Kibbles & Bytes Blog

  • _Dear Friends,_

    It’s Edward Shepard writing this week for Don, who is is down in Austin, Texas hoping to score a position playing upright bass in a honkey tonk band. What follows is a very long issue of Kibbles and Bytes, as it was a big, big week in Apple news. On Monday, Apple reported blockbuster Q4 financial results. On Wednesday, Apple held an exciting “Back to the Mac” press conference (covered in detail below).

    Apple press conferences are a major event here at Small Dog. We joke that they’re like the nerd Superbowl. The big news from the press conference was an updated system architecture for the MacBook Air, a groundbreaking new ultra-compact 11-inch MacBook Air, and iLife ’11, which is a substantial update to Apple’s very popular multimedia production suite.

    In other news, I wanted to apologize about the contest platform we were using for our Office: 2011 drawing. After people entered the contest, they then had to unsubscribe from future offers from that company. *It is a longstanding, permanent policy that Small Dog Electronics will never sell email addresses provided by our customers or subscribers to our newsletters.* This contest platform blurred the lines of that policy and thus we will never use their services again.

    Instead, we will be running a new drawing for Office: Mac 2011 next week. Everyone who entered will be automatically be entered into this drawing, and everyone else who didn’t enter or didn’t want to enter with the previous service will have a chance to enter to win as well. Again, I am sorry about the confusion with that.

    Don’t want to wait for the drawing to get Office: 2011? Use coupon code *office2011* to save $10 on Office or any other “Business and Productivity”:http://www.smalldog.com/category/x/x/x/Software|Business_and_Productivity/at_kb software title today! “Click here to browse this category.”:http://www.smalldog.com/category/x/x/x/Software|Business_and_Productivity/at_kb

  • FaceTime for Mac Beta is Here!

    FaceTime for Mac makes it possible to make video calls to anyone on an iPhone 4 or iPod touch from your Mac over…

  • Mac App Store – Coming Soon!

    The Mac is about to get its own app store, just like the App Store for iPod touch, iPhone and iPad! Aptly enough…

  • In Like a Lion: 10.7 Coming in Summer '11

    When the image popped up on the web for the Back to the Mac event, the cat behind the Apple was easily recognizable, prompting the accurate speculation that the next incarnation of OS X would be branded “Lion.” Today, Steve announced that 10.7 is indeed on its way, slated for release in Summer 2011.

    Lion boasts dozens of new features, including the Mac App Store, Launchpad, Full-screen apps and Mission Control. Here’s how Apple describes it:

    “We took our best thinking from Mac OS X and brought it to the iPhone. Then we took our best thinking from the iPhone and brought it to iPad. And now we’re bringing it all back to the Mac with our eighth major release of the world’s most advanced operating system.”

    Mac App Store
    Inspired by the success of the App Store for iPhone and iPod touch and available in 90 days from today, the Mac App Store will allow you to purchase, download and install apps from the store itself—no packaging required! Developers will be able to submit apps for approval as soon as November. We’ll have more on this shortly, since this is a big change from how you’re used to getting apps on your Mac.

    Launchpad
    As Apple puts it, the Launchpad “gives you instant access to your apps—iPad style.” When you click the Launchpad icon in your Dock, your windows will “fade away,” leaving a full-screen view of all of the apps on your Mac. From there, you swipe your fingers to see multiple pages, bringing the functionality of Spaces. If you have just downloaded an app from the Mac App Store, it will automatically appear in the Dock, ready to launch.

    Full-screen apps
    This is a great way to tune out the distractions. Apps can now go full-screen natively, something people have been asking for for a long time (I used to get this question all the time from people who were switching from Windows). You will be able to bring an app to full-screen with one click, switch to another with a swipe, and then back to the desktop with another swipe.

    Mission Control
    Mission Control gives you a “bird’s-eye view of everything” all in one place. Apple describes it thusly: “With a simple swipe gesture, your desktop zooms out to Mission Control. There you can see your open windows grouped by app, thumbnails of your full-screen apps, Dashboard, and even other Spaces, arranged in a unified view.” Anything in Mission Control is accessible with one click.

    No word yet on the price tag of Lion, nor a firmer release date. We’ll be keeping you up-to-date on Lion news as we get it!

  • Apple Launches New MacBook Air

    Following the announcement of iLife 11 and Mac OS X 10.7 Lion this morning, Steve Jobs paused onstage to announce that there was…

  • iMovie '11 New Features Overview

    iMovie ’11 was released today at Apple’s Back to the Mac press conference, as part of the new iLife ’11 multimedia productivity suite….

  • GarageBand '11 New Features Overview

    GarageBand ’11 was released today at Apple’s Back to the Mac press conference, as part of the new iLife ’11 multimedia productivity suite….

  • iPhoto '11 New Features Overview

    iPhoto ’11 was released today at Apple’s Back to Mac press conference as part of the new iLife ’11. Some of the standout new features include:

    New Full-Screen Modes iOS-like full-screen mode for editing and viewing photos Use every inch of your display to browse and edit your photos. This is much more advanced than the full-screen editing available in previous versions of iPhoto. More screen real estate means a bigger workspace for perfecting each shot or creating nifty iPhoto projects.

    Facebook Enhancements – Share your photos and view comments without ever leaving iPhoto. iPhoto and Facebook are now even better friends. iPhoto even shows you all of your Facebook photo albums, including the ones you published using another application. You’ll always know which photos you shared (or didn’t share) on Facebook, because iPhoto keeps track of that for you.

    Emailing Photos – iPhoto now includes eight Apple-designed themes that you customize with your own images and words. Rearrange photos with a simple drag and drop, adjust the image mask, or change the size and style of your text. Plus, iPhoto optimizes your message so it’s never too big to send. iPhoto also works with popular email services like MobileMe, Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, Windows Live Hotmail, and AOL. And since iPhoto keeps track of all your email messages with photos, you’re free to open a sent message, make changes, and share it with someone new, anytime you want.

    New Slideshows – New animated themes — like Holiday Mobile, Places, and Reflections — give your photos movement and help you avoid typical, photo-by-photo, fade-in, fade-out slideshows. Each shot is centered and framed perfectly, thanks to face detection. And the animated themes include their own soundtracks, so your photos and music play together flawlessly.

    Big Leap in Books iPhoto ’11 makes it even easier to create professional-quality books using your own photos. Building your book starts with a new dynamic Theme browser. Pick a theme, and an even smarter Autoflow instantly goes to work, placing your images for you. Higher-rated images are featured more prominently. Photos taken on the same day appear together. And all the while, face detection ensures that photos of people are cropped and framed properly. Change the background color, font, layout, and more. Add eye-popping full-bleed, two-page spreads.

    Letterpress Cards – For the first time, traditional printing techniques join modern digital photography on a large scale. With iPhoto ’11, you can create custom letterpress cards personalized with your photos and text. Each iPhoto letterpress card is made from premium paper and produced using a centuries-old printing method. Then it’s digitally processed with your photos and text. iPhoto letterpress cards are available in 15 beautifully crafted themes complete with matching envelope. There’s just something about the elegant look and feel of a letterpress card.

    As John Gruber from Daring Fireball tweeted: “Can you imagine any other computer company offering letterpress as a mass-market printing technology?”

    iLife is a $49 upgrade for existing Mac users, and comes free with every new Mac. It’ll be listed on our site for sale and shipment shortly.