SPECIAL | Sonix Inlay Bloom Hybrid Case for iPhone 5/5s

ByMike Moffit

Was $29.99 now only $19.99 This case offers ultimate protection with its dual layers. Slip your phone into the shock absorbent rubber core and then inlay the rubber core into its protective hard shell. We love the Inlay Bloom Series because we believe in offering you BOTH style and protection. Available in Black and Slate.

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  • Capturing your Screen

    How many times have you wanted to grab a shot of your screen to send to a friend or tech support agent? There are several ways to do this but here’s a handy guide to a few possibilities for making this happen:

    * Capture the entire screen and save it: *Command-Shift-3*

    * Capture the entire screen and copy it to the Clipboard: *Command-Control-Shift-3*

    * Capture a selection and save it: *Command-Shift-4, then click on one corner of what you want to select, drag the pointer to the opposite corner, and release the click*

    * Capture a selection and copy it to the Clipboard: *Command-Control-Shift-4, then click on one corner of what you want to select, drag the pointer to the opposite corner, and release the click*

    * Capture a specific window, menu, icon, or menu bar & save it: *Command-Shift-4 then space bar*

    * Capture a specific window, menu, icon, or menu bar and copy to the Clipboard: *Command-Control-Shift-4 then space bar*

    But my favorite way of doing any of this is using the built-in app *Grab.* I keep this in my dock and use it instead of these key combinations. You can find Grab in Applications > Utilities. It gives you even more options by letting you capture a selection, a window, a screen or a timed screen.

    Just one more tip: If you capture your screen don’t get fooled into thinking your screen capture is your actual desktop (but that is a favorite practical joke to play on someone else).

  • _Dear Friends,_

    It is stick season in Vermont and I am watching for snow on my WeMo NetCam while Grace is in the yard here in Key West planting. Stick season is one of the many “shoulder” seasons in Vermont which in this case comes after fall foliage and before winter snow. I miss some of the stick season motorcycling where, while it is a bit chilly, you can see things that are normally hidden by the leaves.

    We are getting ready for the busy holiday season coming up and I know that Jason and Emily have come up with some great deals for the season. We will let you know all about them in the next couple of issues of Kibbles & Bytes. We have continued our “*special financing program*”:http://www.smalldog.com/finance/affordable-financing-options in cooperation with Synchrony Financial in our retail stores where you can get 0% financing, once approved, for 6, 12 or 18 months depending upon the size of your order. If you pay off the balance before the promotional period ends there will be no interest. Interest will be charged from the purchase date, however, if you do not pay before the period ends. For 6 months there is no minimum purchase requirement, for 12 months it must be $499 or more and for 18 months it must be $1499 or more. Come on in to any of our “*retail locations*”:http://www.smalldog.com/retail/visit-us-in-store-at-any-of-our-locations to fill out the form…it takes less than five minutes!

    The market seems to be recognizing Apple’s success as their market capitalization and stock are reaching all time highs. The product mix for this holiday season is very strong with the new “*iPad Air,*”:http://www.smalldog.com/iPads/ipad/iPad_Air the “*iMac 5k*”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/86149/imac-27in-retina-5k-3-5ghz-i5-8gb-1tb-fusion-radeon-r9 and new iPhones. Apple is spending record amounts on R&D so my guess is that the product pipeline is going to be pretty full!

    This week’s Kibbles & Bytes Special is my Back-up and Go bundle. You have heard me talk about just how important it is to back up your data. Too many times we have customers who experience a hardware failure and lose their precious photos and data. As more and more of your life becomes dependent upon your digital resources it is vital that you have a backup. Apple makes that easy with “*Time Machine*”:http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201250 which automates the backing up process. One of the simplest ways to back up your data is to attach an external hard drive to your Mac and let Time Machine take the worry out of this task. I am bundling the 1 TB Seagate Backup Plus Slim USB 3.0 Portable drive this week with a Kingston DataTraveler gold 16GB Flash drive just in case you want to take some of that data with you in your pocket. The Seagate drive is $89.99 and, exclusively for Kibbles & Bytes readers, you will get a free Kingston Gold 16GB DataTraveler when you buy the drive! Back up and Go!

