Author: Emily Dolloff

  • Happy November, folks!

    Welcome to another edition of Tech Tails! This week in South Burlington, we’re prepping for the holiday rush by stocking up on popular items. Not surprisingly, I believe the Apple Watch is going to be a top seller in the gift category. Lately, I’ve been seeing parents in the store asking questions about the Watch with the intent of getting one for their teenager. These days, Apple Watch is leading the fitness tracking market, so I expect we’ll see them more and more in the high school demographic.

    Last week I wrote a bit about the DSLR market and today I want to talk about storage options for photo archives. Exciting stuff, I know! But after the cold set in last weekend, I found myself at home organizing digital files from the past couple of years and finding a logical place for everything. The truth is, a single hard drive cannot be relied on, you need redundancy. My suggestion to everyone is always, important files should always be in two places. Following that rule, I usually use an application called SuperDuper to clone my hard drives, any time changes have been made. This week I also started mapping my disk inventory using a mind mapping application called Mind Node. I never thought of this until now, but having a virtual layout of all your hard drives and what era they cover can be very helpful. If you asked me, “where are those engagement photos you shot for your friend Mike last year?” I’d open MindNode and search for his name, and it would give me the location of the folder containing his photos. This could become a very useful tool if I were to somehow lose a pair of hard drives so I would know exactly what was lost. On the general topic of organization, I do not claim to have the best method. In fact, I’m really hoping to hear from our customers this week. How do you archive files? Do you organize by year or subject? A customer once told me all of his photo archiving was done by the TYPE of photo it was (portrait, landscape, etc.) and subsequently sorted by year.

    On that note, I am due for another Seagate purchase. My archives are currently scattered across a handful of 1TB drives, and about once every two years I fill them up and retire the cloned pair. Naturally, I’ll always compare all of this to film, where I have a permanent hard copy in the form of negatives. This is one of the downsides of shooting digital. People take the seemingly unlimited shutter count for granted. You should make sure your photos are safely backed up somewhere, and prepare for the worst! Hopefully, these redundant backups are a waste of money, because your primary system never fails. Anyway, I’m going to get back to work here, enjoy our tech-y articles today!

    Patrick McCormack
    patrickm@smalldog.com

  • This weekend we will hopefully finish the last of our major projects before Winter. Over the last year or so we’ve slowly been converting a covered porch into as much of a four-season space as we can. Last summer we enclosed the space with energy efficient windows and insulated the underside of the decking. Saturday we will finish insulating the walls, install skirting under the porch so we can minimize drafts through the flooring and replace the generic storm door with an exterior door to seal out as much of the winter winds and weather as we can.

    The project has taken us longer than we anticipated, but then again, when we originally designed the porch almost 20 years ago we never anticipated we’d one day want to use the space in colder months.

    Thank you for reading Kibbles & Bytes, Don returns next week and will be sharing the latest Apple financial news.

    Don & Emily

  • The Swipes You Need To Know

    With iOS 11, the iPhone and iPad interfaces continue to diverge, which makes sense, since the iPad is not merely an overgrown iPhone. Particularly when you pair an iPad Pro with a Smart Keyboard and Apple Pencil, you can now get real work done on an iPad more fluidly than ever before. The “hard” part is learning how you switch between apps, display the second app in a Slide Over panel that floats on top of another app, or make two apps share the screen in Split View.

    Switch Between Apps

    Moving between apps is a key aspect of using the iPad. Apple has provided multiple ways to switch so you can pick those that best fit your style:

    • Press the Home button, and on the Home screen, tap another app’s icon.

    • On the Home screen, swipe down to show Siri app suggestions and search for another app.

    • Within an app, swipe right or left with four fingers.

    • Within an app, swipe up from below the bottom of the screen to reveal the new Dock, and then tap an icon on it. Note that the three rightmost icons are the most recently used apps.

    • After revealing the Dock, keep swiping up to reveal the new app switching screen, then tap an app thumbnail to switch to it. Swipe right to see less recently used apps.

    • From a Smart Keyboard or other keyboard, press Command-Tab to bring up a Mac-like app switcher. Release both keys quickly to switch to the previous app instantly, or keep Command down while you press Tab repeatedly to move sequentially among the shown apps, letting up on Command to switch. While the app switcher is shown, you can also tap an icon in it.

