Kibbles & Bytes Blog

Apple news, tech tips, and more…

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  • New iPads with Pencil Support and Better iWork, too!

    At a special education event on March 27th at a high school in Chicago, Apple introduced a new 9.7-inch iPad that offers faster performance, support for the Apple Pencil, and a few new camera-related features. The company also released new versions of the iWork apps—Pages, Numbers, and Keynote—that let users draw, sketch, and write with the Apple Pencil.

    Sixth-generation iPad

    For the most part, the new sixth-generation iPad is the same as the fifth-generation model it replaces. Its physical dimensions are unchanged, so existing cases and accessories should continue to work. It comes in the same three colors: silver, gold, and space gray. Even the pricing and options remain the same, with a 32 GB model starting at $329—the jump to 128 GB adds $100, and cellular capabilities add another $130.

    What sets the sixth-generation iPad apart from its predecessor is its support for the Apple Pencil stylus, which was previously restricted to the iPad Pro line, which started at $649. Thanks to a high-resolution touch sensor in the iPad’s Retina screen and palm-rejection technology, you can now use the $99 Apple Pencil with compatible apps. As with the iPad Pro, the Apple Pencil is sensitive to pressure and tilt so you can vary line weight and shading, much as with a traditional pencil.

    Also new in the sixth-generation iPad is Apple’s A10 Fusion chip, with its embedded M10 coprocessor. The company claims that the new processors provide up to 40-percent faster CPU and 50-percent faster graphics performance.

    The extra performance may also be related to the iPad’s new camera capabilities. Unlike the previous iPad, the sixth-generation iPad can take Live Photos and supports body detection in images along with the previously supported face detection. Also new is support for the Retina Flash feature that turns the screen into a giant flash when taking selfies.

    iWork with Apple Pencil Support

    If you haven’t been using Pages, Numbers, and Keynote on the iPad, the latest updates may encourage you to try Apple’s iWork apps—remember, they are available for free in the App Store. Notably, the three apps allow you to draw, sketch, and write directly within documents. Even more interesting, though, is Apple’s Smart Annotations feature, currently in beta. With it, your comments and proofing marks anchor dynamically to text, and stay with the text they were attached to even as the document changes.

    Smart Annotations are particularly welcome for those who take advantage of the real-time collaboration features built into the iWork apps. This was an education event, and it’s clear that Apple is building tools that will allow teachers to mark up and comment on student documents. But the same capabilities are equally as useful in the business world. For business users, Apple also announced that the real-time collaboration features in the iWork apps now work on documents stored in the Box file sharing service. Previously they were available only for documents stored in iCloud, which has little adoption in the enterprise.

    Finally, the iPad version of Pages gains features that help users create ebooks in EPUB format. Apple also added a new Presenter mode to Pages, which lets you turn your iPhone or iPad into a teleprompter for distraction-free reading.

    In the end, if you’re interested in using the Apple Pencil, the combination of the sixth-generation iPad and the updated iWork apps will let you do more for over $300 less than before with the iPad Pro.

  • Dear Friends,

    The road trip to New Orleans had its ups and downs but we loved the Big Easy and spent some time listening to great music and consuming adult beverages. The Celtics game was a bit of a disappointment as the injury-ravaged team lost that game before heading out on a 4-game win streak out west.

    The Apple announcements this week were great. I especially like all the software and tools that Apple has developed for educators. Education has long been a focus for Apple and lately they have been losing some ground to the Chrome books and their ilk. But, I really think that these new tools are compelling and that iPads, especially the new 6th Generation iPad with Pencil support, will be THE new tool in the best school districts.

    In addition to the new iPads Apple has also introduced the Space Gray versions of the Magic Mouse, Keyboard and Trackpad. They have also released some new colors on iPad cases and a slew of new spring colors for watch bands.

    I was so moved by the March for Our Lives and the incredibly articulate speeches given by high school students begging for our help. It really boils down to our children asking for our help to not get shot in school or on the street. Seems like a sorta reasonable request. These kids inspire me and I believe will change our world!

