Kibbles & Bytes Blog

The dogs seem to have fallen right into the island life. Hammerhead, who is an English Bulldog, and not supposed to like hot weather, simply loves it down here. He likes to lay out in the sun and the tropical climate seems to do wonders for his skin. Of course, the old boy is a bit slow getting around and it is a major production to walk from where I park my car to our store. He’s not fast enough to catch any of those chickens but at least he gets a little exercise.

Have a scary Halloween! BOO!

Thanks for reading this issue of Kibbles & Bytes!

Your Kibbles & Bytes Team,

_Don, Dean, Scott_

Here at Small Dog, we take Halloween very seriously and we need your help deciding which one of us deserves Best Costume this year. “**Vote and you’ll be entered for a chance to win an iPod nano!**”:http://www.smalldog.com/contest/halloween-2015 Winner will be chosen Monday with voting going through Sunday. Happy Halloween!

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Apple released their 4th quarter financial results and their annual results this week and it what has become a quarterly ritual Apple blew by all of the analyst’s predictions for quarterly sales and profits while providing guidance for their 1st Fiscal Quarter that was very strong especially given the huge quarter they had during the holidays last year. Apple posted revenues for the quarter ending on September 30 of $51.5 billion compared to $42.1 billion a year ago. They posted profits of $11.1 billion or $1.96 per diluted share compared to a profit of $8.5 billion and $1.42 per share last year. That made it the best 4th Quarter for Apple ever.

Gross margin was up at 39.9% and international sales were 62% of the revenue. Apple declared a $0.52 dividend and announced that they had $205.6 billion in cash and marketable securities, most of which is held overseas.

If you look at the whole year for Apple, they generated $233.7 billion in sales (clearly a new record for Apple) and $53.4 billion in profit. They predicted that sales would be in the neighborhood of $76 billion with gross margin staying at around 39%.

These numbers are actually even a little better as Apple is reducing revenue recorded for the iPhone upgrade program at the time of the sale and deferring some earnings for each iPhone sold.

Tim Cook talked about Apple impact upon the enterprise market and talked about IBM. IBM now has some 30,000 Macs and growing each week. They have determined what we knew all along that Macs save money! IBM has calculated that Macs save about $270 per Mac versus a traditional PC due to reduced support cost and higher residual value. But we already knew that – it is good that IBM finally gets it, too. Over the last 12 months enterprise business has represented about $25 billion in revenue or a bit over 10% of overall sales.

Total R&D expense in fiscal 2015 was $8.1 billion compared to $6 billion in 2014 and only $3.4 billion in 2012. Apple increased its payroll, now with 110,000 employees versus 92,600 last year.

Apple has paid out over $32.9 billion in dividends to the shareholders of the past three years and $11.4 billion in 2015. That is more than many states’ budgets. Apple also increased shareholder value by buying up over $104 billion of its stock at the bargain prices over the past several months and $14 billion in the 4th quarter alone.

During the quarter Apple sold 48 million iPhones, 5.7 million Macs and an estimate $1.7 billion of Apple watches. They have sold over 300 million devices over the last 12 months. The 5.7 million Macs was an all-time record and Mac revenue was up 4 %. This is at a time with the overall PC market is in decline. iPad sales continued to decline, however, with 9.8 million iPads sold in the year and about $4.3 billion in revenue. However, Apple remains upbeat about the iPad and will expand the iPad line-up next month with the release of the iPad Pro. I think that the upgrade cycle for iPads is more like the upgrade cycle for Macs than the upgrade cycle for iPhones and that may explain some of this decline. Larger iPhones may also lead some to feel that an iPad is not necessary.

Another amazing chapter written in the Apple story. With the naysayers on Wall Street beating down the stock with false concerns, Apple continues to provide first-class products in increasing numbers around the world while investing in future developments that should ensure more success like they have posted with these financial results. We have seen some hints that Apple is thinking about more than profit and I hope that they continue to innovate in a way that improves the lives of people around the world. Innovations such as ResearchKit are important as are Apple’s efforts to use renewable energy sources to power their facilities. As the world’s strongest company they have a big responsibility to lead in corporate responsibility and sustainability.

