_Dear Friends,_

I am headed back to Vermont for a couple of weeks to spend Thanksgiving with my family and check in on headquarters. It is hard to believe we are already at the end of November although the cold weather and snow sure makes that seem real. It even got a little cool down in Key West, and when that happens it is pretty funny to see people with their down vests and scarves when it is in the 60s.

Apple scored a 100% for the 13th year in a row on the “*Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index.*”:http://www.hrc.org/campaigns/corporate-equality-index In Tim Cook’s tweet announcing the achievement, which recognizes US workplaces based on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality, he said “inclusion inspires innovation”. I have certainly found that to be true at Small Dog as well and we pride ourselves on our inclusive and diverse workplace.

Our week long Thanksgiving sale starts now online for Kibbles readers and tomorrow in our retail store, be sure to check out all the great deals here at “*http://www.smalldog.com/thanksgiving*”:http://www.smalldog.com/thanksgiving

I have a two year old at home and, as those of you out there who are also parents know, sometimes a little screen time can turn a bad mood around or at least buy me a few minutes to make some coffee to fortify me for the rest of the day. I don’t want my son to use my computer but thanks to my sturdy “*Hammerhead Jacket Case*”:http://www.smalldog.com/search?search=hammerhead+jacket+case and “*AppleCare+*”:http://www.apple.com/support/products/iphone.html protection plan I am willing to let him use my iPhone. However, there are only certain apps that I want him to use and he has already figured out how to use the Home button and then open different apps. What to do?

Fortunately, I have discovered a great tool to restrict his use to a single app and disable buttons within that app: *Guided Access.* This is one of the assistive features built into iOS. To turn this on, go to *Settings > General > Accessibility > Guided Access* and enable this service. There is also an option to set a passcode and/or use Touch ID to prevent Guided Access from being turned off.

Once enabled, Guided Access can be started while in any app by triple-clicking the Home button. You will then have the option to circle areas of the screen to disable (such as buttons that control features of the app that you want to shut off), as well as an Options menu where you can disable the Sleep/Wake button, the Volume buttons, Motion, the keyboard, turn off touch control completely, as well as set a time limit. Once you have it set the way you want, press Start and the Guided Access begins.

To turn it back off, triple-click the Home button again and enter your Guided Access passcode. Make sure to get it right, as the first time you get it wrong you have to wait 10 seconds to try again, the second time you have to wait a minute, and I don’t want to find out how long it locks you out if you get it wrong thrice!

I was out on Key Haven doing an on-site consultation with a customer who was interested in learning about the Keychain. This is the secure location where the Mac OS stores all saved passwords, tokens, certificates and more. He had changed his login password some time ago and had two active Keychains. One of the questions we addressed was: How do I merge these Keychains?

Well, it turns out that I have a couple of Keychains, too. One was my login Keychain and the other was some random “donmayer” Keychain that I have just been too lazy to address. But here was an excuse and I set about merging them. There really is not a true “merge” command so the best option is to copy all (or the important parts) of the Keychain you don’t want to the Keychain you do want. Then you can go ahead and delete the unwanted Keychain.

But, there is a trick here. If you were to simply “Select All” and drag them into the destination Keychain you would be asked for the password for that Keychain for every item you are moving. The way around this is to temporarily eliminate the password for your Keychain. You do this by going to Keychain Access >Edit >Change password for …. It will ask for your original password and then if you leave the new password prompts blank it will warn you about not protecting this vital information. You can ignore that because you are only doing this for a short time.

Once you have the destination password set to nothing, you can simply drag the contents from the Keychain you are deleting by selecting all and dragging it onto the destination Keychain. You may get some warnings about duplicates which you can ignore. Once you have copied all the contents to the destination Keychain you can delete that old Keychain.

Now, don’t forget to go back into the Edit menu to set your password for the Keychain. In most cases, it is simplest to just use your Mac’s Admin password for the Login Keychain.

Ok, let’s face it: the holiday season can be stressful. You probably have endless lists of wants from family, friends, and the kids. I know this firsthand. With two small children in my house I think I have a new list every other day. It’s overwhelming at times to think of all the gifts to be purchased and where to find them, especially with a diverse group of individuals to buy for!

This year we are hoping to make the idea of gift giving a little less stressful for everyone. We have gifts for the tech junkie on your list and those who might be new to the scene. We are working to stock our shelves with last minute stocking stuffers, gadgets and accessories you never knew existed and, of course, Apple products and accessories! We don’t want any of our customers to feel like they need to fight the crowds to get a great deal, so we are running some great weeklong promotions featuring some great BOGO deals. You can get one for a friend and one for yourself and not feel guilty.

Starting this Saturday, both online and in-store, you can *save up to $200* on a new Mac and great accessories. With the purchase of any new Mac (other than the Mac mini) with AppleCare you get a Chill Box, a $50 Small Dog gift card, and save $50 on a Canon printer! We will also be offering *$15 off* any iPad case with the purchase of an iPad in addition to any sale price on iPad cases.

“*You can see all of the great deals online NOW through Sunday November 30th here!*”:http://www.smalldog.com/thanksgiving

We recognize that social networking has come a long way and keeping in touch with family and friends is very important, especially during the holidays. I was introduced to the WeChat app by my daughter and after using it, I have rated it 5 stars and believe that this is an app everyone needs for keeping in touch.

While most carriers offer unlimited texting and sending messages over your smartphone’s built-in app seems fine, it is a limiting experience. The free “*WeChat App*”:https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wechat/id414478124?mt=8 offers a sleek all-in-one portal for sending texts, making video and voice calls, leaving voice messages, and partaking in group chats. And it doesn’t end there, as WeChat packs loads of animated emoticons and a walkie-talkie feature that lets you tap to talk with up to 40 friends. WeChat uses your phone’s data plan, but you can enjoy all of its features for free over Wi-Fi. 

Go to “*WeChat.com*”:http://www.wechat.com/en/ for more information.