Kibbles & Bytes Blog

Apple news, tech tips, and more…

KB Dog

  • _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

  • Labor Day weekend is here and all of our stores and offices will be closed on Monday. We will be back on Tuesday for the unofficial start of autumn. I already have spotted some of the sugar maples changing color as I drive around the Green Mountains. Yesterday on the way to work I spotted a lot of wildlife, passing a flock of geese making an early break for the south, some wild turkeys, a large buck, a Guinea hen and a fox crossing the road.

    If the weather cooperates, I’ll be out on my motorcycle this weekend and if not, I’ll be watching the Cubs! Whatever you have in store for this holiday weekend, I hope it is fun and safe!

    Thank you for reading this issue of Kibbles & Bytes!

    Your Kibbles & Bytes Team,

    _Don, Emily & Hadley_

  • Drift off to Music or Books

    Ever want to drift off to your latest audio book or maybe even some music that’s on your iOS device? There’s a somewhat hidden feature in iOS that allows you to use a sleep timer, perfect for those who might not have a docking station or speaker system with a built in sleep timer or while traveling.

    iBooks in iOS has a built-in sleep timer that can automatically pause playback after a specified amount of time, perfect for listening to an audiobook as you drift off to sleep, just tap the Moon button below the volume slider. What if you prefer listening to content that’s not in iBooks? No problem! To set a sleep timer that works for Music, iTunes or any other audio app, open the Clock app and tap the Timer button. Next, tap ‘when timer ends’ (iPhone) or the selected sound (iPad), scroll to the end of the list of sounds, and select ‘stop’ playing. When your ready to listen as you drift off to sleep, start the timer just before or immediately after you press play.

    Now, no matter where you are, you can easily set a timer at any time to listen to your favorite audio bytes!

  • A Primer on Electricity (Part III)

    Last week I put together volts, amps and resistance to explain with a bit more clarity the dangers of electricity. Towards the end of the article, I mentioned that there are situations where you have high voltage and low resistance, but there is little or no danger. We actually experience these scenarios regularly without even thinking about it.

    To explain this, it’ll help to give our understanding of volts a bit more nuance. At the core a voltage represents a potential. Commonly, it represents a potential for charge to flow (amps), but charge need not necessarily be flowing for a voltage to be present. If you have voltage potential without any flow of charge, we call that voltage “static”. Static voltages surround us all the time, every day. As everyone knows, sometimes these charges make their presence known (sometimes painfully) in the form of a static shock. That’s a bit of a misnomer though, because when the shock happens, the voltage (or more specifically the charge) is no longer static. It moved, likely from your hand to a door knob or possibly to another person.

    What many people don’t understand is that even these benign, common, static charges and shocks we feel often represent tens of thousands of volts. As I discussed last week, at very high voltages like that, not even the normal resistance of your body will protect you, so how are these voltages so harmless? Once again, it comes down to flow of charge (amps). A static voltage potential may have the pressure of tens of thousands of volts behind it, but the actual charge available to be transferred is incredibly small. For example, when simulating static discharge that might be experienced by a human touching a circuit board, engineers might use a capacitor storing 100 picofarads of charge at a potential of 10000-40000 volts. Wait, but what’s a picofarad? A farad is a unit of ability to store charge. Whereas amperes represent charge in motion, a farad is simply some amount of charge that can be stored. One farad can be represented as one coulomb of charge across a potential difference of one volt. I mentioned coulombs in my first article, but for reference, one coulomb is a lot of charge. We almost always talk about farads in fractions. 100 picofarads is 100 trillionths of a farad.

    Still with me? Let’s put this together. When you have a static charge, even if it’s thousands of volts, when the potential is neutralized (in the form of a discharge) there are very few coulombs of charge that will be moving. As we’ve learned, charges moving = amps. Less charges moving = less amps. This is why everyday static charges don’t hurt us. There just isn’t enough flow of charges.

    Static charges can be created in several different ways. In the case of the barbecue lighter I mentioned last week, the charge is created by a piezoelectric element (read more about piezoelectrics here!). Everyday static charges are created when electrons become stripped from their orbits on atoms in materials. This happens on a huge scale with lightning. This is why lightning is so dangerous. Despite being the same kind of static charge that shocks us when we rub our feet on a carpet and touch a door knob, in the case of lightning, there is much, much more charge available when the discharge happens. So we aren’t talking about a few picofarads, and fractions of amperes. We’re talking about thousands of amperes. At that point, the current doesn’t matter, because it’ll be the superheating of material (including your body) that will be the cause of death.

