Weekly Apple News Recap | 2/20-2/24

Hey, all you Manchester, NH and surrounding area folks! One of our favorite newspapers, “*The Hippo,*”:http://www.hippopress.com is hosting their annual “Best Of” awards, and we need your vote!

We’re still new in the area, but if you’ve been to our location in the Mall of New Hampshire and have had a good experience, tell them: *On Question #125: “Thing we forgot to ask about,” put “Best Computer Service Shop–Small Dog Electronics”*

“*Read more and click through to the survey here.*”:http://www.hippopress.com/best-of-2011 Hurry–voting ends at 11:59pm on February 28. (No love for Leap Year?)

Thanks to all of our loyal customers!

I’m still holding out hope that there will be a snowstorm today that will allow me to get in some good runs on the mountain. Due to a very scary concussion that my brother sustained several years ago, I started wearing a helmet while snowboarding, and haven’t looked back since.

One of the products that I love is the Chill Pill Helmet Speakers, since they fit securely inside my helmet and I can listen to my favorite music (on a low-ish volume, of course) while I’m riding. *As a Kibbles & Bytes exclusive, they can now be yours for $9.99 with free shipping! (That’s $15 off.)*

Of course, they’re also great for motorcycle helmets, bike helmets and more. As I listen to Don grumble about how much he hates snow across the room, I know he prefers the former!

__Note: Helmet not included. Sorry, guys.__

The age of Aquarius may have just ended (Jan 19 – Feb 18), but the *Aqua Speck Case is on sale–at 50% off!*

In the dregs of winter (is this winter?), adding a splash of color to your unibody 15″ MacBook Pro will cheer you up in no time. The Speck Case offers solid, translucent hard shell protection and is vented for safe heat disbursement. It’s also easily removable and features rubberized feet for stability. Of course, you’ll also have access to all ports.

For those of you who share a home computer between family members, this is a helpful tip if you’d like to give the kids access to the iTunes Store without giving up your credit card number.

To set up a monthly iTunes Allowance, follow these steps:

* Log in to your main account (your administrative account, if you will–the one you’d like to use to manage the allowance)
* Click Redeem (located under “Quick Links”)
* Select “Gift a Gift on iTunes”
* You’ll see a list of choices–click “Set up an allowance now” next to the piggy bank icon

Once you’re in the iTunes Allowance section, just add your name, the recipient’s name and the monthly allowance. You’ll have the choice to pick when to send the first installment; this will repeat monthly, but you can cancel at any time in your account settings.

__Note: You’ll need to have the Apple ID of the recipient in order to complete the setup. If the recipient doesn’t have one yet, you can create one.__

Click Continue and the recipient will immediately be able to access the credit.

“__via Maclife__”:http://www.maclife.com/article/howtos/how_set_itunes_allowance

Dear Friends,

The sap is running in the sugar maples, clearly the earliest in my memory, the ground is bare and even my kiwi plant is starting to bud. This is the mildest winter that I have seen here in the Green Mountains, but it is not over yet and there is snow in the forecast for tonight.

I had a great time on my break in Jamaica and am rested and ready. I really think that paid vacations may benefit the company either as much or more than the employee, so we ask our employees to take their vacation time in large chunks rather than a day here and a day there. We benefit when employees take the time away from the business, de-stress and then come back with renewed energy and new ideas.

I am very pleased to announce a new/old addition to the Small Dog team. Dawn D’Angelillo was Small Dog’s fourth employee and worked long and hard for the company for a decade before she left to pursue other interests. She was my original co-author for Kibbles & Bytes and was responsible for all of the marketing at Small Dog Electronics. Dawn will be returning to Small Dog Electronics as our Director of Marketing starting next week.

It looks like there is some snow in the forecast so maybe we will have a winter weekend. We sold 15,000 Chill Pill mobile speakers on Groupon this week–it was the largest number of sales of a single product in 24 hours for our company. Artie and his team will be putting in a lot of extra time this weekend!

Thank you so much for reading Kibbles & Bytes!

Your Kibbles & Bytes team,
_Don & Kali_