SPECIAL: Toast with DVDs

We’re still running some great specials ideal for the recent graduate or favorite dad in your life. For example, if you buy any Mac, you can save up to $75 on an associated bundle of useful stuff, such as a stylus, case, mousepad and more. If you’re near a store, we have some featured iPad specials as well!

“*Check out our page dedicated to the best of the best here!*”:http://www.smalldog.com/grad

Two customers walked in to our store (no, this isn’t the start of a joke) and asked how to burn a video from iMovie onto a DVD. The “Miss Smartypants” that I am said, “that’s easy, just go to the Share menu and choose iDVD!” An even smarter person chimed in with, “but iDVD doesn’t come with iLife ’11.” I retorted in a somewhat smart-a$$ way, “well it will be in the Share menu, so just have them choose the menu that has DVD in it.”

A day later, when I actually had time to look more deeply, I searched for iLife ’11 burn to DVD. And found “*Apple’s support page*”:http://support.apple.com/kb/PH2119 that instructed the user to select Share > iDVD. So I was right! (or so I thought). iDVD is definitely __not__ included with iLife ’11 so I needed to dig even more.

I went down to the store to look at one of the 10.7 Lion demo computers that had iLife ’11 installed (therefore iDVD wasn’t already on the computer), and opened an iMovie project. I went to Share > iDVD which was one of my menu choices and wouldn’t you know, I got an error window–“Unable to find iDVD.” Miss Smartypants was completely wrong (and so was Apple, I might add, so I’m in good company).

So what do you do if you have iLife ’11 and want to burn a DVD? If you upgraded to iLife, you may still have a copy of iDVD and will be a-OK. There are other options if you don’t have iDVD.

The first is Sonic Solutions Roxio Toast v.11.0 which is a incredible piece of software that will solve just about any media burning issue you might have. (I’ve put Toast on special below!) A second option would be DVD Creator which is similar to iDVD and available on the “*App Store here.*”:http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/stat?id=19XpSnZWhPI&offerid=146261&type=3&subid=0&tmpid=1826&RD_PARM1=http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dvd-creator/id428417852?mt=12%26uo%3D6%26partnerId%3D30 The third option is to use an open source solution like “*Burn*”:http://burn-osx.sourceforge.net/Pages/English/home.html

I admit it, I was wrong.

So two customers walk in to our store…I forget the rest.

I love my state, especially in the summer! I just can’t imagine a better place to be this time of the year. Between gardening, motorcycling, barbecuing and just sitting outside at 9pm swatting deer flies, I would love to just freeze and bottle this time of year.

I hope you have a fabulous 1st weekend in June! Thank you for reading this 778th issue(!) of Kibbles & Bytes!

Your Kibbles & Bytes Team,
_Don, Kali, Dawn & Mike_

_Dear Friends,_

It is hard to believe that it is June already. I managed to get my garden planted this past weekend and will be working on mulching and figuring out a way to keep the deer out this coming weekend. I don’t really want to build a fence, but it seems we are on the regular deer-feeding highway and the baby plants are too delicious.

A big shout out to our corporate sales group, headed by long term employee “*Rob Amon.*”:http://www.smalldog.com/rob Rob has done just about every job here at Small Dog Electronics in his nearly 15 years of tenure at the company. I think he has found his calling in pursuing business solutions opportunities for the company. Rob’s team includes “*Dana Flint*”:http://www.smalldog.com/dana in Manchester, NH and “*Raul De Arriz*”:http://www.smalldog.com/raul in the Mid-Atlantic markets. Rob’s team has consistently beat our sales estimates and they have really outdone themselves in FY’12 as their division has been responsible for a nearly 30% growth in top-line revenues for the first quarter. Rob also has the official title of “company jester” and since Rob’s head is already swelled, maybe I can send it over the top.

