Text Replacements Not Working on the Mac? Check This Setting

Last week we talked about how to activate and use dictation to write emails and documents but there is a lot more that you can do. I keep thinking about Scotty from Star Trek when he went back in time and was “**confronted with a Mac Plus**”:https://youtu.be/LkqiDu1BQXY?t=1m8s. He picked up the mouse as natural as can be and said “computer…”. That time is coming and Dictation Commands are already built into your operating system.

Once you have dictation activated you can activate dictation commands by going to the Accessibility system preference.

* Choose Accessibility from System Preferences.

* Choose Dictation from the list on the left side of the Accessibility pane.

* Click the Dictation Commands button. You can see a list of available commands in the Dictation Commands sheet.

* A starting set of commands are enabled by default. Additional speakable items like “Open document” and “Click item” are available by enabling advanced commands using these next steps:

* Select (check) the option to “Enable advanced commands” in the Dictation Commands sheet that appears.

* Click Done.

p{text-align: center;}. !http://blog.smalldog.com/images/4710.png!

After you have enabled advanced commands, you can also create your own commands by clicking the Add Command (+) button. This lets you link a spoken phrase to an app, a menu item, a keyboard shortcut, or an Automator workflow.

You have enabled Dictation Commands and now you can speak any of the items in this list to perform the related action. Press the Fn key twice, then say a command to make it happen, such as “Search Spotlight for the Cubs score” or “select sentence” or “new document”. Give it a try and pretty soon you will be just like Scotty and the Mac Plus.

As a shortcut, you can speak the command “Show commands” to see a list of the commands you can say.

We know that this can be a stressful time of year and we would like to help you relieve that stress. Beginning *Thursday, December 17th*, our *South Burlington* location will be *open until 9pm* on every night except Christmas Eve and Sunday, 12/27. We will be open from 9am – 5pm on Christmas Eve and 10am – 6pm on Sunday. From now until December 24th *save 25% on all headphones* from Beats, Urbanears, Outdoor Tech and more!

!http://blog.smalldog.com/images/4623.jpg!

We also have tons of great *last minute gift giving ideas* for just about anyone on your shopping list. Not sure about picking out the right item? Our knowledgeable staff can guide you in the right direction and remove the stress of last minute gift shopping. For more great gifts visit “www.smalldog.com/macthehalls”:http://www.smalldog.com/macthehalls

“!http://blog.smalldog.com/images/4622.jpg!:”http://www.smalldog.com/macthehalls

Way before Barack Obama broke the color barrier to become president of the USA, Thurgood Marshall broke that barrier for another of the most powerful and important positions in the country, that of Supreme Court Justice. After graduating from high school with honors he applied to the University of Maryland law school where he was not accepted because he was black. Instead, he went to Howard University and received his law degree in 1933.

Before being appointed Supreme Court Justice, he had a stellar career from 1934 to 1961 as a lawyer for the NAACP where he won landmark civil rights cases. Beginning in 1940, Marshall won 29 of 323 US Supreme Court cases. One of his first big cases was Smith vs. Allwrite in 1944 which overthrew the South’s “White Primary”. The White Primary was a practice of excluding African Americans from the Democratic Party. It was most common in a state where that party controlled the state government.

In 1954 Marshall achieved a landmark victory with the case of Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka. This Supreme Court decision demolished the legal basis for segregation in the USA. It also made state-enforced racial segregation in public schools invalid.

In 1961 he was appointed the the US Court of Appeals by President Kennedy. He was the first African American on the Court of Appeals and went on to be appointed to the Second Court of Appeals. President Johnson made him the Solicitor General in 1965 and later in 1967 President Johnson nominated him for the Supreme Court.

On the Supreme Court he was a steadfast supporter of positive gender and racial action policies and in his 24 years on the court he became a vocal liberal on a conservative-dominated court. He was an ardent supporter of Constitutional protection of individual rights, in particular the rights of criminal suspect versus the government. Marshall’s backing of Affirmative Action led to his strong dissent in the Regents of the University of California vs. Blake in 1978. Justice William Brennan was Marshall’s most reliable confederate who voted with him against the death penalty.

Citing poor health, Thurgood Marshall stepped down from the court in 1991 and remained a vocal critic of the court until his death in 1993 at the age of 84.

_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