Introducing Outdoor Tech

ByMike Moffit

Spring is here, and although last night was in the 20s, it quickly warmed up to 60 during the day. Ah, spring in the Valley! As the snow melts and mud season begins, it was time to dust off the bike equipment, put the skis away and make the transition. As I got my bike equipment out, I thought back to all the good times I had last year — I got a new cross bike for the dirt roads around here and used a new app called Strava to track my rides.

As we all prepare to get back outside, I thought that there was no better time to bring in a company called Outdoor Tech. As their name suggests, these guys specialize in technology made for the outdoor elements. In particular, their speakers, Turtle Shell 2.0 and the Buckshot, both offer great sound, are water-resistant and have the ability to mount on a bike. The Buckshot includes a bike mount and can fit onto your handlebars (or, in the winter, fit on the chairlift bar) and is great for rocking and taking calls. Its cylindrical shotgun shell shape and single speaker design makes it super portable and great for hitting the bike path!

The Turtle Shell is larger, offering a louder sound with two speakers and battery bass. They claim it’s “louder than a bear’s roar!” I’m not entirely sure how they tested that, but I’ll take their word for it. For those of you who love to belt it out in the shower (really, who doesn’t?), you can mount it there or on your bike using the Turtle Claw. Either one will ensure you get heard this summer and keep you safe. A great speaker with good lows and highs. Note: I have found headphones while biking on the road isn’t the best idea, apparently cars use the road too — who knew?

We’ve also brought in some headphones from Outdoor Tech: The Adapt and the Privates, an over-ear Bluetooth headphone with touch control and an awesome slogan — “Touch your privates in public!”

The Adapt is just that — a great Bluetooth adapter that allows you to make any pair of headphones wireless. A very cool device for those who already love their wired headphones, especially for the ski/snowboard helmets with them already built-in. If you want to skip adapting your old headphones and step into something new, the Privates are a great pair of headphones that offer hands-free calling, as well as a touch interface for controlling play/pause, skip forward/back, and answer/hangup.

Check out the new line below and we’ll ship it you for free! Now get outside and enjoy the lovely spring weather!

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  • New Product! Outdoor Tech Privates Over-Ear Headphones

    These are the Privates, Outdoor Tech’s touch-control, Bluetooth, wireless headphones. They feature a touch-pad interface on the right earpiece that allows you to change tracks and control volume with the swipe of a finger, built-in call functionality, a 3.5mm AUX jack for plug-in capability and a tough canvas wrap around the headband. These headphones are seriously ballin’!

    *Enjoy free shipping for the next week!*

  • New Product! Outdoor Tech Turtle Shell Boombox

    Behold the Turtle Shell 2.0! A miraculously rugged, water-resistant Bluetooth speaker. The Turtle Shell 2.0 brings more volume, more Hi-Fi audio, more battery life and a plethora of other feature improvements over its predecessor!

    Check one of these cool speakers out — and of course, *enjoy free shipping for the next week!*

  • Now that the NCAA championship is over and the Celtics are lottery-bound, I can turn my attention to baseball and cheering on my Cubbies, who, as usual, are off to a slow start. My friend and former Small Dogger Geoff Blanck hooked me up with some tickets for when the Cubs visit the Red Sox in inter-league play at the end of May. While it isn’t at Wrigley (who is celebrating its 100th year as a major league ballpark), I am excited to see the new faces and bats in the Cubs lineup!

    Thank you for reading this issue of Kibbles & Bytes!

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  • Get an Extra $100 Trade-In Credit

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    *From 4/7 – 4/21, you’ll get an extra $100 in trade-in credit on your old Mac or PC when you purchase a new Mac!* That’s right — you’ll receive at least $100 for your old computer, and in most cases, much more. Just bring your computer in, and we’ll get you a competitive trade-in value. See an associate for details!

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    ??*Transfer promo requires a working Mac with OS X 10.5+.??

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    Don’t be!

    The internet may not actually be a series of tubes, but it still is a complex layering of protocols, software, hardware and people. One of those protocols that we rely on heavily is SSL/TLS (Secure Socket Layer/Transport Layer Security). This protocol is what allows your data to pass securely between your computer or device and the sites you visit. It does this by encrypting the data end-to-end.

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    The bug works by exploiting a flaw in the way heartbeat messages are handled in OpenSSL. A heartbeat message is nothing more than a tiny message from a client to the server that says, “hey server, even though I’m not sending encrypted data right now, I’m still here, so don’t close my secure connection.” It does this because closing and reopening the connection takes work, so it’s more efficient to leave it open. These heartbeat messages typically contain some payload data and an indication of how big the payload data is. So a message might be “Hey server, I’m still here” and the payload size might say 32 bytes. The server hears this message and responds by returning the payload data and payload size to the client.

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    Fortunately, the fix for the bug is fairly simple. Servers running OpenSSL need to upgrade their version. Because it’s possible that encryption keys and certificates could have been compromised, it’s advisable to also replace those keys and certificates. Here at Small Dog Electronics, we’ve done both of these things. We’ve also reset login sessions in case an old user login session was still active or compromised.

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    Please don’t hesitate to reach out to us on “*our blog,*”:http://blog.smalldog.com “*Twitter,*”:https://twitter.com/hellosmalldog or “*Facebook*”:https://www.facebook.com/hellosmalldog if you have any questions about our security, what we’ve done to patch the Heartbleed bug, or you’d like help updating your account passwords.

  • New Product! Outdoor Tech Adapt Wireless Headphone Adapter

    The Adapt will make anything with a 3.5mm audio jack wireless. Now you may talk on the phone with your old headphones or turn your car stereo into a speakerphone with its built-in mic.

    Make sure to clip it to your favorite sweater vest for a totally hands-free experience. You may also skip tracks and control volume without having to touch your Bluetooth device. Your life is getting easier just reading this.

    *Enjoy free shipping for the next week!*