Kibbles & Bytes Blog

  • Outdoor Tech!

    We carry the Outdoor Tech line here at Small Dog Electronics and it’s quickly turning into one of our best selling portable speaker brands! They offer a great line up of headphones from wired to wireless and a full line of Bluetooth speakers. In addition to headphones and speakers they offer power banks for all weather and many products are water resistant. Our favorite product is the New Kodiak Mini power bank.
    If you don’t own a portable power bank, what exactly have you been waiting for? They’re an on-the-go energy outlet that allows you to keep moving when your phone is running low without having to stop and look for an outlet to plug it into. If that’s not enough, here are more ways they come in handy in a pinch. You can slip a Kodiak Mini into your back pocket and never notice it’s there. It’s great for those times you want to take a charge with you on your next cycling trip. If you find yourself at a lake and decide to dive in, don’t worry, these things are water-resistant too! The Kodiak series of power banks are small enough you can easily pack them for a weekend camping trip. You’re going to need some tunes while you’re lounging around the campfire. Power banks can recharge your iPod up to two or three separate times, so you can keep cranking up the volume.

  • Some of our favorite new features in iOS 9

    iOS 9 is Apple’s newest operating system for iOS devices. Introduced at WWDC in June and set to release this fall, iOS 9 builds on the content introduced with iOS 7 and iOS 8, bringing subtle design changes, refined features, improved functionality, and performance enhancements. iOS 9’s biggest focus is on intelligence and proactivity, allowing iOS devices to learn user habits and act on that information. Opening up apps before we need them, making recommendations on places we might like, and guiding us through our daily lives to make sure we’re where we need to be at the right time.

    Siri is at the heart of the changes, and the personal assistant is now able to create reminders and search through photos and videos in new ways. Swiping left from the home screen also brings up a new screen that houses Siri Suggestions putting favorite contacts and apps right at your fingertips, along with nearby restaurant and location information and important news. Deeper search capabilities can bring up results like sports scores, videos, and content from third-party apps. Notes now includes new checklists and sketching features. Maps now offers transit directions. Mail allows for file attachments. There’s even a new News App that learns your interests and delivers relevant content you might like to read. Apple Pay is being improved with the addition of store credit cards and loyalty cards, leading Passbook to be renamed to Wallet in iOS 9.

    Apple’s described iOS 9 as being more “**intelligent**”:https://www.apple.com/ios/ios9-preview/#siri thanks largely to Proactive Suggestions. Proactive Suggestions, the major feature addition in iOS 9, turn the iPhone into a lifestyle management tool and make Apple’s personal assistant Siri more responsive and able to complete more tasks than ever before. Proactive suggestions are system-wide and will work in a myriad of ways, offering up apps and recommendations at appropriate times. For example, if you often listen to music in the morning, iOS 9 will automatically open the Music app to a favorite playlist when you plug in your headphones. If you always open up the weather app to check what’s going on outside, it might open it automatically after your alarm goes off. “**Split-screen multitasking**”:https://www.apple.com/ios/ios9-preview/#ipad has been a much anticipated feature for the iPad that’s been rumored to be in the works for over a year. With Split-screen multitasking, it’s possible to use two different iOS apps on the same screen, so you can read a website while on a FaceTime call, or watch a video while composing a message in Mail. iOS 9 includes three different multitasking features: Slide Over, Split View, and Picture in Picture. Slide Over can be activated within any app by swiping left from the right side of the iPad. This gesture brings up a small side pane that displays a secondary app alongside the first app, in a 1/3 screen space arrangement. Choosing a new app for the side pane can be done by swiping downwards from the top of the screen within the pane.

    So, as you can see it’s going to be awesome! Can’t wait until the fall for the new OS? The “**public beta**”:https://beta.apple.com/sp/betaprogram/ is available now for those wanting to get their hands on it early!

  • August in store Events!

    We are pleased to announce special in-store events happening in our South Burlington location during the month of August. We have teamed together with some of our favorite products and manufacturers to have these events for our customers. Visit our South Burlington location on the Saturdays below and not only take advantage of special deals, but also take advantage of our product experts! Not able to join us in store that day? You might miss out on some special one day only opportunities, but you won’t be left out! We will be running special promotions on these brands throughout August no matter which retail location you visit!

