Kibbles & Bytes Blog

Now that the NCAA championship is over and the Celtics are lottery-bound, I can turn my attention to baseball and cheering on my Cubbies, who, as usual, are off to a slow start. My friend and former Small Dogger Geoff Blanck hooked me up with some tickets for when the Cubs visit the Red Sox in inter-league play at the end of May. While it isn’t at Wrigley (who is celebrating its 100th year as a major league ballpark), I am excited to see the new faces and bats in the Cubs lineup!

Thank you for reading this issue of Kibbles & Bytes!

Your Kibbles & Bytes Team,
_Don, Kali & Stephanie_

The Adapt will make anything with a 3.5mm audio jack wireless. Now you may talk on the phone with your old headphones or turn your car stereo into a speakerphone with its built-in mic.

Make sure to clip it to your favorite sweater vest for a totally hands-free experience. You may also skip tracks and control volume without having to touch your Bluetooth device. Your life is getting easier just reading this.

*Enjoy free shipping for the next week!*

These are the Privates, Outdoor Tech’s touch-control, Bluetooth, wireless headphones. They feature a touch-pad interface on the right earpiece that allows you to change tracks and control volume with the swipe of a finger, built-in call functionality, a 3.5mm AUX jack for plug-in capability and a tough canvas wrap around the headband. These headphones are seriously ballin’!

*Enjoy free shipping for the next week!*

The Buckshot features the same angular, triangle-themed design that is signature to many of the other products in the Outdoor Tech lineup. The rugged, rubberized exterior means that it’s no big deal if you drop it from time-to-time, and the built-in speakerphone and microphone means that you can have little hands-free calls with your therapist basically wherever you want.

*Enjoy free shipping for the next week!*

Behold the Turtle Shell 2.0! A miraculously rugged, water-resistant Bluetooth speaker. The Turtle Shell 2.0 brings more volume, more Hi-Fi audio, more battery life and a plethora of other feature improvements over its predecessor!

Check one of these cool speakers out — and of course, *enjoy free shipping for the next week!*

Have an old computer that’s just not working for you anymore? Don’t go crazy!

*From 4/7 – 4/21, you’ll get an extra $100 in trade-in credit on your old Mac or PC when you purchase a new Mac!* That’s right — you’ll receive at least $100 for your old computer, and in most cases, much more. Just bring your computer in, and we’ll get you a competitive trade-in value. See an associate for details!

Plus, if you buy any new Mac along with AppleCare (same invoice), we will transfer the data from your old Mac to your new one for *FREE*! There’s no need to stress, fret, or worry about how you’ll get all of your important documents and pictures to your brand new Mac.

??*Transfer promo requires a working Mac with OS X 10.5+.??

Spring is here, and although last night was in the 20s, it quickly warmed up to 60 during the day. Ah, spring in the Valley! As the snow melts and mud season begins, it was time to dust off the bike equipment, put the skis away and make the transition. As I got my bike equipment out, I thought back to all the good times I had last year — I got a new cross bike for the dirt roads around here and used a new app called “*Strava*”:https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/strava-running-cycling-gps/id426826309?mt=8&uo=4&at=11lb7k&ct=kibbles to track my rides.

As we all prepare to get back outside, I thought that there was no better time to bring in a company called “*Outdoor Tech.*”:http://www.outdoortechnology.com As their name suggests, these guys specialize in technology made for the outdoor elements. In particular, their speakers, “*Turtle Shell 2.0*”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/85337 and “*the Buckshot*”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/85341, both offer great sound, are water-resistant and have the ability to mount on a bike. The Buckshot includes a bike mount and can fit onto your handlebars (or, in the winter, fit on the chairlift bar) and is great for rocking and taking calls. Its cylindrical shotgun shell shape and single speaker design makes it super portable and great for hitting the bike path!

The Turtle Shell is larger, offering a louder sound with two speakers and battery bass. They claim it’s “louder than a bear’s roar!” I’m not entirely sure how they tested that, but I’ll take their word for it. For those of you who love to belt it out in the shower (really, who doesn’t?), you can mount it there or on your bike using the “*Turtle Claw.*”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/85415 Either one will ensure you get heard this summer and keep you safe. A great speaker with good lows and highs. ??Note: I have found headphones while biking on the road isn’t the best idea, apparently cars use the road too — who knew???

We’ve also brought in some headphones from Outdoor Tech: “*The Adapt*”:http://www.smalldog.com/search?search=outdoor+tech+adapt and “*the Privates,*”:http://www.smalldog.com/search?search=privates an over-ear Bluetooth headphone with touch control and an awesome slogan — ??”Touch your privates in public!”??

The Adapt is just that — a great Bluetooth adapter that allows you to make any pair of headphones wireless. A very cool device for those who already love their wired headphones, especially for the ski/snowboard helmets with them already built-in. If you want to skip adapting your old headphones and step into something new, the Privates are a great pair of headphones that offer hands-free calling, as well as a touch interface for controlling play/pause, skip forward/back, and answer/hangup.

Check out the new line below and we’ll *ship it you for free!* Now get outside and enjoy the lovely spring weather!

I got a few questions about my Mac Treat from last week, “*Localize Files in the Cloud,*”:http://blog.smalldog.com/kibbles/kb874/ and I came across a scenario that others may want to know, so that seemed worthy of an addendum.

The main question that users wanted to know was if the files viewed in Finder would be changeable if accessed there and not in their respective apps. The answer? Yes. Files accessed through the Finder can be edited and saved in the cloud. This includes both the content and name of the files.

The problem I ran into had to do with permissions. In the time that I had saved the iCloud file search to the Sidebar using the process I outlined last week, I both changed my iCloud password and updated some settings. As a result, I couldn’t access any of the files in the list, even though I could see them.

To fix this, I went into *System Preferences > iCloud* and updated my password. Then, I made sure “Documents & Data” was checked. (This is pretty obvious, but it’s worth noting since I sync two computers with iCloud. To ensure each computer has adequate permissions, you’ll want to make sure each has that option checked.) After that, I noticed that the files disappeared completely from the saved search Sidebar shortcut. So, I repeated the steps from last week’s tutorial, essentially saving a new Sidebar shortcut for the search, and deleted the original Sidebar item. Now, everything is as accessible as it should be.