ByDon

There is some football game on this weekend that I might have to watch to catch the commercials. We are supposed to get a little snow, and even though there hasn’t been too much accumulation this year, the ski areas are trying to make more and the Valley is busy.

I am working on my little Austin Healey and will be replacing the convertible top this weekend, too.

Thank you for reading this issue of Kibbles & Bytes!

Your Kibbles & Bytes Team,
Don, Kali and Stephanie

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  • _Dear Friends,_

    The cold temperatures are not just up here in the north country where we are a bit more, let’s say, insulated from the impact, but also have drifted into the deep south. A little snow and some ice combined to make a serious condition with people stranded, kids trapped in schools and general mayhem for those that wondered what that white stuff was floating down from the sky. We got a few inches of snow and some more below 0 temperatures, but generally, it has been a very cold but not particularly snowy winter. Whenever I feel a bit cold, I turn on the surveillance cameras down in Key West and still see people in shorts and sandals with sun streaming in the windows.

    Apple released their holiday quarter financial results. It was the 4th best quarterly results for any company anywhere at any time. The other three were oil companies but Apple posted record profits on record sales of iPhones, iPads and Macs and was rewarded with their common stock taking a beating and falling about 10%. I shudder to think that I am about to write this, but I have to agree with Carl Icahn, as he increased his holdings to near $4 Billion of AAPL, that Apple’s value is a “no-brainer” and that Apple’s long-term picture is completely unchanged and bright.

    What happened is that a small group of Wall Street “analysts” decided that Apple was going to sell 55 million iPhones and when the company only sold 52 million they were shocked out of their pants and started selling the stock without realizing both that Apple had to make a quick adjustment and make more of the MORE EXPENSIVE AND PROFITABLE iPhone 5s than the 5c, and that Apple doesn’t even recognize all of the revenue from an iPhone sale when it is sold. They conservatively recognize the revenue over a longer period of time because the OS and iWork is free so they haven’t, from an accounting point of view, completely delivered the product. Apple posted extraordinarily strong financial results but when you are generating $50 billion in sales each quarter it is really hard to grow by 50%! But more, as they say on NPR’s Marketplace, when we do the numbers.

    Speaking of iPhone, have you had a chance to check out our new Hammerhead Jacket iPhone case? I love our new protective case and have been using it since I received the first prototype. As you may know, the Hammerhead Case product line was named in honor of my English Bulldog, but we elected to use the Hammerhead shark as our logo. Around the time we decided to do that I was getting my animal sleeve (a tattoo that covers the arm for those who don’t know the lingo) done and I had to fit in a big Hammerhead shark. It now graces my forearm.

    We commissioned an artist to design a special “Hammerflage” repeating pattern for our cases, which is our version of camouflage. We have introduced the Hammerhead Jacket for iPhone 5 and 5s in both purple or orange Hammerflage patterns. As a special for ONLY Kibbles & Bytes readers, I will send you one of each color Hammerflage for 1/2 price! They are normally $19.99, but you will get a purple and an orange Hammerhead Jacket in Hammerflage for $19.99 by clicking “*here!*”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900001256/

  • Power On! (Part 2)

    In last week’s edition of Kibbles and Bytes, I talked about how crucial batteries are for all the gadgets we use today. I started our look at batteries by talking about the ubiquitous lead acid battery.

    I’d like to thank one reader, Gene, who informed me that back in 1989, Apple actually released its first battery-powered laptop, the Macintosh Portable, which used a lead acid battery. The Mac Portable was a predecessor to the PowerBook series. Even the PowerBook 100 still used a lead acid battery. That’s a pretty incredible feat for the trusty little lead acid battery, but these were big and heavy machines, especially by today’s standards.

    The next real step up in battery technology were the nickel chemistries Ni-MH (Nickel Metal-Hydride) and NiCd (Nickel Cadmium). Many older laptops also used these battery technologies. They’re certainly much lighter than lead, but they suffer from their own unique drawbacks. NiCd batteries were developed around 1900, but didn’t see widespread production and adoption until around 1950 or so in the U.S. For much of the latter half of the 20th century, NiCd batteries were the go-to battery for rechargeable consumer devices.

    If you ever used a cordless drill, cordless phone, or any other battery powered device in the 80s and 90s, it was most likely NiCd. And if you remember using one of those devices, you should remember how you had to run the batteries all the way down before recharging them. Otherwise, the battery wouldn’t last as long the next time you used it. This is called the “memory effect” and it’s one of the biggest disadvantages to NiCd cells. Another problem with NiCd batteries is their toxicity. Much like lead, cadmium is a toxic heavy metal. NiCd batteries should never be thrown away. Always recycle or dispose of them properly.

    When the Ni-MH battery started to become widely available in the early 1990s, it marked the beginning of the end of the NiCd battery. Ni-MH batteries have much greater capacity than NiCds and are far less toxic. If you’ve ever bought AA-sized rechargeable batteries, they were almost definitely Ni-MH. They are well-suited to today’s high-demand electronics like digital cameras and MP3 players because of their ability to deliver high amounts of power efficiently. They’re also very safe to use and their low cost means they see use in a wide array of applications, from robots like Honda’s ASIMO to production electric cars like GM’s EV-1. While they aren’t toxic, it’s still important to recycle Ni-MH batteries because nickel is a valuable metal and recovering it in recycling processes has a far smaller impact on the environment than mining it.

    So how come we don’t use nickel batteries for our iPads and other devices? Well, as I said, NiCd batteries suffer from the memory effect. Imagine if you had to run your iPad all the way down before you could charge it again. Not very convenient. While they would work well in power hungry technology like an iPad, Ni-MH batteries self-discharge at a rate of 4% per day. This means your iPad would lose power even as it was just sitting there unused.

    By now, you may have figured out the punchline in this battery article series: lithium (no, not the Nirvana song, the metal). Check back next week when I’ll explain why we pass over all three battery types in favor of that light, soft, and energetic metal when it comes to making batteries for the latest technologies.

  • Valentine's Day

    It’s coming kids…the big ol’ Valentine’s day! If you are looking for something to give other than flowers or chocolates, fear not — we’ve got you covered!

    We had our super knowledgeable product experts gather the “*best list*”:http://www.smalldog.com/valentine/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=kibbles&utm_campaign=vday of things to give on V day. There’s even a nice coupon in there to use during checkout!

    If you are interested in even deeper discounts (so amazing we can’t show them on the web!), stop by any of our “*retail*”:http://www.smalldog.com/retail/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=kibbles&utm_campaign=vday locations and check out what we have to offer.

    Share the love, everybody!

  • Forgotify

    If you’re a giant Spotify fan like I clearly am, you should check out a new site that has launched called “*Forgotify*”:http://forgotify.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=kibbles&utm_campaign=kibbs. They claim there are over 4 million songs on Spotify that have not been played once. If you currently have an account with Spotify, you can head over to Forgotify, hit “start listening” and prepare to be amazed.

    When I tried it for the first time, this is what I got: Punnaram Kattalle by Vilayil Valsala. A female Indian singer (I think?). Well, you’re welcome Vilayil — you have officially been listened to by one person…me! But apologies to other testers/listeners of Forgetify — now that I’ve listened to it, I guess it comes off the list!

    Give it a try and see what gems you stumble across.

    Next week I’ll continue my music streaming article collection with a more in-depth look at Beats Music and whether I’ll stick with Spotify or convert to Beats! Stay tuned…