    **Seagate special event Saturday Aug 15 10am to 2pm** at 100 Dorset St, South Burlington Vt

    **OutDoor Tech special event Saturday Aug 29th 10am to 2pm** at 100 Dorset St, South Burlington Vt

  • Greetings from the humid city of South Burlington! 

    Things are busy as always at the South Burlington store, but we’ve had a lot of fun this summer, especially with the new Apple products like the MacBook. Coming soon, arriving any day now is the new “**iPod touch**”:http://www.smalldog.com/iPods, which features an upgrade to the A8 processor chip, an 8 megapixel iSight camera, all new colors and more! To go with the new iPod we’ve seen an increase in portable bluetooth speaker sales, especially the Outdoor Tech lineup, some of which are completely waterproof! We’ve had a lot of luck with Outdoor Tech over the past year and we’re looking forward to in-store events with both Outdoor Tech and Seagate.

    As you may have read in last month’s Best in Show, we’ve now partnered with SafeWare to offer an accidental damage protection plan with your new Mac. For the “**Dog Days of Summer promotion**”:http://www.smalldog.com/dogdaysofsummer/summer-sales, we’re including **free SafeWare accidental damage coverage** with the purchase of a new Mac and AppleCare. With the summer festivities in full swing, it’s reassuring to have that kind of coverage! 

    Enjoy this edition of Best in Show, and make sure to say hi next time you’re in South Burlington!

    Patrick McCormick
    “patrickm@smalldog.com”:mailto:patrickm@smalldog.com

  • There is something about long-distance motorcycle touring that is gratifying and fulfilling for me. Whether it is the necessity of heightened senses and safety or the freedom of the road, being out on the road with no deadline and breaking the normal routine is exciting and relaxing. We search for the interesting 2-lane roads, avoid cities and highways and end up meeting new people and places.

    Thanks for reading this issue of Kibbles & Bytes!

    Your Kibbles & Bytes Team,

    _Don, Dean, Emily & Scott_

  • LifeProof – Dive In!

    iPhone users have access to some incredible cases from large manufactures like “**Griffin**”:http://www.smalldog.com/category/?mmfg%5B0%5D=Griffin+Technology, “**Otterbox**”:http://www.smalldog.com/category/?mmfg%5B0%5D=OtterBox, “**LifeProof**”:http://www.smalldog.com/category/?mmfg%5B0%5D=LifeProof, and “**Speck**”:http://www.smalldog.com/category/?mmfg%5B0%5D=Speck. There are even those that are more unique and made out of wood, recycled aluminum, carbon fiber, and many finely crafted materials. As our buyer I’ve always wondered what goes into making a case selection. Do you simply purchase one case for everyday needs? Or maybe you buy the same case in multiple colors to match that day’s outfit? With the wide variety of sleek and slim to burly and drop-proof maybe you have a case for the different activities you engage in?

    I find that no one case can serve all my needs, but that’s ok, because there is a case made for all the activities I enjoy. Most recently I went on a trip on Green River Reservoir and realized my sleek and slim case wasn’t going to cut it out on the water. I reached out to our friends at LifeProof for an answer. They recommended the Nuud for iPhone 6. For those readers that may not be familiar with LifeProof, it’s just that: life proof. Their cases are made to withstand whatever life throws at them, be it falls, water, dust, mud, etc. LifeProof has built both their “**Fre and Nuud cases**”:http://www.smalldog.com/category/?mmfg%5B0%5D=LifeProof&mc%5B0%5D=iPhone_Accessories to withstand it all be it for your iPad, iPad mini, or iPhone 4/5/6. They’ll keep it safe in the most extreme conditions.

    !{display: block;margin-left: auto;margin-right: auto;}http://blog.smalldog.com/images/4480.jpg!

    My friends use the Fre but I noticed there was one big thing missing on the Nuud: a screen protector. I quickly had a “duh moment” and realized that was the point. It used the glass on the phone to create a waterproof seal. I was skeptical to say the least. I have a 128GB iPhone 6 and am going to put it in the water? First things first, backup your iPhone! Secondly, going against all my manly instincts I read the instructions and found they included a piece to preform a water test. You need to do this. Check all the seals, place included test piece inside and seal it up. Place the case under water for thirty minutes. I took it out, and sure enough it was dry as a bone.