Once again congratulations to Tim Cook and the whole Apple team for an amazing quarter and fantastic products!

Before I left Vermont I grabbed one of the new Magic Trackpad 2s. When I tried to use it back in Vermont it didn’t seem to be working right so I packed it away and figured that I would deal with it when I got down here. Well, it turns out that the developer’s beta version of El Capitan did not support the Magic Trackpad 2 so I ended up downgrading my operating system to the release version and that solved the problem. Before I figured that out, the Magic Trackpad 2 acted like a single button mouse and that is the icon that showed up when it was connected, but now I have all the new features.

Pairing is automatic. You simply connect the Magic Trackpad 2 to your Mac with the included USB/Lightning cable and it is paired. That is also the way that you charge the trackpad and it can be used in wired mode while it is charging, too. Force Touch is something you have to get used to when you are working. There are a few times when I have clicked a bit too hard and get the contextual menu or the definition of a word. On the other hand, the added benefits are worth the learning curve. You can set the click sensitivity from light to medium to firm and if you are longing for that old trackpad you can turn off Force Click entirely – but don’t do that. I find the medium setting good for my use although some may find that even a bit too firm.

Force Clicking is useful for a number of things right now but I am sure that Apple and 3rd-party developers will find more uses soon. Just like on the iPhone 6s you can use Force Click to:

* Force Click on an icon in the Dock to expose the app’s windows, a file icon to use Quick Look, or a file’s name to change it.
* Force Click on a word to look it up in Dictionary or Wikipedia, an address to get a Maps preview, or a location to drop a pin.
* Force Click on a date to add it to Calendar, an event to see details, and an invitee to preview their contact card.
* Force Click on a link to preview a web site, an image or PDF to invoke Markup, or an iMessage conversation to see details.

I really like the increased size of the trackpad and it has become easier to use as I become used to the new features. I have always been fond of alternative pointing devices. I don’t like mice much and have always used rollerballs or trackpads. Now with Force Click on the Magic Trackpad 2, I think I may have the ideal pointing device.

_Dear Friends,_

The ride down I-95 was uneventful and the dogs were such good travelers. My car has Infiniti Personal Assistant, sort of like a live Siri. As we neared the end of the drive each day, we would push the button and ask for a dog-friendly hotel. Once they found one for us they would send the directions right to my car’s GPS. It made the trip just a bit easier. We got to Key West just in time for the annual Zombie bike ride where this year some 20,000 bicycle riders dressed as zombies pedaled through the streets of Key West bumbling something about needing brains.

Chickens have taken over the yard. Here in Key West there are lots of wild chickens everywhere and I guess they figured my yard wasn’t being used so they moved in. The dogs are having fun chasing them out of the yard but one flew and landed on the umbrella on the deck and ripped a big hole in it. Grace is in heaven, though, as she loves chickens.

Apple released their 4th quarter financial results this week and once again posted a phenomenal quarter. As they say on NPR’s Marketplace – we’ll do the numbers below. It was a record-breaking quarter and a record-breaking fiscal year. Now with $206 billion in cash Apple is continuing to innovate and create tools that make our lives easier. They have significantly increased their spending on research and development so I am confident that the pipeline of new products will be strong and we are really still just at the beginning of the Apple story. Congratulations to the Apple team for an extraordinary quarter!

The week’s Kibbles & Bytes exclusive is a Hammerhead bundle. This bundle is one dual-port USB charger for your home, one dual-port USB charger for your car and two Hammerhead Apple-licensed MFI braided Lightning cables. This bundle is normally $72.96 but this week for Kibbles & Bytes readers you can “**save $15 – all four pieces for only $57.96!**”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900001999/special-save-15-on-hammerhead-bundle