Author: Mike Moffit

Director of IT

  • Go Mac to School

    Are you ready? Well, maybe you want to enjoy more of your summer before thinking about it, but it’s inevitable for some!

    Use Small Dog as your one-stop shop for back to school and save big this year. From now until September 15th, get a **$100 Small Dog Gift Card** with any new Mac purchase bundled with AppleCare! Or, receive a **$50 Small Dog Gift Card** with any new iPad purchase bundled with AppleCare+! In addition, we’re switching up our third-party specials every two weeks. See the sidebar for this month’s deals, and stop in to take advantage of the many retail-only promos we have going on.

    “**Visit our Mac to School page**”:http://www.smalldog.com/mactoschool/mac-to-school page for our online specials just in case you can’t make it to one of our stores.

    Why go Mac? Apple computers have been ranked the number one computer by Consumer Reports for several years now, and they are only getting better. If you are hesitant to purchase a new Mac because of compatibility fears, rest assured you can do just about anything you once did on your PC (and more) on any new Mac — including (gasp!) run Windows!

    The reliability and the peace of mind that comes with each new Mac computer is truly priceless. You can completely eliminate your Norton subscription — wouldn’t that be nice? Don’t forget your backup, though. Macs may be virus-resistant but you should always have a backup plan in place. We offer many different brands of hard drives, along with different styles.

    Our knowledgable sales staff can help you select the right hard drive for your needs, so come see us for all of your back-to-school needs (and beyond).

  • Special Buy

    time capsule

    Hard Drive + Wi-Fi! Save $60 off the current gen price —

    These 2TB Time Capsules are now discontinued **(but brand new)** and include a 1-year Apple Warranty.

    *Only*: $239.99

  • Greetings from SDE in Rutland

    Have you been to our new Rutland store? Stop in next time you are in Rutland or even if you are passing through. We are conveniently located on West Street right off of Route 7 in the center of Rutland.

    We offer free in store classes covering the latest Mac operating system, iOS 6, and general Mac Basics. Our new store is also a great spot to pick up your new AT&T iPhone 5. Our knowledgeable staff can answer all of your questions regarding your new iPhone purchase along with any AT&T questions you may have.

    All this month, we will be holding our Mac to School event. This is the perfect opportunity to score that great gear for the upcoming school year. We will have many specials over the next few weeks so be sure to take a peek at what we have to offer.

    Coming up next month on September 21 is our 2nd eWaste event in Rutland! We are very excited to be able to offer this great opportunity to properly dispose of your electronic waste to our Rutland community and surrounding areas. So be sure to ask about what we can and cannot take the next time you are in our store.

    Until next time, have a safe and fun summer!

    -Bronson
    “**bronson@smalldog.com**”:mailto:bronson@smalldog.com

  • Join us for a Chamber Mixer!

    On August 20, The Rutland Regional Chamber of Commerce will hold a mixer at our store from 5pm-7pm!

    We’ll have door prizes, hors d’oeuvres, a 50/50 raffle and more, so join us! For details, call 802-773-2747.

  • SPECIAL | Microsoft Office Sale

    Save $30 off Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 Home and Student (Single-User License) — a must-have for students.

  • SPECIAL | iKlear Cleaning Supplies Bundle

    Keep liquids, crumbs and smudges off your computer! With every purchase of iKlear, receive a free keyboard cover and cleaning cloth, a $24.99 savings.

  • Seats Still Available for Mac OS X Technical Training for IT Pros!

    Sign up for our training session at “*KnowledgeWave*”:http://www.knowledgewave.com in South Burlington, Vermont — ideal for businesses and IT professionals who have an interest in what working on the Mac OS can do for you.

    * *Mac OS X Technical Training For IT Professionals,* Tuesday, August 6, 9am-5pm

    Why register? Rebecca will cover what you need to know to seamlessly integrate Macs into your business in this all-day training session.

    All classes are held at KnowledgeWave, 30 Community Dr. #5 South Burlington, VT 05403.

    “*To learn more, and to register, click here.*”:http://www.smalldog.com/training/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=KB-kw

    *Meet Your Instructor!*
    Rebecca Kraemer is Vice President in charge of Information Technology & Development (IT&D) and Consulting for Small Dog Electronics. Rebecca began her long career with Apple products as an independent consultant before becoming a manager and then Genius with Apple, Inc. She joined Small Dog in 2008 and has been privileged to be a member of the Service, Consulting and IT departments.

