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Meet the Chill Pill: A pocket-sized, self-contained capsule that transforms into two powered speakers. Designed for people who enjoy listening to music out loud and on the go!
Buy one, get one free and save $39.99!
What is this iCloud stuff? Are we talking about big fluffy items in the sky that somehow have your data stored in them? Nope, we are talking about some very down-to-earth hardware on huge server farms mostly powered by renewable energy, at least in Apple’s case, that contain data and feed it back to you on your multiple digital devices. So, what exactly can you do with iCloud?
*iTunes, App and iBook store purchases*
When you activate your iCloud account everything that you purchase on the iTunes Store, the App Store, or the iBook Store is accessible on all of your devices immediately. So if you buy a “*good science fiction book*”:https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/diaspora-multimedia-edition/id673540743?mt=11&at=11lb7k at the iBook Store you can start reading it on your iPad and finish up on your iPhone or Mac. If you have an “*Apple TV*”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/80135/apple-tv-3rd-gen it gets even better as you have instant access to your photos, music, and more on that big screen TV.
*Photo Sharing*
You can activate iCloud Photo Sharing to easily share photos and videos with family and friends and even invite them to add their own pictures, videos and snide comments. It is all updated automatically so no waiting for Facebook to post those pictures.
*Find My iPhone*
??OMG, I left my iPhone in the cab on the way to the airport! ??
If you lose your iPhone, you can use Find My iPhone (or Find My iPad) to locate it by logging into the “*iCloud web portal.*”:https://www.icloud.com It will locate your iOS device on a map, play a sound, or put it into “Lost Mode”. You can also erase it remotely and that works because we have tested it extensively for a previous article. This is Apple’s “Kill Switch” and has dramatically decreased the number of iPhone thefts.
*iWork Anywhere*
With iWork iCloud beta (soon to be out of beta) you can create documents and presentations with ease and share them on all of your devices. Start that new novel you are writing on your iPad and pick it up on the Mac seamlessly.
*Third-Party Apps*
An increasing number of third-party apps now support iCloud and push data to iCloud so it is available on all your devices. Start that chess game on the plane and finish it up later on your iPad.
*Safari*
One of the biggest frustrations before iCloud was that I had a completely different set of bookmarks on my iPhone than I did on my Mac. Now with iCloud all your bookmarks can be on all of your devices. Further, if you use Safari’s Reading List feature will keep that list on all your devices. iCloud monitors the open tabs on any of your devices and you can pick up right where you left off on your other device.
*iCloud Keychain*
While it is intentionally a little more complex to set-up for security purposes (it does, after all, have all your passwords stored for you) iCloud Keychain is a great tool. Using 256-bit AES encryption, iCloud Keychain will store account names, passwords, and credit cards so you don’t have to keep a little cheat sheet or remember them. Even better, iCloud Keychain and Safari will suggest complex passwords for those websites that ask for them and instead of you remembering iCloud Keychain does the work.
*Mail, Calendar, Contact and Reminders*
Enter once on any device and they are populated to all devices. Simple but essential!
*Backup…Hey, say it again…BACKUP!*
iCloud automatically backs up your data over your wi-fi connection every day when it is on, connected to a power source and locked (like when you are charging it at night). iCloud will back up your purchased music, movies, TV shows, apps and books. It will also back up your photos and videos that are in the Camera Roll (not anything you have added otherwise). It backs up the device settings, app data, home screen and pages organization, iMessage, SMS and MMS texts, and your ringtones. Always back up your iPad or iPhone to your Mac, too!
*iCloud Drive*
With iOS 8 and Yosemite, you will have access to iCloud Drive where you can store anything you want so, remember that novel you were working on, store it on iCloud Drive and access it from anywhere or on any of your devices!
The forecast is iCloudy with plenty of sunshine and convenience!
“*Learn more about iCloud here.*”:https://www.apple.com/support/icloud/
_Dear Friends,_
Most of the leaf peepers come to Vermont too late to see the beautiful fall foliage at its peak. I was riding up in the beautiful part of Vermont known as the Northeast Kingdom and many areas are already at peak. It was a beautiful display of a quilt of colors with bright reds combined with various shades of green, brown and yellow. I look out the window in my bedroom and the maple tree outside is a color-wheel of hues ranging from bright red to neon pink.
The days this week are cool in the mornings with ground fog and sunny and warm in the afternoons. I drove my little Sprite in today and had to wear gloves but this afternoon, I’ll take the long way home. It is hard to believe that October starts next week and I do want to let all of our local customers know that all of “*Small Dog Electronics’ retail stores*”:http://www.smalldog.com/retail/visit-us-in-store-at-any-of-our-locations will be closed on Tuesday September 30th so that we can count inventory for the end of our fiscal year. Web and phone sales will remain open.
With October comes Domestic Violence Awareness month. Small Dog Electronics has been a part of Vermont’s “Safe at Work” program since its inception and through posters, resources, and HR policies we do our best to raise awareness and find resources to help our staff. Some time ago, we had an employee that was clearly a victim of domestic violence and as I reached out to find help I came up empty-handed. However, since my wife worked for Planned Parenthood at the time, I was able to find resources and develop a plan. Since then we have participated in working groups and feel this is an important area to be involved in and speak out about.
In October, we are launching a promotion in our retail stores to funnel donations to women’s shelters in each of the communities where we operate. With several participating brands we will make a donation for each sale to the local shelter. Why would we do this? Yes, we have an interest in combating domestic violence and want our employees to be safe at work or home but we have a commercial and philosophical reason, too. As you know, the margins on our products is very low, in many cases below 10% and you have a wide variety of places to buy these same products. It is difficult for us to compete with big box stores that use Apple products as “loss-leaders” by discounting or on-line resellers that do not charge sales tax. While many companies will simply suck it up and discount their products to compete, we have decided upon a different direction.
While we cannot compete solely on the basis of price, Small Dog Electronics wants to give you many reasons to choose to buy your next Mac or iPad from us. One way we can effectively compete is through community involvement. Instead of discounting the products we will make these donations to leverage our “money machine” to help the communities where we live. While we have our on-going customer-driven charitable contributions program where we match donations, we feel that the giving generated by these special promotions not only raises awareness about important issues but also lets our customers and our company make a real difference. I hope you agree!
This week’s Kibbles & Bytes special is a simple BOGO – buy one, get one on the Chill Pill portable speakers. This is the product that launched the Chill Pill Audio brand and is still the handiest portable speaker system!
“*See this great deal here!*”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900001586/at_kb
It is supposed to be great sunny weather this weekend so a lot of chores will just have to wait as I head into the mountains to do some leaf peeping of my own on two wheels!
We celebrated the 5775th year in the Jewish calendar this week! Happy New Year! Shanah Tovah!
Thank you for reading this issue of Kibbles & Bytes!
Your Kibbles & Bytes team,
Don & Mike