Kibbles & Bytes Blog

  • Apple Goes Nova on the Street!

    Apple announced their quarterly financial results for the first three months of the calendar year this week and once again Apple set records, clearly smashed the analysts’ predictions and continued to blaze new territory for the world’s most valuable company. Apple posted revenue of $58 billion and a net profit for the quarter of $13.6 billion or $2.33 per share. This was 27% better than last year’s $45.6 billion in revenue and $10.6 billion in profit.

    Apple’s sales were driven by the iPhone, which accounted for over $40 billion in revenue. They sold over 61 million iPhones and for the first time Apple sold more iPhones in China than in the USA. While the rest of the PC market is in decline, Mac sales also increased year-over-year with over 4.5 million Macs sold, which put Apple in positive territory when virtually all other manufacturers are seeing declining sales.

    The iPad was soft, although Apple did sell 12.6 million iPad but that is off from last year by about 29%. Tim Cook said that he feels that the iPad will rebound with the IBM partnership. First time buyers of 40% in the USA and over 70% in China also indicate that the iPad is far from saturated in the market. The App Store and services showed significant growth, however, with nearly $5 billion in revenue.

    Apple increased its quarterly dividend to shareholders by 11 cents per share making Apple the largest dividend payer in the S&P 500. They also increased their stock buy-back program to $140 billion in an effort to enhance the return to shareholders from Apple success. Since August of 2012, Apple has returned over $112 billion to shareholders.

    ApplePay got a big boost as Best Buy and Discover card announced they will be supporting ApplePay and it looks to me, at least, that Apple is going to win that mobile payment battle, too, and become the de facto payment platform. I know I am finding more and more places that accept ApplePay and it was way, WAY too easy to buy my Apple Watch online with ApplePay!

    Tim Cook also revealed some more of the initiatives that Apple is taking to protect the environment including a 40-megawatt solar farm in Sichuan province that will generate far more that the amount of energy used by all of Apple’s offices and retail stores in China. He also announced a partnership with the Conservation Fund to permanently protect more than 36,000 acres of working forest in Maine and North Carolina.

    Apple predicted that their next quarter will see revenue in the neighborhood of $47 billion and my guess is that I will have to come up with yet another verb to describe what Apple did to the Street. As Apple CEO Tim Cook said: “And so it’s tough to find something in the numbers not to like.”

    Congratulations for an awesome record breaking quarter to Tim Cook and to the whole Apple team!

  • _Dear Friends,_

    Twenty years ago when we started the company, Apple was struggling and I clearly remember an early meeting at Apple headquarters where the goal was set for Apple to become a $5 billion company. These were the days when Michael Dell, when asked what he would do with Apple, said that he would liquidate the company and give the money to the shareholders. Well, those were the days before Steve Jobs came back and the obituaries for Apple were in every paper. Fast forward a couple of short decades and Apple is putting up *$50 billion QUARTERS* and is poised to post a $50 billion annual profit. The greatest story in American business history continues as Apple posted a 27% year-over-year increase in sales. That is unprecedented not only for the largest company on the planet but also for any mature company. Normally, that growth slows and a company’s size takes over.

    I have “*run out of words*”:https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dictionary.com-dictionary/id308750436?mt=8&at=11lb7k to describe Apple’s quarter after quarter record-setting results. It is simply amazing that Apple continues to set record after record even in the face of a maturing market and increased competition. I will go over the numbers below, but Apple outperformed even their own optimistic projections and this is all before the Apple Watch has had an impact.

    Speaking of the Apple Watch, I did finally order mine and I expect to see it in June. There were reports that tattoos might interfere with the watch’s sensors so I guess I’ll have to test that out, too, or wear the watch on my other wrist. The initial reviews from journalists were pretty positive overall but the reviews now coming in from consumers are overwhelmingly positive. Many of the first to get their watch have already integrated it into their lifestyle. Battery life seems to be a non-issue and apparently the Apple Watch is more water resistant than expected, too.

