Author: Mike Moffit

Director of IT

  • Pong's Got it Goin' On

    Since the iPad mini was first released, the selection of cases have been few and far between. Sure, cases like the Hammerhead Folio and Otterbox Defender are great standouts in the line up, but they don’t give the user the right options or usability they need for their devices, in my opinion.

    I wanted a case that was able to stand in multiple positions, that was lightweight and portable, and most of all, had a sleek and thin design to complement the mini. Just when I thought I wouldn’t get what I wanted, the Pong case was introduced here at Small Dog Electronics.

    Pong features a slim, sleek design that complements the mini perfectly, available in either black or red, giving your iPad some style! The case’s front contains built-in magnets, giving it multiple standing positions; fold it one way, and you have an upright stand, fold it the other way, and you have a comfortable viewing angle while sitting. Most notably, this stand type gives both portrait and landscape views, the first of its kind sold by Small Dog!

    That versatility alone gives the case a leg up on the competition, but some of its additional features truly help it shine. The case possesses a built-in antenna which gives it the ability to extend the radius of both Wi-Fi and cellular connectivity. This is an impressive feature, particularly for those who rely on the cellular functionality to keep them connected on the go. In addition to this, the case is built from radiation-reducing plastics and synthetic material, making it a safe, practical and desirable choice.

    All of theses capabilities are available for $99.99, a steep price point some might say, but I think it’s well worth it for the myriad of features the case provides. In my experience with cases for mobile products, there is usually one thing they do well, to the exclusion of everything else. This tiring habit of narrow functionality is broken by the Pong, a refreshing change to a market rife with particular cases for particular jobs.

    Between the variety of features and sleek design, the Pong is a sure choice if you’re willing to spend a little money to get a lot out of a case. In the time I have had my mini, this case has helped make the device my favorite among the tech world, and it continues to be a product I recommend again and again.

  • Rad Grads and Rugged Dads: An Ancient Prophecy

    Sup pups?

    Did you feel that weird sensation, too, when you stepped outside today? My mother told me stories when I was young about how this thing called “the sun” used to appear in the sky — now it’s making a comeback! You know what that means, right? The ancient prophecies say that with the heat will come some Mac accessory deals to blow all you rad grads and rugged dads off of your winter seat!

    The ancient scrolls speak of a group of young brilliant kids known as ‘the graduates’ embarking on a quest to ‘better the world.’ Although we weren’t mentioned in said scroll, we have some great used and refurbished MacBooks starting at $549 to help them on their quests. Also, there is said to be a celebration for fathers around the same time, paralleling the grads, creating a balance in the equilibrium of the earth.

    For both, we have equipped them with many deals on their journeys, including sales on Mophie Juice Packs and the Otterbox Armor Series for their iPhones and LaCie Rugged External Hard Drives, which are said to hold the key to “a better world” (or at least a backup of it).

    But when should we expect the end of times? The day ‘the world changes’ is when our new Rutland store opens THIS Saturday, May 4th! Now we will have four retail locations as checkpoints for you grads and dads to check in and get your goods for the battle of the earth.

    Jonny and the S. Burlington team
    “*jonny@smalldog.com*”:mailto:jonny@smalldog.com

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  • SPECIAL | Stay Powered & Stay Protected

    With the juice pack air protecting and charging your iPhone, you can enjoy up to 36 extra hours of audio and nine extra hours of video playback, in addition to the battery life of your iPhone.

    For this week we are offering a $25 savings when you purchase the Mophie Juice Pack Air with a Monster CleanTouch Pen for you iPhone 4/4S or iPhone 5. Plus the entire bundle ships FREE!

  • No more SMS?

    The beloved SMS messaging service for mobile carriers will turn 21 this December, but will people celebrate?

    SMS stands for “Short Message Service” which is used as the standard by mobile carriers for text messaging. A European media firm called Informa has conducted a study comparing SMS messages and free messaging apps like Apple iMessage, Blackberry Messenger, WhatApp and Samsung ChatON. These services combined have surpassed text messages sent from mobile devices.

    Informa’s research states that an estimated 19 billion messages were sent world-wide last year via free messaging apps versus 17.6 billon SMS text messages. The free messaging versus SMS messages send ratio is expected to grow to 50 billion free messages to 21 billion SMS messages by 2014.

