Kibbles & Bytes Blog

Apple news, tech tips, and more…

KB Dog

  • MobileMe Complimentary iCloud Storage Plan to Expire

    MobileMe and its suite of online services ended when iCloud was announced back in 2011. In order to smooth over the discontinuation of this service, Apple offered MobileMe customers iCloud storage plans at no charge if they moved over to the Cloud between October 2011 and August 2012. Apple did indicate that eventually this free deal would expire, and well, that time has come.

    As of September 30th, MobileMe users will no longer have complimentary storage. What this means is that customers who have gone to the Cloud and are using over 5GB of storage, will no longer have access to that for free. You can still use over 5GB of storage, but you will need to start paying. Additional storage pricing is as follows:

    *10GB — $20/year (15GB total iCloud storage)*
    *20GB — $40/year (25GB total iCloud storage)*
    *50GB — $100/year (55GB total iCloud storage)*

    Not horribly expensive, but still not free! Unless you can shrink your content down to 5GB, plan on paying these prices. If you’re wondering how to check how much storage you’re using, or how to purchase plans visit Apple’s iCloud “*FAQ*”:http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5527?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US portion of their site. Or of course, stop into one of our retail locations and we’ll be happy to help with this!

  • MAC TREAT #214: Reseting Your Admin Password

    As you may or may not know this is the last issue of Kibbles I will be writing for. My time at Small Dog is coming to an end and I wanted to thank everyone who has read and replied to the articles I have written. It has been a pleasure sharing my Mac knowledge with you and learning a thing or two at the same time.

    While I am sure that the next person to fill my shoes will continue on with Mac Treats I wanted my last one to be a bit of a doozy. A tip that would save you money and your blood pressure. Have you ever forgotten you password? I know that I have, but one of the more important ones to remember is your Administrator Password. If you have ever forgotten that one you might have found yourself paying someone to reset it for you when it is actually a very simple procedure to recover from.

    I will say that by giving this information out some might think that I am treading in dangerous waters. Giving some the means to break into your computer, but this information is very easily found with a quick Google search. I’m sure that will make some readers wonder how safe their data really is. Well, Apple does have a FileVault encryption feature which will give you ultimate security if you need it. FileVault is so secure that you will not be able to use this Mac Treat to reset your password if you have it enabled.

    Since FileVault is a topic for another writer I will get down to the goods. First things first, you need to be running either OS X Lion (10.7.x) or OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.x) because these have recovery partitions.

    With that confirmed you need to restart your machine and hold down *command+R* once the screen goes black. This will force your computer to boot into its recovery mode while it is turning back on. Once there select *Utilities > Terminal* to launch the Terminal App. After that type @resetpassword@ and hit *Return*. In the Reset Password window, select the appropriate startup volume, and choose your admin account. Enter a new password for the account and again to confirm. You can optionally add a password hint to help ensure this doesn’t happen again. Click Save and quit the Reset Password utility and Terminal. Then finally, reset your machine.

    I really hope you all have enjoyed my articles and Mac Treats. This has been a fun experience and a informative one to boot! Enjoy the rest of your summer. I know that I will.

    Mike out.

  • _Dear Friends,_

    Wow, it is August already. It seems a bit like September, though, with cool temperatures prevailing this week at least. On our radio show, Small Dog Speaks, last week on WDEV, Rebecca and I started talking about snack bars. We asked listeners to call in with their favorites. I have two that I frequent. One is Maynard’s Snack Bar about a mile from our headquarters. I usually go there before the radio show in the summer and have a burger and one of their famous Orange Freezes.

    Apparently, not too many people had heard of their Orange Freeze, and when I next went to Maynard’s for lunch, they told me that I must have a lot of listeners because they hadn’t sold so many Orange Freezes ever! I got a free lunch out of that deal. Rebecca says she has to mention her favorite eateries next. You can catch us answering questions about Macs, PCs, iPhones, dogs or just about anything in our weak imitation of Car Talk on Thursdays at 1PM on WDEV.

    You can always tell when there are new products about to come out of Cupertino. Not only do the rumor sites start posting supposed pictures of the products, parts of the products, or packaging, but also supposed accessories for pre-sale! In the earliest such instance, cases for the still-to-be-announced less expensive iPhone are already on Amazon. We’ll see if those are for real.

    I’ll be heading to China in October to look for products for our Hammerhead/Chill Pill product lines, and it should be good timing. We have a new Bluetooth speaker coming out at the end of the month called the Chill Box. We will be telling you more about that in future issues of Kibbles. __(Spoiler Alert: It’s really cool! -KH)__

    My assistant for the past five years, Kerry Westhelle, has put up with me for a long time, and it must have finally become too much as she will be leaving the company this week. Emily Kenyon will be taking over that role as well as continuing to work on the retail and service departments.

