Kibbles & Bytes Blog

  • Mac Migration Mania

    Since I am heading south like a snow bird and new Macs are probably right around the corner, I thought it would be a good time to talk about how you can easily move your life from one computer to another or migrate.

    Fortunately, Apple makes it easy with Migration Assistant. Migration Assistant copies all your files from one Mac to another or from a PC to a Mac so you do not have to do that manually. If you are migrating from a PC or to a new MacBook some of the steps are a bit different and we will talk about those, too.

    **Upgrade Your OS**

    The first step is to make sure that both Macs have the current operating system and have installed any available updates. Your old Mac will need Mac OS X 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard) or later.

    Does your Mac have a name? Go to System Preference ->Sharing and make sure your Mac has a name. If it doesn’t, take a few hours to debate the appropriate name and enter it.

    It should go without saying, but I will say it anyway – make sure both Macs are plugged in with their power adapters.

    **Make your Macs talk to each other**

    There are basically three ways to make sure that your Macs are able to talk to each other:

    * Connect both computers to the same local Wi-Fi or Ethernet network.
    * Connect both computers directly using a Thunderbolt, FireWire, or Ethernet cable.
    * Connect your new Mac to a Time Capsule or external drive that has a Time Machine backup of your old Mac.

    My preference in terms of speed and reliability is the last. If you have a Time Capsule or external drive with your Time Machine back-up on it this is the fastest and best way to migrate your data.

    **Use Migration Assistant**

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    If you are connecting by cable (this is the “old” way) you need to connect by FireWire or Thunderbolt cable and put the old Mac into target disk mode. To start up in target disk mode, turn off your old Mac and restart while holding down the “T” key.

    If you are not using a cable to connect, i.e. using Wi-Fi, Time Capsule or external drive, just start up the old Mac as usual.

    On your new Mac you need to launch Migration Assistant which is in the Utilities folder of the Applications folder. Once you launch Migration Assistant you will be asked how you want to transfer the data. Your choices are:

    * From a Mac, Time Machine backup, or start-up disk
    * From a Windows PC
    * To another Mac

    If you are migrating from Time Machine or a backup drive or are connected by cable in target disk mode you are all set to start. But for others, you will need to open Migration Assistant on the old Mac, click continue and choose “To another Mac” from the Migration Assistant window.

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    On your new Mac you will be asked to choose select a Time Machine backup or start-up disk. Click continue. At this point you might see a security code. Keep that handy to enter onto your old Mac if requested.

    Now you are ready to actually migrate. On you new Mac, if you are migrating from a Time Machine backup (you all have that, right?!) you will see a list of backups organized by date. Choose the one you want (usually the latest).

    Select the information to transfer and click Continue and get a cup of coffee, take a long walk, take a nap because this might take awhile.

    Once the migration is complete, before you give your old Mac to your niece, check to see that all your files are there one your new Mac and then you can wipe the old Mac.

    If you are a “switcher” there are some special instructions. I won’t go into all the details here but complete instructions can be found “**here**”:https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204087

    You will need to download either Windows Migration Assistant for Mac OS Sierra or Windows Migration Assistant for Mac OS X El Capitan or earlier. Running that on your PC will allow the Mac to scan the drives on your PC to build a list of files to migrate. From there you select the files you want to move to your Mac and hit Continue.

    Email, contacts, calendar information will be moved as well as bookmarks, iTunes content, Pictures and other files.

    If you have a new MacBook it is just a little different. The best way to do this would be to have a USB-C adapter that will allow you to connect your Time Capsule or back-up drive to your MacBook. If you want to do this over Wi-Fi you have to make sure that both your old Mac and the new MacBook are on the same network. Open Migration Assistant on both Macs and follow the instructions.

    You can also do this with an ethernet cable but that requires adapters on both Macs in all likelihood and you can do it with a USB-C to USB-C cable if you are migrating between two MacBooks.

    I clearly remember the days when changing Macs was a long process that never fully worked. Migration Assistant has simplified this process and in my experience it is rock-solid. Now if Apple would just release some new Macs so I can do some migration!

