Dear Friends,
Frost and freeze warnings are out tonight as we truly hit the end of summer. We have pretty much harvested the garden, leaving only the root crops to dig up. This year we got hit by tomato blight and my beautiful tomatoes were ruined by this fungus. We’ll make sure to rototill the garden thoroughly to prevent overwintering but this blight came fast and basically killed the tomato plants in a couple of days.
Grace and I drove the Sprite over to the Tunbridge World Fair which used to be quite the wild fair when I first got to Vermont but now is a great family agricultural event. Aside from eating some fair-food we liked to see the animals, especially the oxen and Grace spent some time in the chicken barn. Of course, we had to compare our vegetables to the ones that won ribbons at the fair, too.
Apple released iOS 8 to the public on Wednesday and Apple’s servers were busy as thousands downloaded this latest version of the mobile operating system. Apple also released an update to Apple TV which added Beats Music and some support for iOS 8 features such as Family Share. The new iOS 8 upgrade is free and is a must-have for your iPhone and iPad.
Apple also released a statement on privacy that is quite welcome. You can find out more at the new Apple privacy web page. Tim Cook sent an open letter to customers where he said:
Security and privacy are fundamental to the design of all our hardware, software, and services, including iCloud and new services like Apple Pay…Our business model is very straightforward: We sell great products. We don’t build a profile based on your email content or web browsing habits to sell to advertisers. We don’t ‘monetize’ the information you store on your iPhone or in iCloud. And we don’t read your email or your messages to get information to market to you. Our software and services are designed to make our devices better. Plain and simple.
With iOS 8 Apple actually cannot bypass your passcode and access data that is on your device and made it clear that it is not technically feasible for them to respond to government warrants for the extraction of this data if you are running iOS 8. This does not apply to iCloud which means that data stored there may be subject to government seizure. And no backdoors, either, which has been the “street rumor” lately. Tim Cook said: “I want to be absolutely clear that we have never worked with any government agency from any country to create a backdoor in any of our products or services…We have also never allowed access to our servers. And we never will.” We applaud this unique stance by Apple.
Vermont has passed a ban on hand-held electronic devices in cars in an attempt to combat distracted drivers. While I still see a lot of people on their phones the law goes into effect on October 1st. We are featuring a number of hands-free solutions for our customers. One that Emily has tested and loves is the Jabra Tour Bluetooth in-car speakerphone. It mounts on your visor, easily pairs with your phone and transmits battery charge information to your iPhone when in use, too. This week’s Kibbles & Bytes exclusive is this Jabra hands-free solution which comes with a single-port USB car charger. I am going to bundle it with our Hammerhead 2-port car charger which will allow you to charge two devices at once or to use in that second vehicle. This bundle is $10 off for Kibbles & Bytes readers at only $74.98.