Kibbles & Bytes Blog

  • One Grant Grants 3GS*

    In a press release this morning, AT&T announced plans to reduce the subsidized price of the 8GB iPhone 3GS from $99 to $49….

  • The Mac App Store is Open for Business

    As of this morning, the Mac App Store has officially opened its “doors” for business. Launching with over 1,000 apps in a wide…

  • _Dear Friends,_

    Happy New Year! New Year’s weekend was so mild here in Vermont that Prickly Mountain Road and our notorious “Cold Road” were turned to mud. This was a thick, gooey mud that reminded me of the “gumbo coolie” of the midwest. I cringed as I gunned my car and drove through it; slow but steady is the rule, but this was full throttle just to avoid getting stuck.

    Of course, that meant that my car got pretty dirty and as I drove to Burlington the next day, it was shaking horribly. I stopped at an automatic carwash, but that just made it worse, so I washed it again with the manual pressure hose. That didn’t do the trick either, so last night I had to take the wheels off one by one and remove mud, rocks and gradoo.

    Flying in and out of Vermont is always an adventure this time of the year. If you have the first flight of the day leaving or the last flight coming in, you may find yourself stranded in some airport like Detroit, New York, Philadelphia or Chicago. I do remember the days when the Burlington airport only had one airline and if you were leaving town, you could park in front of the airport and leave your car there for a week.

    I am out in Las Vegas at the Consumer Electronics Show where we have a booth for our Chill Pill Audio and Hammerhead products. I also have a lot of meetings scheduled with vendors and customers and will be walking the floor looking for new products and marveling at the new technology. Next week, I’ll have a report from the show.

    Apple dominates CES even without being there officially. As you walk around to see the exhibits, there is an abundance of products that are either designed to complement Apple products or are blatant copies of Apple products. It is a huge show, though, and I relish the opportunity to check out all of the new stuff!

  • 30 Seconds of Snow Zen

    And here’s 30 seconds of blizzardy snow zen for your Wednesday afternoon. Recorded from our headquarters in Vermont.

  • Pandora Plays Nice With Apple TV

    Perhaps the best aspect of the second generation Apple TV is its ability to instantly stream Netflix content. This feature was highly requested…

  • NEW Hammerhead Stylus Series

    Whether you have an iPod touch, iPhone, or iPad, a stylus is a great tool to have. If you’re typing or using a…

  • One Month In: MacBook Air

    I bought myself a MacBook Air a month or so ago, and “pondered the possibility of speed degradation”:http://blog.smalldog.com/techtails/?c=tt739 in a Tech Tails article shortly before taking delivery of the new laptop. I knew the degradation would occur over time, and in the month or so of use I’ve been pleased with the computer’s performance. As advertised, it wakes from sleep within moments–even after a week of continued use.

    I’ve experienced fewer “beach balls” than on any Mac I’ve ever used, including my late 2009 i7 iMac. I’ve very much appreciated the near complete lack of heat and the complete silence that this thin and light machine produces. My usage is mostly web browsing (with numerous tabs), listening to music, editing video in iMovie, managing my photo library in iPhoto, email, and other light tasks.

    It hasn’t been long enough for me to comment on the Tech Tails article a few weeks back on SSD performance degradation, but I can say that I’ve never used a Mac so responsive at the admittedly mundane but essential tasks I use my computer for on a day-to-day basis.

  • Recover From a Forgotten Passcode

    There seems to be an influx of customers who have forgotten the passcode on their iPod Touch, iPhone, or iPad. Although this is an unfortunate frustration, the fix is relatively easy, and (hopefully) painless, provided you have your music/apps/other data backed up on your computer.

    (I need to warn you, this fix will erase all data on the device itself. As long as everything is backed up on your computer, you have nothing to worry about.)

    Basically, you need to restore your iPod/iPhone/iPad in “recovery mode”. In order to get your device into Recovery Mode, you first need to turn off your device(hold the Sleep/Wake button until the “slide to power off” prompt can bee seen, slide it!). Now, that your device is off, make sure your usb dock connector cable is plugged into a usb port on your computer, but NOT plugged into the device. iTunes should be open during this process. While holding down the Home button, plug your usb cable into the device, keep holding the home button until you see the “Connect to iTunes” screen (iTunes logo+usb cable).

    You should now get an alert in iTunes that states a device in “recovery mode” has been detected. Click OK, and you are now able to restore the device, erasing the user added data, as well as the passcode.