Kibbles & Bytes Blog

  • 3 Tips and Tricks for iOS 8

    iOS 8 has a bunch of little features that helps the user make better use of their devices. In today’s article I’m going to share a few with you.

    *1.)* Want to share your favorite quotes to friends or post them to Facebook? In iBooks it is quick and easy. All you need to do is select the text and then tap to share.

    *2.)* Do you have friends that text you too late at night? Want to make sure you don’t get a call before 10 AM on your days off? You can schedule do not disturb times in Settings.

    *3.)* Tired of unlocking your iPhone and going to messages to respond to your text messages? You can swipe left on your notification screen to respond or dismiss it.

  • Windows on your Mac

    There are times when you need to run Windows on your Mac because certain software to run your business or to pay your taxes is only made for Windows. There are two ways to run Windows on your Mac.

    The first way is to use a program called Parallels which will install nicely into your Mac operating system and will provide you with a virtual environment for you to install and operate a copy of Windows. All you need to do for Parallels is install Parallels, insert the Windows disk and just follow the instructions that Parallels gives you and you’re all set.

    The second method of installing Windows on your Mac is to use a program called Boot Camp. Boot Camp is software that already comes with your Mac. This can be found under /Applications/Utilities/Boot Camp Assistant. To use Boot Camp Assistant you will need the following: a usb flash drive of 8gb in size, an internet connection, and of course a Windows install disk. What Boot Camp will do is repartition your hard drive to whatever size you pick. Then it will download the drivers needed to make the hardware in your Mac compatible with Windows, and finally install Windows. After you have Windows installed you will need to run the exe file on the flash drive where you downloaded the drivers for your Mac.

    After either process you will have successfully have a copy of Windows running on your Mac.

  • The Dangers of Liquid Spills

    If you are like me and like to multi task while surfing the web or getting work done online by having your morning coffee while browsing, then make sure you’re extremely careful. Let me warn you about the dangers of sipping and surfing at the same time.

    Liquid damage is one of the most of deceptive and destructive things that can happen to your machine. It is deceptive because the the machine may boot and function normally, but the corrosion has already begun, and it is only a matter of time until things start acting wonky. Also one really important thing to note is that spilling a beverage on your Macintosh voids warranty and AppleCare.

    Now you may ask if there is no visible sign of corrosion then how can you detect liquid damage? There are these things called LCIs. Liquid Contact Indicators, which are white, turn red when liquid makes contact. Once you have installed a latte on your keyboard you can’t uninstall it. However, the most important thing is not to use rice. It can clog really important components like fans designed to keep your mac running cool. The best thing you can do is drop it off at an Authorized Apple Reseller or Apple Store and talk to a technician about what needs to be replaced and/or if your data is still recoverable (always have a back-up).

  • Technology…Where We've Been and Where We're Going

    As we celebrate our 20th anniversary at Small Dog Electronics, I thought it would be fun to take a trip down memory lane to see where we’ve come from, where we are, and a quick peek into the future of computing.

    *Humble Beginnings*

    The first electronic general purpose computer was called ENIAC. (Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer.) Completed in 1946, the ENIAC contained over 17,000 vacuum tubes, 70,000 resistors, 5 million hand soldered joints, weighed 30 tones and took up an entire room! It was originally designed to calculate artillery firing tables and later helped to study the hydrogen bomb.

    At the height of operation the ENIAC could perform over 5,000 simple addition or subtraction operations per second. (Compare that to today’s supercomputers which can perform 55 quadrillion calculations per second.) The fastest home computers can perform up to 5 billion calculations per second.

    The first Apple home computer was released in 1976. It had a measly 8 KB of memory and no external storage. The Apple II, released in 1977, had the option of connecting an external storage device.

    Computers of today come with an internal drive capable of storing 1 terabyte (TB) of data.

    *Memory*

    How many of you remember the original Tron?? The main character Flynn encounters an entity known as “Bit”. Bit could only say two things, yes or no, which is the basic unit of information of all computers.

    A “bit” can either be 1 or 0 (yes or no). From the bit, we moved to the “byte”, which is 8 bits, and then it got a little crazy. The kilobyte was the next jump in memory. A kilobyte (KB) is 1024 bytes or 8192 bits. (Yes we know “kilo” means 1000, told you it got crazy from here!)

    After the kilobyte came the megabyte (MB) which is again 1024 kilobytes or just over 8 million bits. Everyone by now is familiar with the almighty gigabyte (GB) and you guessed it, is 1024 MB or over 8 billion bits.

