Special: Clean and Protect Your MacBook or MacBook Pro

Papers: Perfect for research-oriented classes and majors, this app is the ideal solution for students who rely heavily on online databases and journals to complete assignments. The easy-to-use interface lets students import PDFs and search, download, organize and annotate documents from any online journal to which their schools provide access. Papers is available through iTunes for $14.99.

Notes Plus: This powerful note-taking app supports handwriting, typing and audio recording and features PDF exporting, emailing and Google Docs uploading. Notes Plus is the perfect app for taking notes during class lectures or presentations, when typing can often seem rude. The app is available through the iTunes store for $4.99.

iStudiez Pro: This app, available for $2.99 through iTunes, is the all-in-one interactive student planner. The user friendly interface helps students take charge of their chaotic lives by keeping track of assignments, class schedules and professor contact information all in one place. iStudiez Pro helps students prioritize their work to effectively manage their time and can even calculate students’ grades in real-time as the semester progresses.

Dropbox: This free app is a must-have for all Apple users. Dropbox provides an online storage locker to store, back-up and share important files across multiple devices and computers.

GoodReader: Available for $4.99, this app allows students to store, view and annotate almost any type of document or file. Students can utilize typewriter text boxes, sticky notes, lines, arrows and freehand drawings on top of any PDF to edit documents however they find most effective. GoodReader also offers a robust file system so users can organize documents however they choose!

Next week we’ll feature our Top 5 Mac Apps for Students!

So, I’m indulging a bit here, but I felt compelled to report that a college from “*my hometown*”:http://www.cityoffrederick.com/cms/home/index.php has decided to give incoming freshmen an iPad 2 as part of a pilot program. I’ve written about schools that have “*decided to hand out Apple products to students in the past,*”:http://blog.smalldog.com/kibbles/kb631/ and it certainly has become a growing trend.

According to President Ron Volpe, “*Hood College,*”:http://www.hood.edu/ located in Frederick, Maryland, will be providing over 300 students with an iPad 2 during the 2011 academic year. During the orientation session over the summer, he personally handed out the first one to a student from Rindge, NH. The student had decided to attend Hood before he knew of the plan, but Volpe noted that others solidified their choice after learning they would receive an iPad.

One student noted, “I had already liked Hood, and when I heard they were giving away iPads, I was like, ‘I’m definitely coming here!'”

In addition, the iPads each have an “iHood” application installed that features a campus map, academic calendar and directory, the college website, the Frederick weather forecast and the college’s YouTube site. Each student has the option to insure it since if it were to break before school starts, it would not be replaced by the college.

Volpe said that the program will be evaluated later this fall to see if it’s worth continuing. They will maintain the use of iPads in other areas, though. For example, the library will use several for checkout and iPads will be available for use in the classroom at the discretion of the professor.

What say you? Have you or someone you know ever attended a school because they were providing an iPod, iPhone or iPad? Does it seem like a beneficial academic tool or an unnecessary expense?

“*Leave your comment here!*”:http://blog.smalldog.com/article/go-to-hood-get-an-ipad/

__Source:__ “*The Frederick News Post*”:http://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/news/display.htm?StoryID=122407

I have this Arctic Kiwi plant in my yard. __Actinidia arguta__ is the formal name, but it is also known as baby kiwi, dessert kiwi or cocktail kiwi. This is a vigorous vine that will climb on just about anything. It is now a huge plant in my yard.

I built a large trellis for it to grow on out of rebar, and it has covered that already. It’s now reaching its vines toward my apple trees and blueberry bushes. Grace and I have to literally go out every day to trim it back or it would engulf those plants. In some areas where this plant is invasive, it climbs up trees toward the sun and the weight of snow in the winter on the vines can actually cause trees to collapse. About every five years, it gives us fruit that tastes like kiwi but is about the size of a grape.

Thank you for reading this issue of Kibbles & Bytes!

