Kibbles & Bytes Blog

Apple news, tech tips, and more…

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  • iOS 10 is Waiting for You!

    iOS 10, the latest version of Apple’s operating system for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, is out! Apple fixed an issue that impacted some of the early adopters downloading the update so it is now safe to upgrade. You will be glad that you did! As you know, I have been running the beta of iOS 10 for some time. I did discover a bug early on in the process that impacted the Apple Hearing Accessibility function but I was amazed at how responsive Apple was and the problem was solved in the next beta.

    Most evident among iOS 10’s modifications is the new behavior of the Lock screen. Previously, you could slide the screen to unlock (and enter your passcode) or merely rest a finger on the Touch ID sensor. But as the Touch ID sensor became faster, it became too easy to unlock before you had a chance to read notifications appearing on the Lock screen. In iOS 10, you must press the Home button to unlock, after which the Touch ID sensor activates or iOS asks you for your passcode. To make it faster and easier to get to the information and tools you want, you can now slide right on the Lock screen to display Notification Center widgets or left to access the camera.

    p{text-align: center;}. !http://blog.smalldog.com/images/4806.png!

    But what if you liked the way iOS 9 handled unlocking your iPhone? Well, fortunately, you can change it back in the accessibility settings. Go to Settings –>General–>Accessibility. Scroll down to Home Button and enable “Rest Finger to Open” and you are all set with the old way!

    In a long-awaited enhancement, Apple has opened Siri up to developers so you’ll be able to use Siri to control at least some third-party apps. In iOS 10, Siri will initially support six types of activities: audio/video calling, messaging, sending and receiving payments, searching for photos, managing workouts, and booking car-sharing rides.

    Apple says that Messages is iOS’s most used app, so it’s not surprising that Messages gains numerous new features in order to compete with apps from Facebook, Google, Snapchat, and others. For those who enjoy emoji but have trouble entering them, the QuickType bar in the Messages keyboard suggests them as you type, and if you switch to the Emoji keyboard in Messages, it highlights words (like airplane or hamburger) that it can convert to the corresponding emoji 😎 ⛅. You can send handwritten notes scrawled with your finger, a stylus, or an Apple Pencil. Messages also gains the Apple Watch’s unique Digital Touch features, which let you send a sketch, a fireball, a kiss, and more with particular tap combination–you can even overlay these animations on a photo or video. For even more pizzazz, bubble and screen effects jazz up your messages or the entire screen when the recipient views them. Finally, the new tapback feature lets you respond quickly to messages with icons without typing.

    We all have trouble revisiting photos we’ve taken in the past, so Photos in iOS 10 (and Sierra) introduces Memories, which automatically builds slideshows of existing photos. It assembles collections of photos from the same day in previous years, trips you’ve taken, and more. You can “favorite” a memory if you want to keep it around, or delete it if it doesn’t contain photos you want to see again. Photos also gains facial recognition capabilities and a People album that you can use to pull out pictures of friends and family members, but even more impressive are its object and scenery recognition capabilities that enable you to search for photos that contain, for instance, cats, oak trees, or desert landscapes. Plus, a new Places album lets you browse your collection by location–alas, you can’t add a location to a photo in iOS.

    p{text-align: center;}. !http://blog.smalldog.com/images/4807.jpg!

    Although those are the major new features in iOS 10, the update abounds with additional improvements. Take Safari. You can now use Apple Pay within Safari to pay for purchases on Web sites, Safari prevents videos with sound from auto-playing, and Split Screen can show two Safari tabs side-by-side.

    Siri takes selfies! Simply ask Siri to take a selfie and she will activate the front-facing camera and you are ready to go.

    Ever had a couple dozen Safari windows open and spent the time to close each one? Want to clear everything currently open in your browser in a hurry? Tap and hold on the Pages button in Safari, and you’ll get an option to close all your tabs at once. (Note that this won’t clear your history–you’ll have to go into the Bookmarks section for that.)

    You can do this for all those notifications clogging your screen, too! Trash five days worth of MLB notifications by force pressing (or long pressing) on the X on your notifications screen to bring up an alert to clear all notifications.

