ByDon

Dear Friends,

It has been a see-saw spring as far as the temperatures go. Last night, I was able to get my 1970 Norton out on the road for a ride after work because the temps were in the high 70s. This morning it was in the low 30s. Nevertheless, the trees have buds and Grace hauled all the deck furniture out so we can pretend it is spring.

It is only one week until our Grand Opening of the Rutland, Vermont store. Things have really come together well for the store and we look forward to opening the store for business in Vermont’s 2nd largest city!

Apple released their much anticipated 2nd Quarter financials this week and I will review the numbers below, but to paraphrase the words of Mark Twain, rumors of Apple’s death “have been greatly exaggerated.” Apple announced an increased dividend for their shareholders, as well as committing $100 billion to buy back their stock, saying the Apple Board of Directors thought that was the best investment for the company.

A lot of noise has been made by Tim Cook’s comments that Apple has some great products for the fall and early 2014. Many have read into that to mean that there won’t be any products between now and then. I don’t buy that — I expect we will see some new revisions and products before the fall, and that the bigger “game-changing” products will be ready for the holiday season. If you want to ask Tim Cook yourself, there is a charity auction for coffee with Apple CEO Tim Cook at Apple Headquarters. You have to have too much money to bid though; however, there must be some value at Apple if having coffee with the CEO is worth $560,000 as of today!* You can have coffee with me for free anytime!

*Note that at the time of Don’s writing, the bid was at $180,000 — less than 12 hours ago — and may be much different by the time you receive this!

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  • We are up to issue #824 of Kibbles & Bytes. It is hard to believe that we have been writing this weekly electronic newsletter for nearly 17 years now. Thank you so much for your support and for reading this issue of Kibbles & Bytes!

    Your Kibbles & Bytes team,

    _Don, Kali, Mike & Mikhael_

  • SPECIAL | Back Up On The Go

    Whether your goal is super speed or complete compatibility, the Rugged Triple has everything you need. With a drive powered by your USB port, you can save your important documents while remaining untethered from a power source.

  • App Review | Sleep Cycle

    For my entire life, I have never been a “morning person.” Even when I exercise and go to bed early the day before, I can never seem to get going in the morning. Now with the nice weather giving me motivation to be healthier, I did a little digging to find some health and fitness apps in the iTunes App Store.

    I came across this one app called “*Sleep Cycle*”:http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/stat?id=19XpSnZWhPI&offerid=146261&type=3&subid=0&tmpid=1826&RD_PARM1=https%3A%2F%2Fitunes.apple.com%2Fus%2Fapp%2Fsleep-cycle-alarm-clock%2Fid320606217%3Fmt%3D8%26uo%3D4%2526uo%253D6%2526partnerId%253D30 that claims to be an intelligent alarm clock.

    The idea of an intelligent alarm clock is based from tons of sleep science research. The research has shown that you have different levels of sleep phases varying from deep sleep to light sleep. The ultimate goal is to avoid waking up when you are in a deep sleep phase. Doing so should ensure you are not groggy and stressed, and instead wake up feeling rested and relaxed.

    You can see how your standard alarm clock is kind of like a crap shoot. Sometimes, you hit the jackpot and it goes off in a light phase and other times you will be forced to get up in a deep phase. The “*Sleep Cycle*”:http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/stat?id=19XpSnZWhPI&offerid=146261&type=3&subid=0&tmpid=1826&RD_PARM1=https%3A%2F%2Fitunes.apple.com%2Fus%2Fapp%2Fsleep-cycle-alarm-clock%2Fid320606217%3Fmt%3D8%26uo%3D4%2526uo%253D6%2526partnerId%253D30 app takes the random factor out of your sleep equation. “How do they determine this,” you ask?

    The scientists have figured out that when you are in a deep sleep phase, you move less then you do in a lighter phase. That allows the super sensitive gyros in the iPhone can pick up on all of your movements and then determines which phase you are in. Now, you tell the app what time you want to be up by (like any standard alarm clock), and the app will sound the alarm when it knows you are in a light sleep phase. The app sets a 30 minute window from the time you need to be awake, since you might not be in a light sleep phase at the desired time.

