Kibbles & Bytes Blog

Apple news, tech tips, and more…

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  • Recycling with Liam

    Moving in the right direction: iPhone recycling using Liam, Apple’s ultimate take apart tool.

    I was one of the lucky people here at Small Dog Electronics that was able to invest a little time (while doing other work in my office), observing a live blog of the recent Apple event from 1 Infinite Loop in CA. After a few days, Apple posted the entire keynote to their website and I got to watch, among other portions, the details of their commitment to being a green company and their iPhone recycling effort. Their head of green initiatives, Lisa Jackson, went over what happens when an iPhone cannot be repaired and repurposed. They give it to a highly specialized robot named Liam!

    Liam is a research and development project conceived a number of years ago as the iPhone 5 (for the prototype robot) and iPhone 6 were being developed, as a means of maintaining the commitment Apple has made to be a fully green and carbon neutral corporation. If you add another device to the consumer marketplace and resulting waste stream, the least you can do is allow a means of taking it back. A prototype of the robot kept the phone being taken apart in one place and applying individual tools to it. Liam is more of an assembly line, with 29 different arms taking various components and saving them aside for later use and/or recycling while the phone husk is whisked to another station. A quick list of potentially harmful materials kept out of landfills include nickel, aluminum, cobalt, copper, lithium, and tungsten. Components such as screws, sim card trays, batteries and cameras can all be repurposed and recycled in some way, not to mention various plastic and glass being recovered. Apple claims a 97 percent success rate for component removal despite some phones coming back with visible corrosion from being dropped in water. It’s an iPhone 6/6S-eating monster!

    Apple’s intentions are great, but the sad truth is that the process of recovering phones is still somewhat failing. Returning iPhones to Apple is only a voluntary thing. They are trying to make it worth your while by offering an Apple gift card with value depending on the condition of your device (all models back to iPhone 5 may have value). Their website has a mail in option for credit process as well. It’s called the “**Apple Renew**”:http://www.apple.com/recycling/ program. Apple is making iPhones at a furious rate compared with how much time it takes to tear them apart, so actual recycling of the entire iPhone 6/6S line seems an impossible battle. Also, Liam currently only takes apart that one model. It would seem that they are forced to build a whole new warehouse sized building to contain the next version of Liam each time a new model is unveiled. A necessary cycle, but a vicious one considering the rate at which new devices are introduced. Still, you have to start somewhere.

    Kudos to Apple for leading the way in showing there is a responsible method for both introducing and recycling their products. By building these goods in carbon neutral facilities and receiving them back and breaking them down, Apple lives up to its declared goal of impacting the environment as little as possible. We all hope other manufacturers are willing to follow Apple in this ever important endeavor.

  • Earth Day 2016

    It’s April 22nd, which means it’s Earth Day! I thought in honor of the day, I’d revive an old topic I wrote about some years ago and provide an update about how things have gone since then.

    Back in 2011 I stared developing plans for building a micro photovoltaic power station. I wanted something that would be reasonably compact, semi portable and capable of providing a few hundred watts of 120V AC power. Looking back it’s amazing to see how long I had been developing my idea. I built several 10-15 watt prototypes. For those I built my own controllers and regulators.

    After I became more confident with how things worked and what was going to work and what wouldn’t, I started drafting plans for my full-size power station. Around February of 2014 I finally pulled the trigger and placed an order for all of my carefully chosen components. I ended up deciding on a 50-watt polycrystalline panel, “**Genasun**”:https://genasun.com/ 5A MPPT controller, “**Concorde Sun Xtender**”:http://www.sunxtender.com/ 34 amp hour AGM battery, and a “**Samlex**”:http://www.samlexamerica.com/ 300-watt pure sine wave inverter. The system was small enough that it was kind of overkill to have detailed monitoring, but I chose to use a “**Bogart Engineering**”:http://www.bogartengineering.com/ Trimetric 2025 to monitor everything.

    Over time I cleaned up the system, mounted everything to a relatively portable board and stored it in my apartment connected to the panel which I mounted outside. It’s been two years, so what have I learned?