    When working with sensitive electronics even a small static discharge delivered by a human can be enough to destroy components. Electronics (unlike humans) are directly sensitive to high voltage potentials. A high voltage discharge (regardless of amps delivered) can cause insulation breakdown in the very delicate and thin insulation between components. Damaging this insulation may cause a short circuit resulting in component failure. This is why when working on exposed electronics, technicians use a wrist strap that is grounded. Grounding allows any charge to flow easily and safely from the technician into a table, or other metal structure, rather than into the sensitive electronics.

    I had really only intended this series to be a very brief introduction to electricity and only had three pieces planned. Is there more you’d like to know about? Any specific question you’ve always had? Let me know and I’ll do my best to explain in the next issue!

  • _Dear Friends,_

    This week we lost an extraordinary employee, Jim Overman, who died suddenly. Jim was a long-time Small Dog Employee and many of you may have had the pleasure of talking to Jim on the phone or by email as he was our “first on the phone” and handled our web sales, customer service and fraud protection. Jim worked with us here in Waitsfield for several years before he moved to Florida to be closer to his family. Jim was that unique worker that I had supreme confidence in his integrity, work ethic and judgement. Because of that we were able set Jim up as a remote employee. He truly cared about our customers and we cared about Jim and will miss him dearly.

    Big Apple announcements coming up this next week on September 7 which also happens to be the birthday of both my spouse and Emily’s. I will let you listen to whatever rumors you want but I know that whatever Apple does announce will be another step in Apple’s mission to bring us extraordinary products that enrich our lives. You know I’ll be getting some new toy out of this, too! We will report on this next week in Kibbles & Bytes.

    This is the last weekend for our “**Back-to-School specials**”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900002280/back-to-school on iPads and Macs. If you buy any Mac with AppleCare you get a $50 gift card or any iPad with AppleCare+ and you get a $25 gift card.

    Hey, how about them Cubbies?

    This week’s Kibbles & Bytes exclusive deal with a “**Seagate wireless mobile storage drive.**”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900002364? This is the perfect drive for users with large media libraries such as movies and music. Multiple users can utilize this drive and access the content. Perfect for road trips! This drive normally sells for $99.99 but you can get it this week only for “**$79.99**”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900002364?

  • Watch This

    I am really surprised that I have taken to the Apple Watch so completely. It is not that I use it as a fitness device although I DO have goals…that I seldom meet. But, I wear it every day even though it was over 50 years since I regularly wore a watch.

    Q: So, what do I use it for?

    A: ApplePay, sports scores, texts, answering my iPhone Dick Tracy-style, weather and a lot of other stuff like checking the time. 🙂

    I was very interested in the latest version of watchOS that was introduced by Apple at WWDC; watchOS 3 has some pretty dramatic changes in store for your Apple Watch. The first, and most noticeable for me, is that the little scribbles that you can send to your friends when you press the side button is gone. Okay, I used that like 4 times to send little drawings to Grace or my hearbeat but pretty useless for that important button. Now, pressing that button will give you a Dock which you can configure with your favorite apps, which I find a lot more convenient than trying to get my big fat finger on that tiny little icon.

    Something you will get used to pretty quickly, but is a huge improvement, is that it is easier and faster to perform common tasks including replying to a message, starting a workout, or skipping a track. Apps launch much faster. Swipe up from the bottom of the watch face to access your important settings in Control Center.

    Apple added new watch faces, too, including Minnie Mouse (I don’t get the fascination with Mickey and Minnie), Activity, or Numerals, and you can customize them with more complications like Music and Workout. Switch faces with just a swipe, so you can have the Activity face for the gym and the Modular face for work. And easily configure your faces in the Apple Watch app on your iPhone. Configuring your watch faces on your iPhone is much easier than on the tiny watch face.

    There are some improvements to the Activity app including some for the more competitive folks. You can share and compete with activity sharing. Send and receive real-time progress updates when friends finish workouts or earn achievements, and reply with encouragement or smack talk. Activity rings are optimized for wheelchair users, there are two wheelchair-specific workouts, and there’s a new Time to Roll notification.

    There was a lot of time spent on the new Breathe app and while I like it and have tried it out a few times it is not as groundbreaking as Apple made it out to be. It must have been someone’s pet idea. The new Breathe app encourages you to take moments in your day to do short, deep-breathing sessions. The beautiful, calming visualization and haptic cues guide you through deep, full breaths in sessions lasting from one to five minutes. And when you’re done, you’ll receive a helpful heart-rate summary. I ended up turning of Breathe notifications after a few sessions.

