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Meet the Chill Pill — a pocket-sized, self-contained capsule that transforms into two powered speakers. It’s the perfect speaker for listening to music while traveling, camping, or kicking it on the back porch.
And now when you purchase one set, we’ll throw in another for *FREE!* Give a set as a gift or keep both for yourself — they will be enjoyed nonetheless!
*Memorial Day Weekend Sidewalk Sale*
This weekend, we’re taking our Garage Sale offline and outdoors (hopefully — the weather just needs to cooperate)! We have some great items that we didn’t want to wait to sell in our “*famous Garage Sale*”:http://www.smalldog.com/garagesale so we figured we’d do an in-person Memorial Day weekend sale event!
We’ll have iPad cases, iPhone cases, cables and other accessories (quantities limited of all), so you’ll have to come out to see what we’ve got — most items are just $5 and up! Our S. Burlington store will be open regular hours Saturday and Sunday, and from 9am – 5pm Memorial Day.
*Customer Appreciation Event — June 12*
Mark your calendars **Thursday, June 12th from 5:30-7:30** — it’s Customer Appreciation Night at our South Burlington retail location! With **Dads and Grads** promos, refreshments, giveaways, demos, and special **one night only** deals, you won’t want to miss out!
We’ll be raffling prizes throughout the evening, and of course, we will have plenty of staff on-hand to help you with your shopping list. We’re looking forward to seeing all of you on this special evening, because without you, our loyal customers, we would not be your local one-stop shop for everything Apple.
If you haven’t already, become a fan on Facebook so that you can get up-to-the-minute store news there, and if you’re a local customer, be sure to sign up to receive our “*Best in Showroom newsletter (sent monthly).*”:http://www.smalldog.com/newsletters
* “**Small Dog HQ Facebook page**”:https://www.facebook.com/hellosmalldog
* “**S. Burlington Store Facebook page**”:https://www.facebook.com/smalldogsbtv
* “**Rutland Store Facebook page**”:https://www.facebook.com/smalldogrld
* “**Key West Store Facebook page**”:https://www.facebook.com/smalldogkw
**From May 19th to June 30th,** we’re celebrating with savings on everything from Macs and iPads to the accessories that make the package complete. Not sure exactly what your high school grad needs for school in the fall? No problem! Our retail staff can help you find the computer that’s the right fit if you’re near one of our stores — everything from software to often-forgotten necessities like backup drives.
This year we are offering **$100 off any Mac purchase with AppleCare,** and a free Hammerhead sleeve. We have **Canon printers** ??(MX522 and MG5420 models)?? **for $50** when purchased with the computer bundle (in total, **save up to $180 on a Mac bundle**). We are also offering **$30 off all iPads** — and you’ll save even more if you buy a case (up to **$75 off**). Plus, we’re offering 0% financing for qualified buyers with no minimum purchase!
Be sure to check out our “*Dads & Grads*”:http://www.smalldog.com/dadsandgrads/ page for more great deals!
Hitting the road this summer with the family and all of your “i” devices? We are, and that includes some time at our cottage in New Hampshire where there is (thankfully) no internet and no cable.
While we do use this time to largely “unplug,” we also like to watch a few movies, and we always want to make sure that we have a backup of any of the pictures and videos we’ve taken while on vacation. Until recently, using the cloud (which obviously requires internet access) or, in our case, bringing along a laptop were the only ways to accomplish this.
However, that’s changed with the introduction of more options for portable wireless storage — including the **LaCie Fuel,** which recently arrived at Small Dog.
The Fuel is available with either **1 or 2TB** storage capacity and allows you to share files with up to five devices at once. The LaCie Fuel creates its own Wi–Fi network, just like your home router, so the drive itself becomes a hotspot. There’s also a free Seagate Media* mobile app (that, if you’re going to be in an area without cell service, you will want to download from the iTunes Store beforehand) that makes it easy to browse and transfer files to and from your device.
You are also able to stream directly from it to Apple TV and AirPlay devices. And while the Fuel does not need the internet to work, it can connect to Wi-Fi hotspots allowing internet access for up to four of your devices. At less than a pound and with up to 10 hours of battery life, it won’t be tough to find room to pack this into the back of the Family Truckster this summer.
Take a look at them here — it’s on our must-have list!
