ByDon

Dear Friends,

Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility is celebrating their 25th year this year. This organization of businesses that ascribe to the triple bottom line of People, Planet and Profit is the largest socially responsible business organization in the country. That is not even on a per capita basis and for a small state like Vermont it is pretty remarkable. I am proud to serve on their board and have served as chair in the past. Some of the largest and most influential companies in our state such as Ben & Jerry’s, Green Mountain Keurig, Green Mountain Power and Seventh Generation join hundreds of small and medium businesses in networking, educating and public policy. Perhaps it is just the small town nature of our state but VBSR has been influential in a number of important pieces of legislation including health care reform, environmental policy, marriage equality, renewable energy and development issues. Perhaps the best part of VBSR is just the opportunity to rub shoulders and talk with some of the most innovative business leaders.

I am not a big Taylor Swift fan but I appreciate her public stand for musicians that led to Apple changing how their 90-day free trial of the new Apple Music service will be rolled out. I think that in the heat of negotiating contracts for providing streaming music, Apple figured since they were giving out a free trial that they should not have to pay the artists. Well, once Taylor Swift tweeted her opposition while praising Apple, Apple did the right thing and announced they would be paying all the artists even during the free trial period. Attaboys and attagirls all around!

The second round of developer versions of iOS 9 and Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan came out this week and as is usually the case I noticed immediate improvements in performance and stability. In particular, the iPhone battery life seems to be vastly improved. My favorite feature, this week, of the upcoming El Capitan operating system is in Safari.  I do not like visiting a web site only to have some video start up automatically and start blaring audio content on my Mac. Now, when Safari senses auto content from a web page it indicates it by putting a little speaker icon which you can easily click on to mute the sound. The public beta for El Capitan and iOS 9 is coming up in a couple of weeks and I think you will like them!

This week’s Kibbles & Bytes exclusive features a used MacBook. Many people like to have a spare Mac around, whether it is for visitors or simply one that can be used for quick searches or projects. We have acquired several MacBooks that might be just right. These are the white unibody MacBooks that were introduced in May of 2010 and were one of Apple’s most successful laptops. These come with a 2.4GHz processor, 4GB of RAM and a 250GB hard drive. We give them a 90-day warranty and they come with OS X Mavericks installed. Small Dog Electronics provides the 90-day warranty on these used MacBooks. Kibbles & Bytes readers can buy them Here in the stock configuration for $20 off at $379 OR Will has put together a great bundle by upgrading the 250GB drive to a 256GB Solid State Drive and bumping the memory up to 8GB.  This configuration gives you the reliability of a brand new SSD drive and gives you enough ram to load up Yosemite. This bundle is normally $630 but Kibbles & Bytes readers can grab one for only $549.99! Click Here to claim your bundle.

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  • Accessibility – Hearing

    Apple under Tim Cook’s leadership has taken a keen interest in accessibility and health. One of Apple’s initiatives that often goes unnoticed is in hearing. I guess years of loud rock & roll, motorcycling and as Hapy said this morning, my lumberjack times running a chainsaw without hearing protection, has taken its toll and I have found that I have some moderate to severe hearing loss. I found myself saying “what” a lot and had myself checked out and will be getting hearing aids next week. Hearing is really how your brain interprets the sounds that come into your ears and when you are missing some of those sounds your brain struggles to make that conversion. Hearing devices help to reconnect those sounds to your brain. When you get to be my age there is always some hearing loss but today’s technology and Apple can help mitigate that inconvenience.

    Based upon a Bluetooth technology designed by Apple, some advanced hearing aids provide great sound quality, offer new features and are easy to set up and use. There are many hearing aids on the market that use Bluetooth but most of them require a separate device to interface between the hearing aid and Bluetooth, so you end up with a device hanging from your neck. With advanced products from primarily two companies, ReSound and Starkey, that middle device is eliminated and there is a direct connection from your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch or even the Apple Watch to your hearing aids.

    Garage Sale

    In the accessibility section of your iOS device is the hearing aid section (Settings–>General–>Accessibility–>Hearing). Here, in addition to being able to pair your hearing aids easily you can adjust volume to those and activate the special Hearing Aid Mode that improves sound with some hearing aids. The hearing aid companies go even further with apps that let you control bass and treble, monitor battery life and provide setups for particular environments such as restaurants, outdoors, traffic, etc.

