ByMike Moffit

Dear Friends,

Still no snow here in Vermont and with the Solstice coming up, I think Artie might have to change his slogan about the days getting shorter and hoping for snow. It will be odd for there not to be a White Christmas in Vermont, but we still have 10 days for some snow to fall.

We have had some last-minute additions to our Hammerhead and Chill Pill lines just in time for the final gifting rush. Our long-awaited Chill Pill Bluetooth speakers are now in stock in both black and red. These are great-sounding portable wireless speakers that are an ideal gift for the road warrior, camper or student in your life. Read more about it below. We also have new Bumpers for the iPhone 5, 8GB Flash Drives molded to the likeness of our company founder, Imelda, or a cool Hammerhead shark. If you’re in the market for a case for your iPad mini, check out our Folio cases here!

I have just broken the 1000 kilowatt-hour mark on my solar electric array on my home and our array here at our Waitsfield headquarters is providing 100% of the electrical power for our S. Burlington store, and about 85% of the power we use here at the headquarters. While our electric bills are about the same, since we have entered into a power purchase agreement that allowed us to install this renewable energy system at very low out-of-pocket, it is great to know that most of our electricity now comes from the sun and as electric rates go up, ours will remain steady.

While a Mac or an iPad is the ultimate Apple gift choice, there are some other great choices at Small Dog that you might want to consider. The Apple TV has been one that has been on a lot of people’s lists, but Small Dog Electronics is also your headphone headquarters with quality offerings from Beats, Sennheiser, House of Marley and Urbanears. I am surprised that over-ear headphones have made such a dramatic comeback but we have a complete selection in our stores and on our website.

Be sure to check out our Double your Reward promotion valid this weekend only — when you purchase a Mac plus AppleCare and a backup drive, you can either choose a $50 gift card or not one, but two Chill Pills (to either save for yourself or give…or both)! More gift ideas are below in the second installment of the Small Dog Gift Guide.

See our holiday page, full of headphones, speakers, Mac bundle deals and under $25 stocking stuffers!

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  • Bring a Toy, Get $15

    This year in our retail stores, we’re collecting toys for those in need this holiday season. As an extra incentive, **if you bring in a new toy between 11/23 – 12/23, you’ll get $15 to spend toward a $50 purchase.** You must use the coupon the same day you bring your toy.

    In both our **Waitsfield and S. Burlington locations,** we’ll be taking donations for the “**Rutland County Women’s Network.**”:http://www.rcwn.org/ In our **Manchester location,** all toy donations will benefit the “**YWCA.**”:http://www.ywcanh.org/

    If you’re in the area, bring by a new toy for a child in need, and perhaps take care of some of your holiday shopping list at the same time!

  • Small Dog Uses Passbook; You Should Too.

    Here at Small Dog, we are super excited to announce that we will be using the Passbook App that came with iOS6 for our in-store coupons! You heard right — you can find our current listing of all Holiday coupons here at “*Smalldog.com/passbook.*”:http://www.smalldog.com/passbook?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=passbook-kb This list will be ever-changing, so you should bookmark it and frequently visit it to see what new in-store specials we might be running.

    Downloading our passes is super simple. First things first: You must meet the minimum system requirements. You need to have an iPhone or iPod touch running iOS6 or a Mac running 10.8 (Mountain Lion) so that passes can be shared via iCloud to your iPhone (running iOS 6).

    After you meet that criteria you simply go to the “*site*”:http://www.smalldog.com/passbook?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=passbook-kb and click on the icon that says ??”Add to Passbook”?? and if you are on your iPhone or iPod touch, a new screen will pop up asking if you want to add the pass to Passbook. Once it is added, you just go to the Passbook app to take a look at all of the passes you have added. Simple right?