    I’m not going to do the math from here on out, but most computers nowadays come with 1 terabyte (TB) of storage (1024 GBs). The next leap will be the “petabyte” (1024 TBs), and then “exabyte”. One exabyte will be enough storage capacity to store an entire…human…lifetime of memories!

    *Storage*

    When personal computers became popular in the 80s some of the first storage devices were on magnetic tape. The old Commodore Vic-20 came with what looked like a cassette player from which you could load programs and games. By the time the Commodore 64 came out we had moved on to “floppy disk drives”. The disk looked like a very thin 45 record encased in a thin square covering. So-called “hard disks” came next. The were a bit more solid than the floppy disks and did not tend to flop around a lot. The “optical” drive came shortly after. Most folks are familiar with these which operate like a CD player with your programs and such stored on what looks a lot like a CD.

    We’ve moved on to the Solid State Drive (SSD). Instead of a spinning disk drive the Solid State Drive is a series of chips that can now store your memories. A Solid State Drive is less prone to wear down as there are now no more moving parts.

    *The Future*

    Where is this all heading?? As technology grows, changes and improves, so will all of your electronic devices. With the advent of nanotechnology, computers will become smaller and smaller. As we understand more and more about “quantum physics” we will be able to translate that understanding into quantum computers. Remember we spoke about the “bit” being either zero or one?? With a quantum computer that value can be both at the same time!

    In 1965 it was proposed that the computing power of chips would double every 18 months to two years. Some say we’ll eventually be able to manipulate atoms to store information. There are others who predict a “technological singularity” in which the artificial intelligence will far surpass the intelligence of human beings as a whole. While many fear the idea of robots like the Cylons or Daleks running around this planet, keep in mind the very first robots will be designed to serve humanity with the idea of not harming anyone built right into their hardware.

    Computers will become wearable, implantable and ingestible! They will become so much more a part of our everyday life than even today. They’ll run your house, your car and report to your doctor.

    Who knows what the future will bring? Its a little scary but very exciting at the same time. Here at Small Dog we hope to be a loyal companion to you through all of this.

    woof, arf, woof!
    (The future is so bright, I gotta wear shades.)

  • _Hello Fellow Tech Enthusiasts,_

    It’s been a great couple of weeks here in the Green Mountains! After a slow start to the planting season I was finally able to get my veggie garden planted, ok most of it! It’s taken several years of trial and error, but I think I have finally figured out how to plant the right kinds of produce for my garden and the right quantity. Year after year we would get a little too overzealous with our wishes for the growing season and at one point even had two gigantic gardens. After two failed years we realized we simply were taking on too much and have scaled back considerably. It’s made for a much more enjoyable gardening experience!

    Yesterday was an exciting day in the world of Apple! Apple had their annual WWDC event and Apple announced many exciting new software features. El Capitan, OS X 10.11 was announced, there is a new Safari interface, improved search features, the ability to split your screens and so much more! iOS 9 was also announced, significant improvements were made to multitasking and even a picture in picture feature! I think my favorite feature talked about was the ability for iOS 9 to allow users to gain up to an extra 3 hours of battery life. El Capitan will not be available until sometimes in the fall, but those of you who can’t wait to get your hands on iOS 9, Apple will release the public beta version in July. Many of the features in iOS 9 do require the iPad Air 2, so much like iOS 8 and Apple pay, among others, there are some new hardware requirements for some of latest features.

    Stayed tuned for more tips and tricks to prepare for upgrading your computer or iOS device to the latest operating systems. As always, we thank you for reading our latest edition of Tech Tails!

    -Emily
    “emily@smalldog.com”:mailto:emily@smalldog.com

  • I am heading over the lake to Lake George for the annual Americade rally. It is always fun to ride over to see all the motorcycles and weird bikers like me but it is really the ride over through the Green Mountains over Lake Champlain on the Shoreham ferry and then through the Adirondacks to Lake George that is the highlight of the annual trip.

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

    Your Kibbles & Bytes Team,

    _Don, Dean, Bronson & Mike_

  • Upcoming Garage Sale: Starts Friday, June 5th!

    We wanted to let you know that we have been busy in our warehouses getting ready for our Famous Semi-Annual Garage Sale! At least once a year, we clean out our inventory and offer some crazy deals on the goodies we find.

    “*Click here to read more about the Garage Sale.*”:http://www.smalldog.com/garagesale

    This year we’re going deep and will be offering lots of interesting finds. We’ll give some hints in next week’s Kibbles and Bytes, so stay tuned. Kibbles readers are always the first to know!

