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In addition to the AirPort Express Base Stations, we also got a great deal on Apple refurbished AirPort Extremes. These are already $60 off of the current model, and for the next two weeks enjoy free shipping as well.
Hey, we got a special shipment of Apple refurbished AirPort Express Base Stations. They’re are $20 off the current model, and for the next two weeks get free shipping on these bad boys!
We’re continuing to add to our Mac to School offerings for you this year. Don’t forget, we have $50 and $100 gift card specials when you buy an iPad and AppleCare+ and Mac and AppleCare, respectively. Additionally, every two weeks, we’ll be adding third party accessories and other gear at great prices so that we can be your one-stop-shop.
Check out everything here: “*Smalldog.com/mactoschool*”:http://www.smalldog.com/mactoschool
All of our Mac to School specials are featured in-store, and you’ll actually find more there, since sales of new iPads are restricted to retail locations. Happy shopping!
Whenever I have something going on with my computer, I always think about how our computers are sooooo fancy that IT could just access it remotely, play around and fix whatever needs to be fixed. Sharing screens is a super cool tool that can come in handy in many situations, and one that turns out, isn’t just for IT experts.
If you are running Mountain Lion on your Mac and have Messages you can share screens with your other pals and play the tech expert to help troubleshoot issues or just to simply have some fun. Wanna learn how to use this nifty tool?
To get started with screen sharing, each person must be using the same type of account: AIM, Bonjour, Google Talk or Jabber. Unfortunately, screen sharing is unavailable through iMessages (two iCloud accounts). To start sharing the screen, simply click on the user’s name in your Buddies list and from the menu, choose Ask to Share [_____]’s screen.
Or, you can select your buddy’s name and click the screen sharing icon (it looks like two overlapping rectangles) on the bottom right of the Buddies window. Whoever you invited will then receive an invitation via a dialog box. When this happens, they can either accept or send you a text reply with something like, “I’m busy; can’t share screens right this second.” To end the screen share, simply look for the flashing orange screen-sharing icon and then choose End Screen Sharing.
However, the possibilities of Messages do not end here. You can also do things like share slideshows and presentations. This could be a huge tool for businesses. Read more about Slideshows and Presentations via Messages in Mike Burl’s, “*How To Give A Remote Presentation With Messages*”:http://blog.smalldog.com/kibbles/kb823/ article.
If you’d like to keep a copy of your conversations in Messages, simply hop into the preferences and choose the Messages tab and enable “Save History When Conversations Are Closed.” If you’d like to locate the archived messages, open up Finder, hold down the Option key and select *Go > Library.* When that opens, click on the Messages folder and then the Archive folder. There should be a series of folders labeled with various dates. These are your chats!
Here at Small Dog, we use Messages all day, every day, to “chat” with one another. If you’ve never used Messages and have it on your computer, open ‘er up and play around. It could be a handy app for you. Cheers!
Apple has announced that, starting August 16th, they are going to be offering a USB Power Adapter swap program to replace customers’ third party (non-Apple) power adapters. They are now offering this at a special price for customers with third party power adapters because there have been several reports of these malfunctioning or causing safety issues. While not all are unsafe, Apple is offering this a solution to help.
Here’s how it works:
Bring in your adapter and associated iOS device. Apple offers one swap per device, at a special discounted price. We will need to verify that the iOS device (be it an iPad, iPhone, or iPod) has not already been used for this program via the serial number.
Pricing on the third party adapter replacements will be $10. While some third party adapters have had malfunctioning issues, not all do. We won’t be able to verify if your third party adapter is one of those — just that it is a non-Apple adapter. If you use a non-Apple branded USB power adapter for your iOS device, we recommend bringing it in for us to offer a swapped unit for you.
A timeline for this program has not been offered yet, but it was announced as a “limited time” program, so please, take advantage of it while you can.
__This article originally appeared in Kibbles & Bytes issue__ “*#746*”:http://blog.smalldog.com/kibbles/kb746/
This Mac Treat is similar to one of our “*previous treats,*”:http://blog.smalldog.com/kibbles/kb584/ but with some added nuggets.
One of my favorite features in Spotlight is the ability to pose a calculation (e.g. 5,608 * 72) and it will retrieve the Calculator for you as a top hit. (Just enter the numbers you want to add, subtract, multiply or divide by using the standard mathematical symbols of +, -, * and / in the Spotlight window.)
Here’s an updated bonus for those of you with Lion: Now when you do a Spotlight search, it offers a ‘web searches’ option in the search results. If chosen, your default web browser will option with said search entered.
You can also now drag and drop files out of your search results. (Yippee!) In order to preview an item in your search results, select and hold the Command key. Additionally, hold down the Command key (with the preview window open) to display an info bar at the bottom of the window.