    Change the brightness on your Flashlight app. Force press on the Flashlight icon in Control Center to access three new options: Low Light, Medium Light, or Bright Light.

    Need a magnifying glass for that Sherlock Holmes work you are doing? The new Magnifier setting in Accessibility turns your iPhone camera into a giant magnifying glass with a super-zoom, flashlight, brightness and contrast filter, and more.

    Want to sing along? Lyrics are new to Music in iOS 10, while Up Next has moved into a more prominent spot, but both can be hard to discover naturally. With the miniplayer fully open, just swipe up to view (or hide) lyrics, along with your upcoming song queue.

    Elsewhere, Maps now automatically records where you park your car, helps you avoid tolls and highways, and lets you add stops along a route. Control Center gets a redesign and multiple panes to simplify media control. In Notes, multiple people can work on the same note at once. And finally, a new Home app provides a centralized spot to configure and control all sorts of home automation sensors and switches that are compatible with Apple’s HomeKit specification.

    As always, iOS 10 will be a free upgrade, but it won’t work on every device. You’ll need an iPhone 5, fourth-generation iPad, second-generation iPad mini, or sixth-generation iPod touch–or anything newer than those models, including any iPad Air or iPad Pro. If your device can run iOS 10, we recommend upgrading when you have a little time to become familiar with the new features, since many of them are welcome improvements.

  • _Dear Friends,_

    Pirate is so used to coming to work with me that today, when I decided to leave him home with Grace, he chased my car down the driveway. That’s a bad habit that we will have to stem so I stopped, scolded him and waited for Grace to come get him. I forgot about how much attention a little puppy demands but even though I think Pirate might be dumb as a stump, he seems to be picking it up.

    He is in love with Emily’s dog, Piper, and they are very cute as they play and run around the office. We are interviewing for a number of openings at Small Dog and after one candidate told me that he didn’t like dogs, I remembered that an essential part of our interview process was the “sniff” test where the dogs must approve a candidate.

    I woke up early on the morning of the iPhone and Apple Watch Series 2 pre-order day to let Pirate out and placed my orders around 4AM. I decided to go big with my iPhone and ordered the iPhone 7 plus. I want the better camera and experience with the larger iPhone. Emily, being much smarter, waited until we are at the office and placed her order and wouldn’t you know it, she received shipping notice already and mine seems to be stuck in “in progress”.

    This week’s Kibbles & Bytes exclusive is the Apple Time Capsule in 2GB and 3GB sizes. Never worry about having your data backed up when you have a Time Capsule. This is a dual purpose device combining the Airport Extreme with a large 2 or 3 GB hard drive for automatic wireless backups utilizing Apple’s OS X Time Machine. For this week only the “**2GB Apple Time Capsule is $30 off at $269.99**”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900002387 and the “**3GB Time Capsule is $50 off at $349.99!**”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900002386/

  • Take Two! New Product Announcement from Apple and iPad now on SALE!

    **Whoopsie! The final days of summer were on our minds or perhaps the dogs were running the show. We apologize for sending out an unedited version of our newsletter out last night.**

    p{text-align: center;}. !http://blog.smalldog.com/images/3036.gif!

    As we anticipated, Apple used its September 7th event to announce the new iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, along with the new Apple Watch Series 2 and a pair of wireless earbuds called AirPods. Apple also announced that iOS 10 and watchOS 3 are due to ship on September 13th. MacOS Sierra will ship on September 20th.

    h3{text-align: center;}. **Oh Apple, You’re So Sneaky!**

    While everyone was crowded around their computers and Apple TV to watch Apple unveil the new “iPhone 7/7Plus”:http://www.apple.com/iphone/ and “Apple Watch Series 2”:http://www.apple.com/watch/ this week, the iPad line was also quietly updated.

    Apple has **discontinued the 16gb and 64gb storage options** in the iPad Mini 2, iPad Mini 4, and iPad Air 2. Not to worry, these iPad models are still available to purchase but with higher storage capacities! iPad Mini 4 and iPad Air 2 now come with up to 128gb of storage and iPad Mini 2 now comes in a 32gb model with an option for cellular! Additionally, Apple lowered the pricing on many iPad Pro models. We saw price adjustments in many of the higher-end units so “check those out”:http://www.smalldog.com/iPads/ipad/iPad_Pro. You might find just the right iPad Pro to upgrade to.

