K&B SPECIALS: 02/18/11 – 02/25/11

Small Dog is a socially responsible business who measures our success by the triple bottom line of People, Planet and Profit. While we recognize that profit makes this machine run, we also care equally about how community involvement, workplace quality, customer satisfaction and protecting this planet. None of these measures of success stand alone; they are interconnected in a manner that together they form the true measure of success.

The PEOPLE part of how we measure success is perhaps the most important for me. When our path intersects with the path of any person who comes into contact with our company, whether that person be a customer, an employee or a vendor, it is important that both parties leave that intersection enriched by the experience.

You, our customers, are a vital part of this equation. We pledge to remember that ultimately you pay our wages, and we will do our best to make you a customer for life.

Thank you for reading this issue of Kibbles & Bytes!

Your Kibbles & Bytes Team,
_Don & Ben_

This Tuesday, Apple “*announced*”:http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2011/02/15appstore.html a new subscription model for the App Store. Arriving nearly two weeks after the launch of “*The Daily,*”:http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/stat?id=19XpSnZWhPI&offerid=146261&type=3&subid=0&tmpid=1826&RD_PARM1=http%3A%2F%2Fitunes.apple.com%2Fus%2Fapp%2Fthe-daily%2Fid411516732%3Fmt%3D8%2526uo%253D6%2526partnerId%253D30 the subscription service is available to all publishers of content-based apps. While the most obvious application for the service is digital magazines and newspapers, the subscription service is open to makers of video and music apps as well.

Apple has specified that, similar to the micro-payment based In-App Purchase model, app publishers set the price and duration of their respective subscriptions. App publishers are afforded the option for weekly, monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly, bi-yearly, and yearly subscription commitments. The method for purchasing subscriptions is similar to the method for acquiring apps. Active subscriptions can be managed through a customer’s iTunes account page and can be renewed or canceled at any time. Steve Jobs commented the following on the newly-implemented service:

bq. “We believe that this innovative subscription service will provide publishers with a brand new opportunity to expand digital access to their content onto the iPad, iPod touch and iPhone, delighting both new and existing subscribers.”

As with all existing In-App purchases, Apple will retain a 30 percent share of a developer’s gross revenue. Jobs was quick to divulge that, while Apple will make a cut from subscriptions taking place within the App Store, publishers will earn a 100 percent share from subscribers they solicit through alternate channels. The sole rule governing this option is that publishers provide an equal, if not better, deal from within the App Store.

“*All Things Digital*”:http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/20110215/june-30-deadline-for-apple-subscriptions/ reports that App Store publishers with existing apps lending themselves to the new subscription service have until June 30th to comply with the new standards. This means that existing digital magazines can–and may continue to be–offered on an app-per-issue basis until mid summer.

_Dear Friends,_

We have had some sunny warm days and cold nights, and while it may seem a bit early, the sap in the maple trees is running and maple sugaring operations are starting up here in the nation’s largest (and by far the best) maple sugaring state. I used to sugar the old fashioned way by drilling holes for taps with a hand drill, hanging buckets on the tap and waiting for nature’s sunshine and the awakening maple trees to fill the buckets. We would then tromp from tree to tree, sometimes in the waist-deep snow, and gather the buckets to pour into the big tank on the sled that my workhorse would pull over to the sugar house. There we would boil the sap until way into the night, feeding the wood fired sugaring arch to make one gallon of sweetness from forty gallons of sap. Nowadays there are pipeline systems for most sugaring operations, but you can still see buckets on trees in some parts of the state.

Long-time Small Dogger Mark Englehardt will be leaving the company next week after over fifteen years of being a consultant and employee. He is going to pursue some other interests, and we all wish him the best of luck with his new ventures. He’ll be around and helping us out from time to time but will also be missed. Fortunately, Rebecca Kraemer has stepped up and will now be our Director of IT and Consulting. I am so pleased that Rebecca has agreed to take on this new responsibility and am very confident that she is going to do a fabulous job. Rebecca is a frequent contributor to Tech Tails and other newsletters. Ben and I will twist her arm to get her to write some for Kibbles, too!

