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_Dear Friends,_

I am down south in Key West at our newest store, helping Joe, Joe, and Riane get this location going on the right foot. It is a great little store and it has been a pleasure to meet all of our Key West customers from all over the world. I even ran into a few from Vermont and several who have been buying from “*Smalldog.com*”:http://www.smalldog.com for years. It is a busy time down here as the annual Fantasy Fest is in full swing. Grace went to the Pet Masquerade with Fantail and Max, and there were some hilarious dog/human lookalikes there!

There are some great new products from Apple that were announced this week. We had the presentation playing in the stores via Apple TV and in our conference room for the employees to gather and watch. The new MacBook Pros seem to be a great upgrade to a solid machine and I am very encouraged by the progress with the iPads, too.

One of the most significant events was that the Mac OS upgrade to Mavericks is free and so is iLife and iWork (Pages, Keynote, Numbers). Apple has a great line-up for the holidays and we are excited to have the new gear ready for you.

I had a great and productive trip to China and I will be working to bring some new products to “*Hammerhead*”:https://www.hammerheadcase.com and “*Chill Pill Audio*”:https://cp.hammerheadcase.com as we get samples and work on packaging. The flying was the only poor part of the trip, but only because it was 29 hours to fly to the other side of the world. It literally took me another 5 days to recover from jet lag, but I am now back in the Eastern time zone.

According to Don and Hapy’s collectively semi-accurate recollections, this Halloween would be our 14th Annual, as they estimate that the contest started in earnest in 2000. The first one would have been the Inaugural (not 1st Annual, people — that doesn’t exist! :)), and then the 2nd Annual would have commenced in 2001 and so on.

We awarded the first right answer, but got so many fantastic answers (and evidence!) that we’ll be sending out additional other prizes. If we haven’t contacted all of you already, we just might — thanks so much to everyone who emailed!

Be sure to stay tuned next Thursday on Halloween for our annual parade of ridiculousness. There are prizes at stake, too — one special voter will win an Apple TV! We will have all of the info on “*our blog, Barkings!*”:http://blog.smalldog.com, including photos and links to our Flickr photo stream, and the survey itself so that you can cast your vote.

Gotta go…I’ve still got some costuming to do…

Mac OS 10.9, Mavericks, was released this week, which wasn’t much of a surprise. However, its price was. Free. It’s been a long time since Apple has made an OS free-of-charge — now, correct me if I’m wrong, but I’ll say it was v. 10.1 (Miss Puma if you’re nasty).

So, with no money at stake, let’s just start downloading, amiright? Well, sort of. We aren’t yet authorized to install Mavericks on any of our workstations, but as soon as I got home and turned on my iMac, I went for it. (Almost) Instant gratification!

But here’s the rub. I violated the golden rule, “thou shalt always back up [before upgrading],” largely in part because the App Store seemed to be beckoning me to do it right away. (It’s easy to get caught up in shiny new icons when you don’t have to plunk down your credit card.)

I’ll skip some of the gory details and say that ultimately, I dodged a bullet and ended up with all of my data intact, but it wasn’t a smooth ride. The Reader’s Digest version goes like this:

* Girl selects “Update” (Note that it says “Update” rather than “Upgrade” from the App Store — another cue to your subconscious that it’s no big deal.)
* Mavericks begins installing
* Girl gets weird error toward the end and is given the option to go back and start again
* Girl goes back, finds no option to back up or cancel, and starts process again
* Install succeeds* but the prompts indicate that it is setting up a NEW USER account
* Girl proceeds (there’s no going back now) and ends up starting fresh, only to find that Mavericks appears to have installed on her external backup instead** (at the very least, User #2 ends up installed on that drive)
* After some sleuthing, girl finds that all of her original User data is still on her internal drive and is able to get Mavericks cleanly installed there
* Girl has a few minor heart attacks and then begins using Mavericks happily

Obviously, the moral here is that all users may not be so lucky(?) and with any OS installation, proceed with caution and a good backup in your proverbial quiver. With that said, I LOVE IT so far, and it’s well worth the -upgrade- update.

For more Mavericks installation tips, including steps to take before the install, check out these articles:
“*via CNET*”:http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-57608663-263/5-things-to-do-before-upgrading-to-os-x-mavericks/
“*via Mashable*”:http://mashable.com/2013/10/23/clean-install-os-x-mavericks/

__*I’m theorizing that the first install was thwarted by my iMac’s sleep settings — I let it go overnight.__
__**Not confirmed that it’s actually a boot volume. I’m no tech, but that just doesn’t seem likely…does it?__

I hear it is snowing and is supposed to be 25 degrees tonight in Vermont. It is 85 now (and pretty much all the time down here), so I may have to get Hapy to cut off my paycheck to get me to come back to Vermont in a few weeks…

Thank you so much for reading this issue of Kibbles & Bytes!

Your Kibbles & Bytes Team,
_Don, Kali & Stephanie_

Apple didn’t lie when they said that there was still a lot to cover in an event that was held earlier today. Here’s a quick wrap-up the event for those of you who weren’t able to tune in and would like the short and sweet synopsis.

* *Mac Pros* — These were originally announced at WWDC in June, but Apple had yet to set a release date for them. While there still wasn’t an official date released today, we do know that they will ship sometime in December and will start at a price point of $2,999. Vague, but ok.

* *MacBook Pros* — The original MacBook Pro (without Retina display) is now only available in a 13-inch screen. Retina display seems to be the primary option for 13 and 15-inch models, but the good news is that Apple cut the prices on both by $200. The 13-inch MBP with Retina now starts at $1,299.The 13 and 15-inch MBP also now pack a Core i5 or i7 Haswell processor.

* *Updated to the iLife Suite* — iPhoto, iMovie and GarageBand all got makeovers with new features and will be free for customers who purchase a new Mac or iOS device.

* *Mavericks* — The latest operating system for Mac finally got a release date: today! And it’s free. What? Yup. Free! You can head over and “*download*”:https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/os-x-mavericks/id675248567?mt=12 that for free if you are running 10.6.8 or newer.

* *iPad mini with Retina* — It looks the same, but now with Retina display. This new version will have a 2,048×1,536 resolution and offers 326 pixels per inch compared to 163 in the first model. The new mini is gonna look so fresh and so crisp and will start at a price point of $399.

* *Original iPad mini* — It’s still available and will dropped in price from $329 to $299.

* *iPad Air* — What everyone was waiting for; the new iPad! Not called the iPad 5, but rather the iPad Air. Apple states it’s “thinner, lighter, and more powerful than ever before.” The iPad Air’s weight is just one pound and has slimmed down to 7.5mm in thickness (20% slimmer than before). These will start at $499 like they always have. Apple is hanging on to the iPad 2, which will still be available for $399.

That’s a wrap! Stay tuned for more in-depth articles on the new iPad Air and Mavericks.

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