    If you’re someone who loves great deals on iPad, now is the time to grab “**up to $100 off**”:http://www.smalldog.com/discontinued-ipad-sale/discontined-ipad-salediscontinued! We’ve got iPad Air 2s, iPad Mini 2 and 4 models, and even some iPad Mini 3s. Supplies are limited and once they’re gone they are gone!

    “!http://blog.smalldog.com/images/4805.png!”:http://www.smalldog.com/discontinued-ipad-sale/discontined-ipad-sale

  • It does not seem like summer is over other than the few sugar maples that are starting to turn color. The weather has been simply awesome here in the Green Mountains with bright sunny days and cool clear nights. We got out on the holiday weekend on our motorcycles and even took the little Sprite out for a spin to get some BBQ.

    Thank you so much for reading this issue of Kibbles & Bytes. Whether you have been reading from issue #1 or just joined us for our 1000th issue, we appreciate you. We know that it is you, our loyal customers, that pay our wages and pledge to you to not only have bright, intelligent and well-informed employees to serve you but to work our hardest to make you a customer for life. As a dear friend once told me, “customer satisfaction is nothing, customer LOYALTY is everything!” Thank you!

    Your Kibbles & Bytes Team,

    _Don, Emily, Hadley_

  • Thunderstruck: AC/DC

    I feel like I’m definitely on a roll with these articles about electricity, and I think people have found them very informative. So until I run out of topics that can be discussed in a short format, I think I’ll keep going. One thing that came up in my first three articles was that I was mostly talking about things from the perspective of direct current (abbreviated DC). Most people are (or should be) pretty familiar with DC since it’s what powers all of our little electronic gizmos. iPhones, MacBooks, WiFi access point hardware and more…it all runs on DC.

    This of course is in contrast to alternating current (abbreviated AC). We’re more familiar with AC in our homes where it powers pretty much everything including refrigerators, fans, toasters, most lights and much more. When we need to charge a device like an iPhone or MacBook, we always need to convert the AC from the wall into the DC that’s used by the device. To do that, two things need to happen. First, we have to drop the voltage from 120VAC to the 5VDC that’s used by most small portable electronics that charge via USB (MacBooks will take more). Second, we need to make the alternating current direct. This is accomplished most commonly by transformers and rectifiers.

    But why do we even use AC at all? First of all, for most power generation techniques that use motion (steam turbines, hydro turbines, etc) the current they generate will be alternating by definition. The mechanics of this are sort of complicated but it’s based on the fact that the generator is spinning. Couldn’t we simply generate as AC and then convert to DC before sending it off to homes for use? We could, and in the early days of electricity generation and transmission, that was a big debate. We don’t do that though, and there’s a very good reason why.

    As we’ve learned I = V / R. Power transmission over distances is not exempt from this rule. Even wires used for transmission have some resistance, and over long distances, that resistance can be substantial. At this point I have to introduce the equation P = I*V. This means that power (usually measured in watts) is equal to the current times the voltage. What this means is that the same amount of power can be delivered at a lower current if we increase the voltage. Less current flowing in the transmission lines will mean less voltage drop from resistance when the power gets to its destination.

    Still with me? The key thing here is that using a higher voltage to transmit the power means voltage will have to be stepped up and down during the transmission process. Changing DC voltage is very difficult and often not very efficient. Changing AC voltage is almost trivial using transformers. Transformers have an input and an output, usually called primary and secondary windings. The windings are connected by some type of metal core but do not actually touch each other. When an alternating current is passed through the primary winding, this creates a changing magnetic field that is captured and concentrated by the core. This changing magnetic field is then carried via the core to the secondary winding where it induces a current. How much the voltage is stepped up or down depends on how many times the windings wrap around the core. It was a popular “hack” on the internet a while ago to disassemble microwaves and rewire their transformers. By rewinding the secondary winding with thick, heavy gauge wire, you can create very high currents (with very little volts) from regular 120VAC household power.