While the new Apple App Store for the Mac means that Small Dog Electronics will be selling less software, I am finding it to be a very useful resource. Just the other day we needed a piece of software to generate some barcodes for packaging, and it was easy to find, download and use from the App Store. Apple tends to change the prevailing paradigm with many of their products and innovations. They have done this so many times–with music, with the Mac, with the iPad–that it is the real key to their success. When Steve Jobs introduced the Mac as the computer “for the rest of us,” it was the launch of a string of innovations and visionary use of technology.

I had the pleasure of outfitting David Sellers, my dear friend and mentor, with technology for his upcoming trip to China. Dave was my professor at Goddard College and my business partner in my first business, North Wind Power Company. Dave is a noted architect and inventor but still uses yellow drafting paper and a pencil to make his drawings and sketches, so when he called to tell me he wanted an iPhone and iPad, I was thrilled to help him out. He is going to China to work on an architectural project and then stopping on the way back to check out the 1918 Stanley Steamer that he purchased with the notion of driving it back to Vermont from California. I’ve told Dave that I will join him for at least part of that journey, which should be a blast!

This past weekend, I took a trip up to Montreal. As I approached the Canadian border, I received an alarming text message on my iPhone. It was AT&T offering a friendly reminder that if I continued to use my iPhone in Canada as vigorously as I do in the States, they would bleed my wallet so dry I wouldn’t have enough money to make it 1/10th of the way back home. Well, they didn’t put it exactly like that, but with roaming data rates at $15 per megabyte, it’s easy to see how I interpreted it as such. I had been cruising to Pandora on 3G up to that point, and sensing I couldn’t afford to keep streaming, I quickly did the math. An average song is three to four minutes long, and at roughly one megabyte per minute of audio, suddenly we were talking $45-$60 per song. Holy Cupertino! That’s a lot of dough!

Thankfully, Apple assumes that the average Steve doesn’t want to pay these ludicrous rates, and as such they have built a host of options into iOS 4 specifically designed to minimize–and eliminate–data usage while roaming. One of these options even transforms your iPhone into an iPod touch, in terms of network connectivity. The first few options are located under Settings > General > Network. The first option in this menu allows you to disable 3G access on your handset. Toggling this off while abroad won’t disable your data–in fact it will only serve to make it slower. Turning Cellular Data (the second option on the list) off, however, will cut off your phone’s data entirely. You will still be able to make and receive calls and texts, but apps that rely on the Internet will cease to function. The final option in this menu governs Data Roaming. This is turned off by default, and it is a good idea to leave it off–unless you want to accrue a lot of additional charges.

While data roaming charges are certainly the steepest of the bunch, calls and texts are not exactly cheap while abroad either. A final step you can take to avoid additional billing is to disable the phone aspect of the iPhone completely by turning on Airplane Mode. By enabling and disabling these respective features, you’ll essentially go dark and be unreachable. However, if you’d like your device to function on Wi-Fi where it’s available, you can enable it and Airplane Mode simultaneously through the Wi-Fi menu. Though Airplane Mode turns Wi-Fi off by default, simply visit Settings > General and turn the switch back on. I used this exact setup extensively to make cheap Skype calls to local restaurants and businesses from my hotel’s network.

Obviously this is a great way to save money while traveling, but it’s not exactly recommended in all instances. While turning off data is a nice money-saving tip, it is advisable to leave the phone component of your device on should you need to be reached in case of emergency. Just remember that streaming “*Mega Piranha*”:http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1587807/ –yes that’s a real movie–over “*Netflix*”:http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/stat?id=19XpSnZWhPI&offerid=146261&type=3&subid=0&tmpid=1826&RD_PARM1=http%3A%2F%2Fitunes.apple.com%2Fus%2Fapp%2Fnetflix%2Fid363590051%3Fmt%3D8%2526uo%253D6%2526partnerId%253D30 should probably wait until you get back home.

Sarah Breedlove Walker (1867-1919) was one of the first American women to become a millionaire, and she ran the largest business owned by an African American at the time. She made a prosperous business out of selling her self-made hair care products for African American women.

The story of Madame C. J. Walker is a classic story of an American entrepreneur. Walker was born December 23, 1867. Her father was a poor sharecropper and former slave in Delta, Louisiana. She was orphaned at the age of six and was thereafter raised by an older sister. She received very little formal education, and at the age of 10 she began supporting herself. At 14 she married Moses McWilliams, and in 1885 they had a daughter. Two years later her husband died, and Walker was left a widow with a young child to support. She moved her family to St. Louis, Missouri, where she had relatives. There she worked as a hotel washerwoman for 18 years.

