Author: Mike Moffit

Yep, 50 Cent has his own line of headphones, too: STREET by 50.

The wired over-ear headphones feature a detachable cord for tangle-free street-wear and transport, plus enhanced bass. The earbuds have a professionally tuned 11 mm driver and are ergonomically designed for crystal clear sound and pure comfort.

Note: Very limited quantities. No rain checks.

EOL stands for End of Life, but don’t worry, it’s just the industry term for last year’s model. These machines are brand spankin’ new and ready to perform right out of the box.

Grab yours before they are gone!

Google released the first major app update to Google Maps for iPhone on Tuesday, as part of their goal to make the app more comprehensive, accurate and useful.

I think that the coolest new feature by far is the option to quickly search for local places by simply tapping one of four icons: fork and knife (restaurants), coffee cup (cafes), martini glass (drinks), or gas pump (gas station). There’s also a drop down menu that contains more categories, but let’s face it, those four things are usually the most important!

Once you click on a category, it quickly takes you to a map filled with little red dots that indicate the locations of what you want. Swipe through all of your options at the bottom of the screen and you will see the distance, Google reviews, and ratings. Honestly, this feature wouldn’t be super useful for me around here, but I can totally see myself using this the next time I venture to a city like Boston or NYC.

Another notable new feature is that you can now search for your Google contacts (i.e., anyone who has a Gmail account). Note that in order for the contact to appear in the results, the contact must have a physical address linked to the name, and you’ll need to log in to your Google account. If you’d rather include all contacts from your iOS device instead, you will need to export your contacts and then use CardDAV to sync them.

Some other updates to this version include the ability to switch from kilometers or miles and the new version is now available in seven new countries: Bahrain, Egypt, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

I’ve already had pretty good luck using Google Maps. However, I was using Apple’s Maps before Google came out with their version and have to say, it never got me lost until I tried to find a friends house right here in Waitsfield. That one mix up was enough for me to ditch Maps and just stick with the trusty Google Maps. How about you? Which do you prefer? “*Email me!*”:mailto:steph@smalldog.com

Now if you’ll excuse me, I must start scoping out my happy hour options. Happy Friday!

As you may know, we enjoy kicking back and having a good time here at Small Dog. It helps to keep morale up, our minds sane and lets you see some of the folks you don’t normally get to see every day. Last week, we decided to jump on the bandwagon and do our own Harlem Shake video. By this point, I would expect most people know what the Harlem Shake is, but if you don’t, here’s a quick recap.

The classic Harlem Shake meme (not the actual song) is a 30 second video where one person dances around others who seem oblivious to it while the music slowly builds up. Then, there’s a drop in the music, and the video cuts to a room full of costumed people dancing and generally just acting a fool.

Check out our “*Small Dog Harlem Shake*”:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPC3aOWVE6M&feature=share&list=UUCNZJP3OsbZwD5nCh0eBK8Q video on YouTube. You can also visit our “*YouTube Channel*”:http://www.youtube.com/user/smalldogelectronics?feature=mhee to view all of the other videos we’ve posted.

I hope you enjoy watching it as much as we enjoyed making it!

If you have recently switched from a PC to a Mac, you might be wondering where the *Print Screen* button is. I hate to break the bad news, but there isn’t one. Luckily though, Apple also believes there is significance to capturing your screen.

Below are the different keyboard commands you can use to capture what is displayed on your screen. Each of these commands will save a PNG file to your desktop.

* *Command+Shift+3* — Take a picture of the entire screen
* *Command+Shift+4* — Take a picture of the selected area

Typically, I use the second command because I have a lot on my screen at once. I use these screen shots mainly to show others either the projects I am working on, or as visual aids for tutorials.

A nice extra feature to the second screen shot command is the ability to take a picture of the selected window. For example, if I have Safari open and I like the way website xyz looks, then I can take an isolated picture of just Safari without having to drag the cursor around the Safari window.

To accomplish this, use the following command and click on the window you want a picture of:

* *Command+Shift+4+Spacebar* — Take a picture of the isolated window

The reason I do this is because I am a real stickler for aesthetics. If I just used the regular command, I would either have to be extremely precise when drawing, deal with the extra background imagery or if I’m feeling extra OCD, open Photoshop and crop out all the extra stuff.

In any case, this is a pretty simple Mac Treat that everyone should know as it is extremely useful for most. I am running OS X Lion (10.7) and I am fairly certain that these three commands work back at least to 10.4. If you are running a different OS, I would love to know if all of these commands work for you. Email me at “*michaelb@smalldog.com*”:mailto:michaelb@smalldog.com

_Dear Friends,_

I’m back in the Green Mountains, which are still looking white as we enter Town Meeting and sugaring season. This weekend promises to be a great one for maple sap with cold nights and sunny days. I might even try to get the motorcycle out for a spin on Saturday.

I was totally disconnected while on vacation last week. That was the first time I had “internet withdrawal” for at least a few decades. While I do travel to exotic and remote locations from time to time, this was the first time that I had absolutely no internet, no cell phone and no TV for an entire week. Everyone told me that it was good for me, and I really had a good time reading and hanging out with my family on the beach on the largest of the Caribbean Islands. However, the moment I landed in Montreal, I was on my iPhone finding out what I had missed. A few thousand junk mails later, it turns out that I didn’t miss all that much.

I used the Chill Pill Audio Bluetooth wireless speakers on this trip for some extended field testing. I was very impressed with battery life, sound quality and ease of pairing. This new version of our popular Chill Pill speakers takes convenience and portability to a new level. These new Bluetooth Chill Pills are in stock in “*Black*”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/81496/chill-pill-bluetooth-mobile-speakers-black?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=KB or “*Red*”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/81497/chill-pill-bluetooth-mobile-speakers-red?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=KB right now for $59.99, which is one of the most economical Bluetooth speakers available.

Our new Rutland, Vermont store is starting to shape out with sheetrock installed and we are hard at work doing all the planning to get that store open for business this spring. It will have to be one of the new “signs of spring” that we talk about. The dirt roads here are getting a little squishy and you can see buckets on the maple trees if you drive by the old-time sugar bushes. It really brings back memories of when we used to sugar with our work horse, a sled and our wood-fired arch.