Apple has announced that, starting August 16th, they are going to be offering a USB Power Adapter swap program to replace customers’ third…
Watch your favorite movies, play video games or check out the latest YouTube sensation on this 27″ LED HDMI Monitor.
See all Mac to School specials here:
“*Smalldog.com/mactoschool*”:http://www.smalldog.com
Do you use an iPad at work? Or think you may want to?
Register for our *free iPad in Business Briefing* on Tuesday, September 17 from 9am – 12pm (check-in begins at 8:30) at the Palace Theatre in Manchester, NH — it’s open to anyone interested in learning about how to use iPad in a business environment.
We’ll have a representative from Apple on hand to present, as well as our partners Zco Corp. (App Developer) and Burlington Bank Card (iPad/iPhone POS System) to highlight their solutions.
Topics will include integration, security, deployment, apps and of course, how using iOS and working with Small Dog Electronics can provide an ideal solution for your business.
Visit our Seminars page for more details and to sign up:
“*Smalldog.com/seminars*”:http://www.smalldog.com/seminars
Whenever I explain the organization of the Apple Operating System to a customer, I like to use the analogy of a neighborhood. This wasn’t too hard to come up with considering Apple defines your user folder as the “home” folder. Within your home are various rooms (i.e. Documents, Pictures, Movies, Music, etc), and within your home, you can rearrange things however you like. It’s when people start saving things outside of their home folder that issues can arise with how the operating system is designed to work.
When this happens, I explain that by doing so, you’re essentially digging up other people’s yards within your neighborhood. Often, people think saving data to their hard drive requires simply dragging and dropping to the “Macintosh HD” volume on their desktop. I suspect this is one reason why Lion and Mountain Lion have — by default — removed immediate access to the root level of the user’s drive.
Within this analogy, I like to introduce a great utility called Keychain Access. Not unlike a ring to save various keys you might own, Keychain Access saves all passwords that you may use on a daily basis. As long as you know your administrator password — the one created when setting up your user — you can retrieve any forgotten password that you’ve used.
To do so, go to *Go > Utilities > Keychain Access.* Once the window appears, simply navigate to “Passwords” under the Category sidebar. Within that, double click on the one that you’ve forgotten. From there, a secondary window will appear and by checking “Show Password”, Keychain Access will ask for your admin password. After entering it, you’ll have your much-needed password.
Apple has announced that, starting August 16th, they are going to be offering a USB Power Adapter swap program to replace customers’ third party (non-Apple) power adapters. They are now offering this at a special price for customers with third party power adapters because there have been several reports of these malfunctioning or causing safety issues. While not all are unsafe, Apple is offering this a solution to help.
Here’s how it works:
Bring in your adapter and associated iOS device. Apple offers one swap per device, at a special discounted price. We will need to verify that the iOS device (be it an iPad, iPhone, or iPod) has not already been used for this program via the serial number.
Pricing on the third party adapter replacements will be $10. While some third party adapters have had malfunctioning issues, not all do. We won’t be able to verify if your third party adapter is one of those — just that it is a non-Apple adapter. If you use a non-Apple branded USB power adapter for your iOS device, we recommend bringing it in for us to offer a swapped unit for you.
A timeline for this program has not been offered yet, but it was announced as a “limited time” program, so please, take advantage of it while you can.
I have received a few responses from my article I wrote a few weeks ago, “*The Trials of Data Recovery,*”:http://blog.smalldog.com/techtails/tt880/ that actually gave me some similar tips.
When the controller board on a hard disk drive fails and is no longer accessible, you can effectively replace the controller board on the hard drive with one from another drive of the exact same make and model. There should be no difference between the two sets of platters, therefore the controller won’t freak out because it’s a different set of hardware.
According to information gathered (note that more information still needs to be gathered), the hard drive needs to be exactly the same so the controller board that is being swapped from one to the other has no issues when accessing the platters. It seems possible to swap the platters and actually have some hope that the data is readable. Swapping would be required in the event that the motor of the heads had malfunctioned and couldn’t spin or read the platters on the failed drive.
Another note is that both drives are condemned; once this procedure is started, you can no longer replace the board and expect it to live out the rest of its life. It will fail eventually; it’s only a matter of time. These methods are more then we typically attempt at Small Dog, save for a possible extreme case. There is no guarantee that these methods will work, and they also void any possibility of replacement under warranty.
Two responses suggested that I start a drive graveyard of dead or dying drives to build up the chances of being ready for one of these situations again. More research is needed for this technician and I’m sure my colleagues might not like the idea of a large box of dead hard drives sitting in the tech room that is already too small, but if this seemingly recurring event continues to happen, I’m tempted to try this little trick.
Of course, the moral of the story is to always back up!