Kibbles & Bytes Blog

  • Qardio

    I am always on the lookout these days for great new products that take advantage of the HealthKit and HomeKit apps on Apple’s iOS. One that we have just picked up is the Cardio Smart Blood Pressure monitor. This compact device is wireless and will dump your BP data right into Health app. It has been clinically tested and is very accurate. Grace and I have both been using it and it is simple to use. Powered by 4 AAA batteries that last for a year, the cuff uses Bluetooth 4.0 to communicate with your iPhone (or that other Android stuff).

    It is just $99 and in stock now, “*check it out here*”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/86560/qardio-qardioarm-blood-pressure-monitor-white.

  • Apple Thwacks the Street

    I am running out of verbs to describe Apple’s quarter-after-quarter record revenue and earnings. Apple is already the most valuable company on the planet and for the 3 months ending on December 27, 2014, Apple made more money than any publicly-traded company, *EVER*. Before the earnings report came out, analysts were scrambling to raise their estimates but even the most optimistic analyst did not predict the monster quarter that Apple posted. Apple had a record quarterly revenue of $74.6 Billion and a record $18 billion, or $3.06 per diluted share, of profit.

    This historical financial result was driven by the wild success of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus with about 74.5 million units sold. To put that in perspective, this is 46% greater than the 51 million sold last holiday quarter. They also sold over 21 million iPads and had 14% growth in Mac sales while the rest of the PC market was shrinking.

    Apple is not resting on their laurels, though! They spent a record $1.9 Billion on R&D which is a 42% increase and of course, there is the Apple Watch coming in April, which Tim Cook says he uses everyday and cannot live without. That’s a big endorsement!

    So just how big was this? Apple sold over 34,000 iPhones every hour, 24 hours a day for every day of the quarter. That is 575 iPhones a minute. They ended the quarter with $179 billion in cash on hand. Apple’s revenues were greater than Microsoft, IBM and Proctor & Gamble combined. Apple’s revenue was greater that the GDP of 125 countries in 2013 as listed by the World Bank.

    ApplePay was also a hit during the quarter with the contact-less payment system accounting for two of every three dollars in mobile payments. Tim Cook, Apple CEO said:

    bq. __We are more confident than ever that 2015 will be the year of Apple Pay.__

    The number of banks and institutions accepting Apple Pay is rapidly increasing and it was revealed that at Panera Bread, for example, 80% of contact-less payments are Apple Pay. Apple also announced that 200,000 self-service stations, including vending machines, parking meters, etc. have launched Apple Pay.

    Apple predicted that the first calendar quarter would also be strong with revenue between $52 and $55 billion. Apple’s board of directors declared a cash dividend of 47 cents per share.

    Whenever I see Apple post another record quarter like this I do think back to the days before Steve Jobs came back to the company where Apple’s obituary was on every analyst’s lips, when Michael Dell suggested liquidating the company, and when at a pep talk for Apple resellers an Apple executive set the goal of Apple becoming a $5 billion company. This is clearly the most amazing American business success story and the chapters are still being written. We are very proud to be a part of this story and send our congratulations to the entire Apple team for an awesome job well done. Keep up the good work and keep on making more of the most innovative, intuitive and useful products on the planet!

  • _Dear Friends,_

    It is below 0° F in Vermont and the Super Bowl is this Sunday, but Apple heated up the place with some historic financial results including the greatest quarterly profit posted EVER by a publicly-traded company! That is pretty astounding and I’ll go into some detail on the numbers below. Apple also announced that they had sold their 1 billionth (!) iOS device, an iPad that they sold to themselves to have at headquarters. That is simply astounding. iOS devices are only 8 years old and were a category of devices that Apple invented. To have sold 1 billion of anything is amazing, but 1 billion devices that cost hundreds of dollars each… *WOW!*

    This week’s Kibbles & Bytes exclusive features an Apple Certified Refurbished 13-inch MacBook Air. This is the Mac that I use at home, on the road, or at the office with a large display and keyboard. This model features a 1.3 GHz Intel i5 processor, 4 GB of RAM and 256 GB of SSD storage. I am, once again, bundling this with AppleCare so you receive 3 years of protection for the hardware instead of one year and 3 years of free tech support from Apple instead of 90 days. Especially with these MacBook Airs, just about anything that breaks out of warranty will cost you more to fix than the cost of AppleCare, so it is important peace-of-mind investment to protect your Mac! I really want you to be fully protected, so there are two more parts of this bundle. We will include a 1 TB Seagate Backup Plus Slim USB 3.0 drive, so you will have a nice portable drive to go along with your nice portable Mac, and of course, a Hammerhead neoprene case for the MacBook Air. Let’s review this bundle, you get:

