Kibbles & Bytes Blog

  • Celebrating 20 Years

    We’re celebrating 20 years! Woohoo! We will be offering YOU some pretty big deals, including 20% off all Beats by Dr. Dre headphones and speakers, $20 off Otterbox cases, a Mac mini bundle that is hard to resist, and much more both in-store and online!

    Stop in during the month of April and wish us a very Happy Birthday! Check out all the specials at: “*smalldog.com/20years*”:http://www.smalldog.com/20years

    “*Mac mini bundle*”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900001805
    !http://blog.smalldog.com/images/4361.jpg!
    If you have been looking for a mobile companion that is as mobile as you are (other than your iPhone) look no further. We just added the Seagate Wireless Mobile Storage 500GB to our inventory and couldn’t be more excited. This small but powerful device will allow you to bring along hundreds of movies and thousands of songs, photos, and files anywhere you go. You can wirelessly stream them to your tablet or smartphone without wires or web anytime, and with 6 hours of battery life you’ll never be left bored or without the ability to store the next precious moment captured on camera.

    “*View all specials for the month of April here.*”:http://www.smalldog.com/20years

  • Apps for the Outdoors

    I moved up to Vermont from my hometown of Erie, Pennsylvania about a year and a half ago. It was one of the biggest and best decisions that I have ever made. I originally came for the winter and had not intended to stay for the summer, but as the lakes thawed and the vibrant green leaves consumed the mountains I found that I just couldn’t leave. As that time of the year returns again, I am looking forward to why I fell in love with Vermont.

    Before joining the Small Dog team, I really did not utilize the full capabilities of my iPhone, many of which are demonstrated through the use of all of the amazing apps out there. I am looking forward to putting some recently discovered apps to the test and making the most of the outdoors this year. Here are 5 apps for the outdoors that I just can’t wait to use.

    As an avid hiker, I am excited about recently discovering the app “*AllTrails (free).*”:https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/alltrails-hiking-mountain/id405075943?mt=8&at=11lb7k The AllTrails app has more than 50,000 trail guides for hiking, biking and more. Still being relatively new to the area, I find AllTrails’ ability to find trails near me and read reviews on those trails especially helpful. Once I find the trail that I want to hike, I can actually take this app with me as it allows the user to save trail maps offline for on-the-trail use. GPS integration that tracks your path and the ability to share your own photos and reviews allows for a personalized experience.

    One of the first things that I noticed when moving to Vermont was the amazing night sky. I have never seen more stars in my entire life! An app that has recently come to my attention was the stargazing app “*Sky Guide ($1.99).*”:https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sky-guide-view-stars-night/id576588894?mt=8&at=11lb7k This app allows the user to find stars, constellations, planets, satellites, and more by simply holding your iPhone to the sky. If you’re doing more than just browsing, Sky Guide allows you to search thousands of celestial sights and be guided exactly where to see them simply by following an arrow. With the ability to function without WiFi, data, or GPS signal, Sky Guide can go with you wherever you may roam.

    One of the first signs of spring is not only the return of the warmer temperatures, but also the return of migratory birds. This spring, I am looking forward to being out on the trail and easily identifying them using my “*Audubon Birds Pro ($9.99) app.*”:https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/audubon-birds-pro/id333227386?mt=8 This app not only allows you to identify them but also gives you an in-depth description including information on appearance, habitat, behavior and more.

    You can never be too prepared. With the “*SAS Survival Guide app ($5.99),*”:https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sas-survival-guide/id357811968?mt=8&at=11lb7k I can feel more comfortable taking those overnight camping trips. Based on the training techniques of Britain’s toughest fighting force, the SAS Survival Guide App gives you an in-depth knowledge about the most extreme survival situations in any climate. With the ability to browse through photo galleries and videos based on subjects such as animal tracks, knots and medicinal and poisonous plants this survival guide has you covered in most any life-or-death situation you might find yourself in.

    After first moving to Vermont, I was astonished by all of the mountains that surrounded me. What I found even more amazing was the fact that they all had a name. Though I enjoy finding out their names from Vermonters themselves, I find it much more accurate and effective with the use of my newly discovered app, “*PeakFinder ($3.99).*”:https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/peakfinder-earth/id357421934?mt=8&at=11lb7k PeakFinder does exactly what it sounds like: it identifies peaks as you hold your iPhone up to them. The great thing about this app is its vast library of peaks (more than 250,000) and the ability to select non-prominent ones using its digital binoculars feature.