Around 1904, Walker began to suffer from a scalp ailment called alopecia, which causes hair loss. Embarrassed by her appearance, at first she tried existing hair products to relieve her problem, including some invented by another black female entrepreneur, Annie Malone. In 1905, C. J. Walker became a sales agent for Malone and moved to Denver where she married Charles Walker.

Soon after, she started creating scalp treatments, then developed hair straighteners. She founded her own business and began selling Madam Walker’s Wonderful Hair Grower. She began modifying existing hair techniques and tools until she developed the “Walker Method” of hair care. She expanded her line of products to include hair growing tonic, strengtheners, toiletries, fragrances, and facial treatments.

As a prototype entrepreneur, she embarked on an exhausting sales drive throughout the South and Southeast, selling her products door to door, giving demonstrations and working on sales and marketing strategies. In 1908, she opened a college in Pittsburgh to train her “hair culturists.” Later she hired and trained other women to be “Walker Agents,” and eventually she added a huge mail-order department to her business. The business grew rapidly, and in 1908 she opened a second office in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Then in 1910 she opened her first factory in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Eventually, her products formed the basis of a thriving national corporation employing over 3,000 people at one point. Her Walker
System–which included a broad offering of cosmetics, licensed Walker Agents, and Walker Schools–offered meaningful employment and personal
growth to thousands of Black women. Madame Walker’s aggressive marketing strategy combined with relentless ambition led her to be labeled as the first known African American woman to become a self-made millionaire.

Madame C. J. Walker was also a socially-responsible business leader. She was a leader among the African American middle class. She was known as a good employer who sponsored philanthropic and educational projects initiated by her employees. She established scholarships for women at the Tuskegee Institute, Bethune-Cookman College, and Palmer Memorial Institute. In addition, she supported black chapters of the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) and orphanages.

Her prescription for success was perseverance, hard work, faith in herself and in God, “honest business dealings” and, of course, quality products. “There is no royal flower-strewn path to success,” she once observed. “And if there is, I have not found it – for if I have accomplished anything in life it is because I have been willing to work hard.”

Last week, TUAW “*reported*”:http://www.tuaw.com/2011/02/10/iphone-passcode-bypassed-by-security-researchers/ a group of researchers had cracked the passcode system implemented in iOS 4 across Apple’s range of portable devices. This exploit bypasses the initial passcode lock and allows access to any password saved on the device in a matter of minutes.

The bypass is accomplished by first jailbreaking a target device and then installing an SSH app on it. Upon the completion of these two steps, full keychain access is granted to the hacker. This includes items such as saved Wi-Fi passwords and more sensitive items such as email and voicemail passwords. The researchers found they could even access app-specific passwords through the exploit. This could potentially pose security concerns for users of financial apps such as “*Mint*”:http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/stat?id=19XpSnZWhPI&offerid=146261&type=3&subid=0&tmpid=1826&RD_PARM1=http%3A%2F%2Fitunes.apple.com%2Fus%2Fapp%2Fmint-com-personal-finance%2Fid300238550%3Fmt%3D8%2526uo%253D6%2526partnerId%253D30 and “*Paypal.*”:http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/stat?id=19XpSnZWhPI&offerid=146261&type=3&subid=0&tmpid=1826&RD_PARM1=http%3A%2F%2Fitunes.apple.com%2Fus%2Fapp%2Fpaypal%2Fid283646709%3Fmt%3D8%2526uo%253D6%2526partnerId%253D30 

Though security breaches of this sort are always alarming, it is worth mentioning that this hack requires direct, hands-on access to a device. Therefore, as long as your device is not lost or stolen, you are not susceptible to the exploit. Though the hack obviously takes a bit more technical know-how than the average petty thief may possess, the researchers still suggest changing your passwords should a loss or theft occur.

What makes this hack unique is that Apple’s ability to patch it seems limited. As the first step of the exploit is to jailbreak the target device, its prevention hinges on Apple’s ability to prevent jailbreaking. While the company has stepped forward with an anti-jailbreaking stance, they have yet to issue an iOS update which prevents it entirely.