    This still didn’t make putting my iPhone in the water any easier. After airdropping my photos to my iPad I felt confident that I wouldn’t lose anything (well, besides my iPhone). Fear not, it was a success. I’ve included some photos from my excursion. What a great case! The initial test was scary but after that I couldn’t get enough. The reservoir wasn’t as clear as a river may have been but it was still amazing to take videos and photos underwater. I also have to note that all the photos I took during the trip were taken with the case on and look great. I say that because I feared the case covering the lens would affect the photo quality. I can’t wait to get out on the river and take some more awesome photos this summer. If you’re headed out on the water this summer, be smart and protect your tech from all life can throw at it with a case from LifeProof.

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  • El Capitan

    As I mentioned I have been using the beta version of Mac OS X 10.11 for some weeks and I thought, now that the public beta is released, that it might be a good time to review what’s new in El Capitan. I am going to do this by highlighting a few of the features that I already use and have become such a part of my Mac experience that they don’t seem new anymore.

    **Shut up!**

    What is more annoying than following a link to a web site and suddenly being bombarded with some automatically started video blasting audio? If you are like me, you may have several tabs open in Safari and finding that annoying one has been a pain. Well with El Capitan it is simple. When one of those tabs has audio, the tab shows the audio button and you can click on it to mute the audio. The address bar also has an audio icon where you can mute all or select which audio stream to mute or listen to.

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    **Notable**

    The Notes app is so improved that I am actually using it more extensively now. Most importantly, a note I create on my iPhone is available on my Mac or iPad. Not only that but the things I can put into my notes are actually useful. I can add a photo, a URL, a map location or even a video to a note and it is on all my devices. Checklists, websites, ideas for the next Kibbles & Bytes and directions can all be saved. As I am planning my trip out west and find interesting places to go or places to spend the night, I can add them to my “Sturgis” note and easily use Maps to guide me to them. I think you are going to love the new Notes app.

    **Spotlight**

    Spotlight is just better. Who needs Google when you have Spotlight? Whether you are searching for a file on your drive, baseball statistics, transit information, weather, stocks or just some obscure trivia to settle a bet Spotlight is there for you and now you can ask that question in you own words. Like, “find that Note I wrote about Sturgis” and boom, there it is. Here’s a list of all the places you can search with Spotlight in El Capitan. You can turn these on and off as needed:

    Applications
    Bing Web Searches
    Bookmarks and History
    Calculator
    Contacts
    Conversion
    Definition
    Developer
    Documents
    Events & Reminders
    Folders
    Fonts
    Images
    Mail & Messages
    Movies
    Music
    Other
    PDF Documents
    Presentations
    Spotlight Suggestions
    Spreadsheets
    System Preferences

    **Shake that Thing**

    I use a dual monitor set up. I have an Apple 27-inch display and a stand for my MacBook Air that makes for one large extended desktop. Sometimes, I lose my cursor and that sometimes leads to inadvertent clicks. I never thought I would say that I would find this trick useful but with El Capitan if you jiggle your mouse or trackpad your cursor grows bigger and becomes apparent so you can get back on track.

    I’ll cover more of the new features in Kibbles & Bytes as we head towards the official release of El Capitan.

  • _Dear Friends,_

    As you read this I am heading off through northern New York and Ontario to South Dakota for the 75th annual motorcycle rally at Sturgis. I am bringing my full compliment of technology with me and I am sure it will get a good workout especially the travel and navigation apps. Our current plan is to head to the UP in Michigan, stop at the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore before we head into Wisconsin and head west through Minnesota and North Dakota and then south to Sturgis. We’ll say hello to Mt. Rushmore and Devil’s Tower, see a bajillion motorcycles and ride the Black Hills before we meander a bit to Colorado and then head back east.

    I have been using the developer’s versions of iOS9 and OS 10.11 El Capitan and as with other betas they keep getting better and better and closer to being ready for prime time. I found a bug in iOS9 that prevented my Kirkland Signature 6.0 hearing aids from pairing with my iPhone. I was missing out on some of the handy features for a couple weeks. I submitted a bug report to Apple and it was followed up upon and the latest release resolved the issue. Now I can stream my calls, music and content directly to the hearing aids. This was particularly handy as I was using GoToMeeting to interview candidates for the VBSR Executive Director opening.

