_Dear Friends,_

Next week I will emulate the geese and head south with Grace and my dogs. This has been one of the most spectacular autumns in my memory with brilliant foliage, great weather, and lots of fall crops from the garden like squash, beets, and corn. Grace canned up a bunch of applesauce to bring with us on the trek.

Apple confirmed that there will be “*an event on October 16th*”:http://www.apple.com/live/ (next Thursday). The invitation to the media simply says “It’s been way too long” which can, of course, refer to any number of products and services. We fully expect iPads, some new Macs, the Yosemite operating system and perhaps, “*one more thing.*”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stevenote I’ll be on the road somewhere on I-95 but I will figure out some way to get the news. We need terrestrial Apple radio!

I was out in Cupertino last week for meetings and it seems that the iPhone 6 Plus seems to be the popular choice at Apple, at least with the folks I was meeting. I was able to hold one and while I am definitely intrigued by the large iPhone, I think it is too big for me. I’m likely to settle for the iPhone 6. But I am tempted, just to get the experience.

All this month, at our retail stores, we are working to raise awareness of the issue of domestic violence and giving a donation to women’s shelters in the communities for each purchase of a qualifying product. We have some outstanding values with this program and with your purchase you can make a much needed contribution to these organizations that work every day to fight domestic violence.

“*See more about this program here.*”:http://www.smalldog.com/domestic-violence-month/domestic-violence-month

Also at our retail stores we currently have special financing offers where you can get interest-free financing for up to 18 months. For our web customers we also offer Bill Me Later financing as well. Business customers may qualify for leasing through Apple Financial and you can apply right from our shopping cart.

“*See all of our financing options here.*”:http://www.smalldog.com/finance/affordable-financing-options

*Back-Up and Go!*

You know how much we value backups and there are a lot of ways these days to back up your data. You can back up to the cloud with iCloud or other services, you can have a dedicated backup drive and use Time Machine, or you can use a Time Capsule and do it all wirelessly. Do not underestimate your need to back up your data! Bad things happen to data and it is not a pleasant feeling to suddenly realize that your precious photos and data are gone in a puff. So, this week I am bundling a LaCie Rugged Mini Disk 1TB Portable Hard Drive with a Kingston Data Traveler Gold 8GB thumb drive for $109.99 which is $20 off the normal price. This way you can back up your data using the LaCie drive and take some of it with you on the pocket size gold thumb drive!

“*See this great deal here!*”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900001589/lacie-rugged-1tb-and-kingston-datatraveler-gold-flash-drive

As Don mentioned in his intro, it is crucial to back up your data. With these two drives, you can take your backups on the go and make sure that you always have two copies of important documents, pictures, movies, and more! These drives are orange and gold, so they are nice and bright so you won’t lose or forget them. Plus they will remind you of Vermont foliage!

*Save $20 on these fantastic portable drives!*

Apple is constantly working to improve the iPhone and we have been seeing new releases every year as of late. Many people upgrade at every chance they get. For those of you out there that don’t need the latest and greatest (I myself just bought a 5S instead of opting for a 6 or 6 Plus), this means that there is a robust market for used iPhones. But how can you know if the phone is stolen or is locked down preventing you from using it?

Thanks to “*Find My iPhone*”:https://www.apple.com/icloud/find-my-iphone.html iPhone thefts are way down because there is little motivation to do so. If this service is active, the owner can track the thief and even completely erase the phone. This prevents the phone from being set up as a new phone. However, the legitimate owner may also forget to turn this service off on a phone, making it impossible for a buyer to set it up as a new phone.

You can confirm that this service is off by going into the Settings, going to iCloud and making sure that this service is off. To double-check, or if you are buying a phone sight unseen (hopefully from a reliable source) Apple has set up a website to check that the Activation Lock has been turned off:

“*https://www.icloud.com/activationlock/*”:https://www.icloud.com/activationlock/

I think there is more than a good chance that Yosemite, Apple’s latest Mac operating system will be released next week. I am on the second version of the golden master and I can confirm that it is indeed “ready for prime time”. As with Mavericks, this will be a free upgrade and we can expect some heavy traffic on Apple’s servers.

Here are just three of the great new features you will see:

*Instant Hotspot*

For those of you that use tethering, like me, sometimes it is a bit of a hassle to get it all set up. I usually use tethering at the radio station during “*Small Dog Speaks*”:http://www.smalldog.com/sdspeaks to keep in touch and it is a multiple step process: Find the iPhone, go to “Personal Hotspot”, turn it on and then go back to my iPad or Mac, and finally connect.

Now with Yosemite you can activate the hotspot right from your Mac without removing your iPhone from your pocket. It just appears just like any other WiFi network. It is a little thing but it is great!

*Handoff*

Start writing that novel on your iPad and pick it right up on your Mac when you get home. It works in both directions so you can start an email on your iPhone and pick it right up on your Mac without searching for files or drafts. You are gonna love this feature of Yosemite and iOS 8.

*The Phone is Ringing!*

Don’t you hate it when your iPhone is charging in the other room and you can hear it ringing but you are just too lazy to go answer it? ??(editor’s note: YES!!!)?? Well with Yosemite you can stay in the easy chair because that incoming call will come right to your Mac or iPad as long as you are on the same network. You can even use your Mac as an iPhone and make a call with the iPhone in the other room. It is sometimes a little annoying when you have all the devices in the same place and they all start ringing at the same time but you can set that up so it works best for you. It is sure handy to be able to answer that call on any device.