_Dear Friends_,

I am in Las Vegas at the Consumer Electronics Show and it is bigger than ever. My Apple watch is happy with all the walking I am doing but my feet are not feeling the love. The show is a great way to see what is on the horizon and of course, I had meetings interspersed with walking the show floor. Naturally, the meetings were far apart so I spent a lot of time walking or on buses or cabs.

This show is pretty different from previous years but still is window to future products. See my short report below and I will follow up next week in Kibbles with a more in-depth look. This week’s kibbles exclusive special is a “refurbished 13-inch MacBook Air with a 512GB hard drive bundled with Applecare and a 2TB Time Capsule for $1759.99”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900002113/special-save-150-on-refurbished-mac-bundle-and-keep-it-safe The MacBook Air is one of my most favorite laptops and this refurbished bundle is a great way to upgrade your mac and ensure your data is secure for the new year!

_Dear Friends,_

I tuned into the Apple special “Let Us Loop You In” event on my Apple TV. We will talk about the new hardware and software but there were a few things that caught my attention that really help to define Apple as a truly different company.

The first was Apple’s environmental commitment. They now boast that 90% of their operations, worldwide, are powered by renewable energy and 100% in the USA. This is a unique accomplishment that is made even more remarkable by Apple’s size. While Small Dog Electronics is proud to power our Waitsfield headquarters and S. Burlington store by solar energy, we have not yet reached the point of powering all our operations which is something Apple has done both by purchasing renewable energy and installing large scale solar arrays at their locations both in the USA and China.

Their environmental commitment goes further with an awareness of the impact their products have on the waste stream. They made a point to describe the materials used which have lower impact and talked about their recycling program, too. The robot, Liam, that disassembles iPhones into its component parts was very cool and is a further demonstration of Apple’s leadership in environmental stewardship.

The other part of the announcement that caught my eye was the extension of Apple’s altruistic Research Kit tool that has helped researchers gather data on several chronic diseases. CareKit takes that a step further, offering tools that help patients and their medical providers manage those chronic diseases. They already have several new apps in development, including one that provides post-surgical care monitoring and another for diabetes monitoring. Research Kit and CareKit are both open-source software that do not necessarily provide any revenue stream for Apple but provides the tools to improve health. I am very proud of Apple for its initiatives in these areas.

This week’s Kibbles & Bytes exclusive is a “**home and away USB charger bundle.**”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900002185/home-and-away-usb-charger-bundle-one-for-the-car-one-for-home This features the Hammerhead 2-port USB Automotive charger and the Hammerhead 2-port wall charger. Both have sufficient power to charge both an iPhone and iPad. If you are like me, you can never have too many chargers and this bundle is a great way to get a spare for you home and car! Normally, this bundle is $34.98 but exclusively for Kibbles & Bytes readers this week, it is $10 off at “**$24.98!**”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900002185/home-and-away-usb-charger-bundle-one-for-the-car-one-for-home

You are visiting Key West, accompanied by your trusty iPhone and MacBook Air. Suddenly there’s an emergency at work, and you need to get online with your Mac. You can pick up a cell signal with the iPhone, but there’s no Wi-Fi that isn’t locked up. Well, my first thought might be “oh well, I’m on vacation!” but you are dedicated and need to be online.

Don’t worry! You can use your iPhone’s cellular data plan to create a personal Wi-Fi hotspot that lets your Mac access the Internet through your iPhone. Also called “tethering,” it’s fast, easy, and can be a life-saver when you just have to get online with a Mac or your Wi-Fi-only iPad. It supports up to 5 users, too, which means you can get your team online, too!

Before we explain how to do set up a personal hotspot, note that most but not all cellular carriers allow tethering on existing plans. For some, you might have to pay more for tethering. Keep in mind that any data consumed by your Mac while tethered will count against your data allowance and may generate overage fees. Carriers with “unlimited” data, like T-Mobile and Sprint, generally throttle your bandwidth to slower speeds if you use too much data.

Along those lines, if you use a file sharing service like Dropbox or Google Drive, or an Internet backup service like CrashPlan or Backblaze, turn them off before connecting. Particularly if they haven’t connected in a while, those services can transfer a lot of data quickly, which could result in a hefty overage charge or awkward data throttling for the rest of the month.

With those warnings out of the way, follow these steps in iOS 9 to turn on Personal Hotspot:

1. On your iPhone, if you’ve never enabled the feature before, go to Settings > Cellular > Personal Hotspot. Once you’ve turned Personal Hotspot on once, it moves up a level, so you can access it from Settings > Personal Hotspot.

1. Tap on Wi-Fi Password and enter a password that’s at least 8 characters long and easy to type. It doesn’t need to be super secure because you can keep Personal Hotspot turned off unless you’re using it. But you do want a password so random people nearby can’t connect and use your data.

1. Once you’ve entered a password, slide the Personal Hotspot switch.

That’s it! The Personal Hotspot screen provides basic instructions for connecting to the iPhone via Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and USB. Stick with Wi-Fi, since it’s the easiest and most reliable in most cases.

• To connect to your new Personal Hot Spot on your Mac, click the Wi-Fi icon in the menu bar and choose your iPhone’s name.

• On your iPad, go to Settings > Wi-Fi and choose your iPhone.

• Enter your password when prompted, making sure to select Remember This Network. That way, you won’t even have to enter your password the next time.

• The Mac or iPad then connects to your iPhone, showing a hotspot icon instead of the usual wave icon for the Wi-Fi menu.

Could it get any simpler? When you’re done, the safest thing to do, to ensure you don’t accidentally end up using too much of your data allowance, is to turn off the Personal Hotspot switch in Settings > Personal Hotspot. Your Mac or iPad will automatically disconnect.

Actually, it CAN be simpler! Your Mac can automatically use the personal hotspot on your iPhone to connect to the Internet when they’re within range of each other.

Use Instant Hotspot on your iPhone (with iOS 8 or later) to provide internet access to your Mac computers and other iOS devices (with OS X Yosemite or iOS 8) that are in range and signed into iCloud using the same Apple ID. Instant Hotspot uses your iPhone — you don’t have to enter a password or even turn on Personal Hotspot.

Make sure your iOS device and your Mac are signed into iCloud with the same Apple ID.

On your Mac, click the Wi-Fi status icon in the menu bar, then choose your iPhone or iPad.

After you connect to the iPhone or iPad Personal Hotspot, you can check the cellular signal strength and the battery status of the iPhone or iPad in the Wi-Fi status menu.

When you’re not using using the hotspot, your devices automatically disconnect to save battery life.

One more big advantage of Personal Hot Spots. When you are shopping for that new iPad, perhaps you don’t need the cellular model if you nearly always have your iPhone handy. That’s what I do. If I need internet access on my Wi-Fi iPad, I simply connect to my Hot Spot! Saves me the added cost of a cellular-enabled iPad and the monthly fees from the cell carrier!