    I hope this list helps you enjoy the outdoors to the fullest this year!

  • It's Earth Day Every Day at Small Dog

    We measure our success by the triple bottom line of People, Planet and Profit and one of the most significant initiatives that was part of our commitment to Planet was our eWaste recycling program. As part of our series on the history of Small Dog Electronics, I want to give you the story of how that started and evolved. We were not always so conscious of the dangers of electronic waste. In fact, we purchased truckloads of discontinued electronics and accessories and would sort through them to find the products we could sell and those that were obsolete, damaged or otherwise waste. Back then we would simply take those products and put them into the dumpster. We were working with our friends at Marketing Partners in Burlington and the question was asked: “Do you know the dangers of this electronic waste?”

    We quickly educated ourselves and found problems. Lead, mercury, and other dangerous materials were in these products that were ending up at the dump and properly recycling these products involved vetting recyclers to ensure these products were not simply shipped off to another country where more dangers were apparent. We learned of the e-Stewards pledge for electronic waste recycling and determined to offer our customers a way to make sure their obsolete products were properly recycled. In the beginning, we offered this service for a small per pound fee and had scales at each location to weight the goods.

    On Earth Day almost a decade ago, we decided to offer free e-Waste recycling at a 4-hour event at our South Burlington store. We felt that we might get 5 tons of material and carefully budgeted the $5000 for this event. When I arrived an hour early for the 9am start of the event, cars were lined up around the block and down the street. We quickly outstripped our carefully organized plans to load the material into trucks and soon had a gigantic mountain of e-Waste in the parking lot. Instead of the 5 tons that we anticipated we got over *50 tons!!!* Instead of $5000 it cost us $25,000 but it was an incredibly uplifting event for us, for our customers, and for the planet. Over the next several years we held similar events, each one growing larger until our final event (held down the road at the high school) netted us over 150 tons and we had cars backed up all the way onto Interstate 89.

    We do not do events now, but still offer free recycling at our stores. We had worked with Vermont’s legislature and Vermont passed one of the most comprehensive e-Waste bills in the nation. This made e-Waste recycling free and easy for all Vermonters. Our successful e-Waste initiative also caught the eye of Apple and other independent Apple resellers and our later events were fully supported by Apple and we feel we made at least a small contribution to addressing this very serious problem!

    We have continued our commitment to protecting the planet with conversion to LED lighting in our offices and warehouse and the construction of a solar array at our Waitsfield headquarters that provides 100% of the electricity needs of the South Burlington store and about 80% of the Waitsfield load.

    Happy Earth Day!

  • iPhoto vs. Photos: What's New?

    Photos for OS X is now available as part of the OS X Yosemite 10.10.3 update. Photos is intended to replace both iPhoto and Aperture. It does the former well but falls a bit short as the replacement for Aperture. Photos for OS X attempts to address three important photo library needs. It is used to organize your photos so you can find that one photo you want to show easily and it contains tools to edit photos to make corrections to their appearance. Of course, it also allows you to share photos, make photo albums, slideshows, and prints. Photos also integrates with the Photos app on all your devices with the goal of connecting your iPhone, iPad, Apple TV and Apple Watch all to the same photo library.

    Photos for OS X now mostly follows the organizational pattern of the Photos app on your iOS devices. The app opens with your photos grouped into Moments and Collections. Moments organizes the photos by age and location whereas Collections is at a bit higher level. Let’s say you took a trip to China. Collections might be all of the photos from that trip while Moments would be photos from your time on Yellow Mountain.

    The editing tools in Photos are not as good as Aperture but far better than iPhoto. You can take a marginal shot and improve it by adjusting exposure, cropping, straightening, etc. You have some detailed adjustments you can make such as sharpen, noise reduction, white balance, and levels as well as the standard brightness and contrast.

    Perhaps the biggest change is iCloud Photo Library. You can have your entire Photo library stored in iCloud for effective syncing and access from any of your devices. One word of warning, however: if you have a big Photo library you may reach the limit of your free 5GB of iCloud storage but Apple is happy to provide you more for a few dollars a month. If you do not need or want all of your Photos on all your devices you can toggle iCloud Photo Library off.

    Performance-wise, I find Photos to be considerably faster than iPhoto and the interface seems more intuitive.

