Kibbles & Bytes Blog

Apple news, tech tips, and more…

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  • Get yourself some Dux

    What is a Dux you ask? Dux is a really great product line from STM and one that we are really excited to begin carrying here at Small Dog. This product line up has cases for your iPad and your computer and for the last week or so I have been testing out the Dux case for Macbook Air.

    My first impression is that it gives my computer a sharp new look. I feel as though my computer is highlighted more in this case. It features a primarily clear case and then a border that comes in an assortment of colors. The one I am using is black and it really looks sharp and sleek on the computer.

    I will be the first to admit that I am not a huge fan of hardshell cases for computers. They do add weight to your computer and they can be hard to put on and take off. However, this case did stand out to me as soon as I saw it and I immediately asked for a sample so that I could test it out. It’s the reinforced border that caught my eye. The plastic is slightly different from that of the clear case and really gives you a feeling of protection for your computer.

    Customers ask me all the time why someone might want a hard shell case, it’s a combination of accessorizing and protection. Hard shell cases are great for those who might like to sticker their computers. You can sticker all you want on a removable case and not damage your computer. For people who bring their computers everywhere it’s a great way to protect them from the dings and scratches that can happen just by pulling your computer in and out, especially those whom might fly a lot. One piece of advice I will give users of hardshell cases is that you still need to remove them! The idea and concept of hard shell cases is to provide added protection to your computer, to keep it looking like new under the case. However, if you don’t remove the case from time to time and clean the case and computer from dust and debris your computer will still get scratches. I have seen countless computers get just as scratched up with these kinds of cases than those without and the cause is always the same: dirt build up. This particular case comes on and off much easier than some others on the market making my recommended occasional cleanings much easier to perform. After all you’ve probably purchased a hard shell case to keep your computer looking new.

    Overall I am very happy with this case, but the biggest test is yet to come. I am flying to Arizona next week for an event with one of our vendors, and I’ll be keeping this case on my computer for my travels. The real test will be if I notice the added weight while making my way through airports, so far I haven’t really noticed the increased weight in my daily travels.

    P.S. Hadley, even if it means burpees and laps in an airport terminal I plan to maintain my lead in our competition. It’s ON!

  • It's On!

    With nice warm weather finally on the way, and a pretty early spring overall, we’re getting pretty geared up for outdoor activities here at the Small Dog HQ. I don’t remember which of us suggested it initially, but Emily and I have kicked off an April fitness challenge/competition.

    We’re both trying to get more active and we thought having a challenge would be a good fun way to keep us both motivated. Emily’s main method of attack is running and other exercises like burpees, pushups, and the occasional jumping jacks (to intimidate me while I’m sitting at my desk). I never liked running, so my main method of attack is riding my bike. The weather has been marginally cooperative for that. The roads are mostly clear of salt, and the sun shines enough, but the days have still been on the colder side. I don’t like to ride in less than 40 degrees because I have to put on too many layers and I find it really uncomfortable.

    We needed to figure out a way to track our individual progress so we could compare results. Emily has an “**Apple Watch**”:http://www.apple.com/watch/ and I have a “**Misfit Shine**”:http://www.smalldog.com/mfg/?MfrName=Misfit. At the beginning of the month, we did a few test days to see how the Misfit would track my bike riding and how the results would compare with Emily’s Apple Watch tracking her running. As it turns out, the two are pretty comparable. When I’m riding, I have the Misfit on my shoe to record the pedaling motion. It ends up recording this in a kind of “step equivalent” that we’ve found is actually comparable to the steps counted by Emily’s Apple Watch when she runs. Obviously running 5 miles takes more energy and effort than riding 5 miles (thanks, bearings!) but we found that Emily’s standard run (about 3-4 miles) was roughly equivalent to a 10-15 mile ride for me depending on terrain.

    So the challenge is fully on now. On a daily basis, I don’t get that many steps. My ace in the hole here is that I still haven’t been able to do my standard full 18-20 mile training ride yet. The weather hasn’t cooperated enough. I’m hoping that’ll change this weekend. Two days of over 60 degree weather and nice and sunny!

    The coolest thing about this challenge is that it shows how completely different fitness trackers are pretty close to each other in tracking general activity. The Apple Watch can do additional things like better tracking of calories and workouts, because it can measure heart rate. The Misfit cannot do that. We found that my Misfit’s calorie reading includes basal metabolic rate. So even if I just walk around all day and never get my heart rate up, it’ll record that I burned something like 2200 calories (which basically translates to, “hey, you were alive all day today!”). If I get it to record an actual workout (like a bike ride) the calorie information for that specific activity will be pretty close, but on average, it’s not a good metric for our challenge. We’re sticking to steps.

