iPad mini – From $329

_Dear Friends,_

Busy, busy week for Apple as they refreshed their product line, introduced the much-anticipated iPad mini, a new 4th Generation iPad, a 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display, a new Mac mini and new iMacs. They also introduced a new version of the iBooks app that enhances the use of the iPad as a reader. If that wasn’t enough for one week, Apple also announced their 4th Quarter earnings and posted a record quarter for both earnings and profit.

Apple posted quarterly revenues of $36 billion, up from $28.3 billion a year ago. Net profit was $8.2 billion (or $8.67 per diluted share), up from $6.6 billion (or $7.05 per diluted share) last year.

Apple sold 26.9 million iPhones, which indicates a 58 percent growth over the same quarter last year. The company sold 14 million iPads during the quarter, up 26 percent over the previous year. 4.9 million Macs were sold, representing a 1 percent increase over last year’s quarter. Apple finishes the fiscal year with revenues of over $150 billion! I distinctly remember the Apple resellers conference where the stated objective was for Apple to hit $5 billion in revenue for the year — what an amazing accomplishment in a very short time.

Apple’s board of directors declared a $2.65 dividend for the quarter, and Apple projected sales of $52 billion and profit of $11.75 per share for the next quarter (which is the holiday quarter). These results were pretty much in line with analysts’ expectations, but they’re never satisfied unless Apple clobbers their expectations.

Apple has just refreshed their product line with some of the most exciting and innovative products on the market — congratulations to the entire Apple team for another great quarter!

I think I’ll be moving to the iPad mini from my iPad (3rd Gen), if only to gain more experience with this latest iOS 6 device. However, I’m going to stick with my 15-inch MacBook Pro Retina. We are thinking that while the iPad mini may cannibalize some full-size iPad sales, the price point and features will draw in some new customers to the iPad platform, too!

Apple officially announced a long-awaited update to their iMac line of desktop computers. I know a handful of customers who have been waiting patiently for these machines, and I, for one, can say that Apple did not disappoint.

The new iMac is now 40% smaller in volume than its previous version and a significant amount lighter for both the 21.5 and 27 inch sizes. To account for this reduction in size, Apple had to remove the optical drive and redesign how they assemble the iMac screen. These innovations make the iMac at its thinnest – 5mm.

As you move to center mass, the iMac bows out, allowing room for a 2.7 GHz Intel i5 processor, 8GB of memory a NVIDIA graphics processor and a traditional hard drive. Some of you might be thinking — traditional hard drive, really Apple? Well, Apple also gives customers the option of buying flash storage on their iMac or this thing Apple has dubbed “Fusion Drive.”

Without going into crazy detail about what a Fusion Drive actually is, it simply combines a solid state drive with a hard drive. This gives users a balance of speed and capacity at a reasonable price. Seagate has a hybrid drive, which at first glance, looks similar to the Fusion Drive, but the support for optimal use of the hybrid drive with Apple seems to have been lacking. We can rest assured that Apple will have full support for their Fusion Drive.

So it’s thinner, it’s lighter (not that you’ll be carrying it any farther than from your car to your home), it’s more powerful and it’s faster. After analyzing almost every component of the new iMac, you’ll see how everything has been changed for the better — I guess everything except for the price.

I suppose that in order to pay for that new technique of fusing the screen together, Apple had to up the starting price of the iMac to $1,299. That isn’t a huge jump — only $100 from the old version — but I’d be reluctant to say that it is an improvement. Regardless, I like what Apple has done here. The new iMac looks sleek and has a number of much needed upgrades. I would need to think long and hard about what else I could have asked for in an iMac update!

Apple says that the 21.5-inch iMac will be available in November and the 27-inch will be available in December. I know we will be working as hard as we can to get these iMacs into our retail stores for you to see in person. Once we have the skus to list them on our website, we’ll let you know.

Be sure to check “*our blog, Barkings!,*”:http://blog.smalldog.com for the most up-to-date info on the new products.

I bet this one came as a surprise to you. I know I wasn’t fully expecting it, though we all knew that it had to happen someday. I am sure that a lot of people who bought a 3rd Generation iPad aren’t really happy with this announcement. You probably feel a bit slighted by Apple, and that is understandable. But what you really have to do is break things down a bit and see that the upgrades Apple made were minor.

Apple is now calling this new guy “iPad with Retina Display.” The 3rd Gen iPad had a Retina Display too, but they didn’t call it that. So that is one feature unchanged. Next we have the cameras. They are still 1.2MP front and 5MP rear cameras, same as before. However, Apple introduced the A6X processor, which is an improved version of the A6 processor Apple just released in the iPhone 5. Apple reports the A6X is twice as fast as the A5X (the processor in the 3rd Gen iPad), yet it is still a dual-core processor with quad-core graphics. Similar, but definitely faster. The final change is the addition of the Lightning connector. It is a better port hands-down (digital, reversible) so we should be happy that Apple is adding the best technology available when they can.

It’s definitely a bit of a shocker, but Apple wants to satisfy you, the customer, and deliver the latest and greatest technology they can to everyone. If Apple waited another six months to release an iPad with updated tech specs, people would be complaining. Unfortunately, you can’t be as big as Apple and not step on a few toes here and there. The 3rd Gen iPad is still a rock-solid machine, so don’t feel as if it’s too outdated!

I would love to hear what other consumers of Apple products think of this iPad update. Feel free to send me an email (click my name above), stop into any of our retail locations or continue the conversation on “*Facebook!*”:http://www.facebook.com/smalldogelectronics

They are calling it “Frankenstorm” in honor of Halloween, but state officials are taking the threat from Hurricane Sandy very seriously as it heads north in the Atlantic. I hope it fizzles out!

Thanks for reading Kibbles & Bytes!

Your Kibbles & Bytes team,
_Don, Kali & Mike_

It is really hard to say I didn’t see this coming without my nose growing a few inches. The moment Apple released the 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display without a 13-inch counterpart I knew it was just a matter of time. To my surprise it didn’t take as long as I thought it might.

Apple’s 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display sports an impressive 2560×1600 resolution at 227 pixels per inch taking it’s pixel count over 4 million. On the inside Apple crams a 2.5GHz dual-core i5, 8GB of memory, 128GB flash storage and Intel HD Graphics 4000 graphics processor into notebook that weighs only 3.5 pounds. Beyond the 13-inch Retina display MacBook Pro’s innards it has a lot of the same connections that it’s bigger brother had like a HDMI port, two Thunderbolt ports and two USB 3 ports to name a few.

I have always been a big fan of the 13-inch screen size from Apple. In fact my first Mac was a 13-inch MacBook. While the starting price of $1699 is a little bit higher than my MacBook this new 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display is a lot more of a machine than it’s ancestors were.

Probably the best news Apple could ever give with a new product release is that the products are available now. Of course Small Dog like anyone else who is buying a 13-inch Retina will be waiting for them to be shipped but at least we don’t have to wait a month or two before anything leaves Apple’s doors. As always you can give us a call to speak with someone about all the amazing features and benefits of the new 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display or go to our website and see it for yourself.

“*Head over to our blog*”:http://blog.smalldog.com to read more, including in-stock product updates and more detail about what’s new (including the Mac mini)!