Kibbles & Bytes Blog

It has been fun working in the new store here in Key West and getting a taste of the island life. I know my team figured I would be spending a lot of time on the beach or under the water, but so far it has been busy days of work.

I hope I get some time off to tour around and play over the next few weeks while I am here, but I love meeting customers and talking with them — not only about the great products we sell, but how they use them and what brought them in to Small Dog Electronics.

Thank you for reading this issue of Kibbles & Bytes!

Your Kibbles & Bytes team,
_Don, Kali & Stephanie_

“*Limbo:*”:https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/limbo/id481629890?mt=12&ign-mpt=uo%3D4 The perfect game for Halloween night (or any other night actually)!

Limbo, by Playdead, is probably one of my favorite games of all time. When I heard that there was going to be a port for iOS, I was very excited, but at the same time a little nervous. It wasn’t the visual style, the sound, or the atmosphere, that I felt wouldn’t translate; it was the controls.

That’s not to say that reflex-based games don’t work on iOS, it’s that they have to set up a certain way to get the same type of responsive feedback that a player would expect from a keyboard or a controller. After playing the game for a while, I was happy to put the fears to rest. To control the boy, you can swipe in any direction, and the boy will move. Actions such as grabbing a lever or jumping, are done with your right hand; swiping in an upwards direction, will get the boy to jump, and holding your thumb on the screen will get the boy to grab an object.

The story of Limbo isn’t all that obvious, and to this day, it’s still up for interpretation. The game involves a boy who is looking for his sister. There are no weapons or random characters to help you on your search; you’re on your own from beginning to end. The environment is presented in a monochromatic, slightly grainy, film noir style. You could make the argument that this is supposed to be a horror game with some sort of death awaiting you around every corner; however, I view it as a game that’s more than that.

In order to solve the games many puzzles and traps, you need to be able to think quickly. The checkpoint system is pretty forgiving, even after making a mistake you won’t have to travel very far to try again. Much like Super Meat Boy, or Braid, Limbo’s gameplay is very much trial and error, which at times can be frustrating. However, it’s very rewarding when a puzzle is solved or when a trap is avoided. The game is a little short, and very linear, which may be a downside to some. In all honesty, I don’t feel this is a game that would benefit by having multiple paths or being a longer game.

This is one of the finest games ever released in the App Store, and even if you’ve played Limbo before, you need to experience the game in your hands. I can’t really explain it, but there’s something that’s just so inexplicably cool about it. The game looks and sounds amazing and the world you’re thrown into is so dark and mysterious, and is just begging to have all of its secrets uncovered.

If you somehow missed out on Limbo three years ago, take a chance on it. This game is a classic.

“*Limbo*”:https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/limbo/id481629890?mt=12&ign-mpt=uo%3D4 is available on the App Store for 4.99.

Just last week, I posted an image on Instagram showing a screen shot of my Notification Center. I had taken it because the weather read “Showers today. It’s currently 55; the high will be 54.” I posted it because I thought it was funny that the current temp was warmer than the the high for the day. Right below the weather, it also read, “Right now, it would take you about 53 minutes to drive to work.”

People were not so concerned by the odd weather, but instead, multiple friends commented on how I got all of that information to show up on my Notification Center. I was actually a little surprised they didn’t know how to get this information, but then again, I guess I have a bit of an advantage!

If you aren’t currently showing information like this in your Notification Center (which you can view by swiping down on the top of your screen on your iOS device) and you’d like to be, here you go:

To turn your notifications on:

* Open up *Settings* and then choose *Notification Center*.
* Make sure that *Notifications View* and *Today View* are both turned on.
* Also make sure that *Today Summary* is turned on under *Today View*.

Here, you can customize you you’d like things to be sorted on this screen as well as which apps you would like to be included on the Notification Center.

If you’re still not getting the weather to show up, make sure one more thing is turned on:

* In *Settings*, choose *Privacy* and make sure your Location Services are turned on.
* At the bottom of this screen, you should see the last option to be *System Services*.
* Make sure “Traffic” is turned on if you’d like to know how long it will take you to get to work and back home again.

After turning all of these settings on, you should get the weather*, traffic info, and whatever else you chose to appear.

You’re now well on your way to having all sorts of fun information appear in just one swipe!

??*Note:* A few of my friends did complete all of these steps and still were unable to get the weather to appear. If you aren’t seeing them, try turning your phone on and off again. I found that with a few people it did take a few minutes to appear, so just be patient and give iOS 7 a bit to work its magic!??

Apple released their July, August, September numbers and posted some strong results with sales of 33.8 million iPhones, 14.21 million iPads, 4.6 million Macs resulting in $37.5 billion in sales, and $7.6 billion in profit for the quarter (or $8.26 per share). This was even better than the revised guidance Apple had issued in the middle of the quarter and beat the analyst’s best guesses.

When Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer provided guidance for the holiday quarter of $55-$58 billion and a gross margin of 36.5 to 37.5%, some of those analysts started to freak out because those margins were a bit lower than they anticipated. As I watched the after-hours trading in Apple stock, it was plummeting; that is, until Peter answered the question as to why those margins were lower.

There were a number of reasons why, but the $1 billion reason was that Apple had changed the way that it accounts for deferred income. Since the release of the original iPhone, Apple has delayed recognition of a portion of its sales receipts over a two year period in order to comply with U.S. rules that do not allow companies to book revenue for products until they are fully delivered.

In making iLife and iWork apps free and iOS and OS X Mavericks updates free, the amount of collected revenue Apple will officially delay counting is increasing by almost another $1 billion in the holiday quarter alone. It was interesting to see the stock pick up all those panicky losses after this explanation.

By any measure, it was a great quarter for Apple and there is no doubt that Apple’s business is very strong. This was the 4th quarter for Apple’s fiscal year and for that year Apple earned $171 billion, completed 15 strategic acquisitions, paid $2.8 billion in dividends and bought back 47 million of their own shares. Tim Cook reported that Apple has a 94% share of tablets in education, too!

With a very strong product lineup for the holidays, including new iPhones, new iPads and new MacBook Pros, Apple is positioned for a great start to their new year. Apple hinted at more great products to come in 2014, including products in categories that Apple does not participate in today. Yeah! More toys!

Congratulations to Apple and the Apple team for great financial results, but better yet, for great products that make our lives easier.