    Display an App in Slide Over

    Say you’re having a sporadic conversation in Messages while browsing the Web in Safari. You don’t need to see both apps all the time, but you also don’t want to have to switch back and forth. With Slide Over, you can put Messages in a panel that floats over Safari and then hide and show it.
    The easiest way to put an app in a Slide Over panel is to use the Dock, so this technique works if the app’s icon is already on the Dock. For instance, while you’re in Safari, swipe up from the bottom of the screen to display the Dock. Then touch and hold the Messages app’s icon until it dims slightly. Keeping your finger down, drag the icon over Safari until it becomes a vertical lozenge. Lift your finger, and Messages appears in Slide Over.

    If the app you want to put in Slide Over isn’t on your Dock, you can use a two-handed procedure to get it from another location and drop it onto another app. For instance, you can start dragging an app icon from any place where app icons appear, including the Home screen or Siri search screen. Once you’ve started dragging it, use your other hand to switch to the other app (perhaps via the Dock or pressing Command-Tab on an external keyboard) and then drop it over the other app. Don’t worry if you find this approach confusing at first—it takes some time to become accustomed to two-handed usage.
    Once an app is in Slide Over on the right side of the screen, you can swipe right on its left edge to hide it, or swipe left on its right edge to move it to the other side of the screen.

    Put an App in Split View

    Displaying two apps side-by-side in Split View is almost the same action as Slide Over. The only difference is that, instead of dropping the app lozenge on top of the current app, you drag it to the far left or right of the screen, and drop it once the screen shows a 90/10 split—after you drop, the split changes to 70/30.

    Drag the handle between the apps to switch to a 50/50 split or a 30/70 split; if you drag the handle all the way to one side of the screen, the app that’s shrinking in size disappears entirely. One of the two apps in Split View will have a handle on its top as well, and dragging it down slightly converts that app into a Slide Over panel. (You can also drag a Slide Over panel’s handle down slightly to switch to Split View.)

    Take a few minutes and try putting apps in Slide Over and Split View in different ways, since some of the actions require practice before they feel natural. Finally, if combining two particular apps don’t seem to work, don’t fret. Apps must specifically support both Slide Over and Split View, and not all do.

  • This past Sunday Vermont saw hurricane force winds in some parts of the state and as I write this there are still a few thousand Vermonters still without power. I do not know how strong the winds were at my house, but the sound of my broken storm door slamming against the side of my house woke me up in the night and around 3am our power went out. Fortunately, we are fairly prepared for power outages at my house. The cooktop of our kitchen stove is propane, we have a woodstove for backup heat, a supply of bottled water, lanterns and some easy stovetop meals on hand. Aside from the occasional need to truck in water for the horses during extended outages we are fairly well prepared. My area was fortunate because the extent of the storm damage was minimal by comparison to other parts of the stay and the power outages we did experience didn’t last more than 8-12 hours.

    The events from this past weekend have inspired me to create the ultimate survival kit for your favorite techie. This could be a great gift for the coming holidays and the best part is these are items you can probably use every day regardless of the weather and power conditions. I’ve bundled together with the Tivoli Pal radio, the Outdoor Tech Buckshot Pro and the Just Mobile Gum++ portable power pack for iPod,iPad, and iPhone. Having a portable radio with its own built-in battery, a light source and portable power source are essential items when our communications and power sources are limited. This bundle normally would sell for $339.97 and for our Kibbles & Bytes readers I am offering it for $279.99

  • Do Not Pay The Ransom

    I was scrolling through my Facebook feed a few months ago and saw a post from a friend. Her iPhone appeared to be frozen, she was locked out of it and there was a message that she needed to pay a $50 fee in order to regain access to her iPhone. Over the years I have seen several similar instances. I remember seeing once on my own iOS device a message in Safari that took over my screen and told me to contact Apple because I had a virus on my iPad. Knowing that Apple would never send me an alert about needing to call them I simply ignored it. I tried to close out of Safari by hitting the home button, that worked, but when I opened Safari again the message was still there. Ultimately I had to power down my iPad and upon restart, it was gone, I never saw the message again. I had a few friends send me some panicked messages with screenshots of this same message on their device, I let them know to just turn off the iPad or iPhone. Historically, that is all you needed to do to avoid a scam about a virus or hack. This particular message was not isolated to an iOS device, it could happen on a desktop as well. However, all this was, was a scam to get some money out of a concerned user and nothing more.