    They even have a built-in GPS so you can set them to automatically know where you are and set the sound accordingly. This also enables the “find my hearing aid” function.

    There is more to this amazing technology, too. Not only does it provide hearing aid but it also allows streaming of Bluetooth content right to your hearing aids. So you can use it to stream iTunes music, phone calls, turn-by-turn navigation, FaceTime chats, etc. Apple apparently has not perfected the technology that would allow the use of the microphones built-in to the hearing aid so you do have to speak into your phone but you can hear through the hearing aid. The microphone on the iPhone is pretty good though so you could just have it on the desk and have hands-free talking.

    Live Listen is another feature to have better conversations in loud places. You can place your iOS device in front of the person you are talking to and use the microphone to pick up and stream the conversation via Bluetooth right to the hearing aid.

    Okay, I do not yet have any first hand experience with this but give me a couple weeks and I will give you a report on my first experiences with this technology. I did a lot of research and learned way too much about the hearing aid business. I ended up buying my hearing aids from Costco for both price and convenience. Also, it did not hurt that they offer the Resound Linx branded under their Kirkland brand for about four times less cost. It sucks getting old but I am very impressed that Apple has made at least the hearing part a little easier. Apple seems very committed to making technology to improve your life and I think this is a prime example.

  • Grace is heading out to Louisville to celebrate her mom’s 100th birthday so I’ll be hanging out with the dogs this weekend. It is hard to believe that the 4th of July is only a week or so away. As usual, exactly on the summer solstice, Artie changed his chat status to “the days are getting shorter and I hope it snows soon…” I started the chorus of blues from everyone except for the hardcore skiers on our team.

    Thank you for reading this issue of Kibbles & Bytes!

    Your Kibbles & Bytes Team,

    _Don, Dean, Bronson, and Scott_

  • Gearing Up for Summer

    As the days get longer and the summer sun gets hotter, winter seems only to be a distant memory. Even as a passionate snowboarder and overall winter enthusiast, I am not counting down the days to its return like some of my co-workers are. The thing that I love most about the arrival of warmer weather is the amount of motivation it gives me to be active. As a long-distance runner trying to get back into the swing of things, I wanted to gear up quickly so that I could take advantage of the mild early-summer temps. With a few suggestions and tips from some of my outdoor-enthused co-workers, I was hitting the running trail in no time. 

    The first thing on my list was a good pair of running shoes. I will admit for as much as I loved running I haven’t really kept up with it since high school and certainly not enough to get a new pair of $80 shoes, which was why I was still rocking the shoes from ’09. I guess that’s it, right? You don’t need much to go run, just yourself and a good pair of running shoes. I quickly realized after my first run that something was missing. I needed something else to push me to get over that first hill. The answer was music, and this is where Small Dog came in. I never really ran with music because I never found a great way to carry my music with me. I tried numerous armbands and even tried to carry my music in my pocket with me. As phones have slimmed down so have the armbands and I was able to find the perfect one right here at Small Dog for my iPhone 5s. I went with the Belkin Sport-Fit Plus Armband and have been very happy with it so far. The thing that stands out for me is that the stretchy neoprene material it is made out of keeps it lightweight and the clear screen protector keeps my phone safe but also functional on my run. For my music I am using Spotify Premium. If you have read any of my Kibbles articles in the past you know that I am a big fan. With the new Tempo feature that matches your music with your running pace, Apple will have to try pretty hard to convert me to their newly-introduced streaming service, Apple Music.

    With the Belkin Armband on my arm and Spotify Premium pumping my beats, I was ready to go. More motivated than ever, I felt that I was running a farther distance in a shorter amount of time but I wasn’t exactly certain that this was true. In an effort to track my run, someone suggested I try the popular running/cycling app, Strava. Since downloading it, I have been able to track my distance traveled, calories burned, elevation gained and more. You can also go Premium to access more content but I find that the basic version has more than enough to suit my needs. Strava alone has helped me to stay motivated and has given me the reason to constantly push myself while on my runs. 

    Though I am not sure what other hobbies I may pick up along the way this summer, I am certain that there will always be awesome accessories and apps out there to maximize my fun.

    To help you stay active this summer we are including a great special in todays Kibbles. Buy Outdoor Tech Orcas and get a FREE armband for iPhone 5, 6 or 6 Plus!