this a try. I’ve been using it to send in large production files (including uncompressed video files) for my work here at Small Dog Electronics. I also use it to send large files to friends and family.

It’s easy to use. First, upload the file you want to share to your iDisk. You can do this from the iDisk desktop client or via a web browser, directly from “Me.com/idisk”:http://www.me.com/idisk. You can place the file in any folder or even create a new folder. Note that you’re limited to a 1GB upload if you choose to upload a file to iDisk via your web browser. This limit is not in place if you use iDisk’s desktop client (which is available for Mac and PC) to upload a file.

To email a link to the file, go to “Me.com/idisk”:http://www.me.com/idisk and login to your MobileMe account. Click on the iDisk icon and browse to the file you’d like to share. You will see a button that says “Share File…” If you click this file, a dialog box opens to enter the recipient’s email address along with a box where you can write a message. There are also options for setting an expiration date on the link.

Finally, there’s an option for setting a password on the shared file. Note that if you place the file in your Public folder, the file will be available for anyone to download directly from your Public iDisk URL (http://public.me.com/username). If the file is private, make sure NOT to place it in your Public Folder–place it in Documents, Photos, etc. Only the Public folder has a public URL; the other folders are hidden. So, if I uploaded a tax form that I wanted to share with my partner, I’d put it my Documents iDisk folder, navigate to “Me.com/idisk,”:http://www.me.com/idisk and send them a password-protected link to the tax file.

It might sound a little complicated, but in practice it’s very easy to use. If you already have MobileMe, give it a try. You can also activate a 60-day MobileMe demo to try it out. If you want to purchase MobileMe, we’re offering it for “$69.99, plus an additional $30 off if purchased with a new Mac.”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag19405/

This week’s featured special is very simple. We’re offering a Line-in Auto Kit for iPhone or iPod, which includes a PowerUP Car Charger and free 18-inch line-in audio cable with free shipping for this week only. This is a solution for charging your iPod or iPhone’s battery while connecting it to a cars audio system with line-in.

“Line-in Auto Kit for iPhone or iPod: PowerUP Car Charger, FREE 18-inch line-in cable, FREE Shipping, Just $19.99”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag19498!

*Random Facebook, Twitter and newsletter winners!*
For the next two weeks, we are going to be giving away an iPod gift pack to a random winner (three total) from our “Facebook fans,”:http://www.facebook.com/pages/Small-Dog-Electronics/18904017006 “Twitter followers”:http://twitter.com/hellosmalldog and our “newsletter subscribers.”:http://www.smalldog.com/newsletters#subscriptions

If you’re not already in our Facebook group, you can join here:
“Small Dog Electronics on Facebook.”:http://www.facebook.com/pages/Small-Dog-Electronics/18904017006

__Not on Facebook?__ “Sign up here.”:http://www.facebook.com

Do you use Twitter? We post Mac tips, tricks, news, contests and more on our Twitter feed. “Click here to follow us on Twitter.”:http://twitter.com/hellosmalldog

Of course, many thanks to all of you who read our newsletters every week. We couldn’t have these contests without our loyal customers!

*Write a product review, win a t-shirt!*
Have you recently purchased a product from Small Dog? If so, tell us about it. We’re looking for you to write a review of the products you receive.

For the month of October, we’re going to reward two lucky reviewers a week with a t-shirt and frisbee bundle. We’re looking for solid, honest and helpful reviews, whether you liked the product or not; we just want you to give us some feedback and tell us why!

To get started, find you product on our website and click the Reviews tab. There, you’ll be prompted to write a review. Be sure to provide your accurate email address so that we can contact you if you’ve won!

We’re basing our winning selections on the quality of the review–either it’s informative, makes us laugh or both, so go start writing.

We’ll be announcing the winners in our 11/6 issue of Kibbles & Bytes. Good luck!