Kibbles & Bytes Blog

  • Verizon iPhone 4 Poll Results

    Last Wednesday, we polled our readers on whether they were planning to get a Verizon iPhone 4. The poll received a total of 816 responses, and the results were quite surprising. Over a quarter of all voters, *26.1%*, replied that they plan to continue service with AT&T. Only *7.35%* of voters replied that they were planning to switch to Verizon, and slightly over a quarter, *25.86%* (existing VZW customers?), replied they were excited to purchase an iPhone after years of waiting.

    Though plenty of voters seemed eager to either switch to Verizon or upgrade their existing phones to an iPhone, *25.61%* reported they plan to wait for whatever Apple releases next–presumably the iPhone 5. A meager *0.61%* of total voters replied they only plan to purchase an iPhone 4 if Apple finally releases the much fabled white version. Nearly *15%* of voters replied that they were not interested in an iPhone, or at least not at this time.

    This week, Verizon released several “*details*”:http://blog.smalldog.com/article/verizon-to-offer-30-unlimited-data-plan-for-iphone/ regarding the forthcoming phone’s data plan and pricing structure. Maintaining an edge over competing AT&T plans in some areas–specifically data–these announcements would likely have changed the results of the survey had they been announced earlier. To view the complete synopsis of the poll, click “*here.*”:http://blog.smalldog.com/article/vote-are-you-getting-a-verizon-iphone-4/

    Have your opinions on the Verizon iPhone 4 changed now that the carrier has announced plan features and rates? Comment “*here*”:http://blog.smalldog.com/article/verizon-iphone-4-poll-results/ and let us know!

  • _Dear Friends,_

    The snow seems to be staying south of us again in this week’s snowstorms. This seems to be the pattern that has developed over the past few years. As the storms work their way up the east coast, high pressure seems to keep the snow pushed south. Nevertheless, we have had enough snow that the ski areas are happy and the snowmobile trails are open. Seed catalogs have started to arrive and it is just over a month to Town Meeting Day when it is traditional to start the tomato plants for the garden.

    We have three universal job requirements at Small Dog Electronics. Each employee is required to meet all three each year. The first is Apple training. Apple has a series of educational modules and exams that constitute their online sales training. There are four levels of accomplishment: Silver, Gold, Apple Product Professional and Apple Sales Professional. Every member of Small Dog Electronics is required to reach Apple Product Professional and all sales people are required to reach Apple Sale Pro. Each year in April we hold our Apple Sales Professional dinner which started out with 6 people five years ago but this year we have 36 people out of 50 that have reached the highest level of Apple Sales training and 100% that are Apple Product Professionals. We will be hiring a bus this year to bring the folks from Vermont over to meet up with the folks from our Manchester store for this annual event.

    The second job requirement is that each employee take a paid day off to perform community service. I do not dictate what community service they do, only that I get an email with a description. We have had employees help their neighbors, work with Special Olympics, create websites for the local library, work in the schools or clear trails for hiking. I was very proud of this commitment to community service until one day, I was visiting Ben & Jerry’s headquarters and mentioned this commitment to community service to the CEO. He nodded politely and said, “that is great; we give our employees up to 40 hours paid time for community service.” I guess we have some work to do get there, but this is a key element in the People part of how we measure our success.

    The last of these requirements is a weekly report. This is the hardest to get compliance from the team, but we are well over 90% each week. This weekly report is sent to their manager, Hapy and me. The format for these reports is as follows:

    * What were your accomplishments this week and how did you do versus your plans for the week?
    * What are your plans for next week?
    * What obstacles did you encounter and how did you resolve them?
    * What resources do you need to do your job more productively?
    * Tell us about one customer encounter this week.
    * Please make one suggestion for the company, and list any other commentary you may have.

    With over 50 employees, I find these reports to be an extremely valuable management tool. Just as we want to take advantage of every opportunity to talk to you, our customers, I find these weekly reports from my team to be packed with valuable information, ideas and opportunity.

  • Verizon iPhone 4 Poll Results

    This time last week, we polled our readers on whether they were planning to get a Verizon iPhone 4. The poll received a…

  • Running Windows Without Windows

    Usually when you need to run a Windows application on a Mac, you install VMware or Parallels. Recently I learned of a third…

  • iPay?

    Rumors have circulated for years that Apple will turn the iPhone into a mobile payment device using RFID (Radio-frequency identification) technology. RFID-based payment…

  • [photo] Darth JBL

    SB Tech Carl came up with this mod. for the South Burlington Team’s set of JBL Creature III Speakers. May the force of…

  • Featured Deal: Up to 50% Off MiLi for iPod/iPhone

    MiLi makes great batteries and chargers for your iPod, iPhone or iPad. For a limited time, we’re featuring everything in stock up to 50% off!

    For example, my favorite is the MiLi Power Spring 4 Battery Case for iPhone 4. I’ve been known to run my battery down -playing BeJeweled- doing extremely productive things on my phone, so I can allllways use more battery life. I like that this is a slim option that nearly doubles the life of the iPhone 4 battery.