“*1TB LaCie Fuel*”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/85520/lacie-fuel-wireless-battery-powered-mobile-hd-1tb — $179.99
“*2TB LaCie Fuel*”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/85521/lacie-fuel-wireless-battery-powered-mobile-hd-2tb — $249.99
__*Note that Seagate and LaCie have joined forces and the app hasn’t been renamed just yet. We include the link to get the app right on our website to make it easy for you to download!__
_Dear Friends,_
Well, I was hoping to go to the local snack bar for lunch before our radio show yesterday, but it looks like we are in for some rain. The apple tree outside my window here at the office is in full bloom. My house is a bit higher in elevation, so my trees are budding, but not yet in bloom. I did get to do some work in my garden this past week, rototilling and planting peas, carrots, beets, spinach and lettuce. If the rain is not too persistent, I should be able to get a lot more planted this weekend.
Every now and then we get customers who ask about the “small dogs with every order,” so I thought I would share the story about how that came about. When I first started the company almost 20 years ago, I wanted to differentiate the company so I started including some “prizes in each box.” I went to one of my favorite companies, “*Archie McPhee,*”:http://www.mcphee.com in Seattle and bought various items including small plastic dogs, rubber brains, slime dogs and other items. As I shipped out gear, I would put something in each box. Bigger orders got rubber brains, but every order got little dogs.
I had to drop the rubber brains when a customer called to tell me that the rubber brain had melted all over her expensive Apple display but the dogs survived. Eventually, as we grew, my need for more dogs outstripped my supply, so in one of my first ventures into international commerce, I located a Chinese supplier for dogs and bought them in bulk. My daughter and Artie’s daughter ??(the season-sisters Autumn & Winter)?? would come by the office after school to bag dogs. We would put a couple dogs in baggy with a business card and ship it off with each order.
As our online commerce grew, we wanted to give customers lots of reasons to buy from us, and in addition to not charging credit cards before items were shipped, etc, we added “free small dogs with every order.”
Our need for dogs grew, and the daughters were getting overwhelmed by our bagging needs, so the next time I ordered, we not only had the manufacturer include business cards with our dogs’ names on them (people still call asking for the dogs on the cards), but we also had them make a mold to produce dogs that matched our pets. A couple of years ago, we also hosted a contest where two winners would have their dogs immortalized in Small Doggy molds; it was a lot of fun to pick winners from loyal customers!
I have a goal to one day buy 1 million dogs, but have only gotten 25% of the way there so far.
Do you have a collection of our small dogs? Send me a picture of your collection and my team of expert judges and jesters will pick the best three and you will receive a special gift from Small Dog and we will post the pictures, too. Just send them to me: “*don@smalldog.com.*”:mailto:don@smalldog.com
My special this week comes with double dogs, assuming Artie remembers to toss them in. I have noticed Emily wearing wrist braces lately and that reminds me of my struggles early on in Small Dog’s history with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. It was so bad that I ended up having surgery on both wrists. I have used an ergonomic keyboard every since and have written extensive reviews of a number of keyboards.
My hands-down (pun intended) favorite and my keyboard for the past 15 years is the “*Kinesis The Advantage Keyboard.*”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/75590/ This is a keyboard that has a couple of advantages beyond being the best ergonomic keyboard. One, the keys are all programmable, but more importantly, the keyboard has a learning curve so that no one ever touches my keyboard.
To be honest, for the first week of using the keyboard, my typing speed suffered, but by week two, I had recovered my normal speed and shortly thereafter I know my speed improved. I give this keyboard my two thumbs up! While it is more expensive than the run-of-the-mill keyboards, your wrists will thank you.
This week, you’ll get *$20 off of the Kinesis The Advantage Keyboard at $249.99.* Give us a bit of extra time to fill your order, though, because these are purchased to order rather than stocked.
“*Grab the Kinesis keyboard special here!*”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900001449/
This is an exciting time of year; for many of us, it means that grass is finally turning green and flowers are blooming…
I ended up missing two conferences this week — not only did I fail to make it to the Apple Specialist conference, but I missed what was a great Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility spring conference in Burlington. I guess it was just not in the cards…next time!
Have a great weekend, and thank you for reading this issue of Kibbles & Bytes!