    “*See more details here.*”:https://www.apple.com/osx/photos/

  • _Dear Friends,_

    By the time I got up here to the East Coast, most of the Apple Watch styles were already sold out for April delivery. So my plan to have the watch for my trip back to Vermont is foiled. We will go to plan B and make an appointment at an Apple Store on the way home to try one on and then hope for delivery this summer. Scalpers are already demanding significant premiums for Apple Watches on eBay for delivery in May. Since I haven’t worn a watch since I was 12, I guess I can wait.

    The new MacBook has arrived at our stores and we should have it on display so you can come in to check out the latest technological gem from Apple. There is a lot of mixed feelings among our staff regarding choosing between the MacBook and MacBook Air but it is certainly a very light and very cool new laptop! Come on in to check it out and to check out the “*20th Anniversary specials*”:http://www.smalldog.com/20years/celebrating-20-years all month long!

    We are down to the last of the Apple Certified Refurbished MacBook Pros with Retina displays so I am going to repeat a previous Kibbles & Bytes exclusive:

    Pssst…don’t tell anyone but I have a great deal for this week’s Kibbles & Bytes exclusive. The MacBook Pro 13-inch Retina is one of the most popular Macs available and we are fortunate to have a good supply of Apple Certified Refurbished MacBook Pros that feature a 2.4 GHz i5 Intel processor, 4 GB of RAM and a 128 GB SSD drive. These also feature the stunning Retina display that has over 4 million pixels and 2560 x 1600 resolution. This unit has a battery that will last up to 9 hours between charges and the latest 802.11ac WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0. With a backlit keyboard, Thunderbolt 2, and an HDMI port this is an ideal laptop. I am going to make the bundle simple: purchase this MacBook Pro 13-inch Retina with AppleCare for only $1099. That’s $80 off our normal prices and $250 off the price of a new one. AppleCare gives you Apple’s 3-year warranty protection as well as 3 years of free Apple technical support. This is a great value!

    “*See this great deal here!*”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900001821/kb-exclusive-macbook-pro-retina-refurb-with-applecare

  • I don’t know whether I am just an Apple Fanboy or whether I am just intrigued by new technology but I know I’ll be placing my order for an Apple Watch Sports Edition this weekend. I want to have it for the trip back to Vermont so I hope that Apple ships pretty promptly but I know I will be one of millions who will be placing an order.

    Thank you for reading this issue of Kibbles & Bytes!

    Your Kibbles & Bytes Team,

    _Don, Dean & Mike_

  • Celebrating 20 Years

    We’re celebrating 20 years! Woohoo! We will be offering YOU some pretty big deals, including 20% off all Beats by Dr. Dre headphones and speakers, $20 off Otterbox cases, a Mac mini bundle that is hard to resist, and much more both in-store and online!

    Stop in during the month of April and wish us a very Happy Birthday! Check out all the specials at: “*smalldog.com/20years*”:http://www.smalldog.com/20years

    “*Mac mini bundle*”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900001805
    !http://blog.smalldog.com/images/4362.png!
    Been struggling to keep your phone charged? Always running out of cables because your friend “borrowed” it again, and maybe there just aren’t enough charging ports? Well Hammerhead’s Charging Bundle is just what you need. This bundle includes a 2-Port USB Auto Car Charger for the long road trip ahead, a 4-Port USB Wall Charger, when the whole family gets stuck in the same hotel room, as well as a USB-to-Lightning 1 Meter Braided Cable to set your cable apart from the rest so next time your friend “borrows” it you’ll be able to reclaim it again.

    “*Outdoor Tech Turtle Shell 2.0 Wireless Boombox*”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900001810
    !http://blog.smalldog.com/images/4369.jpg!
    If you have been looking for a mobile companion that is as mobile as you are (other than your iPhone) look no further. We just added the Seagate Personal Cloud Home Media Storage to our inventory and couldn’t be more excited. This powerful device available in 3TB, 4TB, and 5TB will allow you to access your movies, music and photos at home or on the road. Access all your favorites on any device, throughout your home. Out of the house, on the go or wherever there is an Internet connection.

    “*View all specials for the month of April here.*”:http://www.smalldog.com/20years

  • Two Decades of Providing Access to Fantastically Useful Electronics…and Still Going Strong!

