An interesting video was shown to me by a coworker the other day. There’s currently a “*YouTube video*”:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCFYKDXrWlw circulating the internet that tries to spread the message of different concepts for technology.

As we all know, technology changes practically every day and some find that it’s hard to keep up with the latest and greatest. At Small Dog, we are well aware that ever-changing technology leads to mass quantities of ewaste, hence why we started our “*eWaste Recycling Event*”:http://www.smalldog.com/recycle a few years ago (but that’s not the point of this article).

I’m sure many people have brainstormed an idea kind of like this one before, but this is the first time I’ve seen a nice little video on the concept. In the video, they make a point that usually it’s only one component of the device that fails, rendering it unusable (when, in fact, the rest of the device works fine).

So, what if our mobile cell phones were made out of blocks instead? When one part of it breaks, you can easily replace just that one part. The different blocks that make up the phone attach to a base with various pins that send the electrical signals through the phone. Then, when something breaks — like the screen — you can could easily (and hopefully cheaply) replace the screen or update it to the newest version (like HD). If your phone becomes sluggish, replace the speed block.

The other great feature of this idea is that everything would be customizable. For example, if you do everything in the cloud, perhaps you’d swap your storage for a bigger battery. Or if you love to take pictures, upgrade the camera portion of the phone. This way you can choose the blocks you want and the brands you like.

The video authors show brands like Bose and Philips, which would mean that these companies would have to be on board to start creating a new line of goods specifically for the “block phone.” The phone would work on an open platform and would rely on companies working together to create the best phone out there. So far, it’s just an idea that’s out there, complete with a cute video and narrator with a great British accent.

However, I do see a few issues with this concept. While I love the idea of holding on to an electronic device for years in order to eliminate the amount of ewaste in the world, one of the possible issues is that people love “new” products. We know far too well that people clamor for the next Apple product announcement. Sure they might have just gotten their iPad 4, but as soon as that iPad 5 is announced, they will be coming through our doors to get their hands on one. It might look exactly the same, but perhaps it now comes in gold instead of silver and has Touch ID. (Disclaimer: This is just an example — we have no idea if there is even an iPad 5 coming out!)

The idea still seems young. They would need to get a lot of people on board from major companies to make the vision come to life…and there’s still one thing that stands in their way: Apple. There are a whole lot of Apple lovers out there (as well as some Apple haters) and sadly, I think that the only way people might get on board with this concept is if Apple was the one to do it. However, it might not be totally out of the picture. Apple is a very environmentally conscious company, that they are constantly trying to find ways to reduce their carbon footprint.

Overall, I think this might be a step in the right direction. What do you think? Is this something that you would buy? “*Email me your thoughts!*”:mailto:steph@smalldog.com

_Dear Friends,_

I am sitting in the airport waiting for my flight to Hong Kong. It has been a whirlwind travel schedule so far as another fantastic ASMC (Apple Specialist Marketing Coop) conference has wrapped up, this time in Albuquerque, NM. I had meetings with Apple, other Apple resellers, and a couple of vendor fairs thrown in, too. It was nice to be in New Mexico for a couple of days, but I really noticed the desert dryness. I did see, off in the distance, the balloon festival with hundreds of colorful balloon floating in the Albuquerque sky.

I have been able to spend some time in the Key West store recently; in fact, Grace and I ran the store by ourselves on Saturday! It was great to talk to a whole new group of customers and we had a long, but productive, day. Our new sign arrived for that store and Sean is down from our Manchester, NH store to help with organizing and training our new employees. I’ll be back in Key West after this journey to HK — ahh, life in the fast lane!

I got a new car a couple of weeks ago, too. The lease was up on my other car, an Infiniti, and since I liked it, I decided to buy their hybrid that is similar. It comes with Infiniti connection and an iPhone app, too. Theoretically, I can lock and unlock my car remotely with this app. I think I’ll have Grace go outside and watch as I do that remotely from literally the other side of the world.

In Hong Kong, I will be attending a couple of trade shows and visiting my friend (and our man in China) Simon Laio. I will also be visiting the factories of some of the companies that supply us with products for our “*Hammerhead*”:https://www.hammerheadcase.com and “*Chill Pill Audio*”:https://cp.hammerheadcase.com brands. When I go, I am looking at working conditions, observing things such as ventilation, etc. and generally getting the feel of the company.

