Kibbles & Bytes Blog

  • _Dear Friends,_

    Definitely some weird weather in Vermont. One day it is below 0 F and the next day it is in the 40’s and raining. It makes for some tricky driving as wet pavement can hide some black ice. Hopefully as we enter March there will be some snow because the ski areas and local merchants are suffering from the weird weather. We can take a lot of snow and freezing temperatures but this freeze/thaw cycle is just annoying.

    Apple has very strong hardware sales but their hidden gem may be the recurring revenue streams that they develop. Of course, we know about the 11 million+ subscribers to Apple Music that pay a monthly fee and the iCloud storage fees but there are other much larger streams that provide Apple with consistent revenue. The iPhone is a big one that has two parts to it – on the one hand, people want to upgrade to the latest iPhone and that upgrade business is huge. There is also Apple’s new financing of iPhones that spreads the cost of the iPhone over several months and allows much easier iPhone upgrades. The carriers are also offering these easy upgrade programs which enhances the recurring revenue stream. It is sort of like printing money.

    This week’s Kibbles & Bytes exclusive features the “**Apple Factory Reconditioned 21.5-inch iMac**”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900002159 with 2.7GHz i5 processor, 8GB of ram and a big 1TB drive. We are bundling this with the AppleCare Protection Plan which extends Apple’s 1-year warranty to 3-years and extends your 90-days of free technical support from Apple from 90-days to 3-years. To complete this bundle because we always want you to have a backup of your personal data, we are including the Apple Factory Reconditioned 2TB Time Capsule. The Time Capsule is the combination of an Airport Extreme base station and 2TB hard drive. Because you are buying it at the same time as the iMac it is also covered for 3-years by AppleCare! Normally, if you bought this bundle new it would cost $1769, bought normally as Apple Refurbished it would be $1399 but this week for Kibbles & Bytes readers you can get this great deal on an iMac with Time Capsule and AppleCare for only “**$1299.99!**”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900002159

  • Airmail for iPhone

    As you may know, I have been using the Airmail mail client for some time and am a big fan of this alternative…

  • Motorcycling down here is sort of boring. I have my bike all tuned up but there is literally only one road and the fastest speed limit in Key West is 30mph. I think we may have to trade in Grace’s Vespa to get a real motorcycle for her so we can take some longer trips down here.

    Pitchers and catchers reported for spring training and the Cubs Kyle Schwarber is already breaking windshields in Arizona at the Cubs park. Maybe this year?

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

    Your Kibbles & Bytes Team,

    _Don, Emily, & Hadley_

  • Cable TV: Cutting the Cord

    I remember when I was a kid, once a year the local library would put on a challenge to not watch TV for one whole week. This was always a huge challenge for pre-teen me. I lived for cartoons (especially after school) even if it was mostly PBS because we didn’t have cable.

    Jump 15 years into the future and I don’t have cable or satellite at my house. I don’t even really have a proper TV (“**I use a gorgeous and power efficient Samsung 27-inch monitor**”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/82971/samsung-s27c450d-27in-lcd-1920×1080-monitor). Do I miss TV? Not even a little bit. The solutions available nowadays, often for far less money per month than a cable bill, are numerous and far more flexible than traditional TV ever was.

    At this point, I really do think it’s possible to drop something like a cable subscription entirely. I’ve tried to convince my parents to do this, but I think it’s usually my dad that says he needs the sports channels. As long as you have high-speed internet, you can pretty much replace TV with streaming solutions. Oh, and of course, the best part about most streaming solutions is the lack of commercials.

    While you can stream with pretty much anything, an “**Apple TV**”:http://www.smalldog.com/category/Apple/Apple_TV makes a great base for building up a solution that will work for you. First, the Apple TV can easily connect to popular streaming services like Netflix and Hulu. Second, it also allows you to use AirPlay to stream to your TV from your iPad or Mac. I know in my case, I have seasons 3-11 of The Simpsons on DVD that I’ve since ripped so I can watch them on my MacBook Air. Now via AirPlay I can easily watch them on my TV.

    What many people don’t realize is that these days, there are also a lot of live streams for certain things. YouTube has live streams and will often host streams of political events or debates. If you’re into a particular show that’s currently being produced on a major network, chances are it’ll be available online within a week of airing, if not immediately in some cases. I think once you get used to a staggered delivery schedule for your favorite show, it’s really not a big deal. When I went off to college, I kept up with the entirety of House on Hulu and I never even noticed the 7-day episode lag.

    The one catch to all this is that streaming does require a high speed internet solution…which is probably going to come from the same company who previously supplied your cable TV. So does that mean this whole thing is a wash? Not necessarily. Typically, internet-only subscriptions cost less than internet + TV, or even just TV. While it isn’t the case in most of Vermont yet, many people will generally have a better range of options when it comes to internet. You can use cable, DSL (usually fast enough for SD streaming), or fiber if you have that in your area. Plus, don’t discount the extra value of being able to decide what to watch and when without any commercials or restrictions.

    So I’d suggest really analyzing your TV viewing habits to see if switching over to an internet-only solution might work better for you. I did, and I’ve never looked back.

