Kibbles & Bytes Blog

  • iPhone 7 Plus

    I was fortunate enough to get my hands on and receive the new iPhone 7 Plus on release day. I skipped the iPhone 6s when it came around so when the 7 was announced I jumped at the chance to upgrade and I haven’t regretted it once. Despite the suggestions from my co-workers I’ve yet to drop my phone into a glass of water…perhaps that review will come in a future issue. For now, I’ll still be playing it a bit safe!

    Like many of you, I’ve read some of the reviews out there and some reviewers are less than impressed with the phone, especially the camera. Coming from an iPhone 6, and after a few blunders with my first few photos, I can say it’s clear that there are significant improvements in the quality of the photos. I am not a professional photographer by any means but I enjoy taking photos and I take a lot of them. For the first few photos that I took with the phone it appeared that the phone was struggling to focus on the object I was trying to take a photo of. Once the camera focused, there hasn’t been a single hiccup with my photos, but briefly, I did wondered if I’d gotten a defective phone. This past weekend I took my phone to the local fair and became truly impressed with the camera. In showing the photos to friends and co-workers we can clearly see the difference in the quality. I’m most impressed with the fact that it seems no matter the lighting, the pictures come out clear and crisp. Inside, outside, the photos are just as great. My biggest surprise has been that I’ve had little need to use my flash, even when taking nighttime photos.

    I’ve noticed a significant increase in speed with with 7, especially with the fingerprint recognition. The speed is so fast when I put my thumb on my phone I actually thought I forgot to set the passcode protection. There is almost no delay when I go to unlock my phone and I’m instantly at my home screen. The larger screen of the plus now also means that I can utilize landscape mode in multiple applications. This isn’t new to the 7 but is a feature of the plus that I’ve been missing out on! I love that I can look at my e-mail in landscape and easily toggle through my inbox. The dual speakers have also made for a much clearer listening experience. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not the same experience as with the iPad Pro but it’s a significant improvement.

    Lastly I’ve not missed the lack of of a headphone jack. Early rumors and reports had me wondering, but with most speakers systems and headphones running wirelessly it’s far less of a obstacle than originally feared.

  • Hey Siri! Now on Your Mac

    Have you upgraded to Mac OS X Sierra yet? I know that some people wait awhile to upgrade but I have been running Sierra for some time and you will want to upgrade. It is a rock-solid upgrade, it is free and it brings a lot of new features to the Mac. In the words of one big loser, “what do you have to lose?”

    Okay, political commentary aside, one of the most exciting and useful features of Sierra is that Siri, finally, has come to the Mac! You know I have been playing around with Amazon’s Echo and I can definitively tell you that Siri is way smarter than Alexa. I still like Alexa but she pretty much is good for telling me dog and pirate jokes.

    You can access Siri by clicking on the menu bar icon in the upper right-hand corner of your Mac’s screen or by clicking on the Siri icon in the dock. If you do not see those, you might not have Siri activated so go to System Preferences > Siri and check the box to “Enable Siri”. There you will find the check box to “show Siri in menu bar” which you can toggle on and off as well as options to choose Siri’s language and voice. You can also choose a keyboard shortcut if you would like, F7 is the default.

    But, don’t you want to just say “Hey Siri”? That doesn’t necessarily work out of the box but you can make it work! Make sure you activate enhanced dictation in the keyboard system preference. Then, you can go to System Preferences > Accessibility > Dictation to set up the voice command that will activate Siri with a “Hey Siri”.

    So, what can ask Siri to do for you? Well, start out by asking her what she can do. You will get a nice long list of things. You can ask Siri to launch apps, tell you the weather, get the Cubs score, FaceTme a friend, get directions to your meeting and so much more. I have been using Siri to find particular files, launch my apps and most of all to settle trivia bets.

    Remember PDAs? Not public displays of affection, the other PDA – Personal Desktop Assistant. Well, Siri finally has made that a reality on your Mac. Use Siri to manage your calendar, remind you of appointments or bills to pay, play music for you or just a huge range of tasks. Here’s one “huge list”:http://osxdaily.com/2013/02/05/list-siri-commands/ of Siri commands.

    One of my favorites is searching mail. I can say “find me emails from Hapy” and Siri will give me those almost instantly. Better yet, I can ask Siri to email someone about that Kibbles & Bytes special or set a calendar appointment for the meeting with my service team. I think you are going to like Siri on the Mac!

  • It is officially autumn and right on schedule we have some cooler weather in store for us here in the Green Mountains. More and more colors are appearing on the hillsides as we enter fall foliage season. We are doing our annual Apples to iPods promotion with the Vermont Department of Tourism. They hide wooden apples in the various pick-your-own orchards which when found, can be traded for iPods and other prizes we supply to the state.