    Redeeming you pass is just as easy. All you have to do is go into any of our three retail locations find the product you want to buy and present the Passbook coupon to the cashier and they will take it from there. If you are ever curious about the fine print on a pass you can click the small ??”i”?? icon in the bottom right of a pass to get the skinny on it. Alternatively, you can always give us a call here at Small Dog to ask any additional questions you might have about our coupon passes at 800-511-MACS.

    We really hope this helps our customers out as a easier way for discovering and redeeming the hundreds of specials we run every year! Again, you can find our passes here at “*Smalldog.com/passbook.*”:http://www.smalldog.com/passbook?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=passbook-kb Have a great shopping season!

  • The Bluetooth Chill Pill Speaker is Here!

    Chill Pill Audio, a division of Small Dog Electronics, is excited to announce the arrival of the new *Bluetooth Chill Pill Mobile Speaker*!

    You may be familiar with the original Chill Pill: a pocket-sized, self-contained capsule that transforms into two powered speakers. The new Bluetooth Chill Pill (BT CP for short) has the same ultra-portable and rechargeable design with the added bonus of Bluetooth connectivity. This means that you can listen to your music wirelessly wherever you go.

    The BT CP can connect to a wide range of Bluetooth-capable devices (computers, phones, iPads and many, many more!) and also to any device that has a headphone jack thanks to the retractable audio cable.

    The BT CP makes the perfect stocking stuffer, Yankee Swap gift, or end-of-the-world present (if the Mayans were right). Or treat yourself and enjoy your music out loud on the go!

    “*See the Bluetooth Chill Pills here.*”:http://www.smalldog.com/search?search=bluetooth+chill+pill

    I think “*Zach Shields*”:http://www.smalldog.com/zach/zach-shields-bio (Retail Associate at our Manchester, NH store) sums up this great new product best with this series of double entendres: “Unplug, Chill, Recharge.”

    If you would like a chance to win a pair, “like” Chill Pill Audio on Facebook and then enter our Bluetooth Chill Pill giveaway. The contest entry link is at the top of our page. You can find us here:

    “*Chill Pill Audio on Facebook*”:http://www.facebook.com/CPAudio

  • MAC TREAT #194: Where Did My Desktop Icon Go?

    One of things that Apple is known best for is its clean design aesthetic. And when it comes to ever sleeker MacBooks and iMacs, there is no doubt that aspect is a plus, but every once in a while it seems the folks at 1 Infinite Loop take things a little too far.

    For instance, in recent versions of the Mac OS, the default Finder Preferences setting hides the internal hard drive, which for decades had appeared in the upper right corner of the desktop (along with any other mounted volumes). I can only imagine that it was considered an ugly blight by the designers at Apple, marring the otherwise pristine view of the desktop’s Andromeda Galaxy (in Lion) or NGC 3190 (in Mountain Lion).

    I’ve had many clients ask about the mystery of both the “missing drive” or the CD or DVD they are sure they’ve put in their Mac but can’t find to eject. There are certainly other ways to access the hard drive or other mounted volumes, but for those that share my “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” philosophy, here’s a way to get these icons back.

    With the Finder active, select *Preferences…* from the Finder menu. Under General, there is a section labeled *Show these items on the desktop:.* Here, you have the option to show (or not show) other items that frequently graced the desktop by default in past versions of the Finder: external disks (including USB flash drives), CDs, DVD and iPods (oh…that’s where they went), connected servers, and of course, the aforementioned internal hard drives.

    Feel free to turn the devices you’d like to see on, and once again, enjoy the easy desktop access you’re accustomed to!
    Next time… Oh no, Mountain Lion ate my scroll bars!

  • KB SPECIAL | iPad Accessories Bundle

    Save $30 when you purchase a *Twelve South Compass Mobile Stand for all iPads in Silver*, a *Hammerhead Anti-Glare Screen Protector 2 Pack*, a *Hammerhead Stylus in Red* and *AppleJuice Screen Cleaner Key Chain Kit*. Plus you get FREE shipping on all these great iPad accessories.