    Kerry has been a constant source of great attitude and dedication to Small Dog Electronics, and she will be leaving to spend more time on tanning and troublemaking. I know I will miss her a lot but she promises to continue to give me a hard time from afar. Thank you Kerry for all you have done for Small Dog! Also, a big shout out to Mike who has been our writer and contributor for Kibbles & Bytes — we’re gonna miss you, too!

    I am very proud to announce that Small Dog Electronics won the “Daysies” for the Best Place to Buy a Computer in the annual Seven Days reader poll. We have won this each year since we opened our S. Burlington store (starting with the 2007 awards), but each year it is always a thrill to see that the hard work of our S. Burlington team is recognized. Attaboys and attagirls to all of the SB team!

  • Time Machine Buddy

    Apple knows how important it is to back up, so they created the Time Machine application. Pre-installed, user friendly, and set to perform…

  • Listen Up!

    We have our very own radio show, __Small Dog Speaks,__ so be sure to listen to our very own Don Mayer and Rebecca Kraemer offer up Mac tips and news every Thursday at 1PM.

    Tune your radios to 96.1FM or stream the show live at: “*WDEV Live!*”:http://icecast.stretchinternet.com:8000/wdev

    Check out archived shows and submit your questions at “*Smalldog.com/sdspeaks*”:http://www.smalldog.com/sdspeaks

  • Rutland Classes

    classes

    *For iPad*
    New to iPad and iOS? Our *iPad Basics* class is designed strictly for beginners.

    *For Mac*
    Switching from a PC, or are you a computer newbie? Our *Absolute Mac Basics* class is designed strictly for beginners.

    Give us a call for the schedule and to sign up: *802-281-4490*

  • Store Specials | August '13

    **Monthly Specials** — Valid the entire month of August (while supplies last):

    Office
    *Microsoft Office 2011 for Mac*
    __*Was*: $124.99__
    *Now*: $94.99


    *PDO Accessories*
    *Now*: $5.00 Off

    LaCie
    *LaCie Rugged Mini HD*
    500GB
    __*Was*: $89.99__
    *Now*: $84.99

    1TB
    __*Was*: $119.99__
    *Now*: $109.99

    **”Keep It Clean”** — Valid now until Aug. 4:
    iKlear
    *Buy any iKlear* and get a Hammerhead Cleaning Cloth and V7 Soft Touch Pro Keyboard Cover for MacBook/MacBook Pro **Free ($25 value)!**

    __*Was*: $40.99__
    *Now*: $14.99

    Hammerhead
    *Hammerhead Screen Protectors, starting at just $5!**

    __*Were*”: $12.99__
    *Now*: $5 and up

    **Plus, the next two-week run of specials starts on August 5 — come in and find deals on Beats, Audioengine, Belkin, ViewSonic, and many other great brands.**

    Be prepared to **Get Noticed!**

  • Come Train With Us!

    If you’re interested in what working on the Mac OS can do for you and your business, sign up for our training session at “**KnowledgeWave**”:http://www.knowledgewave.com in South Burlington, Vermont! I’ll cover what you need to know to seamlessly integrate Macs into your business in this all-day training session.

    **Mac OS X Technical Training For IT Professionals,*
    *Tuesday, August 6, 9am – 5pm**

    “**To learn more, and to register, click here.**”:http://www.smalldog.com/training/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=KB-kw

    All classes are held at KnowledgeWave, 30 Community Dr. #5 South Burlington, VT 05403.

    **Who Am I?**
    Rebecca Kraemer is Vice President in charge of Information Technology & Development (IT&D) and Consulting for Small Dog Electronics. Rebecca began her long career with Apple products as an independent consultant before becoming a manager and then Genius with Apple, Inc. She joined Small Dog in 2008 and has been privileged to be a member of the Service, Consulting and IT departments.

    Rebecca created the curriculum for the professional classes that Small Dog has offered for the past two years, and she is excited to be offering these classes to the general public for the first time at KnowledgeWave.

    When she’s not surrounded by computers, Rebecca is a sole proprietor of a massage business in Morrisville, VT and she enjoys yoga, cooking, gardening, the great outdoors, and her Lab mix Toby and two cats, Lola and Miles.

  • The Beats Pill

    Let’s talk about Beats, baby
    Let’s talk about NFC
    Let’s talk about all the good things…
    …and the bad things about Beats

    Now that we’ve had our daily “spice,” let’s get serious about this Beats Pill character. This little four speaker portable stereo really packs a punch for a small guy. Let’s just say if the Beats Pill went to high school with other portable speaker systems in the same price range, the Beats Pill would have definitely been voted “class loudest” and it wouldn’t even be close.