    I got my new Apple Watch series 2 and so far, I am very pleased. Yes, it is almost totally waterproof, it is brighter (I had to turn the brightness down a bit) and definitely faster when launching apps. If you haven’t upgraded to Watch OS 3.0, I do recommend it for a number of reasons although my favorite is still the ability to unlock my Mac automatically when I am wearing my watch. I also, finally, got a shipping notice on my new iPhone 7+ so Emily won’t be able to flaunt hers any longer. I can’t wait to try out the new camera.

    There were rumors this week about Apple buying some car companies including McLaren and Lit. Opposite ends of the spectrum but I’ll gladly drive either of those! I love my Chevy Volt, though, and have been averaging about 110 miles per gallon on the plug-in hybrid and like showing off CarPlay. I loved the self-driving cars in movies like “Minority Report”, “I, Robot” and with the comical android driver in “Total Recall.” With predictions of driverless taxis within 5-years, future shock is real.

    This week’s “**Kibbles & Bytes exclusive**”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900002392 is a Hammerhead charger bundle. This week, you can get two Hammerhead 2-port USB wall chargers and a Hammerhead 2-port automobile charger for only “**$24.99!**”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900002392 That’s over half off the regular price. You can never have too many chargers and these can charge an iPhone and iPad simultaneously.

    Lastly, I’d like to take a moment this week to bring up an important cause. Over the years I’ve had the pleasure of meeting so many wonderful individuals within our sales channel and Amanda Haddock is one of those people. Please consider supporting the “**Dragon Master Foundation**”:http://www.dragonmasterfoundation.org, a cause she along with her family are deeply rooted in and help fight brain cancer.

  • iPhone 7 Plus Camera Review

    I was fortunate enough to get my hands on and receive the new iPhone 7 Plus on release day. I skipped the iPhone 6s when it came around so when the 7 was announced I jumped at the chance to upgrade and I haven’t regretted it once. Despite the suggestions from my co-workers I’ve yet to drop my phone into a glass of water…perhaps that review will come in a future issue. For now, I’ll still be playing it a bit safe!

    Like many of you, I’ve read some of the reviews out there and some reviewers are less than impressed with the camera. Coming from an iPhone 6, and after a few blunders with my first few photos, I can say it’s clear that there are significant improvements in the quality of the photos. I am not a professional photographer by any means but I enjoy taking photos and take a lot of them. For the first few photos that I took with the phone it appeared that the phone was struggling to focus on the object I was trying to take a photo of. For about a minute the camera was blurring and coming into focus, then blurring again. Once the camera focused, there hasn’t been a single hiccup with my photos but briefly I did wondered if I’d gotten a defective phone.

    My first round of photos were taken around dusk so the lighting was low and flat. The pictures came out much better than I expected, and the optical zoom worked much better than I would have thought. I was taking pictures of my campfire and was pleasantly surprised with the details the camera picked up from the fire. Later on that night I took pictures well after dark and quickly learned the flash was not the best option to use even though it was completely dark. The photos all came out very washed and the colors were completely off; turning off the flash dramatically changed the quality of the photos. My iPhone 6 never took a good picture at night but the iPhone 7 plus in comparison takes amazing photos! I took a picture of my dog Piper and the only light was from the campfire and a small outdoor light. I was very impressed!

    Night time photos are always something that I’ve struggled with, so I also made sure to take my phone along with me on our trip to the local fair and there I was frankly blown away at the quality of the photos. I took photos all day long, in dimly lit buildings, outside in the bright sun and in cattle barns. Each photo taken that day came out amazing and the details that the camera picked up were way better than I ever expected.

    Lastly I finally tried out live photos, which I’ll be honest I never really understood the value of that when the 6s came out. Frankly I still don’t, but it sure is cool! I’m thinking that live photos could be a great opportunity for some very creative memes and some good laughs for my kids. Ultimately, despite what some reviews are reporting, my testing and responses from co-workers on the photos I took over the weekend, the camera in the iPhone 7 plus stands up to the expectations.

  • So Many Apps

    Fall is in the air: nights are getting cooler the leaves are starting to change, and the birds are heading south. As you think about raking leaves, putting your garden to rest, and cleaning up around the house don’t forget your Mac! I normally use this time of year to tidy up my machine. One step of my process is to take a look at the all of my installed applications to see what I may not need anymore and remove them.