    Speaking of job openings, Small Dog Electronics has several openings for service techs, retail staff and marketing assistance. You can always see our latest openings at “**smalldog.com/jobs**”:http://smalldog.com/jobs.

    This week’s Kibbles & Bytes special is a first-come, first-served ancient Mac special. We have seven used Mac Pros from way back in 2006. They only have a power-on warranty, will run Mac OS X 10.7.5 but nothing later. They have a 2.66GHz processor, 2GB of RAM, 250GB drive and a SuperDrive. No keyboard or mouse. Apple’s part # for these as MA356LL/A. Okay, I did say they were ancient, right? How’s $199 each for a “**piece of history**”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900001924/?

  • I am taking a ride over to the Adirondacks on Saturday over to the Indian dealer so my friend can get her 500 mile service on her Scout before we leave on the big trip to South Dakota next week. Looks like great weather this weekend. I hope you have an awesome weekend and thank you for reading this issue of Kibbles & Bytes!

    Your Kibbles & Bytes Team,

    _Don, Dean & Scott_

  • Setting up Parental Controls

    Our devices are powerful tools. They provide us with endless resource options and allow us to create just about anything from anywhere. With power also comes the ability for young users to access information and content we might not want them to. Thankfully both Mac OS X and iOS on iPad and iPhones have fairly robust parental controls. I recently set up restrictions on both my Mac mini and my kids’ iPad to ensure I didn’t have to worry about what they were seeing or doing when using these devices.

    Admittedly the OS X operating system has significantly more options for restrictions and settings when it comes to parental controls. As many of us know, Mac OS X allows you to set up multiple users with different access levels, and managed parental control is one of them. Setting up a new user on your Mac is very easy. From your admin account simply go to **system preferences > users & groups** and select the **+** sign. From here you can easily set up a new account that specifically is set up as **Managed with Parental Controls,** and create a new user ID and password for the new account. This account will have a password associated with it, so make sure it’s not the same as the admin password.

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    From here you can quickly and easily set multiple levels of controls such as restricting adult content on websites, what applications the user can access, and even setting time limits. For my purposes I set up my kids’ account to only be able to access specific websites. Apple makes this easy by starting you out with a default list of a dozen or so approved sites. You can add to this list or remove them all together and add your own sites. To ensure my settings were correct I tried to visit a website that was not in the list and I was quickly denied access. One great feature to this is that it does give you the ability to approve a website to the list without switching user accounts. All that you need to do is enter the admin username and password to quickly update the list. To further set up restrictions you can access **parental controls** from system preferences and adjust restrictions as needed. You can limit the time of day the user can access the machine with time limit, which applications on the computer they can or cannot access and even “**manage controls from another computer.**”:https://support.apple.com/kb/PH18571?locale=en_US

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    With iOS you can also set up a number of restrictions as well. In my opinion the settings on the iPad are not as convenient as those within OS X. The biggest limitation is that you cannot set up for an individual user, so any restrictions apply to the iPad or iPhone itself. Nonetheless they are very effective and simple to set up. Simply go to **settings > general > restrictions.** From here you will be asked to set up a PIN code to access and update the restrictions and can customize many options from disabling Safari or the App store to restricting explicit lyrics. In my testing I did find some more refined restrictions such as age limits on Apps were not as effective as I had hoped. I did hope to restrict my kids from my FaceBook App by using age restrictions but regretfully it was still accessible. However you can easily restrict specific websites or even location services like you can within OS X.

    While I admit I do prefer the options within OS X, it’s good to know that no matter what Apple device your kids are using there are several options available to parents to control the content and usage of those devices. While in my house my kids might not be thrilled with the new settings, as a parent, I am much more comfortable when I hand over a device to them!

  • Apple Confuses the Street

    So, if you had over $220 billion in the bank, just posted a $10.7 billion profit on nearly $50 billion in sales and achieved a 75% market share in a totally new category you might say that is good news, right? Apple posted record 3rd quarter sales – the best in the company’s history, they increased sales and profit by over 33% year-over-year, and beat their own estimates for the quarter. Apple’s Mac sales went up 9% when all other computer manufacturers’ were declining by double digits. They sold 47.5 million iPhones and beat the Wall Street earnings estimate of $1.81 per share by posting $1.85 per share. Oh yeah, while they didn’t release actual numbers it is apparent that somewhere around 2-4 million Apple watches were sold in the face of constrained supply for much of the quarter. That’s more than either the initial sales of iPhone or iPad and more that all the other smartwatch manufacturers combined!