    You know those squiggly drawings we talked about that were eliminated? Well, they were actually just moved where they belong: into Messages. Set off fireworks or stick a sticker. Share a secret with invisible ink or reply in your own handwriting. You can even draw letters on the display and Apple Watch turns it into text. All your options including larger emoji, sketches, taps, and your heartbeat are in the same place, so you can send and respond to messages faster than ever.

    The new SOS feature is a handy safety item to complement your Medical ID that we talked about a couple weeks ago. Quickly and easily call for help if you’re in a critical situation. Press and hold the side button and your Apple Watch will automatically initiate a call with 911 or other emergency services numbers in other countries. SOS can also send a message to the people you’ve chosen as your emergency contacts, so your family and friends are alerted as quickly as possible.

    The Timer app which I use all the time is revamped and makes it easier to start timing, but best of all is Auto Unlock. While it is not yet implemented in the current betas, Auto Unlock will unlock your Mac when you are wearing your watch. Very, very handy!

  • iOS 10

    Earlier this week at WWDC Apple announced the latest edition of iOS for iPhone and iPad. As is typical with these announcements, the changes to iOS are one of the more exciting software announcements to many users. iPads and iPhones are often the sole device for many users. Some improvements to iOS 10 greatly improve productivity and others give us another excuse to do less. There is a huge list of improvements to iOS 10 and here are some highlights of what’s to come.

    Messages got more expressive and makes it even easier to use less words in your text messages. When sending a text in iOS 10 you will now find suggestions for autofilling emojis rather than words. That’s right, autofill for emojis! If you’re never exactly sure what that emoji is, don’t fret, emojis can be sent bigger as well as your text messages with bubbles. Do you feel that emojis just aren’t your thing and prefer a more personal approach to messages? The ability to handwrite a message has now been added to iOS 10, and offers a really cool way to add a personal touch to any message! I guess I’ll forgive Apple for making it easier to send messages without words with the added handwriting feature and lastly celebrations. Celebrations? That’s right, you’ll be able to celebrate a special moment even from afar by sending a full screen affect like balloons or fireworks, pretty cool!

    Maps received some pretty cool upgrades this time around. Now when you’re traveling around and utilizing maps you can quickly find and book a cab or even a reservation at a nearby restaurant all without leaving the Maps app. One other slightly hidden feature is the ability to instantly mark where you parked your car. Maps can automatically recognize that you have gotten off the highway and parked your car. It will automatically drop a pin for you in Maps ensuring you will never again forget where you parked your car!

    QuickType is getting some pretty incredible upgrades in iOS 10. Using Siri intelligence, your phone or iPad can predict what you might want to say to someone, suggest adding an event to your calendar or change the language with which you respond. Now if you’re having a conversation with someone about dinner reservations, QuickType will pick up on patterns found in your conversation. Easily add a dinner reservation or location right from your conversation.

    The Phone feature of your iPhone also is getting some pretty significant improvements which even include the ability to recognize a potential spam call. No longer will you have to be interrupted by a call from a number you don’t recognize only to find out it was a spam call. Your phone will now tell you if it thinks an incoming call is spam. Your phone will now also be able to better work with third-party VoIP calls such as Skype reducing the number of missed calls through apps on your phone.

    At WWDC only a small portion of the total improvements to iOS 10 can be talked about, and even this article is missing some, but I wanted to take a moment to talk about some of the improvements they didn’t highlight. In iOS 10 you will now be able to remove stock apps, yes it finally happened! Tired of seeing the Apple Watch app because you still don’t have the watch, just delete it and any other apps that come standard on the phone that have been in your way all this time. If you’re someone who says you wish and need to get on a better sleeping pattern but find each night you once again sat up too late? A bedtime tab can now be found in the alarm App, it can help you to get on a regular sleeping schedule by alerting you it’s time to go to sleep. For those who find that space is an issue on their phone with large music libraries you can now optimize your storage. Your phone can be set to hold an ideal amount of songs and will help you keep your storage in check by automatically removing songs you listen to least often. Lastly one of my favorite finds is that there is now a magnifier built into the accessibility features. It sounds silly, but it’s just made finding that tiny screw or lost pin on the floor easier!

    iOS 10 is set to be released sometime in the fall. Unfortunately this means most users still have several months until they can try it out. However, thanks to beta testers already using iOS 10 and the public beta testers in July, you should feel confident that when iOS 10 comes out for public download in the fall it should have only minimal, if any, problems.

