Kibbles & Bytes Blog

I drive a lot — two hours a day covering a total of 100 miles. This week, I was shown this cool little device by a coworker and was immediately intrigued.

“*Automatic*”:https://www.automatic.com is a tiny device you plug into your car’s data port and links to your iPhone or Android (download at Google Play) through an “*app.*”:https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/automatic/id596594365?mt=8&at=11lb7k&ct=kibbs It provides all sorts of fun information about your driving and your car. At first I thought my 2007 VW Rabbit wouldn’t be smart enough to contain the proper hardware to make this work, but Automatic actually works with most cars that have sold in the US since 1996.

The Automatic Link gives you useful information such as gas consumption, time it takes to get to and from places, driving style and car maintenance. It’ll also keep track of where you park, which can be helpful in certain situations __(I may or may have not lost my car in Brooklyn a few weeks ago…)__.

Automatic learns your driving style and gives you the appropriate feedback to improve things like wasting gas from accelerating too fast or slamming on the breaks too often. Every week you’ll get a driving score to help you improve. They even claim that a high score could save you hundreds on gas every year.

Automatic is priced at $100 and does not have subscription fees. My other car-enthused coworker may just invest in one of these in the near future. I think I may wait to hear his feedback before rushing out to grab one myself, but I think that this could provide some really cool information as well as improve my (sometimes crazed) driving.

Have one yourself? “*Tell me about it!*”:mailto:steph@smalldog.com

Apple posted a profit of $7.7 billion on sales of $37.4 billion, with gross margin improving by nearly 3 points over last year. While iPad sales were a little disappointing with “only” 13.3 million units sold, iPhone and Mac posted good year-over-year gains.

It is interesting to note that in the 4 short years since the introduction of the iPad where Apple created a new market, they have sold over 225 million units in spite of voracious competition. They enjoy a 59% overall share of the retail tablet market, 70% of the dollars spent on tablets, and 85% of the education market.

Of particular note was the increase in year-over-year Mac sales with over 4.4 million Macs sold, representing double digit growth in many countries and an increase in Mac sales at a time when PC sales at other companies are generally declining.

The iTunes store is also doing well and represents about 12% of Apple revenue, according to one source.

iPhone was the driver, though, with 35.2 million iPhones sold, up by 4 million units from the same period last year. Tim Cook summed it up by saying, “We are incredibly excited about the upcoming releases of iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite, as well as other new products and services that we can’t wait to introduce.”

Even with all the stock buy-backs and dividends, including the $0.47/share dividend announced, Apple has a healthy bank account with over $164 billion in the bank and has acquired 29 companies since the start of their Fiscal Year in October. That number doesn’t even include the mega-acquisition of Beats that will close this quarter.

Another fantastic quarter for the most interesting story in American business history. Congratulations to the entire Apple team!

*Test OS X Yosemite Beta*
As Don mentioned in his intro, Apple released the Beta version of Yosemite to testers to try out. Head to Apple’s site to check out “*Yosemite*”:https://appleseed.apple.com/sp/betaprogram and you can sign up for it “*here.*”:https://idmsa.apple.com/IDMSWebAuth/classicLogin.html?appIdKey=4b98a8e6a3a3ce265b93c90207c442b53c45a1afa9ff1dc9bde8bb6928078d3b&path=%2F%2Fbetaprogram%2Flogin_to_legal&rv=2&view=3

“*Read more…*”:http://techcrunch.com/2014/07/23/apple-os-x-yosemite-beta/

*Apple Gets iWatch Patent*
Apple received a serious patent that covers all kinds of smartwatch aspects — modular, smart straps, built-in sensors, etc. The patent revolves around a wrist-worn device that can connect to other devices like iPhones and iPads.

“*Read more…*”:http://appleinsider.com/articles/14/07/22/apple-granted-comprehensive-itime-smartwatch-patent-with-in-strap-circuitry-arm-gesture-support

_Dear Friends,_

I am down in New York City for a couple of days at an Apple event, meeting with folks from Apple and other Apple Specialists. I chose to drive down while Hapy flew, and I got to make some work calls from the road while he was dealing with airplanes and airports. Although I was born in Chicago, I guess I am really a country boy because I sure do feel more comfortable in the Green Mountains than the Big Apple.

Speaking of Apple, their third quarter financials were released on Tuesday and once again, they posted record sales and profits for the quarter. I’ll get into some of the details below, but it is clear that Apple is running on all cylinders. And with record spending on R&D, I am very excited about the product pipeline.

The public beta of Yosemite was also released this week and if you want to get a sneak preview of the newest OS, you can sign up for it now. Apple recommends (and I echo it) that if you are going to load the beta that you do so on a spare machine and do not take too many risks with this pre-release version. At an absolute minimum, be sure that you have a complete back-up (which you should ALWAYS have) before you begin testing the latest and greatest.

This week’s Kibbles & Bytes exclusive has to do with power. I have all sorts of power strips at home and work and depending upon the orientation of the receptacles, my chargers will sometimes take up more than one slot and I’ll run out of outlets.

We have recently brought in some 360 Electrical Power Curve 6-outlet Surge Protectors. Not only can you provide surge protection to your sensitive electronics during the summer thunderstorm season, but each of the receptacles rotates 360 degrees so you can attach all six of your devices without worrying about the orientation.

Just to make this bundle even more versatile, we will also include a Hammerhead 4-Port USB Charger so even if you have two iPads, two iPhones and 5 other devices, you will have plenty of room. Normally, this bundle is $54.98, but exclusively for Kibbles & Bytes readers, it’s $10 off — final price: $44.98!

“*Grab this deal here!*”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900001556