    * I learned that AGM batteries are really nice, but they’re not indestructible. During my first year, I relied on the station very heavily. I would often dip pretty far into the battery’s reserves, though never more than 50%. Still, doing this consistently, and struggling to keep it charged properly in the winter months meant that after a year the battery wasn’t able to maintain voltage under load anymore. In March of 2015, I replaced the 34-AH battery with a 42-AH battery from the same manufacturer. I’ve been much more meticulous about keeping that battery charged properly and it’s still running very well a year later. I use my Trimetric meter to automatically warn me if the charge condition that I set for the battery has not been met in more than 48 hours.

    * I also learned just how much it was possible to rely on my power station for every day things. Currently, my “**AppleTV (3rd generation)**”:http://www.smalldog.com/category/Apple/Apple_TV, iPad Air, and iPhone 6 are all powered pretty much exclusively by the station. I can do that year round. In the summer, I’m able to add on things like my floor lamp, my “**MacBook Air**”:http://www.smalldog.com/Macs/MacBook_Air, 27-inch display, and a fan to cool off. I could probably run all those things for 2-3 hours without dipping into deep battery reserves and 4-5 hours if I really had to. Apple’s notebook computers are very power efficient, and the MacBook Air is one of the most power efficient. That was a major factor in my decision to buy it over a MacBook Pro.

    * I’ve become __extremely__ aware of how much power things consume, even in every day life. I’ll often just think of some thing and I automatically think, “Could my system power this?” 300 watts is actually a lot. It’s enough to power most desktop computers, virtually all laptops, certain heating pads, fans, and more, but some things we use casually take a TON of power. Hair dryers (over 1000 watts generally), clothes irons (over 1000 watts) and pretty much anything with a heating element use way more power than I can generate.

    So as we get further into 2016 I’m excited for yet another summer with my power station. I don’t have any upgrades in mind. I had always considered adding more generating capacity, but that would make my little system a bit too large. I think it’s a good size right now.

    Happy Earth Day!

  • Macbooks and Macbook Air Upgraded

    Apple announced some changes to the 12-inch MacBook and 13-inch MacBook Air this week. Let’s talk about the MacBook Air first. Apple discontinued the 13-inch MacBook Air models that had 4GB of RAM and made them sport 8GB. There were no other changes to this model but the additional RAM comes at no additional cost as Apple doubled the RAM but kept the price the same at $999 for the 128GB SSD unit and $1299 for the 256GB SSD.

    With just this minor update to the MacBook Air we can speculate that perhaps this unit is on its way out within the next year. The MacBook Air does not have the Retina display nor does it support the latest in Intel mobile processors. On the other hand, it is Apple’s best selling laptop.

    The changes to the MacBook were more significant. They added a Rose Gold (er…pink) color which might actually be a nice option for some. More importantly, Apple went to the new sixth-generation dual-core Intel Core M processors which run at clock speeds up to 1.3 gigahertz, with Turbo Boost up to 3.1 gigahertz. The revamped notebooks also feature faster 1866 megahertz memory.

    This new processor yields increases in performance from 15-20% in initial testing. With the Intel HD Graphics 515, the new MacBook has about 25 percent faster graphics performance. Speed has also been enhance with new, faster PCIe-based flash storage.

    The lower power requirements and a slightly larger battery has also improved battery life, with the Apple claiming the new MacBook offers up to 10 hours of wireless surfing and up to 11 hours of movie watching.

    While some were expecting additional ports or an improved FaceTime camera, these features did not make the cut.

    We should have all the models in stock next week as well as some great deals on the newly discontinued models.

  • Hey Dora, Follow Orders!

    Last week we talked about how to activate and use dictation to write emails and documents but there is a lot more that you can do. I keep thinking about Scotty from Star Trek when he went back in time and was “**confronted with a Mac Plus**”:https://youtu.be/LkqiDu1BQXY?t=1m8s. He picked up the mouse as natural as can be and said “computer…”. That time is coming and Dictation Commands are already built into your operating system.