  • Sonos and Apple Music

    A little over a week ago things became official: Apple Music is now available to those who use “**Sonos.**”:http://www.smalldog.com/category/?mmfg%5B0%5D=Sonos For some of us this wasn’t a huge announcement. I have been using the beta version now for several months and have been enjoying my Apple Music playlists as well as my own personal play lists on my iPhone. I have been a huge fan of Sonos for about two years and not being able to listen to Apple Music was my one complaint about the system, but not anymore!

    Apple Music isn’t the only great thing about Sonos either, did you know that you can also control your Sonos system from your computer? I admit, I didn’t realize this at first. With a huge focus on how easy the system is to set up and control from your iPad or iPhone, this is one feature that’s often overlooked. With a simple “App download”:http://www.sonos.com/controller-app on your computer, you can open up your entire (in most cases) music library for listening through your Sonos system. Another great feature of the Sonos App is the ability to set a sleep timer. If your someone who enjoys falling asleep to music, but prefers it doesn’t stay on all night this is a huge feature even if it is a bit hidden. The more info icon within the Sonos App hides a lot of features, including the sleep timer.

  • B.B. King – The King of the Blues

    For more than half a century, Riley B. King – better known as B.B. King – defined the blues for a worldwide audience. Since he started recording in the 1940s, he has released over fifty albums, many of them classics. He was born September 16, 1925, on a plantation in Itta Bena, Mississippi, near Indianola. In his youth, he played on street corners for dimes, and would sometimes play in as many as four towns a night. In 1947, he hitchhiked to Memphis, TN to pursue his music career. Memphis was where every important musician of The South gravitated, and it supported a large musical community where every style of African American music could be found. B.B. stayed with his cousin Bukka White, one of the most celebrated blues performers of his time, who schooled B.B. further in the art of the blues.

    B.B.’s first big break came in 1948 when he performed on Sonny Boy Williamson’s radio program on KWEM out of West Memphis. This led to steady engagements at the Sixteenth Avenue Grill in West Memphis, and later to a ten-minute spot on black-staffed and managed Memphis radio station WDIA. “King’s Spot,” became so popular, it was expanded and became the “Sepia Swing Club.” Soon B.B. needed a catchy radio name. What started out as Beale Street Blues Boy was shortened to Blues Boy King, and eventually B.B. King.

    In the mid-1950s, while B.B. was performing at a dance in Twist, Arkansas, a few fans became unruly. Two men got into a fight and knocked over a kerosene stove, setting fire to the hall. B.B. raced outdoors to safety with everyone else, then realized that he left his beloved $30 acoustic guitar inside, so he rushed back inside the burning building to retrieve it, narrowly escaping death. When he later found out that the fight had been over a woman named Lucille, he decided to give the name to his guitar to remind him never to do a crazy thing like fight over a woman. Ever since, each one of B.B.’s trademark Gibson guitars has been called Lucille.

    B.B. was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame in 1984 and into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987. He received NARAS’ Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award in 1987, and has received honorary doctorates from Tougaloo(MS) College in 1973; Yale University in 1977; Berklee College of Music in 1982; Rhodes College of Memphis in 1990; Mississippi Valley State University in 2002 and Brown University in 2007. In 1992, he received the National Award of Distinction from the University of Mississippi.

    B.B. King came to Vermont many times and I had the pleasure of being at several of his concerts. He died last year at the age of 90 and was performing to sold out crowds right up until he died. B.B. King is gone but the –The Thrill is Gone- lives forever.

  • _Dear Friends,_

    The trip up the the Everglades was pretty uneventful although we did see alligators and eagles as we were watching nature go by. Grace wants to go back up for an airboat ride so we will have to put that on the list.

    I am very happy to report that Small Dog Electronics now offers Go-Pro cameras and accessories. It took us many tries but I was able to meet with someone that could make a decision at CES in Las Vegas so we are now all set and Go-Pro should be in all of our stores. We’ll feature skiing and motorcycling kits up in the Green Mountains and some surf-oriented bundles down in Key West.

    I guess this should be in a soapbox but I just want to make a quick statement that I feel that Tim Cook and Apple are 100% correct in resisting the government’s attempt to force them to create software to defeat the encryption inherent in the iPhone. One of Apple’s most valuable commodities is safety. You know when you buy an Apple product that your data is safe. Safe from most viruses, malware, ransomware and also that your private data remains just that…private. While I certainly sympathize with those investigating the horrible San Bernadino terrorist actions, I do not feel that we should pay an even higher price and sacrifice our liberty and privacy as a result. Bravo to Tim Cook and Apple.