    It’s because AC voltage is so easy to transform that we use it for power transmission. Though I should note that more recently, technology has improved such that high voltage DC transmission (HVDC) is sometimes a viable solution. This of course requires a complicated facility on either end to step the voltage up and down. I hope you’ll join me again next week. As you can see, discussing AC significantly complicates things, but I haven’t even gotten into the basics about phases, sine waves and root-means squares. Hopefully I’ll be able to condense some of that stuff out and make it accessible.

  • _Dear Friends,_

    Here we are at the 1000th issue of Kibbles & Bytes! It is hard to believe that we have written that many issues of what started out as a faxed price list of our products. We launched Kibbles & Bytes in October of 1996 a few months before our first web site. We were selling Mac clones from Umax & Power Computing, a 2GB hard drive went for $500 and a PowerMac 9500 went for about $5500.

    One thousand issues later, we still create content on Thursday and publish the newsletter on Friday and it goes out to about 20,000 subscribers each week. We get some great content from our friends over at Tidbits, Adam and Tonya Engst, that we personalize and pass along. Did you know that our connection to Tidbits goes way back to before our first issue? Adam and Tonya who have been publishing Tidbits since the dinosaurs roamed the earth published another electronic newsletter called DealBITs and we were a sponsor and contributor. When they decided to concentrate primarily on Tidbits we launched Kibbles & Bytes.

    Did you catch the new product announcements from Apple this week? We will take you through the details but the new iPhones and new Series 2 Apple Watch are fantastic and I’ll be getting new toys soon! And I will be able to swim with my watch on, too. I have been playing around with iOS 10 for some time and I think that these new iPhones with iOS 10 are going to be a huge hit.

    The way iPhones are sold has really changed with many being on some sort financing program as opposed to the carrier subsidy model that has been so prevalent. It makes upgrading easier and removes a lot of the hocus-pocus of the carriers.

    This being the 1000th issue of Kibbles & Bytes, Emily has come up with some fantastic anniversary deals that are exclusive for Kibbles & Bytes but here is one more. Because we care about you we want you to have AppleCare for your Mac, this week only and “**exclusively for Kibbles & Bytes readers**”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900002372? you can buy AppleCare for your Mac (**must be AppleCare eligible!**) for “**25% off!**”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900002372?

  • New Product Announcements – Going Way Back

    Here’s a repeat of an article from Kibbles & Bytes #59! Hard to believe we are on issue #998. We will have to do something special for issue #1000 in a couple weeks. Anyone have any ideas?

    Way back in 1998 Apple made some product intros….cue wavy screen, eerie music and the whirling time disk….

    Apple’s new product announcements were exciting this week. I was able to get away to go down to Boston for the dealer briefing the day before the announcements and got some details on the new G3 PowerBook but even at that briefing they did not mention the new iMac. Steve Job’s announcement of the iMac reminded me a lot of the introduction of the Mac Plus. In fact if you take away all the power of the G3 and the cutting edge technology what you have is a Mac Plus on steroids. And one powerhouse of a Mac it is with 233MHz G3 processor and a built-in 15” display. This is the first Mac to come standard without a floppy drive and to utilize the new USB (universal serial bus) ports in place of ADB and serial ports. It is bundled with the new Apple USB keyboard and mouse. USB will be the standard for both Mac and PCs within a very short time. With Apple’s version of USB you get hot swappable serial ports that are automatically configured each time a device is connected (bet it’s Windows 2010 before wintel gets that one right!). At $1299 retail it will be a trend setting machine when it is released this fall. The all-in-one design has translucent plastics reminiscent of the eMate.

    The iMac is squarely aimed at the consumer market and was key in no small part to bringing Intuit back into the Apple camp in terms of development of future versions of Quicken. When Apple discontinued the Performa line sales of the bundled Quicken program dropped dramatically and Intuit decided to stop development until they were shown the iMac. They then became one of the software packages to be bundled with the new machine. Apple’s consumer strategy assumes that end-users will not want to upgrade the processor on their internet machine as the processor is not upgradeable and there are no PCI slots. On the other hand just the same as with that old Mac Plus I am sure people will figure out a way to do things with this machine that Apple never envisioned.

