Author: Mike Moffit

Don returns next week, and he’ll likely have some recaps of his recent travels. If you haven’t done so already, check out our weekly “*Small Dog Speaks*”:http://www.smalldog.com/sdspeaks radio show that is broadcast locally on WDEV in VT and streams live online each week. We also post each week’s archived show “*here.*”:http://www.smalldog.com/sdspeaks-archive

Next week, in honor of Don’s tradition of “Reggae Thursday” (where he plays his extensive collection of reggae in the office alllll day long), we’ll start giving away a set of Chill Pill mobile speakers in Reggae (naturally), and a House of Marley t-shirt to the winner of our weekly trivia question.

Until then, everything’s gonna be irie.

Your Kibbles & Bytes team,
_Kali, Mike & Steph_

The Backup Plus portable drive from Seagate is the simple, one-click way to protect and share your entire digital life — without getting in the way of the rest of your life.

You can do it all from the most basic of backups to sharing directly to Facebook, Flickr and YouTube!

If you ever wanted to try a Mac but felt the $1k price tag was too much of an investment? Then this special is right up your alley.

Not only are the prices of our used MacBooks __half__ the price of the lowest-priced entry level new Mac, but we are taking an extra $100. That’s over a $600 savings — not too bad if you ask me!

Recently, Apple made some dramatic changes to the overall look of their iTunes app when they moved to version 11. This was met with an unfavorable response by the majority of users. In some cases, users are refusing to update their software to avoid the changes.

This past week, Apple released an update to iTunes 11 marked as 11.0.3. The changes are very minor when compared to the overhaul from 10 to 11, but they add some functionality that was missing from the previous iteration.

Apple decided to rework how iTunes handles multi-disc albums. Before, iTunes would display each disc in as separate albums. This used to drastically increase the number of albums you had to scroll through when browsing for what you want to listen to. Now, these albums appear as one. When you have a multi-disc album selected you see the breakdown of the entire album split into each one of its discs. I am interested in playing around with how this will work with my collection of audiobooks — most of which have more then two discs — but if I recall, used to display them together as one album. Of course, this could just be how I organized them by chapter rather than by disc.

After that, Apple set their sights on the MiniPlayer. For those of you that are all about the album artwork, you should like this small addition. Once you have started playing some music and switched to the MiniPlayer, there will be a small thumbnail image of the album art on the left hand side of the player. If that isn’t enough for you (because it is pretty small), you can click on the album art to toggle to a larger view.

A few other small things to note are the addition of a progress bar and duration of the song — just in case you want to skip to your favorite part. You may notice the disappearance of the AirPlay icon, but don’t worry, the functionality is still there. Now for those of you that are using Mountain Lion, you may know that you can option+click on the speaker icon in your menu bar to change the output of our computer speakers to AirPlay speakers. With the MiniPlayer, you only need to use a standard click to display the extra options. Now you have access to any AirPlay speakers in range and the volume for each.

Like I said earlier, these changes are minor so if you have been holding off to make the jump from 10 to 11 because you hate the looks, you will be stuck with 10 for a little while longer — until they release iTunes 12. But for anyone who is happy with the new look, I recommend getting this update since it has some useful new features.

The update also has some security components. If you are interested in reading about those you can check out the article on Apple’s website here: “*http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5766.*”:http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5766

Last Friday, Mike wrote about “*Apple’s 50 Billion Apps Countdown*”:http://blog.smalldog.com/kibbles/kb827/ and the spectacular prize of a $10,000 App Store gift card. Five days later (Wednesday), the App Store hit that 50 billionth download, making Brandon Ashmore from Mentor, Ohio, App-Store-rich!

Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services said,

bq. __”Apple would like to thank our incredible customers and developers for topping 50 billion apps downloaded. The App Store completely transformed how people use their mobile devices and created a thriving app ecosystem that has paid out over nine billion dollars to developers. We’re absolutely floored to cross this milestone in less than five years.”__

This was a historic milestone but not surprising considering iOS apps are being downloaded at a rate of more than 800 per second. When the App Store opened in July 2008, there were only about 500 apps to choose from.

What was the app that Brandon Ashmore from Ohio downloaded? “*Say the Same Thing,*”:https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/say-the-same-thing/id541491529?mt=8&affId=1503186 by Space Inch, LLC which is a free word game app from the band OK Go (remember that amazing treadmill music video they did a while back? “*Watch here.*”:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTAAsCNK7RA)

Feeling sad that you weren’t the one who won the $10,000 App Store gift card? Feel sad no more! No one won the Powerball last Wednesday and the jackpot is climbing — currently at “*550 million*”:http://www.powerball.com/pb_home.asp (350 million cash value)! Numbers will be drawn Saturday, so run out today or tomorrow and grab yours!

This week’s Mac Treat is short and sweet, but a great one that I stumbled across on one of my favorite blogs, “*Apartment Therapy*”:http://www.apartmenttherapy.com (in my fantasies, I moonlight as an interior designer).

I found that I would often search Pinterest for design inspiration, and thought it would be nice to find items that were similar by doing a Google search. However, many times, the result wouldn’t really yield what I was looking for. Additionally, I’d also come across images on Pinterest itself that I’d want to repin, but find the original source wasn’t credited. Here are two tips that will help:

* If you want to find the source of an image, drag it to the Google search box and it will find the original source.
* By using a feature called “visually similar images,” Google will narrow the search results to what matches the photo.

Don’t be afraid to let Google autofill your search criteria, either. Check out the “*original article*”:http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/design-inspiration-revelation-lets-call-it-google-decorate-188388 to find out more, and try it for yourself.

_Dear Friends,_

Don is away this week in sunny Philadelphia at the annual “*ASMC conference.*”:http://events.applespecialist.com/spring2013/ One of the newest members of the “fishbowl” (our HQ open office), Will Frascella, is attending the conference for the first time.

A long-time retail employee, Will recently accepted the Product Manager position and now has a much bigger stake in the products we offer. He and Don are attending events, networking, and generally gathering ideas that will help move Small Dog forward!

I’m happy to announce that our annual *Famous Garage Sale will commence on Friday, May 31.* It’s a Kibbles & Bytes tradition that we give its readers an early heads up, and as always, you’ll get a sneak peek before it all goes live at 5PM on the 31st.

In addition to countless closeouts, discounts, and general rock-bottom prices on popular products for Mac, iPhone, iPad, PCs (and more), we will, of course, feature some exclusive Small Dog experiences… (Rock throwing with Hapy? Pie eating with Art? You’ll just have to wait and see what we have in store this year!)

Don returns next week, and he’ll likely have some recaps of his recent travels. Do you have any big summer plans? We’re working on some must-have travel apps for a future issue, so “*we’d love to have your feedback.*”:mailto:hello@smalldog.com