    One benefit of free messaging in the world wide stage (beside being free) is that messages are sent over the internet which will not create international messaging fees. Of course, carriers don’t like this idea and are striving to keep SMS messaging alive. This is not surprising considering that over the next decade, 5 billion more users are expected to join the 2 billion already online, and most of them will be using smartphones as their only internet access point. They are looking at potentially losing billions of dollars, but I feel pretty confident they will figure out something. Maybe a fee for __not__ using SMS?

    Here is a related article that inspired mine: “*http://thenextweb.com/mobile/2013/04/29/free-mobile-messaging-apps-will-be-the-death-of-sms-eventually/*”:http://thenextweb.com/mobile/2013/04/29/free-mobile-messaging-apps-will-be-the-death-of-sms-eventually/

  • Automatic.com

    As an Apple Consultant in Vermont, I travel thousands of miles a month to visit far flung clients in the Northeast. I use my iPhone to listen to podcasts, and sometimes I break out the calculator app to divide the miles I’ve driven since the last fill-up by the gallons I’ve just entered in the tank. And until last month, I didn’t think there was much more my smartphone could do for my car.

    Enter “*Automatic,*”:http://www.automatic.com a hardware link that plugs into your car’s OBD (On-Board Diagnostic) port that automatically connects to an app on your iPhone when you drive. It provides information about fuel economy, driving-style efficiency, vehicle health, and even where you parked. It can even call 911 after a crash.

    Automatic resonated with me as a passionate car and computer technology aficionado. Growing up, I would digest car buyer’s guides and pride myself in being able to identify every car on the road. As I grew older, I became more aware of the serious environmental impact of our global desire for personal transportation. While vehicles such as the “*Tesla Model S*”:http://www.teslamotors.com/models represent an ideal future, I think the smartest economic and environmentally conscious decision for most drivers is to prolong the usable life of existing vehicles and drive them as efficiently as possible.

    Automatic, I believe, has the possibility to encourage drivers to be better, more efficient users of the technology at their disposal and to do so in such a way that provides a positive user experience. They start shipping in May, so I’d recommend pre-ordering it as soon as possible. Look for a follow-up review this summer after using it for a month.

  • The Gradual Implementation of Solid State Storage

    Hard drive manufacturer Seagate has recently announced that they will no longer produce 7200 RPM laptop-sized hard drives after 2013. I have to say, considering the rate at which solid state technology is progressing, I’m not too surprised.

    For those who don’t know, when people talk about 7200 versus 5400 drives they are talking about the rotational speed of the platters. 5400 is the standard laptop drive speed. 7200 RPM (revolutions per minute) is the rate at which most desktop drives and some laptop drives spin. There isn’t much difference between the two, however, a faster speed drive means a little more access speed from your computer, which is the reason some prefer 7200 RPM drives. The trade-off is increased heat, vibration, and battery drain.

    ??Editor’s note — Apple laptops have always shipped with 5400 RPM drives for these reasons. In desktops, these factors mean little. It’s only recently that they have offered some 7200 RPM options on the 15-inch machines.??

    You can almost watch the prices of solid-state drives drop in real-time. It is overly apparent that they are the future of computer storage, and will at some point be just as affordable per gigabyte as regular spinning drives. Seagate will still be producing 5400 RPM hard drives indefinitely, but I suspect complete solid state implementation is not too far off in the future of laptops.

  • _Hello Readers,_

    At long last, it seems like we are finally heading into some consistent good weather! It was a pretty great weekend and should be a good week. With the changes in weather over the last few years, I have been trying to make sure I grab the good weather when it hits instead of just assuming that since summer is here, I will have plenty more to enjoy.

    This week, David has a great app if you happen to be driving around enjoying the nice weather, and we have some other interesting news from RJ and Shawn as well.

    Thanks for reading,

    Liam
    “*liam@smalldog.com*”:mailto:liam@smalldog.com

  • May just ROCKS!

    I am writing to you from Hammerhead’s headquarters in beautiful Waitsfield Vermont on this first day of May. Our office doors are wide open, the grass is greening up and the many maple trees are beginning to leaf out.

    By the way, I’m picking up my new Harley Davidson Heritage Softail on Thursday after work so you know I will be smiling and enjoying the open road this weekend. Here’s hoping for an excellent riding season.

    In honor of all things May-related, we have put together a fantastic deal that you can extend to your customers for Mother’s Day, Dads and Grads, Memorial Day, etc.