    At the end of the month, I’ll be back here to report our results to Kibbles readers! (Bad news though, after writing this, I did a check of my month-to-date total and it’s about half of where Emily is. I’m still confident I can stay in it. I’ve only had like 2-3 half decent rides so far. I’m itching to get out on the road!)

  • Hey Dora…

    So we have Siri and I’ve been playing around with Alexa (don’t tell Grace!) but now I have Dora, too. Dora is the computer from Robert Heinlein’s Time Enough for Love, The Number of the Beast, The Cat Who Walks Through Walls which were some of my favorite Sci-Fi as a kid.

    I was helping a customer that has pretty bad arthritis and struggled to use the keyboard. I was straightening out her email and getting her off of AOL (something we do often!) and noticed how difficult it was to type a simple email. So, I showed her dictation on the Mac and wow, it was like a light just got switched on. Dictation has come a long way and if your are on Mavericks, Yosemite or El Capitan, Apple’s enhanced dictation works wonderfully.

    Dictation will not be a satisfying experience for you if you have a lot of noise in the room, i.e. other people talking, music, etc, but if you are working alone in a relatively quiet environment it can be a great tool not only for dictating that email but you can also use spoken commands to direct your Mac to take action.

    Setting up Enhanced Dictation

    * Open System Preferences, then click on Dictation & Speech. Turn on Dictation and set up your options.

    * Click *Use Enhanced Dictation*. This will download a 1.2GB file so that you can dictate without internet connection.

    * Choose your language and dialect. Some languages, such as English, have multiple dialects.

    * Choose the keyboard shortcut you will use to signal that you’re ready to start dictating. The default is pressing the function Fn key twice, which I find convenient but you can customize it.

    * Choose your preferred microphone from the pop-up menu below the microphone icon. Normally, you use the internal microphone but if you are using a headset or external microphone you can choose that.

    Using Dictation

    * Go to a document or other text field and place the insertion point where you want your dictated text to appear.

    * Press the keyboard shortcut for starting dictation. The default shortcut is Fn Fn (press the Fn key twice). Or choose Edit > Start Dictation. When your Mac is listening, it displays a microphone with an input meter that rises and falls as you speak.

    * Speak the words that you want your Mac to type. Use dictation commands to add punctuation, formatting, and more.

    * To stop dictating, click Done below the microphone icon, or press Fn, or switch to another window.

    The more you use Dictation, the better it understands you. Dictation learns the characteristics of your voice and adapts to your accent.

    I will go into some of the more enhanced features like Dictation Commands in next week’s Kibbles & Bytes but I can tell Dora to Open an App, select text, move up or down and much more. I think you will like dictation on the Mac, give it a try!

  • _Dear Friends,_

    New data from Piper Jaffray’s teen survey show that Apple is dominating that market at least as far as mobile devices are concerned. They have 71% of the teen market for smart watches and almost 70% for iPhones and 64% for iPad. Another survey has Apple Mac sales showing positive growth while literally the entire PC market is in decline.

    I have been playing around with Amazon’s Echo and I have to say that I like it a lot. I wake up each morning and say “Alexa, what’s new?” and I get the news reports from NPR, CNN, Huffington Post and BBC as well as ESPN Sports and the local weather report. During the day, I ask Alexa to “play the blues” or “play some classical music” and while the speaker is not as good as my Sonos system it does fill the room. I can be around the corner or across the room and the Echo can hear me. Apple needs to step it up a bit and get Siri on the Mac or even better yet, integrated into their networking gear. I would love to be able to tell my Sonos app to play my music from my iTunes library!

    Speaking of networking here’s a Kibbles & Bytes exclusive! This isn’t for everyone but if you have a big house and your Wi-Fi signal isn’t reaching that far corner of the house this could solve three problems for you! I am bundling the Apple Factory Refurbished 3TB Time Capsule with an Apple Factory Refurbished Airport Express. Both have the same 1-year Apple warranty as new but you can save some bucks. The 3TB Time Capsule gives you the Airport Extreme wireless access point and automatic wireless back-ups to the integrated 3 terabyte drive. The Airport Express allows you to extend that wireless network. Normally “**this bundle**”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900002195/extend-your-network-and-back-up-your-data-for-only-325-99? is around $500 new, but this week for Kibbles & Bytes readers, while supplies last you can buy this refurbished bundle for only “**$325.99!**”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900002195/extend-your-network-and-back-up-your-data-for-only-325-99?