    Once you have dictation activated you can activate dictation commands by going to the Accessibility system preference.

    * Choose Accessibility from System Preferences.

    * Choose Dictation from the list on the left side of the Accessibility pane.

    * Click the Dictation Commands button. You can see a list of available commands in the Dictation Commands sheet.

    * A starting set of commands are enabled by default. Additional speakable items like “Open document” and “Click item” are available by enabling advanced commands using these next steps:

    * Select (check) the option to “Enable advanced commands” in the Dictation Commands sheet that appears.

    * Click Done.

    p{text-align: center;}. !http://blog.smalldog.com/images/4710.png!

    After you have enabled advanced commands, you can also create your own commands by clicking the Add Command (+) button. This lets you link a spoken phrase to an app, a menu item, a keyboard shortcut, or an Automator workflow.

    You have enabled Dictation Commands and now you can speak any of the items in this list to perform the related action. Press the Fn key twice, then say a command to make it happen, such as “Search Spotlight for the Cubs score” or “select sentence” or “new document”. Give it a try and pretty soon you will be just like Scotty and the Mac Plus.

    As a shortcut, you can speak the command “Show commands” to see a list of the commands you can say.

  • _Dear Friends,_

    It is raining today here in Key West but as with most tropical showers it will likely pass over soon and the sun will come back. My neighbor, Glenn Thomas, posted a picture of the first daffodil at our Prickly Mountain location so I guess it is safe for me to head back north. Grace and I will be packing up and driving up I-95 next week.

    Apple quietly made some changes to the 12-inch Macbooks and 13-inch Macbook Airs this week that I will review below and as promised we will talk some more about dictation. Apple did not hold a big event for these laptop upgrades but they are welcome changes that should be a precursor to updates to the rest of the laptops in Apple’s lineup. We will have these new Macbooks and Macbook Airs in stock this week and have some great deals on the newly discontinued models with up to $200 off.

    This week’s Kibbles & Bytes exclusive features the Hammerhead Jacket case for the iPhone 5, 5s or the new 5se. This case offers exceptional corner protection with a double injection molded design featuring strong polycarbonate and flexible TPU. Anti-slip sides keep the phone securely in your hand when in use. Of course, all the ports and buttons are easily accessible through this protective case. We have ten designs for this case: Watermelon Red, Hubcap, Pride, Snake Skin, Helmet, Hammerhead Purple, Lemon Yellow, Black, Sky Blue and Hammerhead Orange. I know you can decide which to use so for this week we are offering a 10-pack featuring one of each case. Change as your mood sees fit or give one to a friend. Normally, these cases are $14.99 each but “**exclusively for Kibbles & Bytes readers you can get all ten for only $49.95!**”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900002206

  • !http://blog.smalldog.com/images/4705.png!

    Chocolates and flowers are great gifts for mom, but as tasty and beautiful as those gifts are, in a few days they will be gone! Finding mom the perfect gift is never easy. You want it to be something that she will truly enjoy, you want it to be thoughtful and you want it to be something that says how much mom means to you. Technology is a great gift for moms of any age. The new “iPad Pro 9.7-inch”:http://www.smalldog.com/iPads/ipad/iPad_Pro or a new “Rose Gold MacBook”:http://www.smalldog.com/category/Apple/MacBook/12-in make perfect gifts that mom is sure to thank you for! Not sure of the right gift? A **Small Dog gift card** is a great gift idea and the value of the card never expires.

    “!http://blog.smalldog.com/images/4708.png!”:https://www.eventbrite.com/e/commyounity-tech-talk-tickets-22079709004

    Just in time for Mother’s Day, help mom to get more comfortable with technology! Small Dog Electronics is thrilled to have teamed up with Technology for Tomorrow who will be putting on a FREE seminar on “Saturday May 7th”:https://www.eventbrite.com/e/commyounity-tech-talk-tickets-22079709004 from 9am to 12pm at the South Burlington Middle School. This is a free event open to anyone and everyone, plus all attendees are entered to win a free iPad mini 2! “Sign up”:https://www.eventbrite.com/e/commyounity-tech-talk-tickets-22079709004 now for this wonderful community event!