    This week’s Kibbles & Bytes exclusive is the “**Tempus Pro Weather Station.**”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900002092 This complete wireless weather station has been one of out best selling devices. It combines an indoor monitoring station with an outdoor instrument and an iPhone or iPad App to give you complete weather information. It includes sensors for indoor and outdoor temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, rainfall and wind speed. It is simple to install and works by Bluetooth between the outdoor and indoor sensor and Wi-Fi to your iPhone. This is normally $159.99 but for this week for Kibbles & Bytes readers it is “**$25 off at $134.99!**”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900002092

  • Scott Markoski

    Pets: An aquarium of neon tetras. Hobbies/Interests: Cycling, cars, piano, Android development, rally racing, vinyl. Favorite Books: 1984, One Man’s Wilderness. Favorite Bands/Artists:…

  • Terminal Tidbits: mdfind

    Last week we discussed the *locate* command, and the week before, the *find* command. This week I will talk about *mdfind*: how to use it, and how it differs from the previous two commands.

    *mdfind* indexes files on your OS that are used with Spotlight. It also searches user and system files by default and will even allow the user to search by file content and name. It is a bit more comprehensive than both the *locate* and *find* commands. The *mdfind* syntax is as follows:

    *mdfind name*

    I deal with a lot of invoices at work and often am searching for the correct one. *mdfind* helps out a lot in this regard. I need to find an invoice that was made for a local airport. I can’t remember the name but I do remember where it is located. First I navigated into my desktop folder, next I ran the command *mdfind invoice*. As you can see I have more results than I want.

    !http://blog.smalldog.com/images/4666.png!

    I need to narrow down the search by providing a term. Since I am looking for an invoice related to airport, I will include that in the command. All words used in the search term are and’d together. Because of this I need to pass them as one argument and use double quotes. Now take a look at what it returns; the only invoice matching what I need.

    !http://blog.smalldog.com/images/4667.png!

    The main purpose of these last three TT articles was just to show you how powerful Terminal can be, but I in no way have even scratched the surface. Please try and use these three commands to search for things you already know are there to get a hand of it, and then expand by using the “man find” command. Running “man” in front of any command will bring you to that specific commands manual page allowing you to see more in depth examples.

  • Surf Safe: A Cautionary Tale

    One of my first TT articles was a piece on a cold calling scam where someone would call you out of the blue and say that you have an issue with your computer and they had a fix: “Just let me remote in, install some software and for ONLY 200 dollars all of your problems are gone!” In the article I mentioned that this called a “phishing scam.” Well folks today we’ll talk about essentially the same scam but different rods and bait.

    The scammers have gotten more high tech and are taking more risks. Instead of cold calling people out of blue, they are DNS hijacking (that is a whole other can of worms) advertising servers and are then using their scripts instead of the real code. If you accidentally click on one of these pages, you will get their script using event handlers which consist of a “alert command” and a “ONLOAD command” which display a message such as: “Your Macintosh has been infected!!! Please call this number for further assistance.”

    Now working as a technician, I have heard many times that a customer let a stranger remote in to fix a problem that didn’t exist. I wondered “what is the end game here?” When one of these victims came in to make sure her computer was safe to use, she still had the number that she called handy. I decided to play the victim and call to see what happens.

    Before I did this, I did some prep work. First I used a fresh install of OS X with no third party software. I dd not use my home or work wifi network; I used a public one. Now I was all set up with a fresh copy of El Capitan on a MacBook Pro 2010 and phone number in hand.

    I dialed the 1-888 number provided and a nice person answered: “Hello, this is Rebecca. I’m with from COMPANY X. What is your issue?” I replied in a scared tone that I was surfing the web and got a pop-up on my screen that my Mac was in trouble and might you be able to help? “Sure, sir, we can help!” she responded.

    She instructed me to go to a website which was very primitive; just a page with three links: remote help for Windows, Mac, and Linux. The link installed a program called Team Viewer. She took control of my machine and opened System Preferences and a Terminal window and ran the *netstat* command, which is used for finding problems in the network and to determine the amount of traffic on the network as a performance measurement. It has NOTHING to do with malware, but she insisted that the other computers on this public wifi network were the “bad guys” trying to get into my machine. Then, in System Preferences she clicked on Security and Privacy and showed that a firewall was not installed, and she said she could transfer me to a technician and for a mere $199.99 they could fix it!

    At this point I decided to let her know that she was talking to a IT professional and hung up the phone. As soon as I hung up, I quickly disconnect the remote session and started to run malware scans. The scans came back clean; these scammers just wanted to scare a credit card number out of me.

    Don’t let them fool you! If you think your computer may have a problem, give us a call instead.

  • Charge Safe with a REAL MagSafe

    Most of us have had the need to buy a second MagSafe charger for our Apple laptop at some point. Maybe our old charger has worn out over the years of use, or we simply want an additional one to keep at our home or workplace.

    There are many different types of MagSafe chargers for sale on various websites. Many of the chargers that can be found for sale are not manufactured by Apple. These third-party chargers are typically much cheaper than the official Apple chargers, but can be dangerous to use. Third-party MagSafe chargers can shorten the life of your computer’s battery, or even damage the computer by causing the battery to expand. Expanding batteries can damage the main logic board, top case, or other expensive components of the laptop. There have even been reports of third-party MagSafe adapters igniting during normal use.

    It is always recommended to use an official Apple MagSafe charger if one is available. You can ensure that you will receive an official charger by ordering directly from Apple or from an Apple Authorized Reseller like Small Dog Electronics.