  • Hey Siri, What Can You Do?

    So, I am a little embarrassed to admit it but I bought an Amazon Echo to check out how Alexa compares with Siri. I’m a gadget guy so we will see if we find it useful and if not, I am sure I can find it a home on eBay. I use Siri more and more these days. My most common uses are asking her to settle trivia disputes with Grace or setting the timer for 5 minutes. But there is a lot more that Siri can do!

    Make Relationships with Siri
    When you speak Siri commands, you can refer to people by relationship, rather than name. So, if you want to call your father, you can say “call my father” instead of saying “call Bruce Leibowitz.” But to do this, you need to introduce Siri to your family. First, make sure you have a “card” in the Contacts app for yourself, and then go into Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars, scroll down to find and tap My Info, and select your card. Next, make sure you have a contact card for your father, and then tell Siri, “Bruce Leibowitz is my father.” Or, if Siri doesn’t hear you correctly, open Contacts, edit your card (not your father’s!), scroll down, tap “add related name,” tap the default relationship to pick “father,” tap the info “i” icon, select your father’s card, and tap Done.

    You can even use Siri to remember other types of relationships. Artie used to bring manure from his uncle’s farm for my garden and ended up with the nickname, “the spreader”. If I tell Siri “Art Hendrickson is my spreader” I can now just say “text my spreader…” and Siri knows who I am talking about. This works for nicknames but also for lawyers, accountants, doctors or any nickname you want to tell Siri about.

    Take a Picture
    Instead of fumbling to launch the Camera app on your iPhone you can just say “take a picture” and Siri will automatically open the Camera app and you can snap away.

    Siri Converts
    Need to know how many millimeters are in 4 inches? Just ask Siri and you will find that there are 101.6 mm in 4 inches. This works for currency exchange rates, too. Ask Siri how many Euros are equal to $100US you will find that 87.73 Euros is the exchange rate today. Siri has some other strong calculation features too. You can ask Siri how many calories there are in that fish sandwich or to calculate a 20% tip on your restaurant bill. You can ask her to solve math problems involving fractions and other math functions that will be faster than opening the calculator app and punching in the numbers.

    Settling Up
    Okay you can use Siri to look up baseball stats or other information to settle a dispute but what if you are at loggerheads and just want to get a random answer and don’t have a coin to flip. You can ask Siri to “roll the dice”, “flip a coin” or pick a random number.

    Name that Tune
    Siri is integrated with Shazam to help you figure out what song is playing. Just ask her “what song is playing?” and she will listen and let you know and probably try to sell you the song, too!

    Find that Photo
    Siri can search your photo library for you. I know how frustrating it is if your are like me and have literally thousands of photos. You can say something like “find that photo from Daytona Beach from last March” and Siri will launch Photos and take you right to any photos taken at that place and time.

    Siri Takes You Out
    Siri can make your restaurant reservations for you, too! Tell Siri “make a restaurant reservation for four at 7PM” and she will respond with available restaurants nearby and if you have the Open Table app installed can make the reservation for you or give you the phone number to call.

    Are We There Yet?
    If you are using your iPhone for navigation you can just say “ETA” and Siri will let you know how much longer you are gonna be on the road.

    Leave Me Alone
    Siri can do a lot for you but sometimes you just want alone time. You can tell Siri to turn on “do not disturb” and you will not be bothered. Or tell her to “turn on airplane mode” and she will turn off Wi-Fi and cellular signals.

  • Mississippi joined North Carolina and several other states that have passed laws that legalize discrimination against LGBT folks. Vermont banned non-essential government travel to those states and our Governor sent a letter to entice PayPal to move their 400 jobs to Vermont after they announced they were cancelling their expansion into NC. Good idea, because Vermont has always been a leader in banning discrimination from being the first state to make slavery illegal to the first to enact civil unions.

    It looks like a cold weekend in Vermont and I won’t bore you with the forecast down here in the Keys but I hope you have an awesome weekend!

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

    Your Kibbles & Bytes Team,

    _Don, Emily, Hadley & Amy_

  • Seriously Long-Term

    One of the earliest great works of literature is __The Epic of Gilgamesh__. Written on clay tablets, it’s an epic poem from ancient Mesopotamia dating back to 2100 BCE. General recorded human history roughly coincides with the invention of writing around 3-4000 BCE. While there are other ways history can be documented, such as architecture, art and the archeological record, we only have written accounts from about 6000 years of human history.