    Graduation season is also just around the corner! We have great gift ideas for the graduate on your list including speakers from **Sonos** and **Beats** as well as tons of great gift ideas **under $100**! Visit any of our “retail stores”:http://www.smalldog.com/retail/ for great gifts for the moms and grads on your list!

  • New Price and FREE shipping on the Seagate Wireless Mobile Storage 500GB

    Enjoy your media and access your files without wires or the Internet. Seagate Wireless broadcasts its own Wi-Fi network, so you can wirelessly stream your media and files to up to three mobile devices. With 500GB of storage at your fingertips, choosing which files to sync to your mobile device before a long trip is a thing of the past. Seagate Wireless lets you carry hundreds of movies and thousands of photos, songs and documents. Seagate Wireless streams your media and documents to all your popular tablets, smartphones, computers and connected devices.

  • TRIM support for SSDs

    TRIM (not actually an acronym) is a technology exclusive to SSDs that helps the drive erase data that is no longer in use. Traditional spinning disk HDDs do not actually erase all the data when you delete something. HDDs merely delete the file header(s) when you empty the trash. The file header is the information that points to the places where the actual data is stored. To save time (and wear and tear), a HDD will leave the real data on the drive to be simply overwritten in the future for something else.

    SSDs, on the other hand, cannot overwrite existing data. The data first has to be deleted (written over with zeroes) before new data can be stored in the same location. This is fine for a while, but as the SSD fills up, it will eventually be stuck erasing lots of data before it can save new data. This will affect the performance of a SSD over time.

    The way TRIM works is that it every time you delete something, the SSD zeroes out all of the data blocks that are associated with the files. This not only can make SSDs more secure out of the box, it also keeps the read and write speeds high over time!

    Apple now includes a *Terminal* command that enables TRIM for third party SSDs. It’s called *trimforce*, and it works on OS X 10.10.4 Yosemite and higher and all versions of OS X El Capitan. It also is fully compatible with every Crucial SSD that Small Dog sells! After installing an SSD in your 10.10.4 or newer Mac, enable TRIM support with the following steps:

    * Open *Terminal* (can be found in the *Utilities folder*)
    * Type “*sudo trimforce enable*” (without the quotes)
    * Type “*y*” (sans quotes) to agree with the warning
    * Type your admin password (no letters will show up while typing)
    * Wait for your Mac to restart

    To check that TRIM is successfully enabled, click the Apple in the upper left-hand corner, click *About This Mac > System Report.* Choose *SATA/SATA Express* from the sidebar. You should see *Crucial* (or your brand of SSD) written somewhere there, and under that it should say *TRIM Support* with a *Yes* across from it. You have now unlocked the full potential of your new SSD!

  • On Firewalls

    Firewalls can be tricky to understand. I have met many people who do not know what the purpose of a firewall is. Since the firewall included in Mac OS X is also disabled by default, most people are alarmed when they discover it. However, in most cases, this is nothing to worry about.

    The purpose of the software firewall in consumer-grade computers is to block incoming virtual connections from the network the computer is connected to. Depending on the situation, this can be a good or a bad thing. Allowing unknown entities to connect to your computer is never a good thing, but a connection to your computer can only be established if there is an application already waiting to receive it. By default, Mac OS X has far fewer applications running in the background of the operating system that can accept virtual connections than Windows does. This is why the firewall is disabled by default in Mac OS X, and not in Windows. It is also part of the reason why Macs have a reputation as “more secure” than Windows computers.

    If a firewall is activated on a computer, it can cause issues for the user that would not occur without it. Some legitimate applications may not work correctly from behind a firewall, because they rely on input from remote servers. Typically, the firewall will prompt the user to allow or deny the connection if such a connection is detected, but this can be irritating for the user and will not increase security in many cases because most users will blindly allow every connection.