  • _Dear Friends,_

    We have had some really mild weather for this time of the year here in the Green Mountains. The leaves are still on the trees and Vermont’s “shoulder” season – stick season seems weeks away at this point. Nevertheless, Grace and I will be heading down I-95 to Key West today.

    I have a great team here in Vermont and I would like to take a moment to introduce my management team to you. We all meet each Monday for a check-in from the various departments. We talk about the accomplishments from the previous week, plans for the new week, obstacles encountered, things each is waiting for and any suggestions to stay true to our mission of measuring our success by the triple bottom line of people, planet and profit.

    Emily Dolloff, who you know as one of my co-authors here in Kibbles & Bytes and Tech Tails is the General Manager of the company. I originally hired Emily as a shipper many years ago. Since then she has been active in just about every area of the company. She was a top salesperson, she managed our Waitsfield retail store, she managed service, she managed all of retail and now she even has the title of junior assistant IT in addition to managing marketing, HR and basically all aspects of the company.

    Rob Amon was also hired as a shipper early on in Small Dog’s history. He moved rapidly to sales and then to managing sales. He was the leader of our corporate sales efforts and now manages that as part of his title of VP of Sales.

    Art Hendrickson was our first employee and his tenure is just about as long as the 21 years the company has been in existence. Arty has managed our warehouse, shipping and inventory control for most of his career but he has also had a well-rounded experience in just about every aspect of the company’s operation.

    Will Frascella is another Small Dog veteran. I often joke that he has worked for the company since he was nine. He came to us originally as a high school kid helping out after school. He is now in charge of Product Management and is our lead purchaser. He is also our go-to guy for new technology and has a key role in our efforts in home automation.

    Hadley Markoski was originally hired as a developer. She has been responsible for vast “under the hood” improvements in our infrastructure and is the author of our Argos service app that has streamlined our service offering. Hadley is now the Director of our IT department which keeps this place running, our website up and operating and has a whole long list of priorities for the company. She has recently completely revamped our telephone system which, if you call, you will find to be a vast improvement.

    Michael Duplessis also has had a long history with the company. Starting out in sales, Mike soon became our primary outside consultant, taking on the most complex needs of our customers. Holding advanced certifications from Apple, Mike stepped up and took on the additional responsibility of managing our service department last year in addition to managing our consulting efforts.

    Patrick McCormack is the manager of our S. Burlington store. Our flagship store in S. Burlington is responsible for a significant percentage of our retail revenue. Patrick has hired and mentored a great staff in S. Burlington. Many of his employees have advanced to other positions in the company.

    Raul de Arriz is our government solutions director and responsible for sales to US Government agencies as well as sate and local governments. Raul came to Small Dog Electronics with a mandate to develop the Government market and he has helped grow federal, state, and Mid-Atlantic sales for Small Dog Electronics by more than 1000% over the last three years. Under Raul, the Government effort has achieved excellent client satisfaction, as evidenced by continued and growing repeat business. With the assistance of Small Dog Electronics’s Outside Sales Team, Raul manages every aspect of client relationships, including face to face, phone, email, database mining, and agency-level events, as well as national government show presence, including Small Dog Electronics’s participation in multiple national government and Mid-Atlantic regional marketing opportunities.

    You can see why I feel confident operating with this team even while I am being a snow-bird in Key West. We still have our weekly meetings and use FaceTime to allow me to participate remotely.

    We are doing some renovations at our Waitsfield and S. Burlington store over the next couple of weeks. I think that you will like the changes and I hope that you can be patient with any inconveniences as we complete this work as quickly as possible.

    This week’s Kibbles & Bytes exclusive features the amazing iPad Pro 9.7-inch 32GB Wi-Fi in gold. We are bundling this “iPad Pro with AppleCare+ and the Apple Pencil.”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900002448 Normally this bundle would sell for about $800 but this week only for Kibbles & Bytes readers you can get this bundle for only “**$739.99!**”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900002448

  • Going, Going, Gone!

