Happy New Year!

I started working at Small Dog a month ago. My friends are a little surprised at this transition in my life: a long-time teacher-turned-salesperson at an Apple Specialist. It may seem out of character, but for me, this is a fitting change.

I love challenges and I love Apple products. I am intrigued with the technology and how systems mesh within that world. I work primarily with people who are thirty years my junior; their version of multi-tasking is processing a customer’s order while keyboarding at the speed of light and answering another’s technical questions.

I am clearly on the other side of the learning curve. Most of them were brought up with computers. I had my first computer when I was in my mid-thirties. It was a very intimidating Commodore, running on DOS, which was even more intimidating. I used PCs until about six years ago, when I shifted to Macs, a transition that proved to be one of the best decisions I have made in a long time!

I love Apple products for their functionality, intuitiveness, and aesthetics. Every day, I learn a little more about the technology I am surrounded by, thanks to the energetic, young people I work with. They seem to have computer lingo, eye-hand skills and knowledge deep in their veins and teach me a bit more on a daily basis. I enjoy the challenge of learning, so no matter your skill level or your age, it’s always the perfect time to pick up an Apple product!

**iTunes Match**

iTunes match is the newest service from Apple. It allows you to upload all of your music to the cloud and then download it onto your devices from anywhere (that has a connection to the internet).

The biggest limitation I have noticed with it is when if you have over 25,000 songs that where not purchased through the iTunes store. For music enthusiasts with ginormous libraries, you will not be able to host your music with this service.

One of the more incredible features of the service is that for $25/year you can download music from anywhere in the world. No more going home to get your favorite songs onto your iPhone because you originally downloaded it to your iPad.

**PhotoStream**

PhotoStream is Apple’s new photo cloud service. PhotoStream automatically streams every photo you take with your iOS devices, so that you can download them onto any of your other devices from the internet. This can be handy for sharing all of your pictures no matter which device you have with you at the time. You can also save the pictures to the device for offline viewing.

The one downfall of PhotoStream is that while it gives you the ability to access your last 1,000 photos from anywhere, it does not allow you to delete them from the cloud. Say you take five pictures of one thing trying to get that perfect photo on your iPhone or iPad–all of these will appear in your PhotoStream and you’re not able to immediately delete the ones you don’t want.

Wish you knew a keyboard shortcut? Want to use your iPad for work but aren’t sure if it’s the right fit for you?

Check out our link for “useful tips, tricks and how-to guides”:http://www.smalldog.com/pdfs for many popular products in our stores.

Altec Lansing inMotion classic IMT320

*$79.99*

SwitchEasy Melt Hardcase for iPhone 4/4s

*$34.99*

iHome DK-H22 dual alarm clock speaker system for iPod
(not compatible with iPhone)

*$48.99*

*Hammerhead Snap Case for iPod touch*

*$19.99*

*Absolute Mac Basics is back in our S. Burlington, VT location!*

Sunday, Jan 8, 2012 – 5:15pm to 6:45pm
Sunday, Jan 22, 2012 – 5:15pm to 6:45pm

Sign up in any of our stores or by “clicking here.”:http://www.smalldog.com/category/Classes/