    I was able to re-stock on some of the Apple Certified Refurbished MacBook Airs last week. These Macbook Airs have been brought back to “as-new” condition by Apple and carry Apple’s 1-year warranty. They are eligible for AppleCare, too, which not only extends your 1-year warranty to 3 years but also extends your 90 days of free technical support to 3 years as well. This technical support not only covers your MacBook Air but also the Mac OS and other Apple software.

    This week’s Kibbles & Bytes special features the Apple Certified Refurbished 13-inch MacBook Air with 4GB of RAM and a 256 GB solid state drive. It features the latest in wireless technology with Bluetooth and 802.11ac wifi. Weighing in at less than 3 pounds this unit has USB ports, a Thunderbolt port, and a SD card slot. This could be the ideal Mac for your grad or for Mom or Dad. This week I am bundling it with AppleCare protection so that you have that full 3 years of coverage. In addition, because most people need two chargers, we are bundling an extra Apple 45 watt MagSafe 2 power adapter so you can have one at your desk and one to carry with you. To complete the package, and because we always want you to have your data backed up, we are including the Seagate 1 TB Backup Plus Slim Portable Drive. Normally, this bundle would sell for $1300 but for exclusively for Kibbles & Bytes readers you can buy this for only $1199!

    “*See this great deal here!*”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900001830/kibbles-exclusive-refurbished-mac-air-bundle

  • Come on in to any of our stores to check out the new MacBook. We should have them on display soon and you can play with the Force Touch trackpad, marvel at the Retina display, or just admire the innovation and engineering that is apparent in this new Mac.

    Thanks for reading this issue of Kibbles & Bytes!

    Your Kibbles & Bytes Team,

    _Don, Dean, Bronson & Mike_
    Don, Dean, Bronson & Mike

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  • Cars and Computers

    I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned it in any of my other Kibbles and Bytes articles, but I’m pretty interested in cars and car technology. Sometimes it’s funny how we keep old habits we have based on older car technology that don’t apply with modern cars. One habit that’s fortunately going away is pumping the brakes when stopping on snow or slick conditions. ABS (anti-lock brake systems) make pumping the brakes completely unnecessary. The system effectively pulsates the braking action faster than you could ever pump the pedal.

    It’s actually amazing how much technology is present in cars these days, and that’s before you even consider the gizmos inside the cabin like backup cameras, GPS navigation systems and bluetooth enabled stereo controls. Modern engines are extremely efficient and robust. They’re able to get more power from less physical space, operate more cleanly and safely than engines of the past. This is all thanks in large part to the computer controls that manage everything from air-fuel mixture to individual cylinder management. Most modern cars don’t even use a physical wire cable connecting the gas pedal to the throttle. It’s all done electronically. A smaller number of cars (mostly only higher-end luxury vehicles at this point) even use electronic steering. That means there’s no direct mechanical connection between the steering wheel and the wheels!

    Then of course you have vehicle stability control systems. These systems consist of g-force sensors and wheel slip sensors all over the car. A computer can interpret these signals to determine what your car is doing every instant. Are the back wheels slipping and beginning to slide out? The computer is able to sense that motion (probably even before you do) and apply precision braking force to individual wheels in an attempt to correct the problem. You might feel it a little bit, but it’s usually very good at correcting the problem and all you’ll see is a little light turn on in the instrument cluster. (I like having a little fun with my car in the winter time, so I call that light the “anti-fun light”)

    Even common problems that used to plague engines like knocking and pinging are virtually eliminated by computer control. My IT partner in crime, Morgan, and I were discussing this earlier in the week. I made the claim that running premium grade fuel in a normal un-boosted engine wouldn’t do anything except empty your wallet faster. I also made the claim that you couldn’t do the opposite of putting regular fuel into a boosted (turbocharged, supercharged, etc) engine. Well, it turns out with modern controlled engines, neither of those assertions are necessarily true. Because the timing and fuel-air mixture is all controlled by computer, if you put premium fuel in an un-boosted engine, it may actually be able to delay the timing enough to get a few extra horsepower. This isn’t always the case, and the marginal gain probably doesn’t justify the additional fuel cost, but my assertion that nothing would be different wasn’t quite correct.