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    Starting Friday, October 21st find **savings of 40% – 60% off** in our retail stores and online on a huge selection of products. **Beats Solo2 HD headphones** wired and wireless. **Otterbox Symmetry and Defender cases** for iPhone 6/6s/Plus. **Speck CandyShell** for iPhone 6/6s/Plus, **STM Bags** and more! If you have an iPhone 6/6s/Plus, a 13in MacBook Air or an office that needs some new speakers this is the sale for you! All items are new but hurry because once these items are gone they are gone for good!

    Renovations are underway in our Waitsfield store. We’ll be renovating our South Burlington store soon and making some revisions in our Rutland location. This means that we have got to make some room in our stores and we’re launching our **going, going, gone sale** as we make room for new accessories and organize our refreshed spaces.

    Don’t forget about our “**FREE SEMINAR**”:https://www.eventbrite.com/e/tech-talk-20-tickets-27133478966 on Saturday, November 5th at the South Burlington Middle School from 9am to 12pm with Technology for Tomorrow. Our own “Nate Poirier”:http://blog.smalldog.com/authors/nathanpoirier will lead a short seminar on understanding and using iCloud. There will also be presentations from **Technology for Tomorrow** on password management, **AT&T Wireless** on finding the right smartphone for you, and **AARP Vermont** on internet safety and fraud watch. We are very excited to be a part of this event and we hope you will join us.

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  • Revert to iOS 9 Home Button Behavior

    Ever since upgrading to iOS 10 and getting my iPhone 7 Plus I have been amazed with how fast the fingerprint recognition works. I must admit, however, that I was a little thrown off with having to press the Home button before unlocking my phone.

    iOS 10 changes how you use the Home button to unlock your iOS device from the lock screen. Previously, you could unlock it by merely resting your finger on the Home button when the lock screen is showing. In iOS 10, however, you must press the Home button and then use Touch ID to unlock the device. With newer iPad and iPhone models, Touch ID reads your fingerprint so quickly that you can usually press the Home Button instead of just resting your finger on it.

    If you’re like me and find this to be more of a hassle than convenience and prefer to skip the requirement to press the Home button I’ve got good news for you. You can change it! To revert to the previous, and one could argue faster, behavior go to Settings>General>Accessibility>Home Button and enable “Rest Finger to Open.”

  • _Hello Fellow Technophiles,_

    If you have never been to Vermont during foliage season, you are missing out on something very special. This year has been particularly beautiful and in many parts of Vermont, we are still at peak foliage, so there is still time to get in the car and get here. If you do come up and plan on going off of the beaten path, which I highly recommend, then you should know that cell phone coverage can be spotty. When I head out into the wild, I always pre-download Google Maps maps to my phone so I can use them in offline mode. “*Click here to see more details about this great feature.*”:https://support.google.com/maps/answer/6291838?co=GENIE.Platform%3DiOS&hl=en

    October also means post-season baseball and since my Boston Red Sox are out, I can join “*Small Dog CEO Don Mayer*”:http://blog.smalldog.com/authors/don and root wholeheartedly for the Cubs. I have always been sympathetic to the Cubs due to their many similarities to the BoSox such as a very old stadium, a famous curse, and a long drought without a World Series championship. Living on the north side of Chicago within biking distance of Wrigley for five years cemented my loyalty and means that I have been to way more games there than I have to Fenway. “*Click here to follow all of the action with the official MLB app.*”:https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mlb.com-at-bat/id493619333?mt=8&at=11lb7k

    And finally, in other October news, our next issue of Tech Tails will come out one day after Halloween, so I wanted to get opinions on a potential costume. See the picture at the left and let me know how I look!

    Thanks for reading!

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

  • 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 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!

  • What’s Coming to the Big Screen and the Little Screen

    Despite the focus on iOS 10 and macOS 10.12 Sierra, Apple isn’t forgetting about its other hardware lines, the living room-focused Apple TV and the wrist-based Apple Watch. For those who own a fourth-generation Apple TV, tvOS 10 is here now, and all Apple Watch owners who are running iOS 10 on their iPhones can install the radically revised watchOS 3.