    Okay that’s a lot of good news and certainly paints a picture of a successful company continuing to innovate and generate profits from the money machine that is Apple. But what happened? Apple’s common stock took a beating as it usually does regardless of how good the news may be. Apple’s conservative accounting also revealed that they consciously reduced channel inventory by over 1 million units. This is probably in preparation for new product introductions in the next quarter. If they had chosen to leave those 1 million units in the channel, they would have posted significantly higher sales and profits, too!

    The concerns expressed were that perhaps the Chinese market was saturated. Please. There is a vibrant and growing middle class in China that is hungry for Apple’s products and they have just scratched the surface of the market with 40 retail stores. Sure there is some turmoil in the Chinese stock market but that is a very new and very different market and it does not necessarily reflect the state of the economy there. In fact, the Chinese stock market is up something like 99% even with the recent downturn. I agree with the several commentators that this summer sale on Apple stock is a good thing if you are an investor.

    Another hidden gem in the report is that Apple’s investment in R&D has exceeded $2 billion for the first time. You can do some good work creating new products and improving existing products when you are spending that much money every three months! Apple set an all-time record for revenue from their “services” category which includes the App Store and reported that revenue from the App Store in China more than doubled year over year.

    Apple’s quarterly financial report was mostly good news. There was an expected decline in iPad sales but that decline seems to have slowed a bit and Tim Cook continued to express a lot of confidence in the iPad. There are 35 new MobileFirst Apps from the IBM partnership and Apple expects 100 by the end of the year.

    I don’t think you can expect any company to do better than Apple has done this past quarter; they are truly remarkable results with another record-breaking quarter under their belt. Every now and then Apple stock takes a little summer vacation and you can thank the perpetual pessimists on Wall Street for the Apple stock bargains now. Our congratulations to the entire Apple team for an astounding quarter!

  • _Dear Friends,_

    Nothing beats coming home after work and having fresh berries to graze on in the yard. Yesterday after a rain storm I went out in the yard and spent some time getting wet and moving from bush to bush eating ripe blueberries, raspberries and a few lingering strawberries. I figure I have to beat the birds and other critters to this food but we share with the animals, too. Now, when it comes time for the sweet corn, however, I am not sharing with the raccoons!

    Apple posted their 3rd quarter financials on Tuesday and once again exceeded their guidance and posted record numbers. Overall sales were up over 33% and profits by 38% but Apple’s stock fell in overnight trading. Apple is held to a nearly impossible standard. It is not enough just to crush guidance and estimates, Apple must obliterate them to make some on Wall Street happy. I’ll go into the numbers some more below but I did want to congratulate Apple on another amazing quarter.

    We say goodbye to an 11-year veteran of Small Dog this week as Jaime Service leaves to take a position with the post office in my home town. Jaime has been a steady and positive influence in the company for over a decade. He has been our warehouse guy, knowing each and every product, handling our shipping and receiving and be a constant source of pirate jokes and Boston Red Sox cheering. We wish Jaime the best of luck in his new career, you will be missed!

    This week’s Kibbles & Bytes exclusive features the fully loaded Apple Certified Refurbished MacBook Air. This model has a 1.7GHz Intel i7 processor, 8GB of RAM and the big 512GB SSD drive. It comes with a 1-year Apple warranty and 90-days of free tech support, however, we are bundling it with the AppleCare Protection Plan which extends both warranty and tech support to 3-years. To make this an even more powerful bundle we are also adding in Safeware Accidental damage coverage which will provide 3-year protection from accidental damage, like when you drop your Mac and crack the screen.

    This bundle would be pretty good with the MacBook Air, AppleCare and Safeware but this week I want you to have a backup drive, too, so will include the Seagate Backup Plus Slim Portable in the 2TB size. This bundle would sell for $1899 but this week for Kibbles & Bytes readers you can get the “*MacBook Air, AppleCare, Safeware and the 2TB drive for only $1749*”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900001917, a $150 savings!