ByDon

Dear Friends,

I am in sunny and hot Key West, Florida at our new store. It was a long drive down I-95 with lots of traffic the whole way down, but the dogs, Grace and I arrived in one piece and are trying to get in the swing of the southernmost city.*

Hammerhead doesn’t much like the heat and is confused by the lack of grass and fields. I am only in Key West for a couple of days and then I’m off to the Apple Specialist Marketing Coop conference in New Mexico and on to Hong Kong after that for some shows and to meet with some of our suppliers for the Hammerhead Case and Chill Pill brands.

Have you seen the latest product from Chill Pill? It is called the Chill Box and is a great-sounding Bluetooth speaker and conference call speaker. It has a built-in microphone and big sound. Grace and I had to download the season finale of Breaking Bad from iTunes while we were on the road, and we watched it on my laptop with the Chill Box hooked up for audio (way better than laptop speakers!).

I am really proud of this new speaker. It comes in Electric Blue, Tuxedo Black and Lime Green and is only $99.99. Make sure you read Will’s review of this great product below. You can also stay up-to-date with Chill Pill and the new products being released on Facebook and Twitter.

New iMacs should be available at each of our stores; I just saw some come in here at the Key West store and we are getting a few of the new iPhones in as well. We have launched our Phone Trade-In program and customer reaction thus far has been great. You can trade in just about any phone (iPhone and third-party phones) and we offer very competitive trade-in values (compare and shop!).

Our updated Trade-In page has a little more details, but please note that the Phone Trade-In Program is ONLY available in our retail stores.

It’s a very simple, straight-forward process, and it’s a great way to upgrade to the newest iPhones without a lot of out-of-pocket outlay!

*In the continental US, of course.

Similar Posts

  • I am going to try to see if I can get some tickets to the Celtics vs. the Heat coming up in November so I can wear my Rondo jersey in Labron’s house. But first, I get to see all the thousands of iPhone and iPad cases at the shows.

    Thanks for reading this issue of Kibbles & Bytes!

    Your Kibbles & Bytes team,

    _Don, Kali & Stephanie_

  • iMessages Glitch in iOS 7

    If you happen to listen to our radio show, “*Small Dog Speaks,*”:http://www.smalldog.com/sdspeaks on “*WDEV,*”:http://www.wdevradio.com/index-home.asp you may have heard Rebecca and Don answer a question about an issue with iMessages in iOS 7. Apparently, a lot of users have experienced “sent” messages getting stuck in the process without really letting them know that it failed to actually be sent.

    If you’re one of these people who has seen this happen, fear not — Apple is on the case. They released the following statement to the Wall Street Journal this past week:

    bq. __”We are aware of an issue that affects a fraction of a percent of our iMessage users, and we will have a fix available in an upcoming software update. In the meantime, we encourage any users having problems to reference our troubleshooting documents or contact AppleCare to help resolve their issue. We apologize for any inconvenience this causes impacted users.”__

    But while we await the release of 7.0.3, there are a few things you might be able to do in the meantime. The simplest, and first thing you should do is turn your device off and back on again. This seemed to work for a little bit for some users, but ultimately did not solve the problem in the long run.

    Mac Rumors has a better solution:

    # Turn off iMessage in *Settings > Messages
*
    # Reset network settings in *Settings > General > Reset
*
    # Reenable iMessage in *Settings > Messages*

    This is kind of a nasty bug for iPhone users because in the case of sending messages, the message won’t revert to SMS when the iMessage fails to be sent. You might be stuck thinking that you sent a message when really it never went through. Rumors suggest that iOS 7.0.3 might be released as early as next week, and this will hopefully fix this whole iMessage issue.

  • Chillin' with my Chill Box

    Recently portable speakers have transitioned from physically docking your iPod to Bluetooth wireless connectivity. This is in large part due to the fact that we use our smartphones to listen to music and that Apple switched from the 30-pin to Lightning connector. Although I think the Lightning dock is a great step forward, manufacturers largely didn’t, and the result is a wide variety of Bluetooth-enabled speakers.

    So when the new “*Chill Box*”:http://www.smalldog.com/search?search=chill+box was released, I was excited to get my hands on it. First impressions: great design, easy to connect via Bluetooth or included auxiliary cable, and did I mention how good it sounds?

    I used my iPhone 5 over Bluetooth and streamed my favorite Spotify playlist. I was connected and jamming within seconds; I turned on the device, held the power button until the light indicator flashed blue/red (indicating pairing mode), and it popped right up in my Bluetooth settings. Bingo-bango — connected. I hit Play and began to chill out.

    But what makes it unique? It’s style for sure — the sleek aluminum back and cloth grill give it a classy look for your office, apartment, or living room. I’ve had mine connected to my iMac in the office and it looks very Apple-esque, matching the aluminum design look. It has a great speaker phone feature, with a built-in mic and answer/hang up button. I’ve used the Jawbone and I had to use the mic on the phone, which seemed silly. Its sound quality-to-price ratio can’t be beat.

    The competition out there is fierce, so ease of use, features and of course, sound quality make all the difference. If you’re someone who thinks sound is most important, note that the Chill Box stands with the rest. In our South Burlington location, I compared the Chill Box to the Beats Pill; besides being endorsed by a doctor, I honestly thought the Chill Box sounded better, and at half the price! A lot of small speakers suffer from poor sound at higher volume, which is not the case with the Chill Box,. You can pump the jams distortion-free.

    Final thoughts and helpful hints: When using the speaker with a smartphone or tablet over Bluetooth, you’ll see the battery level appear near the Bluetooth symbol. That’s very helpful, since most units either turn off or beep when the battery runs out. A beep can be heard when maximum volume is reached, so remember that you can control volume from your device if connected over Bluetooth (really handy if you’re not near the speaker). I think my family and friends know what they’re getting for the holidays!

    *Check out our sweet Chill Box Kibbles-exclusive special below!*

  • SPECIAL | Get FREE Shipping on the Chill Box

    Don’t get trapped in the world of inadequate sound. Go beyond the ability of your tablet, smartphone, or laptop speakers and feel your media come to life. Chill Pill Audio’s new Chill Box lets you hear your media loud and CHILL. Get *FREE shipping* on these bad boys for a limited time.

  • Motion Coprocessing: New Possibilities

    A lot has been written about the M7 — the motion coprocessor found in the newest iteration of the iPhone 5s. The 64-bit processor uses the iPhone’s accelerometer, a feature that dates back to early iPhone and iPod touch models, plus the gyroscope and compass components.

    This feature may seem like a lot of mumbo-jumbo techspeak to the average user, but the real-world applications of this update are worth the upgrade. You don’t have to be a ‘gamer’ to appreciate what your iPhone can do with the M7 — this opens up a world of possibilities for developers of lifestyle apps.

    Case in point: Our friends* over at 8 BitFit have an app in the works that combines the fun of gaming with the health benefits of running and walking. They note that developers like Nike, makers of the popular Nike+ fitness apps and accessories, are already using M7.

    We’ll have more in upcoming issues about the expanding possibilities of using the M7 in the iPhone 5s, as well as when 8 BitFit is released!

    In the meantime, check out 8 BitFit’s rundown of the motion compressor features here:
    “*8 BitFit Blog*”:http://8bitfit.com/apple-m7-motion-coprocessor/

    __*Long-time Kibbles readers will remember one of our favorite Small Doggers ever, Ed Shepard, in his new venture!__