Your Kibbles & Bytes Team,
_Don, Kali & Stephanie_

_Dear Friends,_

Grace and I have been poring over maps and guidebooks as we plan our upcoming vacation to Italy and France. You may remember that Grace gave me an awesome trip to Africa for my 60th birthday; well, I had to come up with something to rival that.

So, at the end of the month we will fly to Milan, pick up a couple of rented BMW motorcycles and tour around the Italian Alps and Dolomites for a week and then head to Annecy, France, where my friend and Small Dog advisor, Geoff Blanck, has allowed me to stay in his family’s house while we tour the French Alps for a week. We know we cannot do everything we want in the short time we will be there, but I have this sneaking suspicion we are going to have some great motorcycling!

The MacBook Air is currently one of the hottest-selling Apple products. So much so, that the 13-inch model has gone on constrained supply. We were fortunate to snag a bunch before they became rare, so if you are looking for one of these sleek new speedsters, please give us a shout. We will have stock of the 1.7GHz i5 with 4GB of RAM and 256GB solid-state drive arriving on Monday or Tuesday.

Apple surpassed Exxon Mobil to become the most valuable company in the world as measured by market capitalization (outstanding shares times share price)–simply an amazing accomplishment for a company who had obituaries written about it. Remember back when it was Microsoft that had “won”? Sure, Exxon is bigger in terms of sales, profits and number of employees, but Apple is the biggest in the world in sheer value as measured by investors.

The paradigm has really shifted in Apple’s favor as the iPod, iPad, iPhone and Mac are now seen as the standard for digital devices and making major inroads to all four major markets: Education, Government, Enterprise and Consumer.

Since they are by far our most popular request, I wanted to run down the basic keyboard shortcuts that are essential for students as well as beneficial for __any__ user. Can you believe that the last time we featured these it was in the “*plain text Kibbles archives?!*”:http://www.smalldog.com/kibbles/

*Create a new folder:* Command-Shift-N
*Open a new Finder window:* Command-N
*Switch Application:* Command-Tab
*Find:* Command-F
*Select All:* Command-A
*Copy:* Command-C
*Cut:* Command-X
*Paste:* Command-V
*Duplicate:* Command-D
*Undo:* Command-Z
*Save:* Command-S
*Save As:* Shift-Command-S
*Print:* Command-P
*Close window:* Command-W
*Close all windows:* Option-Command-W
*Show or Hide Dock:* Option-Command-D
*Hide Applications:* Command-H
*Empty Trash (without warning):* Shift-Command-Delete-Option
*Empty Trash (with warning):* Shift-Command-Delete
*Move an item to the Trash:* Command-Delete
*Force Quit:* Option-Command-Escape
*Eject Disk:* Command-E
*Sleep:* Option-Command-Eject
*Quit all programs and restart:* Control-Command-Eject
*Take a picture of a selection:* Command-Shift-4 (*essential shortcut–it’s far and away my favorite)
*Copy an item being dragged:* Option-drag
*Move an item to new location without copying:* Command-Drag
*Select multiple files that aren’t next to each other:* Command-click
*Select multiple files in a row:* Shift-click

Love these but want to view them all the time? Print this list or “grab our sweet mousepad”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/76977/small-dog-mouse-pad-keyboard-shortcuts/at_kb for only $4.99!

__Note that these shortcuts are universal for OS 10.4 and higher. We will be adding Lion-specific keyboard shortcuts in future issues.__

Are you heading back to school? Know someone who is? Once again, it’s the time of year where kids (and adults alike) are hitting the books and we want you to be prepared.

Our dedicated “*Mac to School*”:http://www.smalldog.com/mactoschool shopping page features what you need to head to the classroom, including our exclusive Mac + AppleCare bundle. *Buy any new Mac with AppleCare, and you’ll receive a $50 Small Dog gift card!* (If you’re local to the Vermont/New Hampshire area, be sure to contact us about some in-store benefits as well!)

And while these offers are geared toward the needs of students, anyone can purchase them. Except for a few Adobe academic titles, there are no requirements to be affiliated with any school or university.

Check out the special offers at “*Smalldog.com/mactoschool!*”:http://www.smalldog.com/mactoschool