    Perhaps more surprisingly, many modern engines that are boosted are able to compensate for things like lower grade regular fuel. They can advance the timing to avoid pre-detonation and in some cases regulate and reduce boost pressure as well. Of course, that will mean you won’t get the power for which the engine is rated, but it will still run smoothly without knocking or pinging.

    All these things have changed so rapidly over the past few decades. The computers involved aren’t even that smart, but it’s amazing that we can do all of these great things with them. Who knows what they’ll be able to do in another 10 years?

  • Shining the Spotlight

    How many of you have used Spotlight (that little magnifying glass up in the right hand corner of your screen) to find files? You can use Spotlight to search for things like applications, documents, images, mail, or other files. If you are using Yosemite (and you all should be!) you have additional results from Wikipedia, news sites, Maps, movie listings, and more.

    You can also use it to make simple conversions. Type in 45 pounds, for example, and you get the result: 20.41 kilograms, 720 ounces or 0.02 long tons. To open Spotlight, click on the magnifying glass icon or use the keyboard command of command-space. Spotlight will pop open right in front of you. To search for anything, just type words related to it like a file name, a person’s name, etc.

    Spotlight also includes a dictionary, currency conversions, and other quick calculations like the unit conversions I mentioned. You can limit where Spotlight searches in the Spotlight System Preferences. There you can turn on or off results such as PDF documents, Bing Web Searches, Spreadsheets, etc. In the Privacy tab of this System Preference, you can also prevent Spotlight from searched in specific locations, i.e. folders or disks. One thing that I have found handy is that unless I want to search all my thousands of emails is to turn off mail in Spotlight so it doesn’t clutter up the results with every email that has your search term in it.

    How do you use Spotlight? “*Drop me an email*”:mailto:don@smalldog.com and I’ll include some of the suggestions in a future Kibbles!

    !http://blog.smalldog.com/images/4378.jpg!

  • Say Hello to Emily

    We are fortunate to have a bunch of “veteran” Small Dog Employees who have been with the company for some time. This week I want to call out Emily Dolloff (pictured on the right). Art, Rob, and Tony have been here longer but Emily is quietly the heart of Small Dog, pumping up the team to give their best every day. A lifelong Vermonter, Emily first came to Small Dog as a shipper. She would lug heavy Apple eMacs up and down the warehouse stairs, sometimes carrying them to the store to deliver to a customer. She was a great shipper but we recognized that perhaps she had some other talents. We brought her up the the office to handle telephone sales back when the company’s sales were primarily on the internet. Again, Emily excelled and soon had customers requesting her to handle their orders because they knew she would do it right.

    Emily became the Waitsfield store manager and then took what she and I call her sabbatical. Basically, she quit and went to work for someone else for a couple years. She must have missed us though because we were fortunate enough to bring her back on board. She is now managing our retail, service and marketing efforts and has a bunch of other responsibilities, too. We never have come up with an appropriate title for Emily but she is definitely my partner and someone I can count on for brutal honesty, responsibility, focus, and hard work.

    Every company needs people that think and fret about the details and the everyday issues of running a company. Emily and I spend a lot of time on the phone or texting about little details and emerging issues. She does it without drama and always with a professional approach. When I needed someone to take the reins of our weekly radio show (Thursdays at 1PM on WDEV) it was obvious that Emily was the one. She is now a radio personality with people stopping her in the grocery store to tell her they listened to “*Small Dog Speaks.*”:http://www.smalldog.com/sdspeaks I can’t wait to join her on the show again when I get back to Vermont.

