Author: Emily Dolloff

  • p{text-align: center;}. !http://blog.smalldog.com/images/4884.png!

    Small Dog Electronics wants to remind all of our customers that the holiday season is not only about giving the best gifts of the year, but also about giving back to others. Shopping with Small Dog Electronics this holiday season not only supports a local business but it also supports your local community.

    Small Dog Electronics is donating 1% of all sales in our retail stores to the Vermont Food Bank this holiday season. As a special thank you to all of our customers who support us all year long we’re kicking off the holiday season with our “Customer Appreciation event!”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900002463/customer-appreciation-event We’re offering a new deal daily from “**November 17th to the 27th**”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900002463/customer-appreciation-event with a **HUGE one day only sale on Saturday November 19th** AND we’re teaming up with Vermont Creamery to donate 2% to the Vermont Food Bank during our customer appreciation event.

    p{text-align: center;}. “**Our Biggest Sale Of The Year Saturday November 19th**”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900002463/customer-appreciation-event?

    p{text-align: center;}. **30% Off All Speakers**

    p{text-align: center;}. **30% Off All Headphones**

    p{text-align: center;}. **30% Off GoPro**

    p{text-align: center;}. **$100 Small Dog Electronics Gift Card with the purchase of any Mac w/AppleCare**

    In addition to some incredible discounts each transaction gets **FREE CHEESE** from the Vermont Creamery and you can enter to win a gift basket worth $100. This holiday season shop local and support local with Small Dog Electronics.

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  • What does Small Dog Need from you?

    In order to make our customer appreciation event a HUGE success we need all of our staff to become marketing superheros! How you…

  • Customer Appreciation Event!

    We are very excited to be launching our customer appreciation event this week in ALL of our retail stores. Starting on Thursday November…

  • Shop Local, Support Local!

    Shop Local, Support Local! Could our holiday deals be better? Yes! But shopping with Small Dog Electronics this holiday season means great deals…

  • _Hello Fellow Technophiles,_

    Ben Ryan here! I’m filling in this week for Mike who’s out on vacation. I would like to say thank you to all the Small Dog fans who voted in our annual Halloween contest. I am thrilled to be this year’s winner of best overall costume! As you can see from my picture, I was dressed as a Stormtrooper from the original trilogy of Star Wars movies. This was my most ambitious costume, and yes, I’m already thinking of how I can top it next year.

    My prize this year was a “*Sonos Play 1*”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/85277/sonos-play-1-black smart speaker. I have been using it a lot, and I have been very impressed with it so far. Unlike most wireless speakers, the Sonos Play 1 can use many different music applications like Apple Music, Spotify, Pandora, and others installed on the internal storage of the speaker. The Play 1 then streams the music from the internet through these applications. For the most part, after the initial setup, the Play 1 can function as a standalone device. There is a play/pause button on the speaker itself that when pressed, pauses the resumes the playlist it was streaming, with no other action needed from your phone or any other device. It may not seem significant, but I have found that functionality to be very convenient.

    In other news, if you have recently been having problems with iPhone alarm clock not going off, I would recommend updating your version of iOS. Part of the 10.1 update released on October 24th was a fix for a bug that caused alarms to sometimes not go off as scheduled. I found out about this bug when it caused me to report for work over two hours late on the day before the update was released. However, one of the benefits of working for an Apple Authorized Service Provider is that all was forgiven when I found and provided official Apple documentation on the glitch. Another reminder to always update your devices when updates are available and to back up your device!

    Thank you for reading,

    Ben
    “BenRyan@SmallDog.com”:mailto:benryan@smalldog.com

  • I have always been the glass half full kind of guy but this week really tried me. But thanks to Khadija for kicking my butt and breaking me out, I am again determined to work hard to make this rock we live on a better place.

    I was playing around with some home automation stuff this week, too. I got a Google Home assistant and my initial impressions is that Google made a half-hearted attempt to compete with Amazon Echo. The Echo seems so much smarter and more capable but I will continue to put Google to the test.

    My Amazon Echo now turns on and off my Philips Hue lighting, adjusts my Nest thermostat, reads me the morning news and now that I just installed an outdoor ceiling fan from the Big Ass Fan company, I can also control the fan and the fan’s light on our front porch. Siri remains my favorite artificial helper and is smarter than Alexa but Alexa remains more practical in real life. I bet it is not long before Siri makes her way into the home in a more prominent way–perhaps through the Apple TV.

    Thank you for reading this issue of Kibbles & Bytes!