Your Kibbles & Bytes Team,
_Don, Kali & Stephanie_
Beats Pill portable speaker brings the party with you, wherever you go. The Beats Pill is lightweight, portable, and completely wireless. And currently when you purchase a Beats Pill we’ll throw in a Beats character! Snap the Beats Pill into each character and still get direct access to audio and charging ports. *A $50 savings!*
The Jacket case is Hammerhead latest and greatest case for iPhone 5/5s. It offers exceptional corner protection and anti-slip sides keep the phone securely in your hand when in use. It’s available in tons of fun colors and designs! To make things even more awesome, we’ll even throw in a Hammerhead microfiber cleaning cloth so you can keep your iPhone screen’s looking so fresh and clean!
From May 19th to June 30th, we will be celebrating the Dads and Grads in our lives (and Moms, too!) with big savings on everything from Macs and iPads to the accessories that make the package complete.
Check out the specials below to get a special early bird sneak peek on some of the deals we’re offering, and set your calendars to visit “*Smalldog.com/dadsandgrads*”:http://www.smalldog.com/dadsandgrads on Monday!
With more than 5 million pixels packed into a 15.4-inch display, the MacBook Pro with Retina display has raised the bar for its competitors, making everything on the screen more vibrant and sharper than ever. Everything should look better on 2880 x 1800 pixels, but here’s where we face a problem: *third-party apps now look worse on the new MacBook Pro* than they did when viewed on the previous models.
What does this mean? Third party apps (anything not pre-installed by Apple and/or designed for Apple) that you probably use on a regular basis now exhibit blurry text and low-quality graphics. This includes, but isn’t limited to, Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox.
*Firefox* developers are working on temporary fixes to cater to MacBook Pro Retina users. This will require patience until they release a software update.
*Google* Chrome has been a bit more active as they’ve released Chrome Canary that is better equipped to display at the MacBook Pro Retina’s resolution. This isn’t a complete fix though, so users that prefer to simply use Google Chrome will also have to wait for an update.
*Microsoft Office* has also stepped up their game by releasing an update (14.2.4) that will “*resolve this issue.*”:http://blog.officeformac.com/retina-display-support-is-here-for-office-for-mac-2011
For native apps (anything pre-installed by Apple and/or designed for Apple) such as iPhoto, GarageBand, Final Cut Pro X, there are already updates in place. However, you may be seeing less than satisfactory quality in iWork, which is Apple’s version of Microsoft Office. If you are, it’s simply because Keynote, Pages, and Numbers are still set in low resolution.
To resolve this, here’s what you’ll need to do:
* Go to the *Application* folder
* Look for *Keynote*, *Pages*, and/or *Numbers*
* Right click or tap “command+i” > *Get Info*
* Deselect “*Open in low resolution*”
It seems like there are almost countless speaker options today, ranging from portable Bluetooth speakers to high-powered premium speakers. It can be a little overwhelming to pick the right setup, but one fact seems to ring true for everyone: we want speakers that sound good and are easy to use. That’s why I am particularly excited about a new product line we are carrying at Small Dog: the wireless speaker system by *Sonos.*
Sonos utilizes a unique HiFi mesh networking technology to connect one or more speakers together wirelessly. Not only is Sonos convenient to use, but it sounds awesome! We’ve seen a lot of new Bluetooth and AirPlay speakers recently, but Sonos utilizes a different wireless technology.
The *Sonos Bridge* connects to your wireless router and creates a new wireless network for all of your Sonos speakers. Whether you have one speaker in the living room or ten speakers spread throughout the house, they can all unite to play the same music at the same time. Building your Sonos setup is easy; syncing your speakers to the bridge for the first time is as easy as pressing a button, and then they’re connected forever. This is a great solution for customers who don’t want the hassle of running wires all over their house.
One of my favorite features of the Sonos system is the app used to control your music. The “*Sonos Controller App*”:https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sonos-controller/id293523031?mt=8&uo=4&at=11lb7k&ct=kibbles, available for mobile devices and computers, lets you browse and play your music library right to your Sonos system. You can even access popular streaming services like Pandora and Spotify. Changing the music in another room is as easy as reaching into your pocket for your smartphone.
Sonos has a wide variety of wireless speakers and home theater components available to customize your perfect audio system. The **PLAY:1** is their smallest speaker, designed for portability while still providing crystal clear sound. The **PLAY:3** is the perfect size for the living room or backyard and can even be mounted. Lastly, the **PLAY:5** brings an impressively large sound that’s powerful enough to fill a large room; it’s also the only Sonos speaker with an audio line-in for connecting a wired device easily.
Note: Sonos has authorized us to sell these speakers in __our retail stores only,__ so come check out our in-store demo to see what Sonos is all about!