SPECIALS | 05/22/09 – 05/29/09

We are continuing our monthly tradition of randomly selecting two winners of a Mac / iPod gift pack from our “Facebook fans”:http://www.facebook.com/pages/Small-Dog-Electronics/18904017006 and “Twitter followers.”:http://twitter.com/hellosmalldog

If you’re not already in our Facebook group, you can join here:
“Small Dog Electronics on Facebook.”:http://www.facebook.com/pages/Small-Dog-Electronics/18904017006

Not on Facebook? “Sign up here.”:http://www.facebook.com

Do you use Twitter? We post Mac tips, tricks, news, contests and more on our Twitter feed. “Click here to follow us on Twitter.”:http://twitter.com/hellosmalldog

On Monday, the “Boston Globe”:http://www.boston.com/business/globe/globe100/globe_100_2009/bright_id mentioned Small Dog in the bright ideas section of the “Globe 100” as a company that’s embracing a corporate “shabby chic” mentality in order to creatively save money. “Click here to read this.”:http://www.boston.com/business/globe/globe100/globe_100_2009/bright_ideas_shabbychic/

I am going to be naturally shabby chic in the woods this weekend, as I am camping at the Green River Reservoir in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. Green River Reservoir provides camping and paddling experiences in a remote setting – campsites can only be reached by paddling a couple of miles to them. The only technology I’m bringing is a digital camera. The iPhone is (gulp) staying home.

I hope all of you enjoy this Memorial Day weekend!

Until next week,

_Don, Kali, Ed, Morgan & Sebastian _

The Boston Globe recently featured Small Dog in a highlight entitled Shabby Chic as part of their “Bright Ideas” feature in the 100…

Word is spreading that there’s a critical security vulnerability in Java on Mac OS X. Actually, it’s a couple of vulnerabilities that can be taken advantage of to run commands outside of the browser as the user that launched the browser. The truth is that it’s been known about since at least August of last year and Sun, the makers of Java, fixed it long ago, but those fixes haven’t made it into Mac OS X yet, not even the “10.5.7 update”:http://support.apple.com/downloads/#10.5.7.

So, what’s a Mac User to do? There’s no known use of exploit beyond the “proof-of-concept examples”:http://landonf.bikemonkey.org/code/macosx/CVE-2008-5353.20090519.html, but the triage is pretty simple:

1. Turn off ‘Open “safe” files after downloading’ in Safari -> Preferences -> General
2. Turn off Java in Safari -> Preferences -> Security and any other browsers you use

This will prevent malicious Java code on a web page or downloaded from running automatically. There’s no reason to panic and JavaScript will still function normally, but it’s better to be on the safe side if you’re not regularly visiting web sites requiring Java.

If you’re technically inclined, you may be interested in “the detailed explanation”:http://blog.cr0.org/2009/05/write-once-own-everyone.html of the vulnerabilities.

[Via “Daring Fireball”:http://daringfireball.net/linked/2009/05/20/fuller-java-mac-os-x]

As mentioned above, many Mac users don’t know that Macs are as right-click savvy as Windows computers. This misunderstanding is partly Apple’s fault. While Macs have been long able to right click, they shipped with a single-button mouse until 2005. Before that, it was necessary to purchase a third-party mouse with two buttons (or use the Control key, described below).

All desktop Macs now ship with Apple’s Mighty Mouse (which is multi-click capable), but by default the Mighty Mouse is configured for single-button clicking. Likewise, the trackpads on the past few generations of Apple notebooks have the ability to right-tap, emulating the right-click of a regular mouse. However, by default this is also not activated.

Here’s how to configure the Mighty Mouse for right-clicking (or Secondary Clicking, as Apple calls it):

*1.* Open System Preferences (by clicking on the the Apple icon in the upper left corner of the screen, then choosing System Preferences).
*2.* Click Keyboard & Mouse to open its preference pane.
*3* Click the Mouse tab.
*4* Choose which button you want to assign to use for right clicking (again, called Secondary Click here). I suggest using the, uh, right key to right click.

Now you can use your Mighty Mouse to access unique contextual menus for each application.

If you have a recent Apple notebook, you can configure the trackpad to recognize a right click:

*1.* Open System Preferences (by clicking on the the Apple icon in the upper left corner of the screen, then choosing System Preferences).
*2.* Click Keyboard & Mouse to open its preference pane.
*3* Click the Trackpad tab.
*4* Click the checkbox “For secondary clicks, place two fingers on the trackpad then click the button”.

Now you can use your MacBook, MacBook Pro, and late model PowerBook’s trackpad to access unique contextual menus for each application.

As mentioned above, you can also hold down your Mac’s *Control* key while clicking with your mouse or trackpad to access the right-click contextual menu. The *Control* key is labeled *ctrl* on most Apple notebooks.

To tell the truth, I’ve not bothered to set up a secondary click on my MacBook Pro’s trackpad; I simply hold down the *Control* key while clicking with the trackpad.

“Read more about multi-touch on your the most recent Apple notebooks by clicking here.”:http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1115

This week we’re offering a 20-inch iMac 20 with a 2.66GHz processor, 2GB of RAM, a 320GB hard drive, SuperDrive, 2600 Pro graphics and the Apple Bluetooth Keyboard and Apple Bluetooth Mighty Mouse for only $1099.99 plus FREE shipping! We’ve dropped this popular iMac by $200. This configuration includes the compact “Apple Bluetooth keyboard”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/44256 and popular “Apple Wireless BlueTooth Mighty Mouse”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/44258 at no extra cost.

Order now with free shipping, while supplies last!