    * Apple Certified Refurbished MacBook Air 13-inch 1.3GHz i5 4GB/256GB
    * AppleCare Protection Plan
    * Seagate 1TB Back-up Plus Slim USB 3.0 Drive
    * Hammerhead Neoprene Case for MacBook Air

    New, this would normally sell for $1,319, however, exclusively for Kibbles & Bytes readers, you can save $100 with the bundle price of $1,219! “*Check it out here!*”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900001728

  • Travel in Style

    We’ve added a great new brand to our line up: Welcome Osprey! Osprey is known for their passion for the outdoors and for…

  • SPECIAL | G-RAID mini 1TB Dual-Drive Storage System

    The G-RAID mini 1TB Dual-Drive Storage System from G-Technology is a versatile dual-drive bus powered storage system with a variety of ports including two FireWire 800 ports and one USB 3.0/2.0 port. Along with the variety of connection options, you can take advantage of a total cache of 32MB and a 7200 RPM disk speed ensuring you can read and write to your drive quickly and efficiently.

  • SPECIAL | Seagate Central

    __Together At Last__

    Connect Seagate Central to your Wi-Fi router to organize and back up all your content on one device that you can access from anywhere. Access your personal cloud from anywhere with a Web browser or the free Seagate Media app for tablets and smartphones. Save your photos and video from tablets and smartphones anywhere you have an internet connection and wirelessly stream your media to gaming consoles, media players, Smart TVs, and other connected devices.

  • SPECIAL | Wireless Plus Mobile Storage

    __Take What’s Yours. No Wires. No Web. No worries.__

    Use the Wireless Plus Mobile Storage as a Wi-Fi hub and share a single Internet connection with up to 7 tablets, smartphones, and/or computers. Access your cloud files anytime, even when you’re offline. You can also synchronize with your Dropbox or Google Drive automatically. Perfect for at home, on the road, off the grid, and everywhere in-between.

  • iCloud Drive

    Most of you have heard of iCloud. However, there is a great new feature: iCloud Drive. One of the features I most enjoy about iCloud Drive is that you can let any app that supports iCloud Drive access your iCloud storage. Then, you can edit these same files that have been saved by other apps. You can also gain access to the iCloud Drive via a few different methods, which makes getting access to your iCloud quite easy.

    Some common questions I receive when speaking to customers about iCloud Drive include:

    * *Can I use my non Apple devices to access iCloud Drive, and how do I gain access to my iCloud Drive?*

    Yes, you can access your iCloud from your Apple device, as well as your non-Apple devices.

    * *How?*

    There are a few ways to gain access to iCloud Drive. You can view your entire iCloud Drive from Finder (by default it should be in the Favorites sidebar) in OS X Yosemite. If you have iOS 8, you may gain access from Document Picker which will provide a popup window that gives you access to the full iCloud Drive. And do not forget that you may access iCloud Drive from a variety of compatible web browsers – Safari 6 or later, Firefox 22 or later, or Google Chrome 28 or later. This web version of iCloud Drive lets you create folders, upload files, download files, and delete files. Even devices with Windows 8 or later works in a very similar way as iCloud Drive on OS X Yosemite. To gain access via Windows just visit here to get started “*install iCloud for Windows*”:http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1455.

    * *Another popular question: Is there a fee for iCloud Drive?*

    The initial iCloud account gives you 5 GB of storage space free. iCloud Drive is a part of iCloud and as time goes on and you are saving your important memories, you may have to eventually upgrade from the free iCloud plan to a variety of paid options.

    Whether you are using the free iCloud Drive or have paid to upgrade to more storage, iCloud Drive is one of the best iCloud features which many families (mine included) will appreciate when it comes to preserving precious memories.

    __Editor’s note: iCloud Drive requires devices running iOS 8, OS X Yosemite, and/or Windows 7 or 8 with iCloud for Windows 4.0__

    “*See this link for more details.*”:https://www.apple.com/icloud/icloud-drive/

  • Tribute to the Powermac G4

    I remember my first Mac, the “*Power Mac G4 Quicksilver*”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_Mac_G4, equipped with PowerPC G4 processor running at 867 Mhz (yes, that’s right… __Mega-__ not __Giga-__ hertz), 512 MB of RAM, __and__ a NVIDIA GeForce 2 graphics card.