    Your Kibbles & Bytes team,

    _Don, Emily, Hadley & Amy_

  • _Dear Friends,_

    May you live in interesting times. Some say that is an ancient Chinese curse although no such Chinese expression exists. But if you had any doubt about just how interesting the times are they were answered this week with the surprising election results. Tim Cook sent a letter to Apple employees and said in part:

    ??While there is discussion today about uncertainties ahead, you can be confident that Apple’s North Star hasn’t changed. Our products connect people everywhere, and they provide the tools for our customers to do great things to improve their lives and the world at large. Our company is open to all, and we celebrate the diversity of our team here in the United States and around the world — regardless of what they look like, where they come from, how they worship or who they love.??

    I can echo that sentiment for Small Dog Electronics. We will continue to be guided by our triple bottom line of people, planet & profit. We celebrate diversity and strive for social justice for all.

    Every year around this time retailers trip over themselves to offer discounts and “door busters” in preparation for the big Black Friday and holiday season. After doing that for a number of years, keeping the store open for extended hours (24 hours at one Black Friday!) and still losing sales to those that just discount we decided to take a step back. It started when the mall we were in when we had a store in NH wanted us to be open on Thanksgiving. They threatened to fine us if we would not open. I refused to open, Thanksgiving is a time for family and friends not commerce. We went further the next year and instead of discounting our products we decided to give a percentage of each sale to the Vermont Food Bank. That was a very popular program and we are doing it again this year. We will be donating to the Vermont Food Bank here in Vermont and to Star of the Sea Outreach Mission down here in Key West. You will be hearing more about this exciting promotion.

    This week’s Kibbles & Bytes Exclusive features the new “**iPad Pro 9.7-inch with 128GB Wi-Fi and Cellular**”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900002464/50-off-a-9-7in-ipad-pro-wifi-cellular-with-applecare? in Space Gray. We are bundling it this week with AppleCare Plus for the iPad and giving you $50 off! Get the iPad Pro with AppleCare+ for only “**$879.99!**”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900002464/50-off-a-9-7in-ipad-pro-wifi-cellular-with-applecare?

  • Triple-Press the Home Button in iOS 10 for the Magnifier

    Do you ever find that small print like serial numbers, instructions or any other smaller print on items is hard to read? iOS 10 can turn your iPhone or iPad into a magnifying glass! You’ll first want to go into Settings > General > Accessibility > Magnifier and turn on Magnifier.

    Press the Home Button three times quickly to bring up the Magnifier and then point the camera at what you want to see. The view is zoomed automatically, but you can change the zoom level with the slider, tap the flash icon to turn on the LED light ( if one if available on your device ), enable a filter to change the color or contrast, or lock the focus by tapping the lock icon. You can also freeze the image by tapping the big round Take Photo button. This is great for grabbing a picture of a tiny serial number!

  • The All New MacBook Pro

    After weeks of anticipation and months of speculation, Apple finally announced updates to the MacBook Pro lineup. Before we get into the details let’s pause for a moment of silence. Apple has officially eliminated the optical disk drive from the entire computer lineup by removing the entry-level MacBook Pro 13in 2.5GHz which hadn’t been updated since 2012.

    The new MacBook Pros offer some pretty remarkable upgrades. They have up to 130% faster graphics, screens that are 67% brighter, up to 58% more storage volume and are 17% thinner. Apple has also removed the function keys from most MacBook Pro models and replaced them with the all new Touch Bar which also allows for integrated Touch ID. The 13in MacBook Pro has slimmed down from 4.5lbs to just 3lbs. The removal of the optical drive, the traditional spinning disk drive and most of the ports has allowed this dramatic reduction in weight. The Force Touch Trackpad is now 2x bigger on each MacBook Pro, the flash storage is up to 100% faster and the battery life has been increased to 10 hours.

    Thunderbolt 3

    Thunderbolt 3 has been introduced to the new MacBook Pro and now supports 5K. Like previous generations of Thunderbolt, these new ports allow the user to connect multiple devices through the same port configuration. The base model 13in unit comes with two Thunderbolt 3 ports while the stepped-up 13in and the 15in models have four Thunderbolt 3 ports. The 15in MacBook pro can support up to two additional 5K displays and dual RAID systems allowing for some pretty incredible productivity and amazing work experience from a portable machine.