    Emily does all this and has a family too! Olivia and Anna look and act like their mom although Olivia seems to be Emily’s husband Luke’s shadow. Oh yeah, she has some horses, too, and drives a big truck! It is simply amazing that she works as hard as she does at Small Dog and still knows to have that important separation of work and family that is essential. So hats off to Emily! I am sure many of you have talked to Emily over the years and if you are on the Small Dog team, you probably talk to her daily!

  • _Dear Friends,_

    I still see snow in Vermont on my webcam but folks up there are thinking camping and gardens as the buds turn to leaves and the grass starts to green. This week some people will be getting their Apple Watch if they were up at 3 AM on the East Coast to place an early order. We should start to get feedback soon from some folks that are not the press or celebrities. It will be interesting to watch the blogs for the raw feedback.

    The new MacBook is out and I am impressed! It is so small and packs a lot of power for such a tiny Mac. With a 9-hour battery life and the Force Touch trackpad, this new MacBook is truly innovative. One thing that I particularly like is that it is fan-less. Apple has designed the MacBook to operate all day without overheating and is whisper quiet. Even the new keyboard minimizes the clicking sound of the keyboard. I know that the single USB-C port will be something to get used to, but I know that there are lots of USB-C adapters on the way. As I look at my setup and envision a MacBook, I would need an adapter that would give me a standard USB port, a Mini DisplayPort and, of course, power.

    While Apple certainly has a ways to go to reduce their carbon footprint, Apple is leading in terms of taking action to mitigate their impact upon climate change. While some down here in Florida want to ban the term climate change, Apple embraces the proven science and says: “We don’t want to debate climate change. We want to stop it.” To that end, in a recent report it was noted that 100% of Apple’s US operations, including their huge data centers, operate on renewable energy and 87% of their global operations also run on renewables. To learn more about Apple’s commitment to the environment surf over to their “*Environmental Responsibility page.*”:http://www.apple.com/environment/

    This week’s Kibbles & Bytes special is our 20th Anniversary Mac mini bundle. This $779 bundle gives you a powerful Mac at a very affordable price. We start with the Mac mini with a 1.4 GHz i5 Intel Dual Core processor, 4GB of RAM, and a 500GB hard drive. We add AppleCare to the bundle to give you three years of Apple warranty and technical support. We add a Viewsonic VX2252mh LED 22-inch display with HDMI cable and a Kensington SureTrack wireless mouse. To top it all off, we add the very versatile Kanex Wireless Bluetooh Multi-Sync keyboard. All of this is yours for only $779!

    “*See this fantastic bundle here.*”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900001805/anniversary-special-save-100-mac-mini-bundle

  • Phishing, Hacking, and Other Online Nastiness

    It’s Saturday afternoon. You’re sitting in the big easy chair with a nice cold glass of lemonade watching the Red Sox pound the Yankees into submission. Suddenly the door bell rings and when you answer, there is a fellow there who claims he’s from Ford and he needs you keys to your car so he can take it back to the Service Department for some mandatory upgrades. You don’t know this man from Adam.

    Do you:

    *A.* Hand over your keys and continue to watch A-Rod drop ground balls?

    *B.* Ask for his ID and when he hands you his fake one, hand him your keys?

    *C.* Tell him to go take a long walk on a short pier, and drive yourself down to Ford on Monday?

    The answer is C of course. You wouldn’t give anyone the keys to your only means of transportation without having some sort of proof of who he says he is. Similarly you shouldn’t give out personal or financial information to anyone online without some kind of indication that it is safe to do so. I touched on online safety a few articles back, but thought it important enough to revisit due to some “fake alerts” some of my customers have experienced recently.

    There are a lot of scammers out there, so its always a good idea to “look before you leap.” Before going to ANY website, you of course want to make certain the website is safe to visit. If your firewall or anti-virus software gives you any kind of warning before visiting a website, its probably a good idea to think twice and even three times before continuing on to the site. Your anti-virus software has lists of websites that have been reported as “attack sites” which can potentially damage your computer. Its always safe to stay away from these sites.

