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Elgato Game Capture HD enables you to record PlayStation or Xbox gameplay to a Mac or PC and share it with your friends and fans. With advanced hardware H.264 encoding, you can capture in stunning HD quality, while keeping the file size low.
*Enjoy free shipping!*
Clad your new iPhone in lustrous elegance with Moshi’s iGlaze Armour hardshell case. Combining a diamond-cut aluminum backplate and a resilient polycarbonate frame, iGlaze Armour protects your iPhone from scratches and shocks while giving it a unique metallic finish.
*Enjoy free shipping!*
It’s the ideal case for the everyday 9-to-5er and for those whose day doesn’t always end when they leave the office. The Juice Pack Air is lighter and thinner than previous generations, but packed with more power to make sure your phone can keep up with your busy lifestyle.
*Enjoy free shipping!*
**Monday, March 17th from 5:30pm – 7:30pm** come kick off “**March Mayhem**”:http://www.smalldog.com/marchmayhem/march-mayhem with us in style!
This special event will allow you to mingle with our Mac experts, enter to win our **$400 grand prize** in our bracket contest and sign up for special giveaways!
We will be raffling off some special prizes in our store every 15 minutes, and if you **wear your favorite team’s jersey (whatever you’ve got!) or something green in honor of St. Patrick’s Day, we’ll automatically enter you in the nights giveaways.**
Of course, we will have food and drinks to keep your bellies and soul happy while you mingle with other Mac enthusiasts.
Mark your calendars — you may get lucky on the 17th!
* **March Mayhem/Bracket Contest Kickoff!**
* **March 17th, 5:30pm – 7:30pm**
* **100 Dorset St**
* **S. Burlington, VT**
As we mentioned in “*last week’s Kibbles & Bytes*”:http://blog.smalldog.com/kibbles/kb869/ and Kali highlighted above, we’re hosting a “Half-Ass Bracket” contest for you to pick your final four and subsequent winners of those last three games. There will be great prizes involved and sweet deals that will save you some green.
*Specials will be added all month, and the contest will kick off on Monday, 3/17 and run through Friday, 3/28.*
Even if you don’t care about NCAA/March Madness you’ll want to enter — fill out your final four choices and the winners of the last three games of the playoffs, and you could win a pair of *Beats Studio Wireless headphones!* If you enter in-store, you have a chance to win a *$400 Small Dog gift card!* This contest is available both in our stores and on our website, so if you do both, you’ll have more chances to win!
Check out our “*March Mayhem page,*”:http://www.smalldog.com/marchmayhem/march-mayhem we’ll be updating it throughout the month with special online deals and contest information.
Good luck and happy bracketing!
Earlier this week, Apple premiered a different way to use your iPhone in your car — introducing “*Apple CarPlay!*”:http://www.apple.com/ios/carplay/ CarPlay will give iPhone users an intuitive way to make calls, use Maps, listen to music and access their messages with just a word or a touch.
The cars will come equipped with a built-in display (which I feel most cards these days have anyway) where certain features of your iPhone will display. Siri’s along for the ride so you can control what you want to do using your voice. You can also use your car’s controls or the touchscreen on the display. So far Apple apps such as Maps, Phone, Messages and Music are the four that you can utilize, but other third party apps have jumped on board and will be supported by CarPlay.
CarPlay will be available in select cars in 2014. Such models from Ferrari, Honda, Hyundai, Mercedes-Benz and Volvo all will come equipped with CarPlay later on in 2014. However, there are a fair amount of other car makers who have committed to being CarPlay partners: BMW, Ford, Chevrolet, Toyota, Subaru and Nissan — to name a few.
Hopefully CarPlay will encourage more people to stop looking at their phone while driving and provide a safer, hands-free option for the road. I’m honestly surprised it took this long for Apple to partner with major car manufacturers and introduce this as a new feature in card. I know I’d be psyched to have it!