    The news of this machine saw Apple’s stock shoot up over 30 for the first time in a while and is already having an impact on the prices of other Macs. Along this line we have made some deep cuts in the pricing of the entire UMAX product line and you will see some price reductions in Apple’s refurbs as well.

    The other announcement that almost got lost in the excitement over the iMac was the new G3 PowerBooks. These are some very interesting products. Without a doubt they are the fastest laptops available. PERIOD. There is no other portable computer that is as fast as these PowerBooks. That’s a pretty impressive statement. The new Apple advertising campaign “This new PowerBook eats the Pentium II for lunch” is hot! With the top of the line machine sporting a 14.1 inch active matrix display the line between a desktop and portable is also blurring a bit. The fastest of these PowerBook benchmarks out at around 1100 making it as fast as the fastest desktop G3s. Again hidden in the details are some interesting technological advances. These PowerBooks have S-Video input and support DVD drives (not the ones that will show movies!). They also have improved the case design and the keyboard. The lowest-end model features a SVGA (dual scan) color display and a G3 processor without backside cache. That model sells for around $2299 but still benches out near 500.

    It is that time of year again for new Apple gear and you can stay informed right here in Kibbles & Bytes!

  • FROM THE ARCHIVES: iPad in Space

    Believe it or not, just six short years ago the iPad was a brand new device and no one knew how Earth changing it would be. But it didn’t just change the Earth; it has changed space as well. Read on for a blast from the past..all the way from 2011…

    In the Star Trek universe, one of the most common devices in use by Starfleet is the “*PADD*”:http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/PADD, a handheld touch-screen device that serves a variety of purposes. Many people have noted the similarity in appearance and function of this device and the iPad. Now the devices will have something else in common: space travel. The “*Progress M-13M*”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progress_M-13M unmanned supply mission to the “*International Space Station*”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Space_Station (ISS), which successfully docked on November 2nd, included a pair of iPad 2s.

    Even though Apple claims that no matter the task “there’s an app for that,” the iPads will be used for entertainment purposes only and not for any mission-related functions. It will, however, probably not be too long before the iPad is used for more important tasks (not that entertainment isn’t important when one is trapped inside only 388 cubic meters of habitable space for months on end). The iPad has already been approved by the “*Federal Aviation Administration*”:http://www.faa.gov/ for use as an “*electronic flight bag*”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_flight_bag, replacing the traditional paper manual, which consisted of up to 12,000 pages and weighed up to 38 pounds, with a device weighing just 1.33 pounds. I can definitely envision the iPad fulfilling a similar function for the astronauts in the ISS.

    Someday, once Siri is integrated into the iPad, the entire ISS could be controlled through voice commands and the ISS Remote Control app. Hopefully, Siri has more in common with the Enterprise computer than “*HAL*”:http://youtu.be/nHJkAYdT7qo.

  • _Hello Fellow Technophiles,_

    As you have probably heard by now, Apple hosted an event today. At this event they announced the new iPhone 7, the Apple Watch 2, updates to the iWork suite which allow for real-time collaboration on documents via the internet (similar to Google Docs or Office 365) and perhaps most importantly that Nintendo is now making iPhone apps. I am sure I will be “*downloading Mario Run*”:https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/super-mario-run/id1145275343?mt=8&at=11lb7k as soon as it is released. Look for a more detailed update in this Friday’s “*Kibbles & Bytes,*”:http://www.smalldog.com/newsletters/subscribe-to-our-fun-informative-newsletters our flagship newsletter.

    Despite this exciting set of announcements, the biggest event of the week is this Thursday. On September 8, 1966 Star Trek aired on American TV for the first time making this the 50th anniversary. Since the traditional gift for this is gold, I am accepting any and all gold figurines. Just send them to Small Dog to my attention. I promise to cherish them, play with them regularly and not just trade them in at Cash4Gold.

    Since time travel was a frequent plot device on Star Trek, I am going to take you into the past with two great articles from the archives. The first, appropriately enough, is about the Mac backup program Time Machine. The second is a hard hitting journalistic piece by a (then) young up-and-comer about iPad in space.

    -Mike
    “michaeld@smalldog.com”:mailto:michaeld@smalldog.com