A wise Apple Technician once said, “Every hard drive will fail at some point.” That is why backing up your data is one of the most important things you can do.

This week, we have bundled one of our most popular external hard drives, the LaCie Rugged 500GB hard drive, with an Apple refurbished 17-inch MacBook Pro. Extreme performance + extreme reliability.

Grab your bundle now and start backing up from day one.

_Dear Friends,_

It is one of Vermont’s famous “shoulder” seasons, and the one I hate the most: Mud Season! I have about two miles of dirt road to traverse and as the temperatures rise and the dirt road thaws, water and dirt combine to make a mud bog. Fortunately, I have a 4-wheel drive pickup truck that I use this time of year, but some people just have to park their cars and walk up the hill. Today it is cold again, snowy, and the road is re-frozen just waiting for the next thaw.

We attended the Rutland Business Expo this week and I had an opportunity to meet a lot of the Rutland businesses and potential customers. I was very pleased to see all the folks welcoming us to the area as we work on the new store. Jen and I interviewed a bunch of candidates for this new store and I think we have found a great crew. They will start training at our current facility in preparation for opening the store this spring. Construction is going well and appears to be mostly on schedule.

Apple announced this week that the new iMacs can now be special-ordered with VESA mounts. If you opt for this $40 option, you do not get a stand. We configured a new iMac for our long-time customer, Dr. James Begun, with a 3rd party VESA mount that uses the stand. He reported that having that configuration gave him a convenient spot to store the keyboard.

For this week only, we are offering a flat-out $100 discount on our used 13-inch MacBook in white from early 2009.

These machines were the cat’s meow in their heyday and even today, they are very appealing. The splendor of a Mac…at a fraction of the cost. Perfect for most users’ needs!

Apple released their third update this week for OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.3). This version brings along a few bug fixes that some users have been experiencing with 10.8.2, as well as some new features (which is mostly what we get excited about).

The first new feature allows you to redeem your iTunes gift cards using an iSight camera. Now, you can just take a photo of the card in the Mac App Store, and the system will then identify the number and redeem it!

In the past, you would need to redeem the card by typing in the number. Pretty interesting, since a lot of things these days seem to be moving toward submitting information visually. (Did you know you can now deposit checks via your phone through your bank’s app by simply taking a photo of the check? Crazy!)

Boot Camp will now support Windows 8 and drives that are over 3TB, which was a previous limitation.

If you were having issues with the “*File:/// URL bug,*”:http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-57567444-263/assertion-bug-will-crash-apps-in-mountain-lion-if-triggered/ which causes applications to crash, that has now been fixed. The stuttering audio issue for many 2011 Macs has now been resolved as well.

For all you gamers out there with one of those fancy MacBook Pros with a Retina Display, Apple has updated the “*SMC firmware,*”:http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1559 which fixed a problem where users were experiencing slow frame rates when playing graphic-heavy games.

If you have Mountain Lion and would like to update your software to the latest version simply click the apple in the upper left hand corner of your screen and select “Software Update” from the menu. This will open the Mac App Store and give you the option to update the software there. Enjoy!

Apparently, last week’s Mac Treat about taking a screen shot was a big hit among all of our readers. If you missed it, you can check it out “*here.*”:http://blog.smalldog.com/kibbles/kb818/

A lot of readers emailed me with their methods for capturing screenshots, and I wanted to share some of their ideas.

The first idea was an addition to the keyboard shortcuts I described last week. Sometimes, you may not want to save a file to your desktop and would rather copy it to your clipboard for immediate use. Holding down the *Control* key in addition to the other keys will copy your screen shot rather then saving it. All of these shortcuts can be a bit tricky because they involve so many keys, but doable if you have two hands to use! Also, the last two shortcuts only involve the mouse after you have pressed all of the keys.

* *Command + Control + Shift + 3* – Copies the entire desktop to the clipboard.
* *Command + Control + Shift + 4* – Copies a selection of the screen to the clipboard.
* *Command + Control + Shift + 4, then Space Bar* – Copies a selected window to the clipboard.

Another method for capturing the screen is to use Apple’s built-in utility called *Grab*. This lil’ gem is tucked far away in *Applications > Utilities* folder. It gives you similar options to the shortcuts I mentioned earlier.

* *Selection* – Creates a crosshair for you to drag a box around to capture.
* *Window* – Captures a selected window.
* *Screen* – Captures the entire screen.
* *Timed Screen* – Initiates a 10-second delay before it captures the entire screen.

The last option of *Timed Screen* is a new one that allows you to prepare the screen to look the way you want. In some cases, you might need to open up certain menus that would be otherwise difficult or impossible to do by using the other methods of screen capturing.

One final thing to note about the Grab utility is that it allows you to show or hide the mouse cursor depending on the reason for capturing a screenshot.

I hope this addendum to last week’s Mac Treat will round out all of the standard options you have for capturing a screenshot on your Mac. I encourage readers to contact me if you have any problems using these commands or the Grab Utility at “*michaelb@smalldog.com.*”:mailto:michaelb@smalldog.com

*Apple Announces VESA Mount Option for iMac*
As Don mentioned above, Apple has announced a VESA mount for the current iMacs — a fantastic option if you’d like to use your iMac on the wall. Cost: $40, and it doesn’t come with a stand.

“*Read more…*”:http://9to5mac.com/2013/03/14/apple-introduces-imac-with-built-in-vesa-wall-mount-adapter-for-additional-40/

*Apple Wins Top Rating from Laptop Magazine*
Laptop Magazine’s Best Brands feature has Apple in the top spot for the fourth year in a row. Special kudos: The 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display — editors praised the screen, performance, battery life, and design.

“*Read more…*”:http://blog.laptopmag.com/apple-brand-rating