    You may come across a site and get a warning that flashes across your screen that says something along the lines of “WARNING, WARNING – You’re computer may be infected!!! Please call this number RIGHT AWAY to remove viruses from your device.” If you call the number and give them access to your computer you may end up with more trouble that with what you started with. DO NOT CALL these people. Just like the Ford guy you don’t know these people from a hole in the wall.

    Once again, be safe on social media. Make certain your privacy settings are set as high as possible. Do not accept friend requests from people you don’t know. Do not accept app or game invites if you don’t know who they are coming from or what the game is all about. Remember that once you post on Facebook, Twitter or Tumblr it is there forever. Forget about the NSA looking at your Snapchat messages. They really don’t care about how many Instagram followers you have. What you should be worrying about is who is trying to get into your information by utilizing social media.

    A good rule of thumb for posting on social media: Don’t post it if you wouldn’t want your boss or worse yet, your mom, reading what you posted. Because they can, and do (Hi, Mom!), and will. Don’t put your vacation plans on Facebook or any of the social media sites. You never know who is poking around looking to see whose house is going to be empty during spring break. Post your pictures from Cancun AFTER you get back.

    As always, DO NOT give out your PIN, passwords, routing number or checking/savings/credit card information to just anyone. Nobody at Apple, your bank, or credit card company can see your password or PIN. Your bank already knows what your routing and account numbers are.

    You also may receive an email with an official looking logo from your bank or other financial institution asking you to verify your Social Security number, your PIN, or other sensitive information. This is known as “phishing.” Unlike the great band Phish from right here in Vermont, these “phishers” will not give you music. Remember your financial institution ALREADY knows this information.

    Go on the Chase, Wells Fargo or Bank of America websites, “right-click” (AKA control-click) on any one of their logos and witness just how easy it would be for anyone to insert their logos into an email. Remember this when you get an e-mail that purports to be from your bank.

    Ask questions, verify and take a moment before you give any of this information away, it could save you a world of trouble down the road.

    Woof, woof (Be careful out there!)

  • Q&A: Then and Now

    Let us take a look back at the world of Apple since Small Dog’s inception…

    In 1995 Michael Spindler was CEO of Apple and Steve Jobs was nursing his dying company named NeXT (The NeXT OS eventually was purchased by Apple and used as the basis of OS X). The Apple brand was becoming thinned by a myriad of models and devices, thus losing its central focus on a basic product offering. Apple was about to start licensing “Mac clones,” third-party machines running the Macintosh software, in an attempt to bolster income and spread the Apple brand further (Jobs ended these contracts when he returned).

    Regardless of the turmoil at Apple in the mid-90s, there were still loving Mac users who relied on their machines day-to-day for their most important work. There had already been many generations of Apple computers, peripherals, and software. This meant there were questions asked to service departments, and service departments to answer and assist Mac users. Usually these service departments were also Apple resellers (there were no “Apple Stores” until May 19th, 2001, when the first opened in Tysons Corner Center in McLean, Virginia).

    For your enjoyment, I’ve put together some tech questions we answer regularly now, and tried to compile some questions that would have been relevant in 1995, when Small Dog started selling Apple computers, and providing customer support wherever we could.

    *Tech questions we answer now:*

    Yosemite failed to install, and now my computer won’t boot. How do I fix it?

    Answer: Many Yosemite installs require the hard disk to be erased and a fresh install attempted. As always, make sure you have a backup before attempting any OS upgrade!

    What keyboards and mice can I use with my Mac?

    Answer: Any USB keyboard or mouse will work with your Apple computer.

    How much RAM will my Late-2013 Mac Pro take?

    Answer: While Apple officially states 64GB, this model has been found to function normally with 128GB of RAM.

    Can my MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2010) run Yosemite?

    Answer: Yes, but we caution that it should have at least 8GB of RAM and a solid-state drive for the best user experience.