    *WHEN:* Friday, 6/5, beginning at 6 PM EDT.

    *WHERE:* “*http://www.smalldog.com/garagesale*”:http://www.smalldog.com/garagesale

  • Embrace the AM/FM Cassette

    I recently had a conversation with our product manager Will about tapes. Specifically audio cassettes. Remember those things? We happen to carry the little adapters that fit into car stereo cassette players so you can use an AUX jack to connect your iPhone or other music player to your old stereo. Will was flabbergasted that anyone was still buying them. “Who still has these stereos? Who uses cassettes anymore?” he asked. I told him that I did! I recently purchased a “classic” car and was very insistent that it come with the factory stereo and not one of those cheap aftermarket stereos that grace the DIN slots of so many older cars.

    Unconvinced, I tried to explain to him that people were actually still releasing new music on audio cassettes. They can be hard to find, but a lot of really small or quirky labels still do it (to satisfy their old-car-having fans maybe?). For me, it’s all about the nostalgia factor. When I’m driving around in my car, I want to actually feel like I’m sitting in 1991, tape deck and all. Nothing hurts my car sensibilities more than seeing a nice classic Porsche with an ugly out-of-place aftermarket stereo slapped into the dash.

    That said, I do get it. I understand that people nowadays have an iPhone, iPad, iPod, or something that they’re using to play all their music. Surely they want to use that device while in their car, but what do you do if you don’t have a car new enough to have Bluetooth or a built-in AUX jack? As far as I know, there are only three options:

    * First, you can replace the stereo. On most older cars with a standard DIN head unit, this isn’t that difficult, and a basic aftermarket stereo with an AUX jack can be found for under $100.

    * Second, if your car isn’t old enough to have a cassette player, but not new enough to have an AUX jack, your only option will be to use an FM transmitter. These work well sometimes, and not so well other times. It really depends on the car and how the radio antenna is built and positioned. A friend in high school had a 1995 Dodge Neon and his FM transmitter worked pretty much flawlessly. Another friend had a 2003 Subaru Outback and could almost never get the FM transmitter to work.

    * Finally, if you have a car with a cassette player, you can get one of those AUX-cassette adapters. There’s no radio transmission, so there’s no interference to fight.

    You can always choose to be like me though, and embrace the retro-ness of the cassette player. Don’t try to hide it. Take pride in your pre-Clinton era car. Where do you get new releases on tape? I recently ordered King Tuff’s (a Brattleboro, VT native!) second full length album on cassette from “*www.insound.com!*”:http://www.insound.com

  • Seagate Personal Cloud Home Media Storage

    Seagate Personal Cloud home media storage allows you to create your very own cloud that is accessible outside the home. Organize all your family’s photos, videos, music and important documents in one secure central location on your home network, and back up not only all your PCs and Macs, but your cloud services as well. Personal Cloud can automatically and continuously back up every PC and Mac computer in the home wirelessly. Stress less knowing that all your networked computers are backed up and set your own backup schedule using the included Seagate Dashboard software.

    Do you use Dropbox or Google Drive? If so, you can easily transfer and back up files stored on your favorite cloud service to Personal Cloud. Free up space in the cloud or simply have local access to all your files you choose. Personal Cloud leads the category in streaming to the top-selling Smart TVs and connected devices. Access your music, movies and docs from computers, game consoles, Smart TVs and other connected devices throughout the home. If you own a Roku Player, Samsung Smart TV or Blu-ray Disc player with Smart Hub (2012 model or later), you can take advantage of the Seagate Media app to enjoy easy content browsing with your remote control. You can also use the Seagate Media app with your smartphone or tablet and cast your content to a Chromecast, LG Smart TV or Roku player when you want to share it on the biggest screen in the home: your TV.

    *Features:*

    *Your Personal Cloud*

    Share, stream, store and organize all your music, movies, photos and important documents all in one place on your own personal cloud.

    *Easy backup and protection*

    Back up your PC and Mac computers, smartphones, and tablets. Transfer files automatically from other cloud services so everything is stored safely in one place.

    *Access from all your devices*

    Your files are always at your fingertips. Access your files from smartphones, tablets, and computers. Even stream to your TVs throughout the home.

    *Access on the Go*

    Enjoy access to your media and files on the go-all you need is an internet connection. Use a free Seagate Access Account. Encryption ensures your files stay secure.

    “*Buy now and save!*”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900001836/at_kb