If you’ve been reading Kibbles and Bytes over the past few months, you might have noticed I’ve written more than once about power and electricity. A few weeks ago, I wrote about “*generating electricity and how watts work.*”:http://blog.smalldog.com/kibbles/kb867/ In that article, I mentioned that I’ve experimented with thermoelectric electricity generation and I thought this week I’d explain a bit about what that is and how it works. Spoiler alert: it’s pretty cool!
Sometimes it can seem like our iPhones are just electricity black holes. Sure, they last a pretty long time, but they still need to be charged a lot. This problem has spawned a whole line of products to help charge our devices when a wall outlet isn’t available. Most of these that I’ve seen are based on solar. We even carry a number of solar-based charging systems by “*Goal Zero*”:http://www.smalldog.com/category/?mmfg%5B0%5D=Goal+Zero. These are really cool products, and they work really well, but you probably already know the catch: Without sunlight, all they can do is look nice.
With this in mind, I set out to see if I could use thermoelectric generation to generate power on demand. Thermoelectric generation uses something called the “*Seebeck Effect*”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermoelectric_effect. When you have two dissimilar metals joined together in a loop, a temperature difference between the junction points will create a current. You can use any two metals, but modern devices use a P-N semiconductor junction. These tiny semiconductor pieces are small (sometimes only about 1/8″ cubes) so dozens (or more) are linked together to form a thermoelectric module. When you apply heat to one side, and cool the other side, the module generates electricity.
Could you use one of these to charge something like an iPhone? Yes and no. These modules are typically only 5%-8% efficient, so you need to work really hard to get appreciable power from them. In my design, I used a 5-watt module and a tea light candle. 5 watts is enough to charge a smartphone, but to get that power, the hot side needs to be about 300C and the cold side would need to be around 25C. That’s a hard differential to create, and I was never able to do quite that well.
There are things you can do with that low power though, and having it on-demand allows it to be useful in ways solar panels can’t be. One thing you can do is use your own body heat to power an LED flashlight. How is that possible? LEDs don’t need a lot of current, but they do need a few volts. The small voltage generated from the heat of your hand can be boosted to drive the LEDs. Thermoelectric generators also power deep space probes. Out of reach of the sun’s rays, they use heat from “*radioactive isotope decay*”:http://world-nuclear.org/info/Non-Power-Nuclear-Applications/Transport/Nuclear-Reactors-for-Space/ to drive the generators. One final application is in waste heat energy harvesting. Thermoelectric generators are used to capture waste heat energy from industrial processes to improve energy efficiency.
Obviously you can’t use radioactive isotopes to generate your power, but a few companies have developed thermoelectric generators for the consumer market. The most famous is probably the “*Bio-Lite camp stove*”:http://www.biolitestove.com/. They claim it can charge an iPhone, which is probably true, but I expect it takes a very, very long time. Since it’s a stove, you also can’t use it indoors. Another company, Tellurex, has a device you can run with a tea light candle (like my design) called “*t-POD*”:http://buytpod.com/tpod-catalog/enviro-light/. I actually bought that one to try, and I have to say, it works really well. It comes with a bright LED light it powers, but I’ve plugged in other small circuits as well.
For now it looks like we’re mostly stuck with solar when it comes to powering our devices without a wall outlet, but we might see that change in the near future.
_Greetings!_
Earlier this week, we saw Don and Grace off to Key West, where they’ll be for the next couple of months. On the docket? This week, a little house business and generally taking ‘er easy while getting acclimated to warmer weather and some vitamin D. Next week, back to Small Dog business, and catching March Mayhem fever.
Speaking of which, we have out-basketballed ourselves this month. Maybe it’s the sub-zero temps getting to us, but it’s been a lot of fun to do a March Madness-style promo. We’re offering specials on some of our hottest products both online and in-stores, and for the first time ever, we’re doing what we’re affectionately calling our “Half-Ass Bracket” contest. Up for grabs? A pair of Beats By Dre Studio wireless headphones (a $379 value) for our online entries and a $400 Small Dog gift card for our in-store entries.