    Fast forward a few years and now we are seeing reports of Mac computers or iOS devices locked and messages demanding a ransom be paid to regain access to your device. Unlike the Safari messages from a few years ago, just powering down your device or clearing your browsing history is not going to fix this problem. These new Bitcoin or PayPal ransomware are locking users out of their devices. Victims can not use them and are stuck with often one question running through their minds, do I really have to pay a ransom?

    Do not pay the ransom! But how do you regain access, and, more importantly, how did you get locked out in the first place. As hackers have gotten more sophisticated, so has their ability to scam you. In almost all of the reported cases we have seen or heard about, users have been locked out via find my iPhone/iPad or find my Mac. Unfortunately, their iCloud account was accessed by the scammers who have locked users out of their devices by initiating the lost mode feature. Sometimes you might simply be locked out with a message that says the device is in lost mode and requires a code ( a code you don’t have access to ) or it’s asking for the ransom.

    Thankfully all is not lost, but it does require a bit of work. Regaining access to your device will mean a trip to your local Apple Authorized Repair location or calling and talking to Apple directly. You will need to provide the service location or Apple a proof of purchase to prove you are the owner of the device and you will be able to regain access and most likely without losing your information. You can also follow some troubleshooting tips online from Apple, potentially if you are not being asked for a ransom these steps might help.

    But how did this happen? As I mentioned earlier, this is through your iCloud account, which was compromised. You will want to take immediate action and change your iCloud password as soon as you regain access. If you do not have two-factor authentication enabled on your device you will want to do so. Setting up two-factor authentication and ideally setting a stronger password for your account will prevent these kinds of breaches. I always recommend passwords with a combination of letters, numbers and even special characters, and your password selection should be somewhat random. Hopefully, with these tips you can avoid being locked out of your device!

  • Do Not Pay The Ransom!

    I was scrolling through my Facebook feed a few months ago and saw a post from a friend. Her iPhone appeared to be frozen, she was locked out of it and there was a message that she needed to pay a $50 fee in order to regain access to her iPhone. Over the years I have seen several similar instances. I remember seeing once on my own iOS device a message in Safari that took over my screen and told me to contact Apple because I had a virus on my iPad. Knowing that Apple would never send me an alert about needing to call them I simply ignored it. I tried to close out of Safari by hitting the home button, that worked, but when I opened Safari again the message was still there. Ultimately I had to power down my iPad and upon restart, it was gone, I never saw the message again. I had a few friends send me some panicked messages with screenshots of this same message on their device, I let them know to just turn off the iPad or iPhone. Historically, that is all you needed to do to avoid a scam about a virus or hack. This particular message was not isolated to an iOS device, it could happen on a desktop as well. However, all this was, was a scam to get some money out of a concerned user and nothing more.

    Fast forward a few years and now we are seeing reports of Mac computers or iOS devices locked and messages demanding a ransom be paid to regain access to your device. Unlike the Safari messages from a few years ago, just powering down your device or clearing your browsing history is not going to fix this problem. These new Bitcoin or PayPal ransomware are locking users out of their devices. Victims can not use them and are stuck with often one question running through their minds, do I really have to pay a ransom?

    Do not pay the ransom! But how do you regain access, and, more importantly, how did you get locked out in the first place. As hackers have gotten more sophisticated, so has their ability to scam you. In almost all of the reported cases we have seen or heard about, users have been locked out via find my iPhone/iPad or find my Mac. Unfortunately, their iCloud account was accessed by the scammers who have locked users out of their devices by initiating the lost mode feature. Sometimes you might simply be locked out with a message that says the device is in lost mode and requires a code ( a code you don’t have access to ) or it’s asking for the ransom.

    Thankfully all is not lost, but it does require a bit of work. Regaining access to your device will mean a trip to your local Apple Authorized Repair location or calling and talking to Apple directly. You will need to provide the service location or Apple a proof of purchase to prove you are the owner of the device and you will be able to regain access and most likely without losing your information. You can also follow some troubleshooting “tips online“https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204306 from Apple, potentially if you are not being asked for a ransom these steps might help.

