ByMike Moffit

Dear Friends,

This week it’s Ed writing for Don, who is away at Apple headquarters (the mothership) in Cupertino, California. For no discernible reason, I can’t help but say “Cupertino” with a sort of surfer, “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” Spicoli voice. Beyond the iconic main campus at 1 Infinite Loop, Apple is building an additional 50-acre campus in Cupertino. Cupertino is in the heart of Silicon Valley and is home to many high-tech companies besides Apple.

Don is out there to give a presentation about Small Dog Electronics to a group of Apple executives and managers. I don’t think he was nervous about the presentation; as he says, “If I can’t talk about Small Dog for forty-five minutes then I can’t talk about anything!”

After the presentation in Cupertino, Don is going over to the Macworld Expo in San Francisco. Macworld is a smaller event with less press this year, since Apple isn’t headlining the event with a keynote or new product announcements. However, Macworld is still a vital event for the Apple community. Major new third-party Mac products are introduced and previewed there, seminars and classes happen there, and a constellation of Apple stars and celebrities gather there.

I get most of my Macworld-related news from Macworld Magazine (which is featuring their “2010 Best of Show winners” which you can see here), Mac|Life Magazine, and Tuaw.com. All of these sites also have active Twitter feeds with up-to-date news from Macworld.

On Tuesday morning, Apple’s online store went offline, which is typically a sign that new products would be released. For a couple of hours, the Internet was abuzz with speculation—would it be new MacBooks? A new Apple Hi-fi? A Mac mini maxi? It ended up being the release of Aperture 3, which was still exciting. I was very glad to see it—it reassured me that Apple is still committed to developing its higher-end and professional applications. Matt Klein gives a brief overview of Aperture below. Next week Kali (our in-house pro photographer) will write a much more comprehensive hands-on review.

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  • Announcing Aperture 3

    This week, Apple announced Aperture 3, the long-awaited updated to its prosumer photo editing and management application. There are over 200 new features, many of which borrow from and expand on features found in iPhoto ’09.

    It’s been two years since the release of Aperture 2, and this new version is a sleek balance between evolution and revolution. Aperture 3 combines powerful performance with iPhoto simplicity to help you refine images, showcase your photography, and manage massive libraries on your Mac.

    The 200 new features and enhancement will help take your photography to the next level. Edge-aware, nondestructive brushes will help apply or remove adjustments; adjustment presets will give your images a custom look or emulate a variety of camera types and processing styles; advanced slidewhows will help create beautiful slideshows that weave together photos and HD video clips; full-screen browsing takes advantage of every last pixel on beautiful Apple displays; and upgraders from iPhoto will appreciate that Faces, Places, and all metadata will be preserved when importing an iPhoto library.

    “Download a 30-day trial of Aperture 3 here.”:http://www.apple.com/aperture/trial/

  • Year of the Tiger

    Speaking of iCal… this Sunday marks the start of the Chinese New Year–the Year of the Tiger. The Chinese New Year changes every year, so if you don’t want to miss it in the future, subscribe to it via iCal.

    “Download the Chinese Holiday Calendar for iCal here.”:http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/calendars/chinesepublicholidaycalendar_appleinc.html

    “See all of Apple’s iCal Calendars here.”:http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/calendars/

    __So, what are “Tigers” like, anyway?__

    bq.The Tiger is said to be lucky vivid, lively and engaging. Another attribute of the Tiger is his incredible bravery, evidenced in his willingness to engage in battle or his undying courage. Maybe he’s so brave because he is so lucky. But the Chinese say a Tiger having a Tiger in the house is the very best protection against the evils of fire, burglary.

    (Small Doggers Katie, Ed, Jaime and Grace are Tigers… fitting?)

    “Source”:http://www.usbridalguide.com/special/chinesehoroscopes/Tiger.htm

    __Thinking about Valentine’s Day instead?__ “Download our iMix from the iTunes Store!”:http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewIMix?id=305467955&s=143441

  • Cheer On Your Favorites With Cowbell2010

    Everyone is buzzing about the “2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics”:http://www.vancouver2010.com/ starting tonight. Some people love to watch Alpine Skiing, Figure Skating or the Luge. This year the Olympic Games are being held right in our own backyard, plus we have a lot of contenders, so it’s especially exciting.

    “Cowbell2010”:http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cowbell2010/id349213072?mt=8 is your perfect new app for the iPhone or iPod touch. This new app is created by “Rage Digital”:http://www.ragedigitalinc.com/ and it allows you to cheer for your home country while watching this year’s Winter Olympics.

    Cowbell2010 also lets you follow hundreds of tweets from athletes all over the world. It has a real-time medal counter and even a “Live Wall” so you can share photos and text your experiences with all of your Facebook and other Cowbell2010 friends.

    At only .99 cents, it’s a cool and affordable app to keep track of all of the Olympic excitement!

  • Like Kali, I can’t wait to start watching the Winter Olympics tonight. I’ll be rooting for the US teams, with a special focus on snowboarding (even though I broke a rib snowboarding at the start of the season).

    Burton Snowboards is a major sponsor of the US Snowboarding team. Burton is also one of Small Dog Electronics’ major local business partners. Their world headquarters is around the “block” from my house, and some of my best friends work there. It’s the global market leader in snowboard sales, but is still run by its founder (and snowboard pioneer) Jake Burton Carpenter. Having a local connection makes watching the Olympics competition even more exciting.

    I hope you all get a chance to enjoy the games, and I hope you have a great weekend!

    Your Kibbles & Bytes Team,
    _Ed, Kali, Matt, Katie, & JJ_

  • FEATURED SPECIAL | 02/12/10 – 02/19/10

    This week we refreshed our coupon page with some great new coupons. For example:

    * Use coupon code “clearance” to get 10% off any “clearance items”:http://www.smalldog.com/specials.

    * Get free shipping on all “AppleCare”:http://www.smalldog.com/category/x/x/x/Apple|AppleCare on top of our already low AppleCare prices ($20 – $100 lower than Apple’s prices) with coupon code “applecare.”

    * Use coupon code “chillpillcoupon” to get $5 off any “Chill Pill Mobile Speakers.”:http://www.smalldog.com/chill-pill-audio

    * 10% Off all Apple Software – use coupon code “softserve10”

    See all coupons on our “coupon page!”:http://www.smalldog.com/mac-coupons

    To use any of these coupons, simply add the qualifying item to your shopping cart and then enter the coupon code in the coupon text field. You can also use these coupons on the telephone. Unless otherwise noted, coupons can’t be combined with other offers, but usually can be used multiple times until they expire.

  • Watch the Olympics Online

    It’s time for the Winter Olympics, and once again, those who love to watch the action but don’t have a TV will look to the internet for coverage. Thankfully, those behind major sporting events have followed the lead of online movie and TV services and have transitioned to make video content available online.

    However, this genre really ups the ante of online video, because timing is vital–we need live streaming. (Because who really wants to spoil the ending of the Super-G?)

    This year, NBC is streaming selected events “much like they did in Beijing in 2008,”:http://blog.smalldog.com/article/the-olympics-the-online-version/ with many to be made available with a short delay. (No time zone difference for us this time!) I haven’t yet found evidence that they will broadcast the opening ceremony live, but I’ll be checking back at 7:30 pm ET tonight.

    Watch NBC’s coverage here:
    “http://www.nbcolympics.com/”:http://www.nbcolympics.com/

    View the official Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics website here:
    “http://www.vancouver2010.com/”:http://www.vancouver2010.com/

    Any events you’re especially excited for? “Email me!”:mailto:kali@smalldog.com