Kibbles & Bytes Blog

  • Apps for Parents

    As a relatively new parent, I’ve relied heavily on my love of technology to help me figure out this parenting thing. So when Dawn suggested that I write about how I use technology and what apps I find helpful, I thought it was a great idea.

    This is the first in a series that we’ll feature periodically in Kibbles & Bytes where we’ll review software, tools and apps that help make life easier and more fun for parents of kids of all ages.

    When I was pregnant, I used a couple of different apps that outlined the stages of pregnancy and what to expect (including the aptly named “*What to Expect When You’re Expecting*”:http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/stat?id=19XpSnZWhPI&offerid=146261&type=3&subid=0&tmpid=1826&RD_PARM1=http%3A%2F%2Fitunes.apple.com%2Fus%2Fapp%2Fpregnancy-tracker-from-whattoexpect.com%2Fid289560144%3Fmt%3D8%2526uo%253D6%2526partnerId%253D30 app). I’ll get back to those in a future issue, but I thought I’d talk about what I’ve been using since my son was born a year ago.

    The “*WebMD Baby*”:http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/stat?id=19XpSnZWhPI&offerid=146261&type=3&subid=0&tmpid=1826&RD_PARM1=http%3A%2F%2Fitunes.apple.com%2Fus%2Fapp%2Fwebmd-baby%2Fid489673347%3Fmt%3D8%2526uo%253D6%2526partnerId%253D30 app is a fantastic resource for new parents seeking sage advice for the stages of baby- and toodlerhood. Categories are broken down by general baby/toddler care, tips for moms, dads and illnesses/emergencies. It also features advice from their pediatrician, Dr. Hansa, in the form of articles and videos.

    I’ve found that it easily outlines the questions I’ve had along the way while blocking out the “noise.” I know I’m getting solid advice from a trusted resource, and every little bit helps for a newbie like me.

    WebMD Baby is free, stable, and comes highly recommended. “*Download it here.*”:http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/stat?id=19XpSnZWhPI&offerid=146261&type=3&subid=0&tmpid=1826&RD_PARM1=http%3A%2F%2Fitunes.apple.com%2Fus%2Fapp%2Fwebmd-baby%2Fid489673347%3Fmt%3D8%2526uo%253D6%2526partnerId%253D30

  • Happy iPad Launch Day!

    Phew, what a crazy week! Not only are we preparing the stores and website for the BIG day, the marketing department has been hammered by Hammerhead–getting all the packaging and marketing materials for the Hammerhead products that have been remodeled for the new iPad.

    Our Hammerhead product line will have three new or redesigned cases for the newest iPad–the Bluetooth Keyboard case, Premium Leather case and the new Capo case. The Capo case is a hard case that folds to create a stand. I’ve been using one of the prototypes on my iPad 2 and I really like it. I was using a Smart Cover prior to snagging this new one and I’m not going to go back to the Smart Cover as I was beginning to have trouble with the Smart Cover staying closed. It would come loose in my purse when I carried my iPad 2 around and get caught on other stuff.

    The Capo case will work only with the new iPad (aka iPad 3rd gen), and will be available in Black, White, Red, Blue and Orange. It will sell for $39.99. The product will be available in mid-April, and we will be listing it on our website in the coming weeks. The Bluetooth Keyboard case and Premium Leather case are in stock now, and fit both the iPad 2 and new iPad.

    “*View our cases here!*”:http://www.smalldog.com/category/iPad_Accessories/Cases_and_Sleeves/iPad_2_and_iPad_3rd_Gen/

  • Weekly Apple News Recap | 3/9-3/16

    Obviously, the biggest thing happening this week is that the new iPad drops today. We’re in the midst of iPad madness here, and have limited quantities in stock in our stores. Thinking about getting one? “*Watch the keynote here from Apple’s Media Event.*”:http://events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/123pibhargjknawdconwecown/event/index.html

    The “*Messages*”:http://www.apple.com/macosx/mountain-lion/messages-beta/ beta is now available for download. The app for the Mac replaces iChat, and allows users to send unlimited iMessages to any Mac, iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch and “get a taste of what’s coming in OS X Mountain Lion.”

    “*Check our blog for up-to-the-minute Apple news!*”:http://blog.smalldog.com

  • _Dear Friends,_

    It is iPad launch day! We have been receiving inventory and we are looking forward to a frenzy at our stores. With to few iPads to meet the demand of customers, it seems like the mad scramble is on as Apple has already sold out the initial supply of iPads. Pretty amazing that Apple keeps hitting these home runs (and just in time for baseball season).

