ByDon

Dear Friends,

I have become super aware of mosquitos with all the news about the Zika virus. For some reason biting insects just love me whether they are super tiny no-see-ums here in the Keys or slightly larger ones in Vermont they seem to be attracted to me. The first thing that I noticed about the mosquitos down here is that they are tiny compared to the ones that come out every year in Vermont. Seriously though, this Zika virus seems like a very serious health epidemic with the World Health Organization calling it a crisis. They have a pretty serious mosquito control program down here with guys that go door to door to look for standing water and spraying year around.

Apple announced their holiday quarter financials and they beat the estimates on the street and posted the most revenue and profit ever for Apple and in a truly remarkable factoid, the most profit generated in a quarter by any public corporation, EVER. I will talk about the financial results below but let’s just say if Apple has reached a plateau it sure is a lofty one! Just to contrast that a bit against the other guys, Samsung reported a 40% decline in profits. They posted about a $15.8 billion profit for the entire year which Apple crushed in a single three month period!

This week’s Kibbles & Bytes exclusive features the Apple Certified Reconditioned 21 inch iMac. This iMac is configured with a 2.7GHZ i5 processor 8GB of ram and a 1 TB hard drive. This model has the latest 802.11ac wireless protocol and comes with the same 1 year warranty as new iMacs. We are bundling it with Applecare so instead of a 1 year warranty you get 3 years and instead of 90 day days of free Apple technical support you get 3 years too. Kibbles & Bytes readers can purchase this special bundle for $1099! That’s the lowest price ever for a warrantied iMac with Applecare!

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  • Apple's Not The Only Game In Town

    I have the pleasure of being able to not only work behind the scenes here at Small Dog, but also on the front line with our customers. This past week while working in our “**Rutland, VT store**”:http://www.smalldog.com/rutland I had two customer interactions that brought an interesting subject light when talking about iPads. We have seen over the last two years or so there has been a slight drop in the number of iPads sales in comparison to when they first hit the market back in in April of 2010 and a lot has changed since then. There are more tablets out there than ever before including ones that run Android, Windows, Kindle and more.

    The draw away from Apple for some customers is that in many cases the same Apps and functions you can do on an iPad can be done on a another device and for less money. It’s easy to be persuaded by these draws and overlook some some other key aspects. What makes Apple stand apart is often pushed aside temporarily when comparing these products. With Apple everything is designed to work together. iCloud can sync all your information across multiples devices, from your iPad to iPhone to your computer. “**Handoff**”:https://support.apple.com/kb/PH18754?locale=en_US allows you to start a project on your iPad and then with a quick tab, pick up that project on your computer. Wanting to show your friends the pictures from your weekend trip to the mountains? With photo stream it doesn’t matter what Apple device you’ve picked up, your photos will be there. Have a great home video of your child or grandchild and just have to show everyone who came to Friday night dinner? No problem. With the Apple TV you can airplay that video and save yourself from passing your phone around the room for everyone to see. Another benefit? Apple devices last a long time! I have been using the original iPad mini for four years now and each week I interact with customers who are also using iPads that are two or three years old with no issues.

    In addition to all the integration, we’ve seen price drops for the iPads over the last several years as well. No longer do you need to spend $500 or more for an iPad. You can get an “**iPad Mini 2**”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/84491/ipad-mini-2-16gb-space-gray starting at **$269** and “**iPad Air**”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/86240/ipad-air-16gb-wi-fi-silver for **$399**. So the next time your considering tablet options, take a few moments to consider that while Apple isn’t the only game in town anymore, it’s still the leader of the pack!

  • Droids, Drones, Scooters, Cars and USB C

    I remember only a couple years ago when drones were new and cutting edge technology. Now, there are huge sections of the show devoted to drones of all sorts: fighting drones, mini drones, paper airplane drones and dancing drones. I don’t know if it is the Star Wars influence but droids were everywhere, including “laundroids” for folding your laundry, grill cleaning droids, window washing droids and all kinds of robots.

    3D printers were new and unique and again whole sections of the show were devoted to “replicators” making everything from iPhone cases to clothing to spare body parts. Several companies were there just to show their filaments for these 3D printers.

    Scooters were everywhere. You know, the ones in the news that have the batteries that blow up. Well, literally dozens of companies were showing their versions and the original Segway had a booth, too. Some one-wheel scooters were there as well as shoes with wheels that zipped you around.

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    Self-driving cars and technology for self driving cars dominated the North Hall and some concept cars were shown, too. My favorite was the Faraday electric car that looked like a single seat batmobile.

    USB-C made its debut at the show with hubs, cables and some USB display port displays, too. I think we will see a lot of USB-C stuff coming up!

    Less prevalent this year was the huge variety of iPhone and iPad cases. There were huge sections last time but while there were several companies showing cases it was toned way down. In their place, power banks of all sorts were being shown in every imaginable shape and size. The Apple battery case, aka the hump, was universally panned but several companies had slim battery cases for the iPhone.

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    I did walk through the TV section but it was not as notable as in past years. The 3D fad has sort of expired and 4K displays are common. I still love the OLED displays, though.

    Other areas that were huge were health care and fitness with a lot of wearable fitness devices and health monitors or all sorts from implantable blood glucose devices to blood pressure cuffs, thermometers and scales. The home automation section was larger than previous years and there were some new HomeKit compatible devices. I liked the NoLok offering of bluetooth compatible padlocks and bike locks that work similar to the Kevo system.

    It was a quick trip out to Vegas but it was certainly worthwhile. I will follow up next week with a bit more.