    Many of you are already aware of our Premium Leather case, which is available in Black and Red. These cases are made of top-grain leather and display in both landscape and portrait mode. This versatile design provides optimal angles for typing and reading.

    Best of all, the *Premium Leather case is compatible with the iPad 2, iPad 3 and the iPad with Retina Display,* allowing the iPad to automatically sleep and wake when opened and closed. The MSRP is $59.99 and normal reseller cost is $34.

    *For a limited time and while supplies last, we are offering you these cases for the greatly reduced price of $20.* This will allow you to offer these high quality cases to your customers at special discounted pricing while preserving great margins for yourself.

    “*Click here to see the Premium Leather case on our website.*”:https://www.hammerheadcase.com/product/17/premium-leather-case

    As always, please contact me for any other information or to place an order. For prices and product details, “*click here*”:http://vendor.hammerheadcase.com/pricelists/040413-Pricelist-MSRP.pdf to check out our latest price list.

    *Please send your purchase orders to my attention and keep in mind that PO’s over $250 ship via UPS Ground for free and orders below $250 ship for a flat rate fee of $10.*

    Get out there and enjoy Spring!

    Tony
    “*tony@hammerheadcase.com*”:mailto:tony@hammerheadcase.com

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

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  • App Review | Sleep Cycle

    For my entire life, I have never been a “morning person.” Even when I exercise and go to bed early the day before, I can never seem to get going in the morning. Now with the nice weather giving me motivation to be healthier, I did a little digging to find some health and fitness apps in the iTunes App Store.

    I came across this one app called “*Sleep Cycle*”:http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/stat?id=19XpSnZWhPI&offerid=146261&type=3&subid=0&tmpid=1826&RD_PARM1=https%3A%2F%2Fitunes.apple.com%2Fus%2Fapp%2Fsleep-cycle-alarm-clock%2Fid320606217%3Fmt%3D8%26uo%3D4%2526uo%253D6%2526partnerId%253D30 that claims to be an intelligent alarm clock.

    The idea of an intelligent alarm clock is based from tons of sleep science research. The research has shown that you have different levels of sleep phases varying from deep sleep to light sleep. The ultimate goal is to avoid waking up when you are in a deep sleep phase. Doing so should ensure you are not groggy and stressed, and instead wake up feeling rested and relaxed.

    You can see how your standard alarm clock is kind of like a crap shoot. Sometimes, you hit the jackpot and it goes off in a light phase and other times you will be forced to get up in a deep phase. The “*Sleep Cycle*”:http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/stat?id=19XpSnZWhPI&offerid=146261&type=3&subid=0&tmpid=1826&RD_PARM1=https%3A%2F%2Fitunes.apple.com%2Fus%2Fapp%2Fsleep-cycle-alarm-clock%2Fid320606217%3Fmt%3D8%26uo%3D4%2526uo%253D6%2526partnerId%253D30 app takes the random factor out of your sleep equation. “How do they determine this,” you ask?

    The scientists have figured out that when you are in a deep sleep phase, you move less then you do in a lighter phase. That allows the super sensitive gyros in the iPhone can pick up on all of your movements and then determines which phase you are in. Now, you tell the app what time you want to be up by (like any standard alarm clock), and the app will sound the alarm when it knows you are in a light sleep phase. The app sets a 30 minute window from the time you need to be awake, since you might not be in a light sleep phase at the desired time.

    Beyond the intelligent alarm clock, “*Sleep Cycle’s*”:http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/stat?id=19XpSnZWhPI&offerid=146261&type=3&subid=0&tmpid=1826&RD_PARM1=https%3A%2F%2Fitunes.apple.com%2Fus%2Fapp%2Fsleep-cycle-alarm-clock%2Fid320606217%3Fmt%3D8%26uo%3D4%2526uo%253D6%2526partnerId%253D30 other features include:

    * Detailed sleep statistics and graphs for every night
    * 15 different alarms
    * Notes to track your day
    * Shake/tap to snooze
    * And much more…

    If you are interested in trying out Sleep Cycle, you can find it in the iTunes App Store or by clicking “*here.*”:http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/stat?id=19XpSnZWhPI&offerid=146261&type=3&subid=0&tmpid=1826&RD_PARM1=https%3A%2F%2Fitunes.apple.com%2Fus%2Fapp%2Fsleep-cycle-alarm-clock%2Fid320606217%3Fmt%3D8%26uo%3D4%2526uo%253D6%2526partnerId%253D30