    Although Apple jumped the gun on tvOS 10 by releasing the new Siri-savvy Apple TV Remote app for the iPhone, tvOS 10 brings plenty of enhancements to the Apple TV itself. Siri gets smarter, enabling you to search for shows or movies by topic or theme. It will also find YouTube videos and find live TV playing in supported apps, like ESPN.

    We particularly like tvOS’s new Photos app, which provides a big-screen experience for viewing Memories slideshows or the new albums for People and Places. Those who find the Apple TV’s main screen too bright in a dark room will appreciate the new “dark mode.” A new option to download apps automatically ensures that you get any Apple TV apps associated with your iOS apps without additional effort. And, finally, a new single sign-on feature should make it a lot easier to log in to those apps that require a paid cable or satellite subscription. If only we’d had that for the Olympics!

    These tvOS changes are welcome but not earth-shattering. With watchOS 3, however, Apple rethought how you interact with the Apple Watch, throwing away both glances and the Friends screen and giving the side button an entirely new function. When you add in significantly faster app launches, additional watch faces (including Minnie Mouse!) with more complications, and a simplified way of replying to messages, watchOS 3 essentially gives you a whole new Apple Watch.

    Taking a cue from iOS, swiping up on the Apple Watch screen now displays Control Center for quick management of common settings. And, instead of showing the Friends screen, pressing the side button displays the Dock, to which you can add your most used apps. Swipe left and right in it to navigate between apps, which are kept up to date and launch instantly, making for a far better experience than poring over the app cloud. You can also swipe left and right on watch faces to switch between them, which makes it easier to choose the face that best matches your mood.

    New apps include Reminders and Find My Friends, which let you glance at your wrist instead of pulling out your iPhone to check to-dos and the location of your friends. Entirely new is Breathe, which guides you through deep breathing sessions to reduce stress. For those who find social pressure motivating, the Activity app now lets you share workout and activity information with friends and family. Activity also now supports wheelchair users, encouraging them with “time to roll” instead of “time to stand” reminders, and providing wheelchair-specific workouts and wheelchair-aware calorie tracking.

    To increase peace of mind, a new SOS feature will call emergency services when you press and hold the side button (set it up in the Apple Watch app on the iPhone). Then it notifies your emergency contacts, providing them with a map of your location. The Apple Watch can also display your Medical ID (set that up in the Health app on the iPhone), which provides information about allergies and medical conditions.
    Last, but far from least, after some setup, wearing your Apple Watch will be all that’s necessary to unlock recent Macs running macOS 10.12 Sierra. It might be worth getting an Apple Watch just to avoid having to type that login password multiple times per day!

  • New GoPro Is Here!

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    The all-new GoPro HERO5 Session and HERO5 Black are here and in stock just in time to capture the last few moments of fall and get ready for some great wintertime shots. Featuring 10MP and 12MP cameras, 4K video, Waterproof to 33ft without a housing, voice control, video stabilization and more! These “new cameras from GoPro”:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgRIOcIZI1w allow your creativity to shine. The best part? You don’t have to travel far to get them!

    Small Dog Electronics is very excited to announce we are partnering with Technology for Tomorrow again and are offering another “**FREE SEMINAR**”:https://www.eventbrite.com/e/tech-talk-20-tickets-27133478966 on Saturday November 5th at the South Burlington Middle School from 9am to 12pm. Our own “Nate Poirier”:http://blog.smalldog.com/authors/nathanpoirier will lead a short seminar on understanding and using iCloud. There will also be presentations from **Technology for Tomorrow** on password management, **AT&T Wireless** on finding the right smartphone for you, and **AARP Vermont** on internet safety and fraud watch. We are very excited to be a part of this event and we hope you will join us.

    p{text-align: center;}. “!http://blog.smalldog.com/images/4850.png!”:https://www.eventbrite.com/e/tech-talk-20-tickets-27133478966