    Beyond the intelligent alarm clock, “*Sleep Cycle’s*”:http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/stat?id=19XpSnZWhPI&offerid=146261&type=3&subid=0&tmpid=1826&RD_PARM1=https%3A%2F%2Fitunes.apple.com%2Fus%2Fapp%2Fsleep-cycle-alarm-clock%2Fid320606217%3Fmt%3D8%26uo%3D4%2526uo%253D6%2526partnerId%253D30 other features include:

    * Detailed sleep statistics and graphs for every night
    * 15 different alarms
    * Notes to track your day
    * Shake/tap to snooze
    * And much more…

    If you are interested in trying out Sleep Cycle, you can find it in the iTunes App Store or by clicking “*here.*”:http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/stat?id=19XpSnZWhPI&offerid=146261&type=3&subid=0&tmpid=1826&RD_PARM1=https%3A%2F%2Fitunes.apple.com%2Fus%2Fapp%2Fsleep-cycle-alarm-clock%2Fid320606217%3Fmt%3D8%26uo%3D4%2526uo%253D6%2526partnerId%253D30

  • MAC TREAT #205: Minimize The Clutter

    If you’re a multi-tasker and have a lot of windows open, you know how cluttered the desktop can get. To clean up your screen, you can minimize your windows to the dock, but that will spread and clutter the dock.

    A quick and helpful option is to enable “Minimize windows into applications icon.” With this feature enabled, any windows that are minimized will be listed under the corresponding app in the dock.

    To enable this feature:

    * Go to the Apple logo in the left hand corner and select *System preferences*.
    * Select *Dock* in the top row.
    * Check *Minimize windows into applications icon*.

    To view your windows just right click or (control-click) on the app and a list of all open windows will appear.

  • Apple Squeaks by the Street

    Apple posted quarterly sales numbers of a record $43.6 billion, posting a profit of $9.5 billion or $10.09 per diluted share. This compares to the same quarter last year where Apple posted revenue of $39.2 billion and $11.6 billion profit. As you look at these numbers, keep in mind that last year in this quarter, the iPad with Retina Display was released and it was a huge hit.

    Apple’s profit margin declined this quarter primarily because of the huge popularity of the iPad mini, which has a lower price and lower margins for Apple. Apple sold 37.4 million iPhones and 19.5 million iPads during the 3-month period. Tim Cook didn’t put it this way, but that is one boatload of iOS devices.

    I recently participated in a career day for a couple of local high schools and I asked the kids how many used Macs. A few kids raised their hands, so I asked how many use iPads, and more raised their hands. Then I asked how many use iPhones and nearly all the kids and the teachers raised their hands. I had them hold up their iPhones, and it was a great scene.

    Back to the numbers — Apple sold 4 million Macs and that was flat year-over-year. That is not surprising with the overall market for personal computers declining as people move more and more to mobile devices, but Apple bucks the trend by maintaining a flat sales curve. I hope that some new Macs are coming so we can push that curve up a bit! As Tim Cook said, “our teams are hard at work on some amazing new hardware, software, and services, and we are very excited about the products in our pipeline.”

    Apple added another $12.5 billion to their cash stash and as I mentioned earlier, increased their dividend and share buy-back program significantly. In fact, the share buy-back program is the largest of any company ever.

    The iPod touch continues to be about 50% of iPod sales, and really should be called the iPad micro or something because it is just a smaller iPad.

    As those “analysts” look at Apple, they seem to categorize the company as a hardware company and while that is true, Apple is primarily a software and content company that makes devices to utilize that software and play the content. The iTunes store, as an example, is now 10 years old and bills about $4 billion a quarter — which is $16 billion a year. Let’s put that into some perspective. I can remember a meeting at Apple about 10 or 12 years ago when an Apple exec told us that his goal was to make Apple a $5 billion company by the end of the year! This is a continued story of business success. Apple has exceeded everyone’s expectations, and continues to innovate and create tools that we use every day.

    Congratulations to Apple and their team for another great quarter — we can’t wait to see the surprises in store for us this year!