    One of the primary things that originally attracted Don and Hapy to the Apple Macintosh platform when Small Dog Electronics came into being in 1995 was the usefulness and empowerment one attains when making the leap into the digital age with a device bearing the Apple logo. At the time, the Apple world was still very much a cult following of users, with a rainbow-colored logo and a rather small percentage of overall install base. Regardless, it was clear to them that Apple’s intuitive operating system would bear fruit as people became more accepting of something other than a PC running MS-DOS emulating Windows NT. I used to cherish the tee-shirt obtained at the San Francisco MacWorld Expo: “Dude, you’re gettin’ a Dell!”, while visiting the West Coast for the then famous Apple event. Some people were buying their very first personal computers from Small Dog!

    I was asked to join the company a year later as Don’s skill at spending money on inventory and interest in trying new platforms (remember Mac clones?!) outpaced his ability to sell and process the orders. With Don’s infectious enthusiasm, and Hapy as the financial brains and technical mindset behind most of it all, I jumped in with both feet wondering how long it could last. My motivations, akin to theirs, were also in helping people get into this Mac computer cult, and prove that anything is possible with the right tools. Having known Hapy since elementary school as teammates in Little League and as a friend of his two sisters in high school, I was exposed to Apple gear at Don’s house for quite some time before Small Dog started. Something as simple as using Apple’s early MacPaint software programs really turned me on to how powerful a personal computer could be, even if the Mac SE only had a nine-inch black and white screen!

    Some of my first tasks at the company were not only to process and ship orders, but also to monitor the classified section of America Online pertaining to computer memory (one of our first sales outlets online!) as well as mass-install two-piece internal modems into all the many PowerBook 520c refurbs Don secured (I was able to get it down to 20 minutes!). I soon became Apple Service Certified, and found myself elbows deep inside the computers and printers, too.

    At the time Small Dog started in the mid-nineties, Apple’s PowerBook Duo 2300c and Performa series of computers were becoming the hot commodities. IBM’s PowerPC CPU chip architecture was branded all over the packaging as Apple strove to become more mainstream. Apple’s factory reconditioned product was made available at public auctions which Don regularly attended, and in the end, we were buying these direct. More marketing became necessary as the inventory required faster turnaround, and smalldoggy.com was born. Don suddenly had an even better platform to share our product listings and sound off on all things technical or otherwise.

    It was in November of 1996 that Don sent out a request to our rapidly growing email list for help in naming this newsletter (from SmallDogE@aol.com!!). Soon after came the news of “We have a name…..Kibbles & Bytes”. Here’s a special shoutout today to Richard Taylor, then at Marquette University, for helping us name this “puppy”. Before long, I was also contributing to the newsletters, forcing me to open my knowledge base further as I wrote articles for TechTails, our more tech-centric newsletter, which followed a bit later on. Before long, the company was growing quickly in scope, not only as an early and very successful e-commerce website, but also expanding into bricks and mortar retail store locations, meeting with our customers face-to-face everyday. The spigot of sales we had built online was on and has not waned since.

    I feel very much the same as I did then: Small Dog Electronics stands by your side in providing the hardware and software support needed to put these great digital devices to use. It’s more than just selling Apple’s digital lifestyle, but also in making sure you are comfortable with your purchase after the sale. Everyone at Small Dog is dedicated to learning what computers, phones, and tablets can and can’t do, so that you don’t make a poor decision when making your purchase. We remain proud to be in the very elite Apple Specialist Reseller Channel, and hope that you can all visit one of our great stores in person soon to see what new tools exist now to make your life better. We’re here to help!

    Thank you for being a subscriber to Kibbles & Bytes!

  • Mac OS 10.10.3 and iOS 8.3 Released

    Apple released free updates to both the Mac OS and iOS this week. iOS 8.3 adds a lot of Emoji faces with better organization, skin tone modifiers, and a bunch of flag, phone, computer, and watch Emoji. The evolution of the smiley face emoticon continues… 🙂

    Other changes in iOS 8.3 include dozens of bug fixes and some new features. Wireless CarPlay is one of these and enables the connection of your iPhone to a CarPlay enabled system without attaching a Lightning cable. Siri has gained some new languages plus the ability to make phone calls using the speakerphone.

    In Messages, there is now an option that will allow you to separate messages from friends from iMessages from strangers. This update also adds support for Google two-step verification, which is a great step for those heavy Google App users. For Apple Pay users, Passbook now separates Apple Pay credit cards from other Passes. And one of my favorite new features removes the annoying requirement to enter your Apple ID password when you are downloading free apps!

