Hands on: iPad Air

I’ve seen Don write about the new iPad Air in a few of his Kibbles intros and obviously I’ve read all about it on various Apple sites, but I’m ashamed to say, I didn’t actually touch one until just a few hours ago. Yeah, I know. Fail.

I decided to venture out of my safety zone that is the fishbowl here at Small Dog HQ and wander downstairs to the retail store so I could inspect one of these for myself. I probably shouldn’t have done so because now I want one.

I’ve never actually purchased an iPad; however, my 87-year-old grandmother is on her third one. And not because she breaks them — she’s an “early adopter” who wants the latest and greatest model. Needless to say, she has her iPad Air on order and is ready to take on Spider Solitaire and Candy Crush on her new, super light device.

Like everyone else’s first impression that I’ve heard, I thought, “it’s so light!” and was a little unsure of whether or not I was actually holding the iPad Air. The Air seems so much smaller than the previous generation because of the new bezel design mimicking that of the mini. It’s an illusion, as it does have the same 9.7-inch display like the rest of the full-sized iPads.

Bottom line: I’m quite impressed and it’s going to be tough for me not to get one. You might not think they’re that impressive until you actually have one in your hands. If you haven’t checked it out yet, stop by one of our retail stores and play around with one on demo — you, too, will want one!

Similar Posts

  • Order Online for In-store Pickup!

    Did you know that any of the specials or sales that are listed on “*Smalldog.com*”:http://www.smalldog.com are also available in our retail locations?

    We currently have some great specials listed, including the Brenthaven Collins Folio Case for the iPad mini (on sale now for $24.99), the Scosche StrikeDrive, a car charger for iOS devices with the new Lightning connector for just $14.99, and a full set of iPhone App Fridge Magnets at 50% off, making them just $6.99.

    You can check out which products are on sale by looking at our “*Specials page*”:http://www.smalldog.com/specials, or by signing up for our “*RSS Feed.*”:http://www.smalldog.com/rss

    You can even order right online and *select for pick up in any of the Small Dog locations: South Burlington, Waitsfield, or Rutland, VT, Manchester, NH, and even our newest location, sunny Key West, FL!*

  • I am driving up to Miami on Saturday to catch the Miami Heat play my Boston Celtics. Not the rivalry that it used to be with the Celtics in rebuilding mode, but we should have a good time in South Beach at the game. The pups will be hanging out at Pampered Pet in Key West.

    Thank you for reading this issue of Kibbles & Bytes!

    Your Kibbles & Bytes Team,
    _Don, Kali & Stephanie_

  • _Dear Friends,_

    If you haven’t seen the new iPad Air yet, you should really check it out. I have spent some time with it this past week, testing cases and getting iPads set up for customers here at our store in Key West. It is simply amazing — blazing fast, super light and thin. I compared it to the original iPad 1 with a customer, and we were both amazed at how much the iPad has changed in such a short time. We quickly sold out of our initial allocation of the iPad Air but have more in stock now, so stop in at any of our stores for a first-hand look!

    It has been fun working in this newest and smallest of the Small Dog stores, meeting customers and getting ourselves established in this community. Hammerhead has been the official store greeter and seems to like it here, too. It is a bit of a new experience to greet customers in bathing suits at the store, but this is Key West, so going with the flow is the name of the game. There are lots of friendly customers and the store is off to a great start. I am pleased to report that Taylor Amon will be joining the Key West crew. Taylor will be moving from Vermont in a couple weeks to join our team here.

    The Chill Pill Audio newest speaker, the “*Chill Box,*”:http://www.smalldog.com/search?search=chill+box is popular down here. With great sound, battery life and Bluetooth connectivity, this portable speaker is perfect for so many uses. Grace and I carry one with us when we travel, and watch movies on my MacBook Pro or we take it with us to the beach. I even used it this summer in my Austin Healey. For only $99.99, it is a very nice portable speaker and a great gift for the holidays!

  • MAC TREAT #204: For Reinstalling, 'R' is the New 'C'

    Ever wondered how to reinstall your OS without a restore disc? Every new Mac OS update is available in the App Store, so new Macs haven’t shipped with a restore disc in a few years. In fact, many new Macs have no optical drive whatsoever. I know we’ve been saying this for a while, but the time is rapidly approaching where discs will be completely obsolete.

    I recently had a conversation with Chris B., our handy Waitsfield tech and phone support guru, where I told him that I thought I might need to reinstall Mavericks on my home iMac. To troubleshoot some of the issues I was having, he recommended some other things first — which I plan to try — but he reminded me that although restoring/reinstalling is a different process than I was used to, it is still easy and straightforward.

    So — for those of you who have gotten used to using Command-C to boot from your OS disc, listen up: ‘R’ is the new ‘C’.

    Here’s the drill:
    Hold down Command-R during startup and OS X Recovery will launch. It lets you choose from common utilities, including Disk Utility to check or repair your hard drive, erase your hard drive and reinstall a fresh copy of OS X, or restore your Mac from a Time Machine backup. Additionally, you can use Safari to get help from Apple Support online, but I imagine most users care more about the Disk Utility options that have been familiar since the dawn of the Mac OS.

    Note: As always, before reinstalling your OS, make sure you have a viable backup if possible.