Kibbles & Bytes Blog

Apple news, tech tips, and more…

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  • Tech Talks!

    Over the past 2 months, we’ve been hosting a series of free basic courses on a variety of subjects. Our Tech Talk for the month of September was focused on iCloud, and the month before that was all about iPhoto on the Mac. Moving forward, we have lots of great subjects to tackle, but we’ll start with a repeat of iCloud for the month of October, in case you missed it. If you attended one of our recent discussions, and have follow up questions, feel free to reach out to our consultants to schedule a personalized, one-on-one lesson at one of our retail stores, or in your home:

    **1-802-497-7171 x 515**
    “**consulting@smalldog.com**”:mailto:consulting@smalldog.com

    Our founding Tech Talk instructor’s name is “**Nate Poirier**”:http://blog.smalldog.com/authors/nathanpoirier. If you’ve ever visited our South Burlington store, you may know him, or maybe you’ve heard of Nate’s legendary lessons. For the past few years, Nate has been one of Small Dog’s shining stars, and conducts most of the South Burlington in-store lessons. His personal interests are seemingly limitless, but do include Apple Products, Digital Photography, Astronomy, and anything that flies and has a remote control. For all these topics and more, you can bring your questions and curiosities his way at the South Burlington store. To schedule an appointment with “**Nate**”:mailto:nathan@smalldog.com, call 802-862-1316 and dial extension 515.

  • Hands Free Vermonters!

    The crew here in Central Vermont are enjoying temperatures in the 70’s and some spectacular foliage that never ceases to amaze no matter how long you have lived here. This is also a time where all of us get to regroup after a big back to school season and get our ducks in a row prior to the holidays.

    October 1st is upon us which means Vermont’s hands-free cell phone law goes into effect. “**Click here for the details.**”:http://highwaysafety.vermont.gov/phonesdown Here at Small Dog, a bunch of us have prepped for this by picking up the “**Jabra Tour Bluetooth Speakerphone.**”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/86015/jabra-tour-bluetooth-in-car-speakerphone-black

    This item is easy to set up and easily slipped onto the driver’s side visor. I literally turned on the Jabra, started Bluetooth on my phone, and in seconds was paired to the speaker.

    With incoming calls, the Tour tells you the name of the person calling if it’s programed into your address book or will recite the phone number that is incoming. Don’t want to take the call? Just say ‘ignore call’. The Tour has some other great features I hadn’t seen in other devices I looked at. Battery life is in the 10 hour range, partially because the device will automatically power on/off when I leave and enter the car. It will also notify me that the device is paired when I get in the car, and provide a battery status on my iPhone.

    As a speaker, the sound is decent for it’s size. I listen to a lot of podcasts, and now instead of plugging into the auxiliary jack in my car, I’ll play them through the Tour, not something I would do with my music, but a nice option to have! Many of us drive vehicles that don’t have hands free integrated into them and this product easily integrates into any car no matter the age! 

    Thank you for reading!

    “**Stephen Andrews**”:mailto:stephena@smalldog.com

  • Welcome Darek Ashe!

    We would like to welcome Darek Ashe to the team at Small Dog Key West!

    Darek was born in Key West and is thus an official “conch”. He has been serving the community in retail sales and customer service for over 15 years and we are excited to have him here at Small Dog. He has an extensive background with AT&T wireless and with Apple just launching the new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus our customers are in excellent hands with Darek! Darek’s passion is learning about new technologies and loves to share this knowledge with his customers.

    Darek has a beautiful family with his wife and 2 children and spends his off time enjoying his family and the Keys community.

  • TT | Rokform RokShield V.3 Case for iPhone 5/5s

    Multi-tasking at its best. This iPhone 5 case accomplishes max protection and style, all while keeping your hands free to go about your busy life. With the included Adhesive Car Mount, you can mount your iPhone 5/5s to just about any flat surface (try our favorite, the car dashboard!). The removable rubber bumper gives you added protection when you need it and a slimmer profile when you don’t, making this one of the best protective iPhone 5/5s case available.

    *FREE shipping!*

  • MAC TREAT #198: How to Pair an Apple Remote

    An amazing feat by Apple is making all of their products just plain work – and work together. Maybe a little too well perhaps…

    One time when I was using my MacBook Pro a buddy of mine was shuffling through the Apple TV and my volume starts going up and down all on its own! Obviously my first thought was “Virus!” and then I remembered I was using a Mac. Calmly and cooly I told myself “there’s no such thing as ghosts” and turned to my friend to show him what was happening. He and I both shared a laugh as I realized it was him not only controlling the Apple TV but my Mac as well. Knowing now what the issue was, I went back to using my computer but now I was facing his ugly mug to prevent the Apple Remote from controlling my machine.

    Apple Remotes run off a simple infrared (IR) technology that luckily can be paired and more importantly un-paired with your other Apple products.