    But how did this happen? As I mentioned earlier, this is through your iCloud account, which was compromised. You will want to take immediate action and change your iCloud password as soon as you regain access. If you do not have two-factor authentication enabled on your device you will want to do so. Setting up two-factor authentication and ideally setting a stronger password for your account will prevent these kinds of breaches. I always recommend passwords with a combination of letters, numbers and even special characters, and your password selection should be somewhat random. Hopefully, with these tips you can avoid being locked out of your device!

  • We have so many deals here at Small Dog Electronics that we thought we would pull some of our best deals into one location. We have a wide variety of discontinued, used and dented carton iPads and Macs. Many of these deals are single units, so if you’re interested in one do not delay scooping it up.

    Would you prefer a new Mac or iPad? Our selection of new Macs and iPads are just as large plus we stock many custom configurations! You can e-mail us, sales@smalldog.com or call us toll-free 1-800-511-6227 and we can help you find the perfect iPad or Mac.

    We have free shipping on orders over $75 and no sales tax to most states!

  • A Gateway To The Apple Ecosystem

    When I started as an employee of Small Dog Electronics over a decade ago, I didn’t know anything about Mac. I’d used the Apple IIe in Elementary school, but all I remember is the poor graphics on my favorite game Oregon Trail; Sally seemed to always break her leg and never made it to the end of the trail. In College, I’d seen a few students using colorful Apple laptops, but the operating system looked so foreign to me I couldn’t figure out how anyone used them. Thankfully, my first position with Small Dog was shipping and receiving. Really all I needed to know what how to accurately match up part numbers on an invoice with part numbers on a box. My first office workstation was an Indigo Blue G3 iMac. Having to use Macs every day at work I quickly adjusted and started to more easily navigate around on a Mac. I still can’t believe we had a Mac that was old enough to run Mac OS 8, which we used to process US Mail shipments.

    Before I start to date myself and my time at Small Dog any further, where is this article going? It was in my early days at Small Dog and my time in shipping lane that I slowly began my baby steps into the Apple Ecosystem and it all began with a used laptop.

    One evening at a Small Dog company party I as the lucky winner of a used G4 iBook. I think the hard drive was all of 30GB and had minimal memory. That little machine was the start of it all. I pushed aside my Dell PC at home and I never looked at a PC again. My little used iBook did everything that I needed it to do but it didn’t take long to have my eye on a silver shiny PowerBook. The only catch, I didn’t have the funds for my new dream computer. Eventually, we found some deals on refurbished Powerbooks and I traded up in the laptop world. I loved that little 12in Powerbook. It went everywhere with me, even on a cross-country trip and never missed a beat. I was so impressed with the performance of my refurbished PowerBook that when an opportunity came along and a great deal on a refurbished 17in iMac I jumped on that opportunity. After all, two computers were better than one! I admit, I didn’t even have a real need for it other than I didn’t want to share my PowerBook when I was at home.

    It took about 2-3 years to become a full-time member of the Apple Ecosystem as bit by bit I added more accessories. It was so easy to sync an iPod and set up a new Airport that I could not imagine using another product line. I was a real computer novice at this time so to be able to set these devices up with minimal help was a real treat. I’d keep my eyes out for deals and when I upgraded computers migration assistant made it seamless. In the following years iPhones and iPads synced up with minimal effort, the list goes on. Now over a decade later I have just about every Apple gadget and my household is filled with Apple products everywhere you look.

    My eye for great deals hasn’t stopped either. We recently purchased a number of Apple products from Watches to iPad to computers that are less than perfect boxes or have some minor damage but are still in excellent condition. I have my eye on a TouchBar MacBook Pro at the moment; it’s got some cosmetic damage but I can see past a blemish or two for a great deal! Not to worry though, we have many computers that only have some blemishes on the boxes. Don and I actually spent an afternoon last week opening up computers with damage to their outer brown boxes to find nothing more than a minor dent in the white Apple boxes.

    Here are some of my favorite deals on some bad box computers and iPads that would make for a perfect addition to your Apple Ecosystem, or if you know other young Emilys out there who have not made the switch you should share these deals with that friend!

