_Dear Friends_,

Happy 2016! Most Mondays, I change my chat status from “available” to “A Fresh New Week”. Well, here we go on a fresh new year and I am full of anticipation for a great year. There were some great new products from Apple in 2015 and I am sure that we will see some more innovation and tools coming for Apple again during this year. And for further entertainment, we have the presidential elections which should provide some thought provoking conversations, too.

I am heading off to Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show next week and I am sure that there will be a lot of new gadgets. Last year there was a whole section devoted to drones, there might be a whole hall this year. I am going to be looking for new products that would be useful to you, our customers. Last year, I found the “**Tempus Pro weather station**”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/87362/tempus-pro-bluetooth-weather-station that has been a big hit. Who knows what I will discover this year. It is a great way to get a picture of the products of tomorrow in between meetings with vendors of the products of today.

The first Kibbles & Bytes exclusive for the new year will be a bundle with my wife’s favorite Mac, the 11-inch MacBook Air. This Mac is super compact and yet powerful enough to run all your apps. We have a limited number of Apple Factory Reconditioned 11-inch MacBook Airs with the 1.4GHz i5 processor, 4GB of ram and a 256GB SSD drive. These have been brought back to as-new condition by Apple and carry Apple’s 1 year warranty. “**I am bundling this MacBook Air with Applecare that will extend that 1-year warranty to 3 years and the 90 days of free Apple tech support to 3 years as well**”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900002111. To complete the bundle because YOUR New Year’s Resolution should be to always have a data back-up, I will include the Seagate Backup Plus Slim portable 1 TB drive. Kibbles & Bytes readers can buy this bundle, while supplies last for only $1065! That is over $100 off.  I think we only have about 5 units available so first come, first served.

Here’s my predictions from last year, let’s see how I did:

h3. The Apple Watch will be huge hit with over 10 million sold in 2015

bq. __The Apple Watch has been a hit and while the final numbers are not in for the holidays, Apple expanded distribution channels and most predict about 15 million were sold in 2015. I know I still wear mine everyday and find new uses for it all the time. One right for Don and Apple.__

h3. Apple Pay will become the de facto standard for mobile payments

bq. __Well, Apple Pay is the most predominate mobile payment standard with more and more locations accepting Apple Pay but there are some huge holes where Apple Pay is not accepted and there are still some competing standards. I’m giving this one a toss-up because it is the most successful but I can’t call it the de facto standard quite yet.__

h3. Apple will become the first $1 trillion company

bq. __Miss. Apple stock has taken a hit in 2015 regardless of the great new products, record setting sales and earnings and a huge cash stockpile.__

h3. Okay, this year we will have undisputed evidence of extraterrestrial life

bq. __Hmm, I thought we were really close when NASA held that press conference to announce an astounding Mars discovery but it was just confirmed evidence of water. Soon.__

h3. Cubbies will make the playoffs

bq. __The did but got beat by the arch-enemy Cards.__

h3. The Patriots will not win the Super Bowl

bq. __Rob was doing his little victory dance – yeah, the New England team won.__

h3. There will be 11 vetoes by President Obama

bq. __Not even close, despite the gridlock in Congress, President Obama has only use the veto 5 times in his Presidency.__

h3. The Dallas Mavericks will win the NBA Championship

bq. __Wrong again, the Warriors are just too good!__

h3. Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton, Jeb Bush, Rand Paul and Chris Christie will run for President

bq. __Got those five right and there are a bunch more, too! Feel the Bern!__

h3. Apple will make one surprising acquisition

bq. __Nothing too spectacular here, I mean they didn’t buy Sony, GoPro, Tesla or anyone huge.__

---

h2. Sapphire Ball Gazing

p{text-align: center;}. !http://blog.smalldog.com/images/4630.jpg!

I have traded in my crystal ball for the much tougher Sapphire Ball and hope that I do better this year.

* Cubbies will win the World Series – THIS IS THE YEAR
* Warriors will repeat for the NBA title but the Celtics will get by the first-round
* Patriots will lose in the Super Bowl
* Bernie Sanders will win the Democratic nomination
* Donald Trump will win the Republican nomination to a lot of people’s dismay
* Bernie Sanders will beat Trump for the Presidency
* 2016 will be the warmest ever recorded
* Spring will come to Vermont early
* Apple stock will recover to record highs
* There will be evidence of extra-terrestrial life
* Marijuana will be legal in 7 states
* Democrats will re-take the Senate
* Apple will make that surprising large acquisition this year

Whether my new Sapphire Ball is accurate or not, 2016 is going to be a great year!