  • JoAnne Marius

    Family: Marie Singer Gay(Mother), Joel Sanon (Father), Ronald Gay (Step-father), Blake Welling (Boyfriend), James Antenor (Brother), Fyrland Sanon (Brother), Bern Sanon (Brother), Odgers…

  • Ethan Roy

    Hobbies/Interests: Soccer, playing guitar Favorite Books: The Stranger, Infinite Jest, Lord of the Rings Favorite Bands: The Beatles Favorite TV: Breaking Bad, The…

  • Pirate is getting better at learning where the “outside” is but we still have to carry him downstairs in the morning to go out or he will not make it all the way. He’s getting heavier now, too, so he had better pick it up soon! We’ve been puppy-proofing the house but he is a mischievous little guy.

    It looks like some good weather for the weekend. I’ll have to see how far I want to ride to get some sweet corn or find one of those “hole-in-the-wall” restaurants for lunch. Grace has been feeding me from the garden which really makes this time of the year special, knowing exactly where your food came from!

    Thank you for reading this issue of Kibbles & Bytes!

    Your Kibbles & Bytes team,

    Don, Emily, Hadley & Amy

  • A Primer on Electricity (Part II)

    Last week I gave a very brief introduction to the fundamentals of electricity. I mainly focused on what an amp was and explained the dangers of even small currents. What I didn’t explain was how we get to amps from the other pieces of Ohm’s law: volts and resistance.

    Have you ever plugged a flash drive or other USB device into your Apple USB keyboard and had your machine tell you there wasn’t enough power to run the device? It’s an annoying problem, but why does it happen? USB is primarily a data transmission bus, but it can also supply power. How much power? Well, the tiny wall adapter that charges your iPhone will output about 1A at 5VDC (5 watts). The iPad chargers are a bit beefier and output 2A at 5VDC (10 watts). Most USB ports on computers however are limited to 500mA. This is why plugging your iPad into your computer won’t necessarily charge it. It’s also why you get that warning about being unable to power the device. If you daisy-chain another device into a USB device like a keyboard, that single port has to supply power to both of those devices, and that may exceed the 500mA limit.

    As I said last week though, between 0.1 and 0.2 can be lethal. How are people not constantly dying from USB-related electrocution? In order to have current, you need to have voltage. Voltage is the pressure that makes the charges move. Higher voltage equals higher pressure. Zero volts means zero pressure, and that means zero amps: I = V / R. 5VDC like from a USB port is not a lot of pressure at all. If Ohm’s law was I = V though, 5VDC would mean 5 amps! Yikes! But there’s one more piece: resistance. Every medium that electricity flows through has a resistance. Based on the equation, holding the voltage constant, a bigger resistance means a smaller current. We use copper wires because copper has a very low resistance. Therefore we can move the most charge with the least volts. But if you had enough voltage, you could make a circuit out of anything…even a human body, which is what happens during electrocution.

    It’s difficult to measure the resistance of the human body. It depends on several factors including distance between the connections, and whether or not the skin is wet, or broken. Wet or broken skin will lower the resistance substantially. Common numbers given range from 100,000 Ohms on dry, normal skin, to just 1,000 Ohms on wet or broken skin. It’s all very complex and depends on many, many factors. However, these numbers alone are enough to show us why no one is dying from USB-related shocks. If we take the worst case scenario and say that we touched the positive and negative terminals of a powered USB connection on wet skin, how much current would flow? 5VDC / 1000 Ohms = 0.005 amps. You’d barely feel that. If it was done on dry skin, with a 100,000 Ohm resistance, you wouldn’t feel anything.

    This is why high voltage is dangerous. The high resistance of your body is not enough to resist the higher pressure created by high voltage. The 120VAC from common household electrical outlets is orders of magnitude greater than the measly 5VDC coming from your computer. This is why you can get a pretty good shock if you touch live wires in a house. 120VAC / 1000 Ohms = 0.12 amps = death. Again though, the exact resistance provided by your body can vary widely. Whether or not the voltage is AC or DC affects the risk characteristics as well.

    When you get into especially high voltages, like power transmission lines, microwaves, or other types of voltage step-up transformers, you simply don’t have enough resistance to protect you. The voltage pressure will overwhelm the resistance and create a deadly current. But even this isn’t the whole story. Did you know that your barbecue lighter lights the gas in its chamber using a spark gap created by a voltage potential of thousands of volts? Look out for next week’s article where I’ll explain some of the nuances of electrical systems and why no one is dying from barbecue-lighter-related electric shocks.