    With side door access, this model was easy to upgrade. It was a tool-less design that came out before PC designers thought of putting in their gaming case designs. After putting mine through a few years of traveling and abuse, I decided it was a tank of a workstation as it had no cracked plastic or broken doors!

    This machine had one of the most elegant operating systems at the time, OS X. Now keep this in mind: it was released in 2001 and at that time Windows was Windows 2000 and XP came out later that year. Consumer friendly Linux was still in its infancy. So OS X was the only consumer level Unix system. It was extremely easy to use and finely tuned to the machine’s hardware. I must say for being such a power horse at the time, the Power Mac G4 ran quietly.

    The only drawback for me was portability. I had to carry this computer around a lot, and it was not light, but designers at Apple were insightful enough to put handles on the case, which made carrying the beefy machine around easier.

    This was a solid machine and never gave me any issue, I eventually sold it to buy computer parts for another project, but looking back I wish I kept it for nostalgic reasons.

  • Pertinent Details

    I want to take a moment to talk about how important it is that a technician see a damaged computer in its original condition. If it’s something like a liquid spill or physical damage, it becomes less of a diagnostic and more of a Sherlock Holmes style forensic investigation.

    As a technician, when a computer comes to my repair bench with a issue listed as “does not power on”, I have little to go on. Opening the machine, I’ll inspect every component on the main logic board for corrosion. I’ll look for debris inside the machine. I’ll verify all cables and connectors are seated as they are from the factory. I’ll watch the dust trails on the bottom case for interruption, either by liquid or looking for finger marks to see if the computer has been opened.

    Sometimes somebody with a liquid spill will try to clean the computer’s internal components before bringing it in for service, either with rubbing alcohol or distilled water. Alternatively, and possibly after cleaning, rice will be used to dry the machine. Firstly, the computer is not covered by warranty any longer when this (or the damage) has been done, but secondly, it makes it very difficult to determine what the initial cause of damage was.

    This next part can apply to any repair when the tech can’t recreate the initial issue or determine the root cause. When a technician can’t determine what parts are malfunctioning, or can’t verify visible/physical damage to the components, it’s literally guess-work, even if they have test parts to use (which often is not the case). This can result in an extended turnaround for the repair and multiple expensive part re-quotes as we attempt to resolve the initial issue.

    When bringing a computer, a car, a pet, or any other “broken thing” in for service, it’s best to give the experts any pertinent details about the device (or pup) and what’s happened to it in the past. It quickens the diagnosis and vastly increases the accuracy of one. It will allow the technicians to give a fairly solid quote on repairing the machine in a timely fashion, and allow you to get a straight answer on repair cost and retrieve the repaired unit quicker.

  • _Hello Fellow Tech Enthusiasts,_

    I hope your January is an uplifting start to your new year! All of us here at Small Dog Electronics are looking forward to what Apple comes up with this year. Many of us are crossing our fingers for a new lightweight unibody design that combines the 13″ Air and 13″ Pro, and we’re all hoping for USB 3.1.

    Whether you are using your Mac for writing a dissertation, running your business, reading the latest news, or watching movies, it is still the same computer all of us know and love. Let’s learn more about them!

    I enjoyed the two most recent episodes of the Podcast “*99% Invisible*”:https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/99-invisible/id394775318?mt=2&at=11lb7k. One of them was on product and brand __sound__ (“The Sizzle”), and went into detail on the Apple Start-Up Chime. The second was discussing the broad gap between an introductory user of computers and an enthusiast/professional (“Of Mice and Men”).

    I have to get back to repairing computers, but it was great to chat, and my fellow technicians and I have prepared some interesting reads just for you!

    -Mikhael
    “mikhael@smalldog.com”:mailto:mikhael@smalldog.com

  • Did you see the Apple commercial during the State of the Union speech by President Obama last week? If you saw the press row, which was directly behind the Speaker’s platform, you could see a long lineup of MacBook Air and MacBook Pro units all with their Apple logo gracing the scene. If you missed it, check it out “*here*”:http://www.marketwatch.com/story/state-of-the-union-press-gallery-looked-like-an-apple-ad-2015-01-21. It was pretty amazing and you definitely would not have seen this a few years ago!

    Thanks for reading this issue of Kibbles & Bytes! We know it is you, our loyal customers, that ultimately pay our wages so we appreciate this opportunity to talk with you each week!

    Your Kibbles & Bytes Team,

    _Don, Rachel, Dean & Mike_