    This week’s Kibbles & Bytes exclusive is a fantastic bundle! It starts out with the Apple Factory Refurbished MacBook Pro 13-inch w/Touch Bar 3.1GHz i5 Dual Core 8GB/512GB in Space Gray. This unit has a 1-year Apple Warranty but we are bundling it with AppleCare+ to extend that warranty to 3-years to provide extended free Apple tech support and up to two incidents of accidental damage (after deductible). To make this deal even better, while supplies last, we will include a pair of Apple’s wildly popular AirPods with each of these MacBook Pros. All this at a savings of $150 for Kibbles readers – your cost for this bundle is only $1977.77!

  • While the snowpack is still fairly significant, the evidence of snowmelt can be seen every day when I get home from work. This weekend I hope to take my girls out for one last day on the slopes. Spring was always one of my favorite times of year on the slopes as a kid and this weekend looks amazing for spring skiing.

    The arrival of spring also means more work around my house. In addition to just dealing with muddy pathways and roads, it’s also dealing with all the surprises that the melting snow reveals.

    Thank you for reading this edition of Kibbles & Bytes

    Emily & Mike

  • The rise of eSports

    I may be dating myself here… wait, scratch that. I am literally dating myself here, but when I was ten years old a movie came out called The Wizard, starring The Wonder Years’ Fred Savage and sponsored heavily by Nintendo. The story revolved around a pair of brothers on a cross-country journey to make it to the “Video Armageddon” video game championships in California to compete for a prize or something-or-other, it was all quite cliche but for my Super Mario-obsessed brain, it was incredible.

    The concept that there were such things as “Video Game Championships” that thousands of people watched and participated in on the level of professional sports teams literally blew my mind. Little did I know that the first “Nintendo World Championships” of video games actually happened a year after the movie came out and was much less of an event than the movie had depicted and growing up in rural Vermont before the internet meant that even had there been a Video Armageddon every year, my elite skills in The Legend of Zelda would never get me there no matter how many times I got the Triforce.

    Competitive electronic gaming or as it’s known today ‘eSports’ is clearly not new, but around the turn of the century when higher-speed internet became widely available, multiplayer games such as Counterstrike, Starcraft and League of Legends among many others spurred the development of national and international tournaments with cash prizes, scholarships, sponsored teams and finally the kind of recognition and following that allow someone to be an eSports athlete full-time.

    When it began, amateur competitions drew a few thousand fans in person and over the Internet. In October 2013, 32 million people watched the championship of Riot Games’ League of Legends on streaming services such as Twitch and YouTube. That’s more viewers than the 2013 NBA Finals and MLB World Series combined.

    Streaming services also provide a platform to earn big money for content creators. Twitch streamer Tyler “Ninja” Blevins recently revealed that he makes $500,000 per month streaming gameplay on Twitch but he cautions people eager to make money playing video games,

    “You can’t just drop everything to focus on playing video games for a living. It’s also becoming a very competitive career choice. You want to make sure you’re securing your future while putting the extra time to make this happen as well.”

    So where is this headed? The International Olympic Committee just made moves that may introduce eSports into the Olympic Games in the future, making statements addressing the challenges in dealing with the violent themes in many competitive games, and the strong male-heavy gender imbalance in the current pool of eSports athletes, neither of which reflect on the spirit of the Olympics. Regardless of this, the IOC officially recognized eSports as an actual sport in November, paving the way for big moves in the future.

    As of yet, there’s no word on whether using the Power Glove™ would be considered an illegal performance-enhancement but I’ll be in training just in case.

    Nintendo Power Glove

  • HomePod Tips

    HomePod has finally arrived in our retail stores! While it has been shipping for a little over a month now, its taken a little while for Apple to open up availability to resellers such as ourselves. Our staff have eagerly set up speakers in all of our stores, everyone has been impressed with the sound quality and reporting that Siri is working better than ever!

    Single user. Anyone in the room can give Siri commands, but when it comes to account-based connections, the HomePod is a single-user device. So if you set it up, which is astonishingly easy, it will connect to your Apple Music account, your iMessage account, your iCloud account for Reminders, and so on. That’s fine for you, but, for instance, your family members won’t be able to access their Apple Music playlists.

