Tech Tails TV: Take 2.0!

Here’s some entertainment news you won’t read in Variety Magazine. A few months ago we experimented with hosting our bi-weekly Tech Tails TV web show on Ustream.com.

Tech Tails TV is our live web show where we repair and troubleshoot Macs, gossip about industry news, and answer all of your Apple-related questions. While this was a fairly successful endeavor, we struggled a little with broadcast quality (particularly audio) as well as timing issues. Because of that, Tech Tails TV is moving to a different network and a different broadcast time.

Forget “same bat-time, same bat-location”: Tech Tails TV will now broadcast every other Monday at 2:00 PM EST, starting Monday August 2.

The brilliant and captivating Apple technician Rebecca Kraemer. will be hosting most episodes of Tech Tails TV. She’ll be joined by other techs from Small Dog Electronics, as well as a rotating roster of special guests.

To watch the all-new version of Tech Tails TV, visit our channel at http://www.justin.tv/hellosmalldog. at Monday, August 2 at 2:00 PM EST. Click here to subscribe to the Tech Tails TV broadcast calendar in your iCal calendar.

Note that we will post Tech Tails TV as a downloadable video podcast 24 hours after the initial live broadcast. Details to follow!

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  • I am holding a house party tonight for Deb Markowitz, the current Secretary of State and candidate for Governor of Vermont. I hope some folks show up. It is an active campaign season with a lot of open seats and some extraordinary candidates for public office.

    One thing about our small state is that our government and our politicians are very accessible. I’ll bet our candidates for governor have had more debates and forums than in any other state. The five or six of them literally get together 2-3 times a week to discuss the issues. No one will be able to say they have not had a chance to hear from the candidates.

    I did sneak in a test ride on my Norton last weekend, found one more oil leak to be fixed and with any luck, I will be able to pick it up this weekend and take some pictures for Kibbles readers. After riding my big motorcycles, it was a little like riding a toy motorcycle but it was very nostalgic as I figured out how to use the right side gear shift with a one-up, three down pattern. A few times, I downshifted instead of upshifted but once I was on the road it all came back to me. I was a little apprehensive about whether I could kick start it, but the boys at Classic Bike Experience had it running so smoothly that it just took one kick.

    Thank you for reading this issue of Kibbles & Bytes!

    Your Kibbles & Bytes Team,
    _Don, Kali, Ed & Ben_

  • Apple (Re)paves the Street

    Apple sold a record 3,470,000 Macs during the three months ending in June. This helped to generate $3,250,000,000 in profits (I like seeing all those zeros!). This represents a 77% year over year growth in Mac sales! I guess all those prophets of doom saying that the Mac was neglected for iOS4 and the iPad just don’t get it.

    Add in the 8,400,000 iPhones, 9,410,000 iPods and an astounding 3,270,000 iPads and you have $15,700,000,000 of sales! The biggest increase in sales came from the Asia/Pacific region with 71% overall growth but the big news is that Mac sales saw double digit growth in each geographic area.

    Apple hoarded another $4 billion in cash, swelling their war chest to over $45.8 billion of nickels and dimes hanging out. I guess giving away a few iPhone cases is not going to make much of a dent in that cache. When asked about “antennagate” and the impact on sales of the iPhone, Tim Cook simply answered, “Let me be very clear: We are selling every unit we can make.”

    *The Mac Business*

    Apple smashed the old 3-month sales record by 100,000 Macs by posting a 33% year-over-year increase. There is a move towards mobility with increases in laptops sold versus desktops, a trend that Apple has recognized very early on and has planned well for with significant offerings in the portable market.

    *The iPhone Business*

    Over 60 percent of the Fortune 500 are deploying the iPhone and 400 higher education institutions have approved it. With over 8.4 million sold in the three months, this is a healthy business for Apple. Over 5 billion apps were downloaded from the Apple App store.

    With the transition to the iPhone 4, there were greatly reduced shipments in June; however, Apple still ended the quarter with a 61% growth in sales and it was over 90% if you factor in the model change.

    Returns for the iPhone 4 are running below that for the iPhone 3GS and there has been no impact on sales due to all the publicity about the antenna.

    *The iPad Business*

    I can speak first hand about this one. We are selling every single iPad we can get our hands on with a high degree of customer satisfaction. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: with these numbers, Apple doesn’t need computer business market share if they can continue to simply create new markets.

    Apple sold over $2 billion in iPads and would have sold even more had they had more to sell. One thing that Tim Cook is really good at is supply chain logistics and planning. He said that Apple is still “quoting longer lead times than we’d like, and we’re working around the clock to get supply and demand in balance… in the scheme of things, it’s a good problem to have.” He said sales have been positive in every country they’ve released it in thus far. Anecdotally, he believes it’s already beyond an “early adopter” phase. “I think it’s extremely unique and extremely successful.”