If you’ve ever gotten into March Madness, you know that you have about three days to fill out your entire bracket. Because we want to give you more time to play (and win), our contest kicks off on Monday, 3/17 and runs through Friday, 3/28. All you need to do is pick your final four teams and the winners of those last three games, and you’re entered to win! If you’re near a store, we’ll have our demo machines set up for you to enter there as well. See Smalldog.com/marchmayhem for details. We’ve also listed specials on the page and will be adding to them over the course of the month!
We’ve got March Madness fever over here (but don’t tell the lawyers that…they may have trademarked it), so we’ve decided to do a promo in-store and online throughout the month of March. We’ll be running weekly specials that you’ll see in our newsletters as well as in-store deals for those close to our store locations.
Plus, starting on 3/17, we’re hosting a “Half-Ass Bracket” contest for you to pick your final four (also trademarked…sorry about that) and subsequent winners of those last three games. We’ll have more details for you next week, but suffice it to say, there will be great prizes involved and sweet deals that will save you some green.
Ready for some Mayhem? Or should I say “Mayerhem”? We could trademark that one, but I may just be too pun-happy (or should I say “pun-hapy”). Oy. “*Check out the page here*”:http://www.smalldog.com/marchmayhem and the deals below. Slam dunk!
There’s a joke in computer circles that there are only 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don’t. Hopefully by the end of this article, I’ll make you one of those 10 people who does.
The binary, or base-2, number system isn’t really that hard. It has fewer digits than the base-10, or decimal, system we use normally. With base-2, instead of 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, you only have 0, and 1. You can still represent any number you want though. How does this work? Base-2 seems mysterious because when we use our base-10 numbers, we typically don’t focus on the place value of the digits. “124” is just one hundred twenty-four, but what are you really saying when you say “124”? What you’re actually saying is that you have @1 x 100 + 2 x 10 + 4 x 1@. See the powers of 10 in that equation (1, 10, 100)? That’s why our number system is called base-10. The 1, 10, 100 numbers come from their position in the number. @10^0 = 1, 10^1 = 10 and 10^2 = 100@.
The binary number system works exactly the same way, only we use powers of 2 instead of 10. The equivalent “124” in base-2 would be represented as “1111100” or @1 x 64 + 1 x 32 + 1 x 16 + 1 x 8 + 1 x 4 + 0 x 2 + 0 x 1@. See the powers of 2 in that equation (1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64)? We get those in the same way we did in the base-10 equation. @2^0 = 1, 2^1 = 2, 2^2 = 4, 2^3 = 8, 2^4 = 16, 2^5 = 32, 2^6 = 64@. You can represent any number you want with base-2. Incidentally, base-2 or base-10, while mostly describing the base number you’re taking the powers of also describes how many digits exist in your number system. Base-2 has two digits (0, 1) and base-10 has ten digits (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9).
All the same tricks apply in both number systems too. For example, if you take a number and shift off the last digit, what are you really doing? In base-10, you’re dividing by 10. If you took a binary number and shifted off the last digit, you’d have divided the number by 2.
Computers use base-2 for everything they do because of the fact that there are only two possible values in that system, 0 and 1. Computers use electricity and electricity can only be in one of two states: on or off. It can’t be in state 4, or 9. This is why computers can operate at all. Fundamentally, all computers are doing is adding and subtracting numbers (in base-2). From that foundation, you can get to everything else that they do.
Now before I close out this article, I feel obligated to really blow your mind and say that there __aren’t__ just two number systems (binary and decimal). In fact, you can have a number system using any base you want. You could have base-4 or base-3. We commonly use base-8 (octal) and base-16 (hexadecimal). These are used because they can often condense a very long binary number into a shorter value. So our 124 number from earlier had seven digits in binary, but it could be represented with only two in hexadecimal as “7C”. That’s @7 x 16 + C(12) x 1@. Hexadecimal has to use the letters A, B, C, D, E, and F to represent numbers greater than 9 because we don’t have any singular symbol for 12. Remember, “12” is actually @1 x 10 + 2 x 1@.