    Rebecca created the curriculum for the professional classes that Small Dog has offered for the past two years, and she is excited to be offering these classes to the general public for the first time at KnowledgeWave. When she’s not surrounded by computers, Rebecca is a sole proprietor of a massage business in Morrisville, VT and she enjoys yoga, cooking, gardening, the great outdoors, and her Lab mix Toby and two cats, Lola and Miles.

    If you have any questions about the curriculum or would like additional info, feel free to shoot her an email at “*rebeccak@smalldog.com!*”:mailto:rebeccak@smalldog.com

  • New Malware Affecting Mac Users

    A new malicious website has plagued itself on some unsuspecting Mac users recently. It has been classified under the term “ransomware”, which is essentially malware that restricts access to a computer until a payment is made by the victim/user. In this case, the ransomware disguises itself as an official FBI webpage, attempting to scare the user into paying a fine for any copyright infringement they may have committed to regain access to their computer.

    This particular site is inadvertently visited by the user while browsing the web. In one example from Malwarebytes Blog, the author performs a search for Taylor Swift. One of the search results returned is the aforementioned ransomware page, that (seemingly) proceeds to take his Mac hostage. The author escapes the page by going to “Reset Safari” under “Safari” in the menu bar. This action obviously will only work if the user is running Safari. Under other browsers, you can Force Quit, and then hold down the Shift key upon restarting the application to bypass the “restore from crash” function.

    All in all, this website does not pose any immediate risk to your Mac; its only intention is to trick the victim into inputting credit card info/paying the “fine.” As always, the best protection against malware like this is to be aware of it. Using common sense is also always helpful — obviously, the FBI is not going to remotely take over your computer with a web page, and force you to pay a fine for copyright infringement.

    “*Read the blog post here.*”:http://blog.malwarebytes.org/intelligence/2013/07/fbi-ransomware-now-targeting-apples-mac-os-x-users/

  • The Dangers of Third-Party Accessories

    A few weeks ago, reports surfaced that a 23-year-old Chinese woman, a flight attendant with China Southern Airlines, died by electrocution after she answered her phone. According to journalists investigating the incident, she was using a “knockoff charger” also known as an after-market or third-party adaptor.

    This is definitely __not__ common — even with “bad” chargers — but the message is clear. When it comes to power supplies for any mobile electronic device, buy it from the manufacturer. (And if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.) I’ve said this for nearly fifteen years — starting when I provided support for IBM and Dell laptops, and various notebooks at UVM, to Macs for Small Dog as I do now.

    Most desktop computers (from Macs to PCs) use standard power supply cables that are all essentially identical. But laptops and smaller mobile devices use proprietary technology developed by the manufacturers specifically for that device. These accessories are manufactured to very specific standards.

    I’m not a sales person and I don’t pretend to be at the counter in South Burlington, but this is one thing that I can speak to anecdotally from doing help desk support for so long — purchasing third-party power supplies to shave dollars can spell disaster. From fried mother boards to smoke filled rooms, bad power supplies can be extremely dangerous. Please pay for the real thing.

    We had a young customer come in a few weeks ago with a failed power adapter for her MacBook Pro. She had AppleCare and there was no visible accidental damage; it had just stopped working. On inspection it became clear that it wasn’t a genuine Apple adapter. She and her mother were flummoxed, as they said they’d purchased no additional adapters for the machine.

    I asked if she went to school (she was college-aged) and if she had ever left her computer unattended, and she said yes. I explained that if she had not purchased it herself, it could be possible that someone exchanged her original power supply with another one without her knowledge. (Some of them are so convincing that at first glance they don’t appear to be different.) It seems that was the case, and ultimately, the customers had to purchase a replacement. At $79.99 plus tax, it wasn’t a small theft, but we were glad that it wasn’t something worse.

    *Ed. note* – __Two words of wisdom should be taken away from this interaction. The first is to always buy genuine Apple power adapters, as the cheaper third-party ones will fail sooner and more often, costing more in the long run. The second is to never leave your electronics unattended in public places(!). This customer was lucky that her entire computer wasn’t stolen if the thief had enough time to carefully swap out power adapters.__