    Now why would you want to uninstall an application? Well, there may be many reasons but mainly uninstalling programs you no longer need frees up disk space and allow software upgrades to run smoothly. Often machines can start to slow down or freeze when they are running out of disk space or maybe there are new applications out there that you would like to explore and have fun with. Having fun is what it is all about, right? If you’ve had challenges upgrading to a newer version of software before it may be due to the older version on your machine. Sometimes it is necessary to completely uninstall the older version to ensure the newer version works properly.

    Uninstalling software in macOS is generally an easy straight forward procedure: locate an application by opening a Finder window, click Applications in the sidebar, then right click the applications icon and select move to Trash OR you can hold down the Ctrl key and click on the application icon and then choose Move to Trash from the menu that is displayed. Alternatively, you can also drag-and-drop an application’s icon to the trash can icon on your dock.

    But what about applications that don’t have shortcuts such built-in system apps, and other random cases where the simple uninstall steps will not work as they may not appear within the applications folder? For example you will not find the Flash plug-in for macOS in the applications folder but in your System Preference panel. Here you will need to head over to Adobe’s website and search their site for the proper uninstall app for the version of macOS that you are running. There are many other plug-ins that fall into this category and the best solution here would be to search the software manufacturer’s website and follow their steps for proper un-installation. If you are not the user who originally installed the software, or your are not an admin user on your Mac, you will need to enter an administrator’s name and password to continue, so make sure you are an admin of your computer or know the username and password to the admin account before starting this process. When complete make sure you Empty Trash to fully uninstall.

    Keep in mind this is different than a Windows machine. Apple’s macOS does not come with an built-in uninstaller tool listing out all your installed software (like add/remove programs in Windows Control Panel) and few vendors offer packaged un-installers with their applications for macOS, and generally they’re not necessary. This is because most applications are contained within themselves and don’t run background components or alter system settings files, unlike our lovely friend Windows, and leaving old preferences and support files on the hard drive generally doesn’t do much harm.

    There are some instances where this is not the case and removing preference files, support items, and sometimes hidden files or kernel extensions are necessary especially when you are dealing with corrupt software installations that you are trying to reinstall and get working again. This is where the power of Terminal comes into play to assist us in the removal. This will be discussed along with a number of free software applications available to aid in uninstalling and cleaning up your Mac later in Part 2, the follow-up to this Tech Tails newsletter tip.

  • _Hello Fellow Technophiles,_

    Today’s big tech news from the Mac world is the release of the latest operating system: Sierra. Its numerical name is 10.12 and this is the first release to use the new name for the Mac OS which is, appropriately enough, macOS. This keeps it in line with the other operating systems in the Apple family: iOS, watchOS, and tvOS.

    I wish that they had stuck with big cat names (such as former operating systems Tiger, Lion, Leopard, etc.) because as a person who was born in the hospital at and graduated from the “*University of Vermont*”:http://uvmathletics.com I was looking forward to OS X Catamount. Now there are people out there that say that a mountain lion (the friendly name for OS X 10.8) IS a catamount, but I say that a catamount must live in Vermont to be a catamount. I also believe that we have catamounts in Vermont despite the “*official story that the last one was shot on Thanksgiving Day 1881*”:https://vermonthistory.org/explorer/people-places/animals-farm-wild/the-last-catamount-in-vermont But I may not be credible as I also believe in “*Champ.*”:http://www.lakechamplainregion.com/recreation/heritage/champ

    Putting all of that silliness aside for a moment, the big question we always get when a new OS is released is: *Should I update?* The answer is, unfortunately, not always a simple one. In general, my advice is to wait for the first .1 update which usually cures most of the major issues with the initial release. And, as always, *BACK UP BEFORE UPDATING.* Your specific computer, the programs on it, or your peripherals (printers, scanners, etc.) may not be compatible with the new release and a backup allows you to roll back if necessary. Also, in some cases, this installation can fail in the middle rendering your computer inoperable and your data inaccessible.

    If you prefer to have the experts handle this, we offer data backup and OS upgrade services at “*all retail locations.*”:http://www.smalldog.com/retail/visit-us-in-store-at-any-of-our-locations

    Thanks for reading!

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

  • Leaves are changing, the nights are cooler, apples are about ready to be picked and road crews are scrambling to finish summer projects. Looks like some nice weather this weekend. We will take the Sprite over to the annual British Invasion in Stowe to hang out with other British sports cars. Then maybe we will head over to the world famous, Tunbridge World’s Fair.

    I hope you have an awesome weekend! Thank you for reading this issue of Kibbles & Bytes!

    Your Kibbles & Bytes Team,

    _Don, Emily, Hadley & Amy_

  • 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.

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    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.

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    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.