Well, if that math didn’t scare anyone away, hopefully you now count yourself among the 10 types of people in the world. That’s @1 x 2 + 0 x 1 = 2@.
Historically speaking, older Apple operating systems saved your photos in your Pictures folder within your Home Folder. The parent files were accessible and the Admin user(s) could generally do whatever they wanted with them.
As Apple continued to improve the user experience, they realized that providing user access to the parent files resulted in lost photos. With the current OS, the parent files have been concealed within the iPhoto application itself to prevent users from accidentally misplacing/trashing their photos.
To break it down even further, when you open iPhoto, the pictures and thumbnails you’re viewing are just copies of the parent files that are accessed by an important iPhoto Library data file. Without this file, the application can fail to access your photos.
I’ve never been sentimental about my photos. I’ve archived thousands of photos over the years, and if I lost them tomorrow, I wouldn’t really care. But a week doesn’t go by in the Repair department without a customer informing me that the most prized files on the computer are the photos.
If you’re one of these customers who use iPhoto every day or even every week, you may have come across issues loading your photos when you launch iPhoto. This issue __may__ involve a corrupt iPhoto Library data file. Don’t fret! There are ways to rebuild the file and regain access to your photos.
For all who don’t know, iPhoto includes a feature that allows you to rebuild the currently selected iPhoto Library. Sometimes rebuilding the library may resolve issues such as file-reading issues related to the iPhoto Library structure or missing photos.
??Important: You should back up your existing iPhoto Library before using the rebuild feature. A backup allows you to restore the iPhoto Library if anything unexpected happens during the rebuild that prevents it from rebuilding correctly.??
Before performing a rebuild, you should install any iPhoto updates by using Software Update. If a software update resolves your issue, then you don’t need to rebuild. It’s also a good idea to search Apple’s Support Page for your specific iPhoto symptom before doing a rebuild, just in case there is a more specific article or relevant solution.
To rebuild the iPhoto library:
# Quit iPhoto if it is open.
# Hold down the Command and Option keys on the keyboard.
# Open iPhoto.
# Keep the keys held down until you are prompted to rebuild the library.
# A dialog will appear with rebuild options. Select the options you want to use.
# Click Rebuild to begin the rebuild process. This may take a few minutes to complete.
Use these guidelines to determine which options to choose in the rebuild dialog:
* Select the option(s) to rebuild thumbnails only if the thumbnails appear to be an issue (gray, blank, missing or mismatched).
* Select the option to recover orphaned photos if photos appear to be missing from the iPhoto Library. iPhoto will examine the library folder for any photos that are not currently being displayed in Albums or Events in the iPhoto source list.
* In iPhoto ’08 and later, select the option to examine and repair iPhoto Library file permissions if it appears that you cannot edit certain photos or if the iPhoto Library will not open. See “iPhoto 6 can’t open due to permissions alert” for more information.
* In iPhoto ’08, select the option to “Rebuild the iPhoto Library database” if iPhoto unexpectedly quits when opened or does not get past loading photos.
* In iPhoto ’09, select the option to “Rebuild the iPhoto Library Database from automatic backup” if iPhoto unexpectedly quits when opened or does not get past loading photos. This option is similar to the option to “Rebuild the iPhoto Library database” in iPhoto ’08, except that it has the added ability to regenerate a database from an automatically backed up library database. Also, after rebuilding your library database using this option, your original database files can be found in the “Before Restore” folder inside the library package.
* In iPhoto ’11, select the option to “Repair the iPhoto Library Database” to check the iPhoto Library database for inconsistencies and repair them, if necessary. iPhoto ’11 also includes the option to “Rebuild the iPhoto Library Database from
automatic backup,” which performs the same functions as it does in iPhoto ’09, but should only be attempted if the “Repair the iPhoto Library Database” option does not help.
??Note: Any “recovered” photos may not appear in their original album in the source list. However, they should appear in the newly created “Recovered Photos” album in the source list.??
*Additional Information:*
iPhoto 9.3 and later introduces a new Library First Aid dialog in place of the previous rebuild options.
