Party With Us in Burlington on St. Patty's Day!

With over $800 in prizes on the table (court?!) you’ll want to make sure you get your bracket set — our “*March Mayhem*”:http://www.smalldog.com/marchmayhem/ contest kicks off this Monday, March 17th, and you have *two chances to win.*

# Enter in-store on any of our demo machines (in any store) and you’ll have a chance to win a *$400 Small Dog Gift Card!*
# Enter online at “*Smalldog.com/marchmayhem*”:http://www.smalldog.com/marchmayhem and you’ll have a chance to win a pair of Beats Studio Wireless headphones in Red — a $379 value.

If you’re in the South Burlington area, join us for our kick off party — ??see details below!??

Need more info? Even if you’re not a basketball fanatic or don’t care about NCAA or March Madness, entering is a piece of cake. Just go to “*Smalldog.com/marchmayhem*”:http://www.smalldog.com/marchmayhem/ at home or in-store, enter your final four selections for the NCAA final brackets, and then pick the winners of those last three games.

Increase your chances and sign up both ways — we will be giving away one grand prize winner in our retail stores and one via our website. See page for more information.

In last week’s Kibbles and Bytes, I talked about “*thermoelectric power generation.*”:http://blog.smalldog.com/kibbles/kb870/ Thermoelectrics are actually part of a larger family of devices and techniques used in something called “*energy harvesting*”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_harvesting.

I alluded to this in describing how thermoelectric devices are sometimes used in industrial processes to recover waste heat energy. Energy harvesting generally describes the process of taking energy (or “harvesting” it) from the ambient environment. Technically speaking, solar is a very efficient form of energy harvesting. Most types of energy harvesting yield far less power.

In this week’s article, I’ll discuss another form of energy harvesting: piezoelectrics. Unless you’re all caught up on your knowledge of Greek, that name won’t mean much to you. The root “piezo” comes from the Greek “piezein” which means “to squeeze.” That’s precisely what a piezoelectric device does; you apply pressure, or squeeze it, and it generates electricity. Many materials have piezoelectric properties including quartz, wood, Rochelle salt, and even DNA and table sugar. Quartz crystal is a common material used in piezoelectrics.

One use of piezoelectrics in generating electricity is in a barbecue lighter. One of the mechanisms on the lighter (usually a slide) is used to open a valve for the gas. Once the gas is flowing, you can pull the trigger and get a flame. Pulling the trigger drops a tiny hammer onto a piezoelectric device. This instantly generates hundreds or even thousands of volts which passes over a spark gap, creating a spark and lighting the gas. Despite the high voltage, very little charge is actually conducted, so it’s no more dangerous than a static shock.

Starting in the late 1990s, research has been conducted into other applications such as placing piezoelectrics into shoe soles or sidewalks to generate power while someone walks around. Could you walk around and charge your iPhone? That would be cool! Unfortunately, you’d need to be willing to walk hundreds (probably thousands) of miles for a single charge. The problem with piezoelectrics is that while each generating “event” or “squeeze” might generate dozens, if not hundreds of volts (like the lighter), the charge conducted is very low. Those charges are what you need to fill up your iPhone’s battery, and the smaller each one, the more you need.

The potential for piezoelectrics to generate real amounts of power still exists though. “*Research at Cornell University*”:http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/2010/05/researchers-harness-energy-wind-vibrations has focused on mimicking nature by using the concept of a leaf flapping in the wind to generate power from piezoelectrics. Maybe one day instead of plugging your phone into the wall, you’ll be able to plug it into an artificial tree.

Record all your action moments in full 1080p at 60fps on the hill, trail, surfing, driving, biking and view it all on your iPhone with built-in WiFi. Waterproof up to 15m, so go ahead and dive into the fun.

*Enjoy free shipping this week!*

Engineered around workstation graphics with dual GPUs, PCIe-based flash storage, high-performance Thunderbolt 2, new-generation Xeon processors, ultrafast memory, and support for 4K video, the new Mac Pro delivers state-of-the-art performance across the board.

*Enjoy free shipping this week!*

Call it a new fad, call it adrenaline junkies getting their fix — there’s no denying that these new action cameras are everywhere. GoPro, Contour, Sony, Polaroid, Drift…these are just the top hits I found when I googled “action camera.”

So what makes one better than the other? Is is picture quality, mount-ability, frames per second, price? It’s hard to decide with the vast amount of choices to the consumer.

I think it’s fair to say that GoPro has taken a commanding lead. Like most markets, one name tends to stand out among the rest. But does that mean they’re actually the best? Not necessarily. For me, it just means that my friends and I yell “GO PRO!” when we see tourists from the lift with one sticking off their helmets going down a green trail.

I would describe myself as an avid skier and adrenaline junkie, so of course, I had to get one. GoPro didn’t seem my style so I tried Contour. (If you have followed this market at all, you’re now laughing since they filed for bankruptcy in 2013.)

Alas, I needed a new one. Enter “*iON Air Pro 3,*”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900001307/at_kb the newest in the iON series. I look for features and style, like most people, and I wanted something beyond what GoPro had to offer. I took a look at the reviews, watched their video release and sample footage, and I was stunned. Then I got my hands on one. It was as if they knew I liked my Contour, but added all the things it was missing: Wi-Fi for iPhone viewing, a one-touch photo button (with 12 megapixel sensor), and waterproofing — up to 49ft “without a raincoat.”

Its sleek cylindrical design and light weight — only 5oz — keeps the look I like of the Contour but lighter and more feature-rich. One of the things I never liked about the GoPro unit was that when I tried it, I couldn’t tell if it was actually on — there is a red light, but it’s atop my head! With the iON, it uses a nice slide button; you just slide on to record and slide off to stop. Easy enough, especially with gloves on.

All that said, if it doesn’t take good video, it doesn’t matter. The numbers for the iON are right on: It takes 1080p at 60fps and offers a 160 degree viewing angle. I’ve personally been using the 720p setting at 120fps — extra frames are crucial for those epic slow-mo’s.

So there it is: one action junkie’s opinion! If you’re not “GOING PRO” check out the iON below — either way, get out there and enjoy the sport!

I miss my pups, but Grace is heading out today on the long drive down I-95. I have been working from home this week, and find that it is a bit of give-and-take. I find that I am much more productive without a lot of interruptions, but I miss my co-workers, the interaction and excitement. I guess I’ll have to find the right balance.

Thank you for reading this issue of Kibbles & Bytes!

Your Kibbles & Bytes Team,
Don, Kali & Stephanie