    “*See this great deal here!*”:http://www.smalldog.com/wagwag900001603

  • Streaming Video to iPad

    I think I may have mentioned in a previous Kibbles & Bytes article about how when I got my iPad Air I opted for cellular data over extra onboard storage. I put a good amount of thought into that decision, and it’s not one I’d recommend for everyone. One of my favorite things to do with my iPad is watch movies on it, and they look really great on that Retina display. The smaller amount of storage does mean that I can’t load it up with a bunch of HD movies though. However, with the cellular data and a bit of nerdy know-how, I’m able to watch much more than what’s on Netflix.

    To accomplish this, I needed to solve two problems. First, how am I going to serve up these movie files that currently live on my desktop at home? Second, how am I going to play those files on my iPad? As far as serving up media content (videos, audio and photos), there are a number of options out there. Some are free, some are not, but they all work pretty well. One of the most popular and full-featured server solutions is “*Plex*”:https://plex.tv/. Plex is very easy to use, and it runs on a wide variety of platforms including OS X, Linux, Windows and even a variety of NAS hardware like “*Drobo*”:http://www.smalldog.com/category/?mmfg%5B0%5D=Drobo and “*Synology*”:http://www.smalldog.com/category/?mmfg%5B0%5D=Synology%2C+Inc.

    Unfortunately, in my case, my server hardware is a 2007 Mac mini that refuses to let me install anything later than 10.5.8 onto it. This means I can’t run Plex, which requires 10.6 Snow Leopard or later. After I wiped the tears of defeat from my face, I came across another media server solution called “*Serviio*”:http://serviio.org/. It’s definitely a bit rougher on the edges than Plex, but it does run on 10.5 (and Windows, and Linux, and Synology NAS)!

    I won’t go into how to set up one of these servers, but user-friendly systems like Plex and Serviio are pretty simple. You install them and point them to your media library directory and they take care of finding files, looking up metadata, and organizing things. Both Plex and Serviio have active communities and support that should make getting up and running easy for almost anyone.

    So I had my server, but how was I going to watch all these great movies (like “*Hackers*”:http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113243/)? Allow me to introduce you to the VLC Media Player app. Many people are probably familiar with the desktop version of the VLC player that has been available on a wide array of operating systems for years. It’s now available on iOS. As a media player, it’s able to play media files located in it’s sandboxed folder within the app, but the more powerful feature is its ability to find and attach to DLNA media servers like Plex and Serviio. With the server running on your local network, you can simply open the VLC app and select “Local Network.” It’ll find the server as a UPNP (Universal Plug-n-Play) source. You can then access it and browse by media type, folder, name and more, all of which is handled by the server software.

    As for performance, I’ve seen very few problems. Serviio is able to handle a wide variety of file formats and bit-rates and can serve them up in real time to your devices. I’ve had some problems with .AVI files not buffering correctly, but overall, it works very well. Now I can watch any of my movies in HD on the nice Retina display without wasting valuable storage space!

    *Bonus points:* I mentioned that I have cellular data on my iPad. Can this be used in the same way to stream content? Yes and no. These media servers are designed to stream over local networks, not out to the public internet which is what I’d need them to do if I wanted to watch movies anywhere over cellular. That said, with a bit of nerdy witchcraft I can “stream” video from my web server using its public IP address and any number of free HTML5 video players. This is a considerably more difficult and manual process, but hey, video anywhere!

    *Postscript:* After writing this, I tried to find a link for the VLC app. Sadly, it appears that it’s been dropped from the App Store while they figure out some issues related to iOS 8. Hopefully they’ll return it soon. In the meantime, people are recommending the “*Infuse 3 app*”:https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/infuse-3/id577130046.

  • SPECIAL | G-Technology G-DRIVE Mobile USB 3.0 – 1TB

    Perfect for on-the-go laptop users. G-DRIVE mobile USB is stylish, thin, aluminum portable storage that combines USB 3.0 high-performance with Time Machine-ready backup. Available in Silver, with free shipping.

  • SPECIAL | Targus Versavu Keyboard Case for iPad Air

    Was $99.99 now only $49.99, transform your iPad Air into the ultimate viewing and typing experience with the Targus Versavu Keyboard case. With this protective Versavu Keyboard case, it’s easy to find the most comfortable viewing or typing angle and get a whole new perspective on the traditional iPad case. Available in Black, Midnight Blue, and Black Cherry, get it before it’s gone!