    I was down in Jacksonville, FL to visit a customer and while it was hot and sunny there, it was also unseasonably warm and sunny in Vermont. So much so that they are predicting temperatures in the 70s this weekend and hopefully, my road will dry out enough to get Grace’s motorcycle down the road for an early spring ride.

    If you travel, one app that I cannot do without now is “*Tripit.*”:http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/stat?id=19XpSnZWhPI&offerid=146261&type=3&subid=0&tmpid=1826&RD_PARM1=http%3A%2F%2Fitunes.apple.com%2Fus%2Fapp%2Ftripit-travel-organizer-free%2Fid311035142%3Fmt%3D8%2526uo%253D6%2526partnerId%253D30 This is a clever app that tracks all your travel plans, alerts you to gate changes and delays and is a one stop place to monitor your travel. You simply forward all your air or hotel or car rental confirmations to Tripit and they take care of the rest! Highly recommended.

    Rebecca and I have completed the second episode of our 1-hour talk show on Vermont radio station “*WDEV.*”:http://www.wdevradio.com/index-progs.asp It is called Small Dog Speaks and we are having some fun taking calls and answering questions on line. “*Click here to listen to the archives on our site.*”:http://www.smalldog.com/info

    We are looking for an intro, some music, maybe a jingle and then we have to produce some commercials, but Rebecca and I are having some fun. Feel free to call in Thursdays at 1PM at 877.291.8255 or “*follow us on Twitter*”:http://twitter.com/hellosmalldog and ask us some questions there!

  • AppleCare…To the Rescue

    While Apple’s products have significantly lower rates of failure than a lot of their competition, things do go wrong from time to time. When I got my iPhone 4S at launch, it would occasionally restart itself. At first, I thought nothing of it, considering I was coming from an Android device that rebooted itself so often that it might as well have been saying, “Hey, just in case you forgot you customized your splash screen, here it is again!”

    A couple of weeks ago, my phone didn’t just restart itself, but became a useless brick until I gave it a hard reset while plugged in. A quick Google search revealed this issue to be a symptom of hardware failure known in the diagnosis log as “panic.plist.” I checked my diagnosis log and there it was, three “panic.plist” occurrences in the past week. After a brief phone call with AppleCare, I was given the choice of sending the phone back to them and waiting close to a week for a replacement or to have a $730 hold placed on my credit card while they sent me a new phone overnight. As I didn’t have another phone to use, I opted for the latter.

    Normally, to have a phone sent overnight would cost $30 but because I had AppleCare, the fee was waived. Cut to today; the hold has been lifted and I have a shiny new iPhone that has yet to give me an issue. Granted, I was within the original one year warranty, but had this happened after that first year, I would be scavenging Craigslist for a cheap replacement. Thanks, AppleCare–I owe you one.

  • TT SPECIAL: Refurbished Mac Pro

    Are you looking for a Mac Pro under $3,000 that’s still eligible for AppleCare? Well, you’re in luck. We have two refurbished Mac Pros and two demo Mac Pros that are a spectacular price at $2,999.99. Plus, all are within the one-year warranty, so they’re eligible for AppleCare, extending the full warranty to three years.

    Grab ’em while you can–there are only four, so quantities are extremely limited.

    “*Buy AppleCare here.*”:http://www.smalldog.com/category/Apple/AppleCare/Mac_Pro/
    “*Buy RAM here.*”:http://www.smalldog.com/search/?find=ECC+DIMM+1333MHz+DDR3

  • iOS 5.1 Software Update Released

    Apple released OS 5.1 last week, which contains improvements and bug fixes. Of course, Apple also released a new iPad, Apple TV and software last week as well–for all of that coverage, “*click here*”:http://blog.smalldog.com to check out our blog. “*Click here*”:http://www.smalldog.com/category/Apple/iPad/iPad_3rd_Gen/ to jump straight to the new iPad!

    An overview of iOS 5.1 from Apple:

    * Japanese language support for Siri (availability may be limited during initial rollout)
    * Photos can now be deleted from Photo Stream
    * Camera shortcut now always visible on Lock Screen for iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, iPhone * 3GS and iPod touch (4th generation)
    * Camera face detection now highlights all detected faces
    * Redesigned Camera app for iPad
    * Genius Mixes and Genius playlists for iTunes Match subscribers
    * Audio for TV shows and movies on iPad optimized to sound louder and clearer
    * Podcast controls for playback speed and a 30 second rewind for iPad
    * Updated AT&T network indicator
    * Addresses bugs affecting battery life
    * Fixes an issue that occasionally caused audio to drop for outgoing calls

    More information on the security content of this update can be found “*here.*”:http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222

    To read about how to update your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, “*click here.*”:http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4623

  • Editing the Finder Sidebar

    When you burn a disc in iPhoto or iTunes do you end up with the annoying “Untitled CD/DVD” in the sidebar of your Finder window? How do you remove it? There are several ways to address the issue.