    *The iPod Business*

    The iPod touch is the hero here with some declines in the overall iPod business but a very strong 48% increase in iPod touch sales year-over-year. The iPod maintains a 70% market share and is the top selling MP3 player internationally.

    *The Retail Side*

    I don’t like to talk too much about the Apple retail side of the business because, they are, after all, our competition, but Apple retail had a good quarter, too. Sales were up 73% and Apple opened seven new stores in the quarter, making a total of 280 stores with average revenue per store around $9 million (per quarter!).

    During the summer construction season, in preparation for the holidays, Small Dog Electronics will open one store (by contrast, Apple will open 24 stores internationally this quarter).

    The greatest story in American business lore continues as Apple continues its streak of posting record earnings, but more importantly, continues its streak of producing a steady stream of products that are in the vanguard of design and functionality.

    Congratulations to the entire Apple team–what an awesome quarter of success!

    __Image credit: www.marshallart.com__

  • _Dear Friends,_

    There was a micro-storm at my house that caused some macro damage to some trees and resulted in 2-inch hail with accumulated ice on my deck. When I got home, it looked more like October than July with leaves all over the place. But, it is July and the summer storm passed and the garden actually liked the torrential rain.

    Apple announced their quarterly financial results this week and you will see my recap and analysis below in this issue of Kibbles & Bytes. I am very very proud to be an Apple Specialist and a part of this amazing success story. Apple is continuing to grow but is still acting like an entrepreneurial company–which I feel has a lot to do with their success.

    I am often asked why I named Small Dog Electronics as Small Dog, and my answer has always been that my most enjoyable times, most productive times and the times that we have been able to truly live up to our triple bottom line of people, planet and profit is when we have that small company, entrepreneurial spirit and energy. We strive to maintain that and during our periodic performance evaluations of our employees, we have a whole section that just talks about entrepreneurial focus.

    Apple has shown that they can maintain that spirit and still be a $50 billion company. When we grow up…

  • FINAL WEEK: Enter to Win a 15-inch MacBook Pro!

    Next Friday, July 30 we will be selecting a winner of a new Intel i5 15-inch MacBook Pro. You can enter to win this MacBook right up until 9:00 AM EST July 30.

    “Click here to register to win.”:http://www.smalldog.com/contest Note that after you register, you’ll have a chance to enter to win a set of Chill Pill speakers on Twitter, and you’ll get a coupon for $10 off your next order from Small Dog Electronics!

  • MacPaint Source Code Donated

    I’m going to date myself here: I wasn’t around for the release of MacPaint in 1984. While I didn’t get to use the revolutionary UI based drawing software until I arrived on the scene in ’88, it still had a profound impact on my interest in using the computer as a creative and artistic medium.

    For those who were around for the 1984 release which coincided with that of the original Macintosh, MacPaint’s impression was likely even greater. As the precursor to almost all modern imaging software, MacPaint introduced tools such as the “lasso” and “the paint bucket” (which I called “the paint leaker” as a kid). The “marching ants” selection boxes commonly seen in Adobe software also got their start with MacPaint.

    Though it may seem like second nature to us today, Apple’s drawing software was the first to let users generate images by interacting with a GUI as opposed to working with code behind the scenes.

    Realizing MacPaint’s technical and historical significance, Apple donated the original source code to the Computer History Museum a few days ago. The source can be downloaded “here”:http://s3data.computerhistory.org/102658076_macpaint_acc.zip, and is 5,822 lines of Apple Pascal and 3,583 lines of 68000 assembly.

    A brief history of MacPaint can be viewed on the museum’s website “*here.*”:http://www.computerhistory.org/highlights/macpaint/

  • Safari Vulnerability Raises Privacy Concerns

    Earlier in the week, *Jeremiah Grossman* of WhiteHat Security reported a major security vulnerability in Safari. This vulnerability stems from the “AutoFill web forms” function, which is enabled by default in the browser’s preferences.

    Ordinarily, this feature is intended to save users time by auto-completing forms using data from the Address Book. Grossman reports that a malicious website could theoretically pull data from a user’s address book card, capture it, and invisibly send it to an attacker. The privacy breach would happen without the user’s knowledge, and would not require him/her to input any text or follow any links. By merely visiting a malicious page, users could put their privacy at risk.

    This AutoFill exploit can capture the user’s name, city, state, country, company, and email address. However, it *cannot* be used to capture numeric data such as phone numbers or street addresses. Regardless of the information at risk, any unsolicited attempt to obtain a user’s private information is something to be wary of.

    Grossman has posted a safe proof of concept website “*here*”:http://ha.ckers.org/weird/safari_autofill.html which indicates whether or not you are at risk. Thankfully, the temporary fix is an easy one. Simply visit: *Safari > Preferences > AutoFill,* and uncheck the box labeled “Using info from my Address Book card.” Grossman has submitted this vulnerability to Apple, and hopefully a fix will be provided in the next Security Update or the next revision of Safari.