Dear Friends,

Some of the trees have leaves as I look out on the Mad River Valley from my window at the office. I like getting to work early as I seem to get a lot of work done in the first hour or two before the semi-organized frenzy of the day begins.

I particularly like this time of the year as we see the white, then brown, and now green fields and the trees reawaken from a winter’s sleep. I took a ride with Dawn down Route 100 yesterday to visit Vermont’s second largest city, Rutland. We will be holding our first (of two) eWaste Recycling Event of 2012 down in Rutland and we were scoping out locations.

I am leaving next week for China, both to attend two major trade shows in Hong Kong, and to visit the factories of companies that make our Hammerhead and Chill Pill products.

We have been receiving our first shipments of iPad (3rd Gen) cases this week. The Hammerhead Capo Case is a brand new case that provides both front and back protection for the iPad in a slim, form-fitting factor. We have also made our Premium Leather Case for the new iPad in two colors: Red and Black. It is the latest incarnation of our successful Verso case for the original iPad and is a simple, high quality leather folio case. We use only top grain leather for this case and it happens to be the case I am currently using for my iPad.

In addition, we have our Bluetooth Keyboard Case and screen protectors for the new iPad arriving this week. This case also has some updated features, and still includes a removable keyboard and silicone tip stylus. And added bonus of all three cases is that they work with the iPad 2 as well!

I started importing products from China over a decade ago when we introduced the Click Case for iPod and the Groove Cube speakers. We have mainly imported products to sell in our own stores; however, we have, over the past few years, created a new wholesale division at Small Dog Electronics to offer the Hammerhead and Chill Pill Audio products. You can now find these products at most of the Apple Specialists across the US.

I will be spending a lot of time on the show floors looking for new products and partners in China. This year, Grace will be accompanying me to China as she is now a key part of the Hammerhead team. I have never really been outside of Hong Kong or the southern manufacturing cities of Shenzhen and Dongguan, but this time we will take some time to see some more of China. Grace will have me hiking up Yellow Mountain on this journey.