    Touch Bar and Touch ID

    The all new Touch Bar replaces the function keys on all the MacBook Pros except for the base model. For those users who still aren’t ready to let go of the physical function buttons Apple still leaves these keys on their $1499 model and by pressing the function key the Touch Bar will digitally display function keys. The Touch Bar is a small digital screen where the traditional functional keys once resided and changes depending on the application that you are running. If you’re in mail you can customize your Touch Bar much like the graphical tool bar in mail. You can now file, forward or delete with the touch of your finger and never have to use your track pad. For users who edit photos you can now relocate many drop down menu options to the Touch Bar allowing for full screen editing with ease. You can accept an incoming call, text someone your favorite emoji and now even Apple Pay all from your Touch Bar. Touch ID allows you to now unlock your computer with the touch of your finger and even use Apple Pay on your favorite sites.

    Second Generation Butterfly and Larger Touch Pad

    The butterfly switch mechanism was first introduced in the MacBook and it’s what helps to give the keyboard on the MacBook an even lower profile and faster response time. The keys are now even more stable allowing for a more comfortable typing experience and more responsive keys. The Touch Pad is now 2x larger than previous generation models giving users more space and flexibility to work and manipulate graphics.

    Faster Graphics and a Brighter Display

    The 15in MacBook Pro now has up to 130% faster graphics performance than previous models while the 13in is up to 103% faster. The new displays in the MacBook Pros feature a 67% brighter contract ratio and 25% more colors. The new LED display delivers deeper blacks, brighter whites and more vibrant greens and reds. Just when you thought that the display couldn’t get much better Apple managed to make it even more impressive.

  • The All New MacBook Pro

    After weeks of anticipation and months of speculation, Apple finally announced updates to the MacBook Pro lineup. Before we get into the details let’s pause for a moment of silence: Apple has officially eliminated the optical disk drive from the entire computer lineup by removing the entry-level MacBook Pro 13in 2.5GHz which hadn’t been updated since 2012.

    {silence}

    And we’re back!

    The new MacBook Pro offers some pretty remarkable upgrades. They have up to 130% faster graphics processing, screens that are 67% brighter, up to 58% more storage volume, and are 17% thinner. Apple has also removed the function keys from most MacBook Pro models and replaced them with the all new Touch Bar which also allows for integrated Touch ID. The 13in MacBook Pro has slimmed down from 4.5lbs to just 3lbs. The removal of the optical drive, the traditional spinning disk drive, and most of the ports has allowed this dramatic reduction in weight. The Force Touch Trackpad is now 2x bigger on each MacBook Pro, the flash storage is up to 100% faster, and the battery life has been increased to 10 hours.

    **Thunderbolt 3**

    Thunderbolt 3 has been introduced to the new MacBook Pro and now supports 5K. Like previous generations of Thunderbolt, these new ports allow the user to connect multiple devices through the same port configuration. The base model 13in unit comes with two Thunderbolt 3 ports while the stepped-up 13in and the 15in models have four Thunderbolt 3 ports. The 15in MacBook pro can support up to two additional 5K displays and dual RAID systems allowing for some pretty incredible productivity and amazing work experience from a portable machine. These ports share the same physical configuration as USB-C and are compatible with that standard as well.

    **Touch Bar and Touch ID**

    p{text-align: center;}. !http://blog.smalldog.com/images/4866.png!

    The all new Touch Bar replaces the function keys on the MacBook Pro except for the base model. For those users who still aren’t ready to let go of the physical function buttons Apple still leaves these keys on their $1499 model and by pressing the function key the Touch Bar will digitally display function keys. The Touch Bar is a small digital screen where the traditional function keys once resided and changes depending on the application that you are running. If you’re in Mail you can customize your Touch Bar to be much like the graphical toolbar in the app. You can now file, forward, or delete with the touch of your finger and never have to use your trackpad. For users who edit photos you can now relocate many drop down menu options to the Touch Bar allowing for full screen editing with ease. You can accept an incoming call, text someone your favorite emoji, and now even Apple Pay all from your Touch Bar. Touch ID allows you to unlock your computer with the touch of your finger and even use Apple Pay on your favorite sites.

    **Second Generation Butterfly and Larger Touch Pad**

    The butterfly switch mechanism was first introduced in the MacBook and it’s what helps to give the keyboard on the MacBook an even lower profile and faster response time. The keys are now even more stable allowing for a more comfortable typing experience and more responsive keys. The Touch Pad is now 2x larger than previous generation models giving users more space and flexibility to work and manipulate graphics.

    **Faster Graphics and a Brighter Display**

    p{text-align: center;}. !http://blog.smalldog.com/images/4868.png!

    The 15in MacBook Pro now has up to 130% faster graphics performance than previous models while the 13in is up to 103% faster. The new display in the MacBook Pro features a 67% brighter contract ratio and 25% more colors. The new LED display delivers deeper blacks, brighter whites and more vibrant greens and reds. Just when you thought that the display couldn’t get much better Apple managed to make it even more impressive.