    Follow these steps to *pair* a remote with your Mac:

    * Log in on your Mac as an Admin user.
    * Get very close to your Mac (about 3 or 4 inches away).
    * Point the remote at the infrared sensor on the front of your Mac.
    * Press and hold the Menu and Next/Fast-forward buttons simultaneously on the remote for 5 seconds.
    * Your Apple Remote is now paired with your computer. You should see a chain-link style lock appear in the center of your screen for a moment.

    Follow these steps to *un-pair* a remote with your Mac:

    * Choose System Preferences from the Apple menu in the upper-left menu bar.
    * Choose Security from the View menu.
    * Click the lock and enter your Administrator password if necessary.
    * Click Un-pair in the Security pane.

    The strange thing about my story is that I never paired the Apple Remote to my Mac in the first place and the Apple TV was purchased months after the MacBook Pro was. To fix my issue I simply turned off IR on my Mac.

    Follow these steps to turn off (or on) IR reception with your Mac:

    * Choose System Preferences from the Apple menu in the upper-left menu bar.
    * Choose Security from the View menu.
    * Click the lock and enter your Administrator password if necessary.
    * In OS X Lion v10.7 or later, click the “Advanced” button in the lower-right corner.
    * Enable the “Disable remote control infrared receiver” checkbox.
    * In OS X Lion v10.7 or later, click the OK button.

  • Extensions in iOS

    It’s finally here! iOS 8 has landed and with it comes the much anticipated support of extensions.

    Android users are all too familiar with widgets, and extensions in iOS provide the same functionality albeit in a different manner. Extensions are elements that you can use to customize your experience using iOS and your device. For example you can add custom weather apps in Notification Center, share with Pintrest or similar social websites from the share menu, clip from the web with many note taking apps, and perhaps the most anticipated feature: custom keyboards. 

    Android users have been able to enjoy a plethora of good an not-so-good keyboards for a while, but one innovative style of “swiping” between letters on the keyboard has become so popular as to cause custom keyboards to be one of the most requested features in iOS. Now iOS users have access to a plethora of keyboards, from the aforementioned swipe style, to improved word prediction, to silly images and emojiis.

    These extensions also integrate with the hardware of new devices. With iOS 8 Apple introduced HealthKit, a developer tool which measures and stores health metrics from sensors in the phone, and yes, the upcoming Apple Watch. A new generation of health apps will be able to use HealthKit to track your data and give you dynamic, personalized feedback.

    Other apps, such as “*LastPass*”:https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/lastpass-for-premium-customers/id324613447?mt=8&at=11lb7k and “*1Password,*”:https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/1password-password-manager/id568903335?mt=8&at=11lb7k utilize the new extension capabilities to autofill passwords and other forms in Safari in iOS, just like on OS X devices. But their integration doesn’t end there. You can also set your master password to be filled via Touch ID, essentially making your fingerprint your master password, thus vastly increasing the speed of filling in usernames and forms securely.

    These examples are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the use of extensions. With iOS 8 developers have been given the keys to the kingdom, so to speak, when it comes to iOS and we are going to be seeing a huge wave of app integration in the future. The adoption rate of using these features is incredibly high and only growing. While iOS 8 may not appear too different from iOS 7 on the surface, extensions and under the hood enhancements make this one of the most important releases of this mobile operating system. You just may not notice until you start exploring all the amazing new apps.

  • Move Widgets to your Desktop

    If you are someone who enjoys using the Widget feature of OS X, but finds the fact that they are hidden away in your dashboard annoying, this little trick will help you out…

    First you need to open the app called Terminal. Terminal is located in your Utilities Folder and is an application that gives you access to the command line interface of your machine. Once you have Terminal open type in the command that follows and hit Enter:

    *defaults write com.apple.dashboard devmode YES*

    After you have entered that, you will need to log out of your account and sign back in. To move the desired Widgets to your desktop, go to your dashboard, click and hold on the desired Widget, and press the F12 key. If this does not work, all you need to do is hop back into Terminal and run the following command:

    *killall Dock*

    This will make your Widgets accessible from your desktop. If you ever decide you don’t need to have your Widgets floating on your desktop, run the initial command with NO, instead of YES at the end. It would look like this.

    *defaults write com.apple.dashboard devmode NO*

    ??WARNING: Improper use of Terminal can wreak almost unlimited havoc on your machine. Make sure you type these commands exactly and ALWAYS back up before making these types of changes.??

  • As Bob Dylan was once misquoted: ??The leaves they are a-changin’.??

    Moving on, my iPhone 6 has not yet bent in the pocket of my skinny jeans, nor do I think it ever will. If you didn’t hear about this, a very small number of people reported that their iPhone 6 Plus was bending slightly after spending a day in the confines of their tight pants. Subsequent bend tests revealed that when enought pressure was put on the massive phone, it could become slightly warped. Here’s the thing: Your iPhone 6 Plus is a phablet ??(editor’s note: a portmanteau of “phone” and “tablet”)?? and you need to treat it that way. With a screen that big, you’re not going to be able to carry it around in the same places and you probably shouldn’t. Yeah, the 11 inch MacBook Air is small, but it’s still a computer, and you shouldn’t carry it around in your cargo shorts.