    Speakerphone. The HomePod may be the best speakerphone you’ve ever used. Alas, you can’t initiate a call on it, but once you start one on your iPhone, you can transfer the call by tapping the new Audio button that replaced the Speaker button in iOS 11.2.5 and selecting the HomePod.

    Apple Music. The HomePod can act as an AirPlay speaker, allowing it to play audio from your other Apple devices. But when you control it via Siri, the music must come from Apple Music, your iTunes Store purchases, or be matched in your iCloud Music Library. To send Mac audio from apps other than iTunes to the HomePod, get Rogue Amoeba’s Airfoil.

    Audio power. It may be small, but the HomePod has plenty of power. At 6 feet, we measured the sound output at 100% volume at 80 decibels, which is louder than is comfortable.

    Volume control. Speaking of volume, you control it by percentages, as in “Hey Siri, set the volume to 15 percent.” You can also tap the + and – buttons on the top of the HomePod to adjust the volume in 5% increments.

    It listens. The HomePod hears your commands remarkably well, even when it’s playing music at a high volume. You shouldn’t have to shout at it.

    Hey Siri. If you’re within earshot of a HomePod and want to give Siri a command on your iPhone or Apple Watch, don’t say “Hey Siri” right away. Instead, to use your iPhone, unlock it first. Or, to use your Apple Watch, raise your wrist. Apple has an explanation of how Hey Siri works with multiple devices.

    Apple TV. You can play audio from your Apple TV through your HomePod. On the main screen of the Apple TV, press and hold the Play/Pause button on the Siri Remote, and then select the HomePod before playing a show. Or, while playing video, swipe down on the Siri Remote, swipe right to select Audio, and then select your HomePod in the Speaker li

    Once you’ve transferred audio to the HomePod, you can use Hey Siri commands to pause and play the Apple TV content, change volume, and even rewind and fast-forward by a certain amount of time (“Hey Siri, rewind 10 seconds”). However, other things that Siri on the Apple TV can do, like tell you who stars in a movie, work only when you press and hold the Siri button on the Siri Remote.

    Apple plans to release software updates that will enable two HomePods in the same room to provide true stereo sound, and that will let you control multiple HomePods simultaneously for multi-room audio. So far I’ve held out on setting up HomePod in my home. Something tells me though, that once this next update comes out I won’t be able to fight the urge any longer.

  • Dear Friends,

    Many folks use the calendar to let them know that spring has arrived, but for me, it’s hair. As soon as I start to notice my horses shedding out their winter coats I know spring is near, even if I hop into my car and see the temperature gauge display -6 degrees when taking the kids to school. Over the last week my horses have begun shedding at an incredible rate. Last night as I took the shedding blade to my mare I quickly created a pile of fallen hair on the ground and it brought a little smile to my face. The birds and other small critters also enjoy the site of my horses shedding their winter coats, as the fallen hair is a popular nest-making material. I’m looking forward to once again being able to have evening horse therapy sessions after work. While my dogs are great company, I’m a horse girl through and through. Not much beats the smell of the horse barn and time with my horses after work.

    We have been doing some spring cleaning around the Small Dog offices and warehouse. I’m always surprised to see the things we’ve continued to hold onto after all these years and some of it is truly junk! In a back closet, I found a five-gallon bucket of what looked like spackle that had dried up ten years ago and a huge bag of lightweight utility or gardening gloves. Did we at some point hire an army of workers to spackle who were afraid to get their hands dirty? I’ll never know. Luckily, our spring cleaning has mostly revealed valuable items. If you happen to be in Vermont this weekend, stop by our South Burlington store today or tomorrow. We’ve pulled together all of or used, demo, dented box, refurbished and other less than perfect box computers and iPads and have put them on sale.

    This week’s Kibbles & Bytes exclusive bundle is HomePod and Phillips Hue. HomePod is now the central hub in many homes, so why not let it take over your lights? This bundle normally sells for $549.98, but Kibbles & Bytes readers can get it for $524.98.