Bob Dylan received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Obama this week. This is the highest civilian honor given in the US. I was fortunate to see Bob Dylan perform at the Buffalo Chip in Sturgis, SD, a couple of years ago and was right in the front to take a lot of pictures. He has always been one of my favorite poets and singers and a significant part of the soundtrack for my life. I have a spare Bob Dylan Think Different Poster from the famous Apple campaign and we will be giving it to one of our “*SDE Facebook*”:http://www.facebook.com/smalldogelectronics fans–all you need to do is post your favorite song, lyric or story about Bob on our post and generate the most “Likes” of the entries. We’ll announce the winner of this limited edition poster after the contest closes on June 15th at noon. Good luck!

If your dad ever offered the advice “a penny saved is a penny earned” then these free apps will be right up his alley.

“*Pampers Hello Baby Pregnancy Calendar*”:http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pampers-hello-baby-pregnancy/id364683781?mt=8

This one is for all the fathers-to-be out there. This app has a three dimensional rendering of the baby as it appears each week. It also includes health information and great advice like: “You may notice that everyone, from your mother-in-law to complete strangers, feels compelled to offer advice…try to take them in stride, and don’t feel the need to explain your decisions.” Take my advice and download this app if you want to know what is going on inside the mom-to-be in your life.

“*MLB.com At Bat*”:http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mlb.com-at-bat/id493619333?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4

If you have kids, you are not going to be able to watch every baseball game that you want to. This app gives you all the scores and stats for every game so you can keep up with the guys (and Kali; go O’s!) around the water cooler.

“*How To Tie a Tie*”:http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/how-to-tie-a-tie-free/id378478530?mt=8

If I have a son, and we are not all wearing shiny unisex spacesuits in the future, then I will need to learn how to tie a tie so I can pass this information on. I have downloaded this app and have begun practicing my Half-Windsor and Plattsburgh knots.

“*8,500+ Drink & Cocktail Recipes*”:http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/8-500+-drink-cocktail-recipes/id297650041?mt=8

Whether your father is drinking with you or because of you, there is a cocktail in here that is perfect for the occasion. You can select the ingredients you have on hand to find options, or peruse the massive selection to help you make your shopping list for your next trip to the liquor store. This app also has a feature that allows you to shake your iDevice to get a random drink. Don’t try this after you have already had a couple; if you do Small Dog can “repair your cracked screen.”:http://www.smalldog.com/services

Cheers to all the Dads out there!

This tip has proved to be a really popular one around here–I mean, how many times do you just want to take a snapshot of what’s on your screen in the moment without much fuss?

This excerpt was originally featured in “*Kibbles & Bytes issue #569*”:http://www.smalldog.com/kibbles/563 by Ed!

* To take a screenshot of your Mac’s entire desktop, hold down Command-Shift-3 all at the same time. This records the entire desktop at full resolution.

* To capture only a part of your desktop, hold down Command-Shift-4. The cursor will turn into a trigger. Drag the trigger across the part of the screen you want to record and then release the mouse. If your Mac’s sound is on, you will hear a snapshot sound.

* To take a screenshot of an individual application window (say an individual Safari window, or a single email, or single Preview image), hold down Command-Shift-4-spacebar. A camera icon will suddenly appear. You can rotate through application windows with this camera, until you land on the application window you wish to record.

* To take a timed screenshot, browse to your Applications folder, then browse to the Utilities folder contained within. Open the Grab application, then click “Capture” in the menu bar. At the bottom of the list is the option for “Timed Screen.” The Timed Screen grab gives you a 10 second count-down to taking a screenshot.

__Extra credit:__ Instead of saving files to your desktop, you can save a screenshot to your Mac’s clipboard, to be pasted into an application such as Photoshop, Word, or an email. To do this, hold down Command-Control-Shift-3 to take a screenshot of the screen and save it to the clipboard. Hold down Command-Control-Shift-4, then
select an area, to take a screenshot of that area and save it to the clipboard. Hold down Command-Control-Shift-4, then space, then click a window to take a screenshot of a specific window and save it to the clipboard.