    Most Mac users will never encounter a situation where it will be necessary to enable the firewall. In most situations, the firewall should only be enabled if the user is trying to run an application which is known to communicate freely with the Internet, and the user wants to disable this functionality. If you do want to turn on the firewall, this can be done in the *Security & Privacy* panel of System Preferences.

  • Cleaning Up & Speeding Up Your Mac

    bq. _My Mac used to be fast, but now it’s running so slow._

    I’ve heard many versions of this complaint, and they’re usually factually true, not just opinions: Macs can become sluggish over time, even if all of their chips and hard drives are working like new. Even diehard Apple fans will admit that Macs typically run new OS X versions better (faster, and with fewer bugs) if you start with a clean slate: completely wipe your hard drive, do a fresh install of the latest OS X release, and restore only the files you need. That’s not as hard as it sounds, but it’s a radical and fairly time-consuming solution.

    There are many things you can do to clear the cobwebs in your Apple device and keep it running as fast as it was from day one. First, find and delete enough files to leave your Mac at least 50GB of free storage capacity – enough room for the Mac to work without pausing to manage its hard drive space. Regular maintenance is must. Like a car, watch, or bicycle, anything regularly serviced and taken care of can extend the lifetime.

    Deleting apps you no longer use from your *Applications folder* is a great spot to start your cleaning adventure. It may sound obvious, but clearing out the trash regularly will help your computer run smoother. Always keep in mind that anything emptied from the trash is permanently deleted. You may need to restart or shutdown your computer for the space you’ve reclaimed to properly show on your hard drive.

    Compressing and archiving your old files is another way of cleaning up your Mac. Compressing your files will make them dramatically smaller, freeing up extra space on your hard drive. Once your files are compressed, move them to an external hard drive, USB thumbdrive or CD for storage. Also, keeping files you don’t regularly use on your hard drive can slow it down. Regularly check your *~/Movies/*, *~/Music/*, and *~/Downloads/* folders for unused files. Drag unneeded files to the *Trash*. Apps like to save here by default, and this can result in used hard drive space, so be vigilant about what gets put in here.

    Lastly, if you are running 10.10 Yosemite or earlier, run *Disk Utility* to verify and repair permissions to speed up your Mac. Installing and uninstalling of programs on Macs over time can lead to changes in permissions for programs. Sometimes this gets obsolete and causes unnecessary processing. This unnecessary processing won’t affect the size of space taken on your hard drive, but it will increase efficiency, which equates to increased speed.

  • _Hello Fellow Technophiles,_

    People often ask “Where is the manual?” when purchasing a new Mac. Apple has not included very much paper in their boxes for some time, but nevertheless, your Mac has a manual. When you are in the *Finder* you will see a menu option in the top bar that says *Help.* Click this and select *Mac Help.* This is the manual. There are categories on the left and you can click on the little triangle next to each category to reveal all of the topics in that category. Each topic generally includes detailed descriptions, how-tos, pictures, and links to further information.

    These links usually go to “*support.apple.com*”:https://www.apple.com/support/ where there is massive amounts of information on every product, OS, and app that Apple has released. It can be daunting to sort through if you are not sure where to start, but rest assured that all of the information you need is there somewhere. If you need help sorting through this, you can call AppleCare phone support (if you have AppleCare) or you can reach out to us at “*consulting@smalldog.com*”:mailto:consulting@smalldog.com and one of our Apple-certified experts can point you in the right direction, or if it makes sense, book a one-on-one lesson to get you up and running.

    And for you bibliophiles out there, there are actual physical books available as well. You can see Small Dog’s selection “*here.*”:http://www.smalldog.com/category/Books Make sure to get yours while paper books still exist!

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

  • My daughter Autumn and her husband Ismael are coming to visit next week which should be fun. Then we pack up and head back to Vermont. Hopefully the weather will cooperate but it seems like warmer weather is in the forecast for the Green Mountains.

    Thank you so much for reading this issue of Kibbles & Bytes!

    Your Kibbles & Bytes Team,

    _Don, Emily, Hadley & Amy_