    Mac OS 10.10.3 also adds over *300* (!!!) new Emoji characters and a bunch of bug fixes. The most significant update, however, is that 10.10.3 includes the new Photos app. This new app was first shown at the 2014 WWDC (Apple Worldwide Developers Conference) in June of 2014 and is designed to be a replacement for iPhoto and Aperture. I promise a more comprehensive review of the new Photos app once I have had a bit more time to play with it. It does enable iCloud Photo Library, which will allow you to store your entire photo library in your iCloud account but that may also mean you will quickly fill up your free 5GB of storage. The next two options for iCloud storage are $0.99 a month for 20GB or $3.99 for 200GB of storage. I find the organizing and editing tools to be a big improvement over iPhoto and having my library on my iCloud account means I can find that one picture I want to show from any of my devices.

    Both updates are free. The iOS update is accessed through the Software Update screen in the General settings and the Mac OS update is available from the App Store. As always, make sure to back up your computer and/or iOS devices prior to installing any updates.

  • _Dear Friends,_

    More snow in Vermont and the Small Dog team (with the exception of Artie) seems to be getting really tired of waking up to snow covered roads and porches. I am getting tired of all the pictures of snow-covered decks on Facebook, too. It has been a hard, cold, and long winter but warmer temperatures, spring flowers, and mud season are surely coming soon!

    This week we have some recollections from our first employee, Art Hendrickson. I remember the long debate that Hapy and I had when we considered hiring Art 19 years ago. We questioned whether we had enough work but eventually decided to take the risk. Boy am I glad we did! Artie has pretty much done every job in the company and has been a leader using his example of hard work and focus to push the company forward. In the early days, we would hold our management meetings in the hot tub on my deck and then Art would climb into the Chevy Blazer to ferry Macs up Prickly Mountain in mud season. Art now manages our warehouse, buildings, and grounds and is responsible for inventory control but he has been a shipper, a salesperson, a technician, a truck driver, a purchaser and many times a good intentioned gadfly. Thanks for an awesome 19 years, Art!

    This coming week Apple will start taking orders for the Apple Watch, which I hear will be available initially exclusively online and at the Apple Store. Unfortunately, at this time Small Dog Electronics will not be offering the watch but I’ll be one of those ordering one today to see if I will like wearing a watch for the first time since I was about 12 years old.

    Also this week, Apple will release and begin shipment of the new Macbook. We have been told that we will be receiving very limited stock and the new Macbook will be in very short supply initially. We can take your order and have your Macbook delivered right from Apple as the fastest way to get this new product. We are sourcing new USB-C accessories and should have demos of the new Macbook in our retail stores very soon.

    This week’s Kibbles & Bytes special is one of our 20th Anniversary special values. If you are like me ,you spend a lot of time in your car and having a good charging solution can give your iPhone or iPad that boost it needs to last more than an 10-hour day of heavy use. We are bundling the Hammerhead 17-watt 2-port USB Auto Charger with a Hammerhead USB to Lightning 1-meter Braided cable with MFI license for only $38.97. That’s $20 off our normal price and we will ship it to you for free, too!

    “*Check it out here!*”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900001804

  • Workshop Fee – $25 : Register Now!

    *_There are limited tickets available, and they will sell very quickly._* Contact RETN with any questions at “learn@retn.org”:mailto:learn@retn.org or call (802) 654-7980, ext. 24. To learn more about RETN, visit “*retn.org*”:http://www.retn.org.

    “*Register for the event by clicking here!*”:http://www.retn.org/civicrm/event/register?reset=1&id=87

    RETN is pleased to present this workshop in collaboration with Small Dog Electronics.

  • What They'll Cover

    Topics will include:

    • Getting Started: Creating new projects and organizing your files
    • Adding Videos and Photos: Importing and placing items into your movie project
    • Basic Editing: Inserting, moving and trimming video clips and photos
    • Adding Text and Music: Putting the finishing touches on your movie
    • Sharing Your Movie: Exporting and posting your movie online

    Note: This workshop will specifically cover the Mac version of iMovie (not iOS). We will be using the latest version 10.0.6. iMovie 10.0.6 requires OS X Yosemite. You may bring your own laptop with iMovie 10, or use one of ours.