    “See all MiLi products and specials here.”:http://www.smalldog.com/mili

  • Tip of the Week: Browser Spoofing

    Today we had a wonderful customer in the store who had just switched to Apple by buying a new MacBook. He was running into trouble with his company’s web-based calendaring and collaboration system, as the site required Internet Explorer 6 or greater to run. He’d browse to it using Safari or Firefox, and the site would throw an error and refuse access, presumably to make it easier for novice users to know which browsers work and which don’t. Turns out, it was compatible with Safari after all. We just had to tell Safari to masquerade as Explorer.

    Unfortunately, not all web developers keep up with the times. It’s likely that this site’s administrators hadn’t conducted compliance testing since at least the release of Internet Explorer 7. It’s getting rarer and rarer, but plenty of sites out there still require Explorer. This trick won’t work on all of them, but it will for a good chunk of them.

    While in Safari, select Preferences from the Safari menu. Now, click the Advanced button at the top right of the Preferences window, and check “Show Develop menu in menu bar.” Close the Preferences window, and notice the new Develop menu on top of your screen. In the Develop menu is the User Agent sub-menu. From the sub-menu, select Internet Explorer 7.0. Once this is done, the web sites you visit will think you’re using Explorer, and some of the especially restrictive sites will work for you!

    Be mindful of the setting you choose, as Safari will not render some web sites correctly when pretending to be Explorer.

  • Uninstalling Mac App Store Apps

    The brand new Mac App Store is a great way to discover and install fresh applications for your Mac. Though millions of MAS apps have already found their way into the docks, stacks, and folders of many OS X users, not all apps are winners.

    If you download a clunker, and decide that it’s not worth the space on your hard drive, how should you go about properly deleting it? The answer is a simple one, and likely a process you’re already familiar with. Although MAS apps are installed a bit differently from traditional applications, they’re deleted in the same way–by being dragged to the trash.

    While it can vary from app to app, this method typically deletes many, if not all, installed components of a piece of software. Since Mac applications come in packages, their frameworks, resources, and other essential files are stored in one place on your machine.

    In the case of many apps, simply trashing the icon and emptying the trash will remove the application from your computer. If the app being deleted was purchased through the MAS, you’ll notice a “Not Installed” icon next to it in the Purchases menu. Should you ever need the app in the future, it can easily be reacquired and reinstalled from the within the store.

    This process is typically sufficient for most Mac users, but not all applications come bundled in such neat and succinct packages. Especially when dealing with larger applications, preference, cache, and support files can clog up areas of your hard drive even after the app is long gone. If you’re an app fiend and leave these files unchecked, they can consume valuable disk space and in rare instances slow system performance.

    To aid with this dilemma, numerous third party developers have stepped up to offer comprehensive uninstaller solutions. Among them, *AppZapper* and *AppCleaner* stand out. The former ($12.95) and the latter (free) scour your system for stray files related to the app being deleted. Any items discovered are sent to the trash to be reviewed and deleted.

    Though each app contains a number of safeguards to prevent from deleting apps unintentionally, it’s always best to double check the files being deleted and keep a recent Time Machine backup of your system. (Ironically, neither app is currently available in the MAS.)

    Download AppZapper “*here.*”:http://www.appzapper.com/
    Download AppCleaner “*here.*”:http://www.freemacsoft.net/AppCleaner/

  • Running Windows Without Windows

    Usually when you need to run a Windows application on a Mac, you install VMware or Parallels. Recently I learned of a third choice: a program called CrossOver Mac by CodeWeavers. It’s cheaper than VMware and Parallels, and it doesn’t require a full licensed copy of Windows.

    Once installed, CrossOver Mac will monitor your DVD drive for any Windows installer and automatically bring up a “helper” application that identifies the disc. CrossOver will install the program into a “bottle,” keeping it separate from other bottles that you have already installed. It recognizes most popular applications such as the Microsoft Office suite and Intuit’s Quicken and QuickBooks. The CrossOver website has an extensive compatibility database and claims support for over 8,000 applications.

    If you’re looking to play games on your Mac, they have a version specifically for that as well. CrossOver Games offers support for online MMORPGs like World of Warcraft and Guild Wars, as well as Steam games like Half Life 2 and Team Fortress 2. This version is tweaked for better framerates demanded by fast-paced games, so it will work better than the standard CrossOver Mac software, which has been designed for stability and productivity.

    CrossOver is a graphical front-end for Wine, an open source project with the goal of letting people run Windows applications on other operating systems. Unlike a Virtual Machine, such as Parallels or VMware, Wine does not emulate processor instruction sets but rather runs the Windows instruction set natively.

    What’s the difference? An emulator has to take instructions written for one system and translate them into instructions another system can understand. This takes time, and depending on the application you’re running, it can be noticeable to the point where it may even appear that the application has crashed.

    Running an entire operating system like Windows XP under another operating system like OS X is no small feat, which is why you need a fast processor and a lot of memory to do it. Running an application natively, however, means that the application is using an instruction set that is already understood by the OS, so nothing needs to be translated to make it work.

    This allows your application to run faster and does not require the same system requirements as running under an emulator. It also runs the Windows APIs within the Mac OS, which means your Windows applications start up almost immediately. There is no wait while the virtual machine starts, loads Windows, then loads your application.

    CrossOver Mac is $39.95, CrossOver Games is $39.95, or CrossOver Professional (includes licenses for both) is $69.95. A 30 day demo is “available here.”:http://www.codeweavers.com