    I find it incredible that I can pick up a book today and read a story written by people over 4000 years ago. In thinking about this though, I wondered: are we doing any better at preserving our written history or modern literature for future millennia? Stone and clay tablets may be about as low-tech as you can get, but they do last. The best hard drive might not even keep data intact for 500 years.

    Despite all of our technical prowess, it seems to count for very little in preserving data over the very long term. If we assume that future generations will be able to eventually read any data storage mechanism we have, what are some options and what are the pros/cons?

    A hard disk drive stores data magnetically on glass or aluminum platters. These magnetic fields persist even after power is removed, but the fields will decay eventually. It’s difficult to say how rapidly this will occur due to environmental conditions, but some permanent magnets will lose about 1% of their strength about every 10 years. That amounts to a half-life of about 65 years. Yikes. But HDD platters are not permanent magnets, and because the magnetic fields are packed so closely they can contribute to mutual breakdown. Hard drives haven’t really been in existence long enough for us to start seeing these kinds of failures (which will occur long after mechanical failures), but it’s unlikely a hard drive will be able to store data for more than 100 years magnetically without severe data degradation.

    SSDs are not much better. They store data with static electrical charges, but these charges, like magnetic fields, will eventually break down. The breakdown will be faster the more writing is done to the device. Because SSDs are an even younger technology than hard disk drives, it’s unclear how long they might be able to last, but I wouldn’t count on more than a few hundred years in ideal conditions.

    I’m not painting a very pleasant picture for super long-term data storage here. Are we destined to lose the untold petabytes of data created by modern humans to magnetic and static charge decay? Should we start recording bits to stone tablets?

    There is hope. Yes you certainly could record things in stone (and we often still do, if you consider monuments), but data can also be stored long term on quality paper with quality ink. We do have the technology there to make that happen. Thousands of years? Possibly. Personally, though, my preference for very long term data storage is actually a twist on a fairly old technology: vinyl records. It’s a physical storage mechanism, and instead of using vinyl as the material, you can use virtually anything. We could engineer a very hard material, and imprint digital data onto the record physically and if kept in a reasonably stable environment, it should theoretically last forever. NASA thought it was good enough to use when creating the golden record sent with the Voyager space probe. For that record, they used gold-plated copper. Another reason they chose that storage mechanism is that it’s not hard to figure out how to read from it. There are no complicated digital protocols or fleeting interfaces. It could be read any number of ways.

    It’s surprising how little our advanced technology can help solve this problem, but I hope that we do. Recording history is the best way for us to keep growing and advancing.

  • A Swinging Hot Spot in Paradise

    You are visiting Key West, accompanied by your trusty iPhone and MacBook Air. Suddenly there’s an emergency at work, and you need to get online with your Mac. You can pick up a cell signal with the iPhone, but there’s no Wi-Fi that isn’t locked up. Well, my first thought might be “oh well, I’m on vacation!” but you are dedicated and need to be online.

    Don’t worry! You can use your iPhone’s cellular data plan to create a personal Wi-Fi hotspot that lets your Mac access the Internet through your iPhone. Also called “tethering,” it’s fast, easy, and can be a life-saver when you just have to get online with a Mac or your Wi-Fi-only iPad. It supports up to 5 users, too, which means you can get your team online, too!

    Before we explain how to do set up a personal hotspot, note that most but not all cellular carriers allow tethering on existing plans. For some, you might have to pay more for tethering. Keep in mind that any data consumed by your Mac while tethered will count against your data allowance and may generate overage fees. Carriers with “unlimited” data, like T-Mobile and Sprint, generally throttle your bandwidth to slower speeds if you use too much data.

    Along those lines, if you use a file sharing service like Dropbox or Google Drive, or an Internet backup service like CrashPlan or Backblaze, turn them off before connecting. Particularly if they haven’t connected in a while, those services can transfer a lot of data quickly, which could result in a hefty overage charge or awkward data throttling for the rest of the month.

    With those warnings out of the way, follow these steps in iOS 9 to turn on Personal Hotspot:

    1. On your iPhone, if you’ve never enabled the feature before, go to Settings > Cellular > Personal Hotspot. Once you’ve turned Personal Hotspot on once, it moves up a level, so you can access it from Settings > Personal Hotspot.
    1. Tap on Wi-Fi Password and enter a password that’s at least 8 characters long and easy to type. It doesn’t need to be super secure because you can keep Personal Hotspot turned off unless you’re using it. But you do want a password so random people nearby can’t connect and use your data.
    1. Once you’ve entered a password, slide the Personal Hotspot switch.