    MacBook Pro 13in w/Touch Bar 3.1GHz i5 DC 8GB/256GB – Dented Box was $1799.99 now $1699.99

    MacBook Pro 15in w/Touch Bar 2.8GHz i7 QC 16GB/256GB/2GB – Dented Box, was $2399.99 now $2299.99

    MacBook Pro 13in 2.3GHz i5 Dual Core 8GB/256GB – Space Gray – Dented Carton, Was $1499.99 now $1349.99

  • Is Technology Addictive?

    The other day while driving to our South Burlington store I heard a news story about how technology affects us today, both positively and negatively. One of the topics, in particular, being discussed was the question of how technology can affect our focus and become an addiction. One side of the table felt very strongly that technology negatively affects us, while the other half felt technology was an asset. For me, technology is about balance and it is an incredibly powerful tool.

    In my work life, having information and communication literally at my fingertips is invaluable. I am a huge fan of the iCloud drive and the utilization of iCloud keychain storage, These two features of the cloud I use literally every day and cannot envision at this point not utilizing these. Just the other day I was away from my computer and thanks to my access to our Apple service manual in my iCloud, I was able to quickly find the folder from my iPhone and pull up the answer to a question for our service department. I can be using my iPad at home and have access to just about everything I need as though I was at my computer in the office. I have used the collaboration feature within Pages to work on documents I needed assistance with from other co-workers. Even when I am away from my computer and phone, co-workers can quickly reach me via text or a call because of my Apple Watch. These are just a handful of features I use daily to be more efficient at my job no matter where I am. Because I am a busy mom and have a full work schedule, this kind of constant connectivity is essential in my getting through my day. Would I be this connected if I wasn’t in the line of work I am? Probably not. But can I disconnect when I’m not in the office? I can. I love reading and the iBooks app makes it convenient to read a book whether I’m on a lunch break or waiting in the doctor’s office. But nothing beats holding a book in my hand and a stroll through my favorite local bookstore to pick out my next book I can’t put down. I can go hours on the weekends without looking at my phone or checking the latest social media feeds. But without my phone and calendar reminders, I will be that mom who forgot one of my kids changed after school plans or miss a meeting at the office. I’ve tried to keep one of those pocket calendars, but those boxes are really tiny to write in! I could never keep all my appointments and schedule changes on one of those.

    Smart Home technology is everywhere in my house. We have an Amazon Echo in our living room that controls the lamps in the room; we have the Eve product line from Elgato which measures inside and outside air temperatures and air quality, smart bulb adapters from Incipio and as soon as I have some downtime, I have some Lutron switches to install. My kids think it’s pretty awesome they can just say a command and lights turn on and off in our house. I’m also happy I can see from my iPhone or iPad if any unnecessary lights have been left on despite the kids saying they turned the lights off.

    I have two kids, 11 and 6. My oldest, Anna, has a take it or leave it feeling when it comes to technology. Her school issues Chromebooks; she is very good about following the rules laid out by the school and she only uses it for her homework assignments, the same goes for our home computer. She will sometimes sit on the couch at night and play a game or two on her iPod Touch. Your more likely to find Anna up early in the morning secretly reading a book than grabbing for a device, and her new hobby at night is making bracelets. My youngest, Olivia, is a different story. If given the opportunity she will binge watch Youtube for Kids for hours and become hyperfocused on the device. She has been that kid who turns into a ball of tears when told she can not play a game on an iPad. Because of this, her iPad usage is closely monitored and it’s a special circumstance that allows her the privilege to use an iPad. Now when we come home instead of her telling us a story about some video she saw she comes to us with notebooks filled with her practicing her numbers, letters, and words. I have also set up parental controls on the kids iPads and the family Mac Mini because, well, kids are kids after all. Be it keeping them safe from the dangers of the internet, limiting their access, or just ensuring they don’t run wild in the App store, it’s a great safety net.