I remember one company that I visited had a big banner in the entry that basically translated to “Quality is Nothing, Speed is Everything.” We decided not to do business with this company. One of the life lessons we are always talking to our partners about is that out of three things — fast, good and cheap — you can pick any two __(Editor’s Note: That’s the motto in our Marketing department, too… -KH).__ We are always interested in good, but fast trumps cheap for us.

It looks like some new products are coming from Apple soon if the rumor sites are to be believed (or if you believe in Santa)!

For more than 65 years the Sennheiser name has stood for top-quality products, true sound and tailor-made solutions for every aspect of recording, transmission and reproduction of sound.

We want you to experience the great sound of Sennheiser so we’re throwing in some discounts on our most popular headphones. Enjoy up to *$100 off* select headphones!

External devices have started the changeover to updated connections — Thunderbolt 2.0 and USB 3.0 ports. For most people, this will probably go unnoticed. With Thunderbolt, some may have gone, “Huh, there’s a lightning symbol on this port. Wonder what that means?” As for USB 3.0, most people didn’t even notice the difference because the port on the machine still looks the same as USB 1.1 and 2.0. So what’s the big deal?

Well it’s all about speed! This is America: go fast or go home. USB 3.0 clocks in at 5GB/s while Thunderbolt, a replacement for the long standing FireWire Apple used, clocks in at 10GB/s for Thunderbolt 1 and 20GB/s for Thunderbolt 2.0. Now, I’m sure you’re sitting there going, “And your point is?” Think about your files today, be they music, photos, video even Word and PowerPoint files, they’re getting bigger. Bigger doesn’t necessarily require speed, but hey, time is money.

Whether you’re in big business or a student waiting on a term paper backup, you want it there __now__ — no time to watch that progress bar while it copies over to your external or thumb drive. USB 3.0 opened up a whole new world for thumb drives, because in conjunction with flash memory availability and the costs coming down, you can now get a flash drive with 128GB or more. You can back up your entire MacBook Air to a thumb drive or quickly dump your entire iPhoto library.

As for the Thunderbolt possibilities, that enters a whole other world of nerdiness.

Thunderbolt is a super cable — it carries digital audio, digital video, and has a transfer rate of 10GB/s throughput both up and down. That means it can be used to attach video products like monitors, TVs, and transmit digital audio to a HDMI receiver. And that’s the easy stuff; a great feature of FireWire was its ability to daisy chain, meaning that one could connect many, many devices into each other while only using one port on your computer. That means a MacBookAir with one Thunderbolt port can attach a monitor, video camera, and Thunderbolt hard drive all into the single Thunderbolt port without losing any data transfer speed.

Is your mind blown yet, because prepare to be shocked all over again! Apple announced Thunderbolt 2.0 with the new Mac Pro coming this fall, which will allow the connectivity of even higher-end devices — for instance, up to three 4K displays! (OK, the graphics card helps there, but that’s still crazy!)

In short, your mouse still plugs in like it always does, and you still need a Thunderbolt adapter to connect your monitor, but if you “feel the need for speed,” be sure you’re buying the newest in connectivity.

??This article originally appeared in Kibbles & Bytes Issue “*#820*”:http://blog.smalldog.com/kibbles/kb820/. It is still current for iOS 7 and we thought it might be helpful if you’re experiencing some quirks with the new operating system. Enjoy!??

This week’s Mac Treat is short and sweet. It is funny how something as simple as turning an electronic device off and back on again can fix some problems. However, your device might be locked up in a way that makes turning it off seem impossible.

Most electronics have some way of forcing a shut down and your iOS devices are no different. This procedure is guaranteed to work for iPod touches, iPhones and iPads (mini or biggie). I know for a fact that it works with iOS 4 and up but for anything older, I cannot say for sure.

*To hard reset your iOS device:*

* Hold down the *On/Off* button (aka Sleep/Awake) and the *Home button.*
* Wait at least 10 seconds — until the screen goes dark and the Apple logo appears.

Voila! You have just hard reset your iOS device. I would advise against using this method as your normal shutoff mode since it bypasses all the operating system’s normal shut down procedures (which are necessary for smooth operating). It is basically like unplugging your computer from the wall without shutting it down, so use this sparingly and only when the normal power down function is not working.