    I upgraded my MacBook Pro from 10.6.8 to 10.10.2, and now MS Office won’t launch. What happened?

    Answer: 10.6.8 is the last instance of Mac OS that supported Rosetta, a tool that allows software originally made to run on PowerPC processors to function. After 10.7 and above, any software running on Mac OS must have been programmed to run on the Intel CPU architecture. You likely have Office 2004 (or earlier) which was written for PowerPC.

    *Tech questions that could have been asked in 1995:*

    How much RAM will my Performa 275 take?

    Answer: 36MB

    What’s the maximum OS my PowerBook 165c will take?

    Answer: Mac OS 7.5.1 (the answer would be 7.6.1, but that didn’t come out until 1997).

    Can I use a DOS-formatted floppy disk in my Mac?

    Answer: Be careful. Not all DOS-formatted floppy disks are the same, and depending on the version of Mac OS you have, you could corrupt the disk just by inserting the disk and/or viewing it.

    Why did my startup screen change on my Mac?

    Answer: The System 7.5.1 update saw a new startup screen added to prepare for Macintosh clones.

    Can I use an Apple Adjustable Keyboard on my Macintosh Plus?

    Answer: The Macintosh Plus does not have an ADB connection, and is limited to the keyboard and mouse that shipped with the Macintosh Plus.

    *First Question from Us (Then and Now):*

    Did you try turning it off and back on?

  • _Hello readers!_

    This month sees the celebration of Small Dog Electronics’ 20th Anniversary! Taking a look back, the Apple landscape has changed significantly in many ways over the years, and not just linearly. Apple went from a niche product to a staple of the industry with devices reaching the hands of almost every first-world citizen. The first “Apple Stores” were Apple Specialists, like Small Dog Electronics. These independent stores were tasked with learning to work with and repair these products, without the years of experience and bountiful resources we have now.

    I took an opportunity this week to approach repairing my ailing car exhaust system, to which the winter, in its last death throes, delivered a finishing blow. It’s been a while since I’ve worked on something so large and basic rather than delicate electronics. As I lay under my Subaru in my Dickies jumpsuit and struggled to fit the hacksaw where I needed it, I felt the usual impatience and pressure for time, and a frustration that my desired solution had not been compatible with the problem.

    I continued trying to determine how to modify the existing pipe to fit my solution, with some frustration. At this point, I had a cognitive shift where I determined the best course would be working to modify my solution, not to modify the problem. I left the dark undercarriage where rust was falling into my eyes, and modified the pipe I was installing to better fit the existing system. This led to a relatively easy solution for me to carry out.

    Sometimes in repair (as well as life in general), making one or more shifts in thinking is the most important part of finding a solution. More often than not, it is easy to become so focused on the problem that it becomes difficult to step back and analyze the available options from a different perspective. I always recommend taking time to be careful and spend time reading up on service methods, analyzing potential solutions, and being certain before moving forward. Too many times we have seen expensive components unnecessarily damaged by well-intended attempts to repair unrelated parts.

    With that said, we always wish the best of luck in repair, whether in our shop or DIY. We’ve prepared some articles today to help you along, keep you safe online, and spark some interest in the past.

    Warm regards,
    -Mikhael
    “mikhael@smalldog.com”:mailto:mikhael@smalldog.com

  • I sort of promised that I wouldn’t talk about that weather down here but we had planted a “cocktail” citrus tree last fall. This tree was grafted to have oranges, tangerines, grapefruits and limes on it. The tangerines and limes didn’t set but we have some awesome navel oranges that we are eating before we head north and the grapefruit is getting bigger and bigger. Only a couple more weeks here and I can be sure mud season is over so Grace and I (with the three dogs, of course!) will start our trek back to home in Vermont.

    Thank you for reading this issue of Kibbles & Bytes!

    Your Kibbles & Bytes Team,

    Don, Dean, & Mike