ByDon

Dear Friends,

New data from Piper Jaffray’s teen survey show that Apple is dominating that market at least as far as mobile devices are concerned. They have 71% of the teen market for smart watches and almost 70% for iPhones and 64% for iPad. Another survey has Apple Mac sales showing positive growth while literally the entire PC market is in decline.

I have been playing around with Amazon’s Echo and I have to say that I like it a lot. I wake up each morning and say “Alexa, what’s new?” and I get the news reports from NPR, CNN, Huffington Post and BBC as well as ESPN Sports and the local weather report. During the day, I ask Alexa to “play the blues” or “play some classical music” and while the speaker is not as good as my Sonos system it does fill the room. I can be around the corner or across the room and the Echo can hear me. Apple needs to step it up a bit and get Siri on the Mac or even better yet, integrated into their networking gear. I would love to be able to tell my Sonos app to play my music from my iTunes library!

Speaking of networking here’s a Kibbles & Bytes exclusive! This isn’t for everyone but if you have a big house and your Wi-Fi signal isn’t reaching that far corner of the house this could solve three problems for you! I am bundling the Apple Factory Refurbished 3TB Time Capsule with an Apple Factory Refurbished Airport Express. Both have the same 1-year Apple warranty as new but you can save some bucks. The 3TB Time Capsule gives you the Airport Extreme wireless access point and automatic wireless back-ups to the integrated 3 terabyte drive. The Airport Express allows you to extend that wireless network. Normally this bundle is around $500 new, but this week for Kibbles & Bytes readers, while supplies last you can buy this refurbished bundle for only $325.99!

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  • Sonos and Apple Music

    A little over a week ago things became official: Apple Music is now available to those who use “**Sonos.**”:http://www.smalldog.com/category/?mmfg%5B0%5D=Sonos For some of us this wasn’t a huge announcement. I have been using the beta version now for several months and have been enjoying my Apple Music playlists as well as my own personal play lists on my iPhone. I have been a huge fan of Sonos for about two years and not being able to listen to Apple Music was my one complaint about the system, but not anymore!

    Apple Music isn’t the only great thing about Sonos either, did you know that you can also control your Sonos system from your computer? I admit, I didn’t realize this at first. With a huge focus on how easy the system is to set up and control from your iPad or iPhone, this is one feature that’s often overlooked. With a simple “App download”:http://www.sonos.com/controller-app on your computer, you can open up your entire (in most cases) music library for listening through your Sonos system. Another great feature of the Sonos App is the ability to set a sleep timer. If your someone who enjoys falling asleep to music, but prefers it doesn’t stay on all night this is a huge feature even if it is a bit hidden. The more info icon within the Sonos App hides a lot of features, including the sleep timer.

  • _Dear Friends,_

    It is raining today here in Key West but as with most tropical showers it will likely pass over soon and the sun will come back. My neighbor, Glenn Thomas, posted a picture of the first daffodil at our Prickly Mountain location so I guess it is safe for me to head back north. Grace and I will be packing up and driving up I-95 next week.

    Apple quietly made some changes to the 12-inch Macbooks and 13-inch Macbook Airs this week that I will review below and as promised we will talk some more about dictation. Apple did not hold a big event for these laptop upgrades but they are welcome changes that should be a precursor to updates to the rest of the laptops in Apple’s lineup. We will have these new Macbooks and Macbook Airs in stock this week and have some great deals on the newly discontinued models with up to $200 off.

    This week’s Kibbles & Bytes exclusive features the Hammerhead Jacket case for the iPhone 5, 5s or the new 5se. This case offers exceptional corner protection with a double injection molded design featuring strong polycarbonate and flexible TPU. Anti-slip sides keep the phone securely in your hand when in use. Of course, all the ports and buttons are easily accessible through this protective case. We have ten designs for this case: Watermelon Red, Hubcap, Pride, Snake Skin, Helmet, Hammerhead Purple, Lemon Yellow, Black, Sky Blue and Hammerhead Orange. I know you can decide which to use so for this week we are offering a 10-pack featuring one of each case. Change as your mood sees fit or give one to a friend. Normally, these cases are $14.99 each but “**exclusively for Kibbles & Bytes readers you can get all ten for only $49.95!**”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900002206