    So is technology addictive? I’ve already sold myself and family out in this article for being deeply rooted in technology and openly admitted I clearly have a child who could easily be addicted to technology. But are we as a family addicted to technology? I guess my answer to this question is the jury is still out. We aren’t perfect. There will be days I’ll have to take away a device from one or both of my children, or have to deny a request for a computer game. But there will also be plenty of days we will all put down our devices, head outside or pick up a good book on a Sunday afternoon. I can’t say I’ll reduce my technology use at work; after all, this is my job. Perhaps I have a slightly askew perspective on technology and I will admit that. I’ll continue to be the person who jumps at the chance to test out a new Smart Home device or show another parent the peace of mind parental controls can provide. But, for me, as long as you can find the balance I feel technology is a means of making our everyday lives a little bit easier.

  • A Gateway To The Apple Ecosystem

    When I started as an employee of Small Dog Electronics over a decade ago I didn’t know anything about Mac. I’d used the Apple IIe in Elementary school, but all I remember is the poor graphics on my favorite game Oregon Trail; Sally seemed to always break her leg and never made it to the end of the trail. In College, I’d seen a few students using colorful Apple laptops, but the operating system looked so foreign to me I couldn’t figure out how anyone used them. Thankfully my first position with Small Dog was shipping and receiving. Really all I needed to know what how to accurately match up part numbers on an invoice with part numbers on a box. My first office workstation was an Indigo Blue G3 iMac. Having to use Macs every day at work I quickly adjusted and started to more easily navigate around on a Mac. I still can’t believe we had a Mac that was old enough to run Mac OS 8, which we used to process US Mail shipments.

    Before I start to date myself and my time at Small Dog any further, where is this article going? It was in my early days at Small Dog and my time in shipping lane that I slowly began my baby steps into the Apple Ecosystem and it all began with a used laptop.

    One evening at a Small Dog company party I as the lucky winner of a used G4 iBook. I think the hard drive was all of 30GB and had minimal memory. That little machine was the start of it all. I pushed aside my Dell PC at home and I never looked at a PC again. My little used iBook did everything that I needed it to do but it didn’t take long to have my eye on a silver shiny PowerBook. The only catch, I didn’t have the funds for my new dream computer. Eventually, we found some deals on refurbished Powerbooks and I traded up in the laptop world. I loved that little 12in Powerbook. It went everywhere with me, even on a cross-country trip and never missed a beat. I was so impressed with the performance of my refurbished PowerBook that when an opportunity came along and a great deal on a refurbished 17in iMac I jumped on that . After all, two computers were better than one! I admit, I didn’t even have a real need for it other than I didn’t want to share my PowerBook when I was at home.

    It took about 2-3 years to become a full-time member of the Apple Ecosystem as bit by bit I added more accessories. It was so easy to sync an iPod and set up a new Airport that I could not imagine using another product line. I was a real computer novice at this time so to be able to set these devices up with minimal help was a real treat. I’d keep my eyes out for deals and when I upgraded computers migration assistant made it seamless. In the following years iPhones and iPads synced up with minimal effort, the list goes on. Now over a decade later I have just about every Apple gadget and my household is filled with Apple products everywhere you look.

    My eye for great deals hasn’t stopped either. We recently purchased a number of Apple products from Watches to iPad to computers that are less than perfect boxes or have some minor damage but are still in excellent condition. I have my eye on a TouchBar MacBook Pro at the moment; it’s got some cosmetic damage but I can see past a blemish or two for a great deal! Not to worry though, we have many computers that only have some blemishes on the boxes. Don and I actually spent an afternoon last week opening up computers with damage to their outer brown boxes to find nothing more than a minor dent in the white Apple boxes.

    Here are some of my favorite deals on some bad box computers and iPads that would make for a perfect addition to your Apple Ecosystem, or if you know other young Emilys out there who have not made the switch you should share these deals with that friend!

    iPad Air 2, 32gb Wifi Gold – Opened box but new condition, was $399.99 now $349.99 Just one left!

    MacBook Pro 13in w/Touch Bar 3.1GHz i5 DC 8GB/256GB – Dented Box was $1799.99 now $1699.99

    MacBook Pro 15in w/Touch Bar 2.8GHz i7 QC 16GB/256GB/2GB – Dented Box, was $2399.99 now $2299.99

    MacBook Pro 13in 2.3GHz i5 Dual Core 8GB/256GB – Space Gray – Dented Carton, Was $1499.99 now $1349.99