    That’s it! The Personal Hotspot screen provides basic instructions for connecting to the iPhone via Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and USB. Stick with Wi-Fi, since it’s the easiest and most reliable in most cases.

    • To connect to your new Personal Hot Spot on your Mac, click the Wi-Fi icon in the menu bar and choose your iPhone’s name.
    • On your iPad, go to Settings > Wi-Fi and choose your iPhone.
    • Enter your password when prompted, making sure to select Remember This Network. That way, you won’t even have to enter your password the next time.
    • The Mac or iPad then connects to your iPhone, showing a hotspot icon instead of the usual wave icon for the Wi-Fi menu.

    Could it get any simpler? When you’re done, the safest thing to do, to ensure you don’t accidentally end up using too much of your data allowance, is to turn off the Personal Hotspot switch in Settings > Personal Hotspot. Your Mac or iPad will automatically disconnect.

    Actually, it CAN be simpler! Your Mac can automatically use the personal hotspot on your iPhone to connect to the Internet when they’re within range of each other.

    Use Instant Hotspot on your iPhone (with iOS 8 or later) to provide internet access to your Mac computers and other iOS devices (with OS X Yosemite or iOS 8) that are in range and signed into iCloud using the same Apple ID. Instant Hotspot uses your iPhone — you don’t have to enter a password or even turn on Personal Hotspot.

    Make sure your iOS device and your Mac are signed into iCloud with the same Apple ID.

    On your Mac, click the Wi-Fi status icon in the menu bar, then choose your iPhone or iPad.

    After you connect to the iPhone or iPad Personal Hotspot, you can check the cellular signal strength and the battery status of the iPhone or iPad in the Wi-Fi status menu.

    When you’re not using using the hotspot, your devices automatically disconnect to save battery life.

    One more big advantage of Personal Hot Spots. When you are shopping for that new iPad, perhaps you don’t need the cellular model if you nearly always have your iPhone handy. That’s what I do. If I need internet access on my Wi-Fi iPad, I simply connect to my Hot Spot! Saves me the added cost of a cellular-enabled iPad and the monthly fees from the cell carrier!

  • _Dear Friends,_

    Vermont is back in the freezer as April becomes the most frustrating month for the Green Mountains. The days are longer, there is sun but it is too early to work in the garden. The roads are muddy and while the black flies haven’t awoken yet, it is hard to stay in the house but challenging to go outside.

    The iPad Pro 9.7-inch model has arrived at our stores and the initial sales have been strong. While this new iPad, at first glance, looks like the old iPad, once people start using it, playing with the Apple Pencil and realizing the advancements of this latest iPad they are hooked. Size-wise, I think that it might be ideal. The iPad Pro 12-inch model is, well it is big. The iPad mini is good for reading or checking your email abut the 9.7-inch iPad Pro is just right.

    I am very pleased to introduce the latest member of the Small Dog Team, Amy Farnsworth, who joins us as our Marketing and Design manager. Amy has strong marketing and graphic design background from her work in Utah and has recently relocated to Vermont with her husband. She says “I am a graphic designer, daydreamer, dog lover, wife, sister, best friend, Netflix junky & secret dad joke lover.” I think she will fit in fine! Please join me in welcoming Amy!

    This week’s Kibbles & Bytes exclusive features the Apple Certified Refurbished MacBook Pro. This is not a stripped down MacBook Pro but a fully-configured unit ready for your toughest challenges. It features the 2.8 GHz i7 intel processor, 16GB of ram, a 1TB hard drive and the NVIDIA 750M graphics chip driving the awesome “15-inch Retina display.”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900002189 This Macbook Pro comes with the same 1-year warranty as new Macbook Pros but we are bundling it this week with Applecare that not only extends that 1-year warranty to 3-years but also extends your 90-days of free tech support from Apple to 3-years as well. “Kibbles & Bytes readers save $100 on this bundle at only $2925.98!”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900002189

  • The airshow returns to Key West this weekend after a few years absence. It should be fun to go see the planes, the Blue Angels and other stunt pilots.

    We have gotten stock of the new 9.7-inch iPad Pro so stop into one of our stores if you want to get a hands-on look at the latest from Apple!

    Thank you for reading this issue of Kibbles & Bytes!

    Your Kibbles & Bytes Team,

    _Don, Emily & Hadley_