    The Jambox may have a smoother, deeper, sexier Barry White kind of voice but the Pill takes a page from the Isley Brothers — A little bit louder now…A LITTLE BIT LOUDER NOW…A LITTLE BIT LOUDER NOW! You get the idea. This thing pumps so much sound from such a small package that you might think you are actually front row at that One Direction concert you’ve been dreaming of.

    It’s not all about the volume, though. The Beats Pill has some great connectivity options as well; the ability to play music to your device with Line in/Line out, Bluetooth, and NFC connectivity makes it one of the more versatile portable speaker systems on the market.

    So as I mentioned earlier in my spicy intro, let’s talk about NFC (Near Field Communication). For those of you who aren’t familiar with NFC let me break it down for you. Basically, it’s a fancier form of wireless connectivity that is used by such devices as the Samsung Galaxy S III and supposedly saves the operator an immeasurable amount of set up time, because…err…Bluetooth takes so long to set up in the first place?

    All that is required of the user to connect the Beats Pill with an NFC capable device is to have said device within range (a few inches away) and it’s just a press of a button from there. Easy? Yes. Worthwhile? Maybe. But, if you are so busy that you can’t afford to spend the extra three seconds it takes to connect via Bluetooth, then you may need to cut a few things out of your day-to-day…just saying.

    The last feature I will touch on is the Line in/Line out connectivity. Almost all portable speaker systems have the ability to connect with non-Bluetooth devices, so that is nothing special. But what IS special is the Line out feature. What this means is that you can use the Beats Pill to play on your speakers — wait for it — wirelessly! This is really cool to me because if you like to play music through your phone like I do, you probably also hate when you get a phone call and have to go all the way across the room to pick it up because it’s connected to your speakers. Well, ladies and gentleman, you can now connect via Bluetooth to your Beats Pill and use a standard 3.5mm auxiliary cable to connect directly to your home audio entertainment system (again — wirelessly)! And it looks good, too.

    So overall, I would recommend the Beats Pill to anyone looking for a sleek, powerful, versatile portable speaker system who doesn’t mind the $199 price tag. Not the greatest value for the casual user, but well worth the money if you want to bring the party-to-go mix outside the house.

  • Go Mac to School

    Are you ready? Well, maybe you want to enjoy more of your summer before thinking about it, but it’s inevitable for some!

    Use Small Dog as your one-stop shop for back to school and save big this year. From now until September 15th, get a **$100 Small Dog Gift Card** with any new Mac purchase bundled with AppleCare! Or, receive a **$50 Small Dog Gift Card** with any new iPad purchase bundled with AppleCare+! In addition, we’re switching up our third-party specials every two weeks. See the sidebar for this month’s deals, and stop in to take advantage of the many retail-only promos we have going on.

    “**Visit our Mac to School page**”:http://www.smalldog.com/mactoschool/mac-to-school page for our online specials just in case you can’t make it to one of our stores.

    Why go Mac? Apple computers have been ranked the number one computer by Consumer Reports for several years now, and they are only getting better. If you are hesitant to purchase a new Mac because of compatibility fears, rest assured you can do just about anything you once did on your PC (and more) on any new Mac — including (gasp!) run Windows!

    The reliability and the peace of mind that comes with each new Mac computer is truly priceless. You can completely eliminate your Norton subscription — wouldn’t that be nice? Don’t forget your backup, though. Macs may be virus-resistant but you should always have a backup plan in place. We offer many different brands of hard drives, along with different styles.

    Our knowledgable sales staff can help you select the right hard drive for your needs, so come see us for all of your back-to-school needs (and beyond).

  • Special Buy

    time capsule

    Hard Drive + Wi-Fi! Save $60 off the current gen price —

    These 2TB Time Capsules are now discontinued **(but brand new)** and include a 1-year Apple Warranty.

    *Only*: $239.99

  • Greetings from SDE in Rutland

    Have you been to our new Rutland store? Stop in next time you are in Rutland or even if you are passing through. We are conveniently located on West Street right off of Route 7 in the center of Rutland.

    We offer free in store classes covering the latest Mac operating system, iOS 6, and general Mac Basics. Our new store is also a great spot to pick up your new AT&T iPhone 5. Our knowledgeable staff can answer all of your questions regarding your new iPhone purchase along with any AT&T questions you may have.

    All this month, we will be holding our Mac to School event. This is the perfect opportunity to score that great gear for the upcoming school year. We will have many specials over the next few weeks so be sure to take a peek at what we have to offer.

    Coming up next month on September 21 is our 2nd eWaste event in Rutland! We are very excited to be able to offer this great opportunity to properly dispose of your electronic waste to our Rutland community and surrounding areas. So be sure to ask about what we can and cannot take the next time you are in our store.

    Until next time, have a safe and fun summer!

    -Bronson
    “**bronson@smalldog.com**”:mailto:bronson@smalldog.com