    First of all, by default, the sidebar of a Finder window and the elements contained therein are not permanent. Since the beginning of OS X, you could alter the order and contents of the sidebar by drag and drop. If you want your home folder to be first, drag it to the top of the list; if you want Applications first, same thing. If you want to remove these items, you should be able to simply drag them out of the sidebar, and like an icon from the dock, they should disappear in a cloud of smoke.

    When the drag and drop does not work, maybe altering the Finder window and sidebar in Finder preferences is the way to go. In Finder Preferences, Sidebar, alterations are completed by checking or unchecking boxes.

    Lastly, when these methods do not work, you can attempt to manually alter the preference list for the sidebar. (Warning–this is not for the squeamish!) In your Home folder, in the Library (hidden in Lion), there is a folder called Preferences. While there are 100s, if not 1000s, of individual plist files in the preferences, the one you want is called com.apple.sidebarlists.plist.

    When opening the sidebar plist in TextEdit, each of the items, including the multiple disk aliases, has a discrete entry. Starting with the position line, OBB, ORR, etc., I carefully deleted each reference to the ‘Untitled Disk (number)’ from the plist file. After deleting the lines of information, I saved the document and restarted the computer. When next I opened a fresh Finder window, the offending entries were gone.

  • Intuit Releases Quicken 2007 for Lion

    A few months ago, Intuit announced that they would be updating Quicken 2007 for Mac to support Lion. Quicken 2007 for Mac remains one of the top reasons people will not upgrade to OS X 10.7–it was written for PowerPC systems, and Apple dropped Rosetta support.

    Responses to this announcement were mixed–many were hopeful that it would finally allow them to upgrade to Lion and not lose their finance package, but a lot of people thought it was a stupid move on Intuit’s part to upgrade a four-year-old program and not add any new features.

    Last Thursday, Intuit made this “new” version available for $14.99, either through download or disc delivery. So far, most of the feedback falls into two camps: there are the people who scream “FAIL” because Intuit has once again dropped the ball on Mac users by releasing five-year-old software and calling it “new,” and then there are those who call this “too little too late,” as they have already moved on to other solutions. The main reason people held out hope for Quicken 2007 is that it contains many features unavailable in other programs, including Intuit’s intended replacement, Quicken Essentials.

    Intuit has suggested that this upgrade is intended for people who were already running Quicken 2007 for Mac. People should not look to this as a new program, nor should they see this as a continuation of the “old” Quicken series of applications. Intuit plans to continue with Quicken Essentials, as well as the online versions of Quicken that are not OS specific.

    I’ve seen some postings from people who were unable to find the upgrade on Intuit’s web site. If it doesn’t come up in a search, the page can be found “here.”:http://quicken.intuit.com/personal-finance-software/quicken-2007-osx-lion.jsp

  • Here at Small Dog we are gearing up for the next version of the iPad. I have been thinking of whether or not I would want to get one for myself, and what I would use it for if I did get one.

    I think that it would be great to have one with me so that I could show all the people I meet the awesome pictures of me and my cats. I know that the nice lady who rings me out at the grocery would love to see pictures of me on the roller coaster with my cat, or even screaming our heads off on the Demon Drop. There are so many other uses for an iPad that I can think of!

    I would love to be able to keep track of my social schedule, appointments, and even the occasional game for my kitty to play. He loves the Fruit Ninja game; I bet that he pretends the fruit is actually mice, but who knows…

    You may notice that we’re changing up how we feature specials down below–we plan to highlight a great used/refurbished or demo deal (or two)–let us know what you think! Look for new accessories and information about the new iPad below as well.

    As always, we’d love to hear your feedback on what you would like to see in future issues of Tech Tails.

    Thanks for reading!

    -Cee Lo Green- Jason (with my cat, Purrfect)
    “*jasonl@smalldog.com*”:mailto:jasonl@smalldog.com

    “__Image Source__”:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/12/cee-lo-cat-purrfect_n_1339471.html

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  • Synchronization 102

    I received a question from a longtime reader asking me how comfortable I was with Wi-Fi synchronizing of apps versus using a cloud…