Dear Friends,
Big news out of Vermont this week was that the Vermont National Guard has been deployed to help Massachusetts dig out of their record snowfall. You know, proper tool for the right job, kind of thing. It is Hapy’s birthday today and aside from being the heartbeat of the company (everything flows through Hapy) Hapy is also a “master” competitor in the Highland Games where he lifts and throws heavy objects. Here’s a picture that is one of my favorites but I wish I had a picture from a few years ago when we bought him a harness and hooked him up to our GEM truck and had him tow a bunch of us up a hill. Happy Birthday to Hapy!
Apple stock took another ride up this week and Apple is now the most valuable company ever with a market cap of over $730 Billion, making Apple worth more than say Switzerland, Google, and Microsoft combined or the entire Spanish stock market. There was an interview with Tim Cook who was speaking at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference. He talked about the Apple Watch and had some interesting things to say. He said the watch will shake up the market by “changing the way you live your life.” Apple’s CEO said that “the Apple Watch will give you a little tap 10 minutes before the hour if you haven’t moved within the hour. Why? Because a lot of doctors believe that sitting is the new cancer, right?”. Tim Cook said a lot of his employees who use the watch are now standing up and moving around at 10 minutes before the hour.
Tim also announced an $848 million 130 megawatt solar array that will generate all the power Apple uses by the end of 2016. In partnership with First Solar, the plant will be 280 megawatts with Apple buying 130 MW of that capacity. It is a dramatic demonstration of Apple’s commitment to fight climate change. I am happy that Small Dog Electronics has also been providing most of the power we use in Vermont through the solar array at our facility in Waitsfield that was provided by All Earth Renewables.
This week’s Kibbles & Bytes special is a product that works great with iOS 8’s HealthKit. The Cardioarm Blood Pressure monitor is a self contained Bluetooth device to monitor your blood pressure. Grace and I use this ourselves and it works great! Once your blood pressure has been taken, it automatically dumps the data to the Health App. This is normally $99.99 but this week for Kibbles & Bytes readers we are giving $10 off so your price is $89.99!