    Treat your technology with respect and it will work wonders. To help make the most out of these incredible machines, keep reading as we dive into articles about moving widgets to your desktop, extensions in iOS 8, and pairing an Apple Remote.

  • It is supposed to be great sunny weather this weekend so a lot of chores will just have to wait as I head into the mountains to do some leaf peeping of my own on two wheels!

    We celebrated the 5775th year in the Jewish calendar this week! Happy New Year! Shanah Tovah!

    Thank you for reading this issue of Kibbles & Bytes!

    Your Kibbles & Bytes team,

    Don & Mike

  • KB | Buy one Chill Pill Mobile Speakers, Get one Free

    Meet the Chill Pill: A pocket-sized, self-contained capsule that transforms into two powered speakers. Designed for people who enjoy listening to music out loud and on the go!

    *Buy one, get one free and save $39.99!*

  • It Is Cloudy Out But The Sun Is Shining

    What is this iCloud stuff? Are we talking about big fluffy items in the sky that somehow have your data stored in them? Nope, we are talking about some very down-to-earth hardware on huge server farms mostly powered by renewable energy, at least in Apple’s case, that contain data and feed it back to you on your multiple digital devices. So, what exactly can you do with iCloud?

    *iTunes, App and iBook store purchases*

    When you activate your iCloud account everything that you purchase on the iTunes Store, the App Store, or the iBook Store is accessible on all of your devices immediately. So if you buy a “*good science fiction book*”:https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/diaspora-multimedia-edition/id673540743?mt=11&at=11lb7k at the iBook Store you can start reading it on your iPad and finish up on your iPhone or Mac. If you have an “*Apple TV*”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/80135/apple-tv-3rd-gen it gets even better as you have instant access to your photos, music, and more on that big screen TV.

    *Photo Sharing*

    You can activate iCloud Photo Sharing to easily share photos and videos with family and friends and even invite them to add their own pictures, videos and snide comments. It is all updated automatically so no waiting for Facebook to post those pictures.

    *Find My iPhone*

    ??OMG, I left my iPhone in the cab on the way to the airport! ??

    If you lose your iPhone, you can use Find My iPhone (or Find My iPad) to locate it by logging into the “*iCloud web portal.*”:https://www.icloud.com It will locate your iOS device on a map, play a sound, or put it into “Lost Mode”. You can also erase it remotely and that works because we have tested it extensively for a previous article. This is Apple’s “Kill Switch” and has dramatically decreased the number of iPhone thefts.

    *iWork Anywhere*

    With iWork iCloud beta (soon to be out of beta) you can create documents and presentations with ease and share them on all of your devices. Start that new novel you are writing on your iPad and pick it up on the Mac seamlessly.

    *Third-Party Apps*

    An increasing number of third-party apps now support iCloud and push data to iCloud so it is available on all your devices. Start that chess game on the plane and finish it up later on your iPad.

    *Safari*

    One of the biggest frustrations before iCloud was that I had a completely different set of bookmarks on my iPhone than I did on my Mac. Now with iCloud all your bookmarks can be on all of your devices. Further, if you use Safari’s Reading List feature will keep that list on all your devices. iCloud monitors the open tabs on any of your devices and you can pick up right where you left off on your other device.

    *iCloud Keychain*

    While it is intentionally a little more complex to set-up for security purposes (it does, after all, have all your passwords stored for you) iCloud Keychain is a great tool. Using 256-bit AES encryption, iCloud Keychain will store account names, passwords, and credit cards so you don’t have to keep a little cheat sheet or remember them. Even better, iCloud Keychain and Safari will suggest complex passwords for those websites that ask for them and instead of you remembering iCloud Keychain does the work.

    *Mail, Calendar, Contact and Reminders*

    Enter once on any device and they are populated to all devices. Simple but essential!

    *Backup…Hey, say it again…BACKUP!*

    iCloud automatically backs up your data over your wi-fi connection every day when it is on, connected to a power source and locked (like when you are charging it at night). iCloud will back up your purchased music, movies, TV shows, apps and books. It will also back up your photos and videos that are in the Camera Roll (not anything you have added otherwise). It backs up the device settings, app data, home screen and pages organization, iMessage, SMS and MMS texts, and your ringtones. Always back up your iPad or iPhone to your Mac, too!

    *iCloud Drive*

    With iOS 8 and Yosemite, you will have access to iCloud Drive where you can store anything you want so, remember that novel you were working on, store it on iCloud Drive and access it from anywhere or on any of your devices!

    The forecast is iCloudy with plenty of sunshine and convenience!

    “*Learn more about iCloud here.*”:https://www.apple.com/support/icloud/