Kibbles & Bytes Blog

  • Screen Sharing

    Many of us who have Leopard and Snow Leopard have already played around with the great screen sharing capabilities. In both Leopard and Snow Leopard, Apple offers screen sharing using a lightweight VNC client aptly named ‘Screen Sharing.’ It has a similar look and feel to Apple’s more robust remote management software, Remote Desktop, but without the bells and whistles.

    There are two well-advertised ways to use Screen Sharing in Leopard and Snow Leopard. The first is through the Shared sidebar in the Finder. The Shared sidebar displays other machines that are on the same local network. For example, when I’m home and working on my MacBook Pro, my Shared sidebar in Finder shows my Mac mini attached to my entertainment center. I can select the Mac mini in my sidebar and hit the ‘Share Screen…’ button which launches the Screen Sharing application and allows me to remotely view and control my Mac mini.

    The second most popular way to screen share is through iChat. iChat allows you to screen share with anyone else on a Mac running Leopard or Snow Leopard. Simply select the buddy you’d like to share with and up on the menu bar select Buddies > Share My Screen… or Ask to Share Remote Screen, whichever you’d prefer to do. Alternatively, you can just right-click on your buddy in the buddy list and select ‘Share My Screen’ or ‘Ask to Share…’. This is great way to share screens, which is especially helpful when helping your friends or family members with computer questions.

    There is one lesser-known way to use Screen Sharing as a traditional VNC viewer. Simply open Screen Sharing directly by going to System > Library > CoreServices > and double-click on Screen Sharing. You will be asked for an IP address. Simply enter the IP address of the machine you’d like to connect to, then enter the username and password when prompted and, voila, you’re in! While this might not be useful for the average user, for those of us who regularly use VNC clients, it’s nice to know that there’s a solid easy-to-use client built right into the OS X platform. This is extremely helpful when connected to computers with a static (or known) IP address that are neither on your local network nor connected to iChat. Enjoy!

  • Repair of the Week: MacBook Air

    A longtime customer came in with her MacBook Air, which she uses daily both in the office and in her very frequent travels. She uses the “QuickerTek Charger/Backup Battery Pack for MacBook Air”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/75517/quickertek-charger-back-up-battery-pack-for-macbook-air/at_tt and is thrilled that it allows her to fly across the country or the Atlantic and work the whole time. Recently, though, she began to notice that the computer was getting much warmer than usual, even with light use. She reported the fan had been overactive and that battery life isn’t what it used to be, even with the QuickerTek.

    There are two real clues in these symptoms. More heat is created the harder a computer is working, and the harder a computer is working, the less time it’ll function off of battery power. Immediately, I knew this was a software issue, not a hardware issue.

    I also noticed that I couldn’t pull down the Date and Time menu in the Menu Bar; any time I’d place the mouse pointer over that item, the pointer would change into the spinning beach ball. I knew that a background process called systemuiserver is responsible for this Menu Bar item, so I went into Activity Monitor to see if that process was taking up more processing power than necessary.

    Sure enough, systemuiserver was consuming almost all the processing resources the Air had to offer. I used Activity Monitor to quit the process, and set the computer on a table. In a few minutes it was noticeably cooler and the estimated battery life jumped from 45 minutes to over two hours–and I could pull down the Date and Time menu.

    I knew from the beginning the cause of this problem, but for those of you without quite so much troubleshooting experience, the Activity Monitor application is a great first stop in all overheating and battery life issues. Just look for something consuming a lot of CPU resources.

  • Happy Tuesday,

    It’s becoming a Small Dog tradition to hold a free eWaste Recycling Event each year, and we did just that over the weekend–the 4th annual in VT and the inaugural roundup in NH. Thousands of cars queued up to responsibly recycle their old electronic junk in Vermont and New Hampshire; the crowds were easily visible from the highway in Manchester. While this year’s event brought our biggest haul yet, it also went more smoothly than any of our events in past years. Kudos to Kali for putting these events together!

    I took advantage of my time in Vermont late last week to get my snow tires mounted. It’s not too surprising that we’ve seen a few squalls already this fall. Jon sent me photos of Route 4 near Killington, where the road was well covered in snow and slush. It’s never fun to be caught in a storm without snow tires, so, despite the noisy ride, I’m glad to be prepared for winter. I can’t wait to get my snowmobile ready for the season.

    As always, thanks for reading, and keep in touch.

    Matt
    “matt@smalldog.com”:mailto:matt@smalldog.com

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  • One More Reminder – Free Ewaste Recycling in VT and NH on Saturday!

    Just a reminder that if you have old, broken, and obsolete electronics, you can recycle them for FREE on Saturday, October 23rd at our ewaste collection events in New Hampshire and Vermont.

    The NH event will be held from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM in the parking lot at the Mall of New Hampshire. Click here to see this location on Google Maps.

    The VT event will be held from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM at 30 Community Drive in S. Burlington, VT (Ben & Jerry’s offices). Click here to see this location on a Google Map.

    Again, both events run from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM. Learn more about the event, including what ewaste is accepted by clicking here.

    Hope to see you there!

  • We’re very excited for the ewaste collection event on Saturday. We’ll have far more trucks and far more workers than in years past, so this will be a very efficient event. I will be at the Manchester, NH location, handing out coupons and gift cards. I’m hoping we collect over 75 tons of ewaste per location. That would be amazing!

    Until next week!

    Your Kibbles & Bytes Team,
    _Ed, Kali and Ben_

  • Do You Qualify for the iLife '11 Up-to-Date Program?

    We wanted to remind our customers about Apple’s up-to-date program for iLife ’11. This program allows customers who purchased a qualifying new Mac or Apple Certified Refurbished computer between October 1 and October 19, 2010 that does not include iLife ’11 can upgrade to iLife ’11 for $6.99 plus tax. The completed order form must be postmarked or faxed by November 19, 2010.

    US customers should “click here”:http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore?partNumber=MC635Z/A to register for the for the Up-To-Date program.

    Read more about Apple’s Up-to-Date program “by clicking here.”:http://www.apple.com/ilife/uptodate/

  • Overview: GarageBand '11 New Features

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

    *Flex Time* – Flex Time is a new tool that lets you quickly change the timing of your recording, so your song has perfect rhythm. Something sounds a little off? Use Flex Time to fix timing mistakes on the fly. Just click and drag any part of a waveform to change the timing of a note or beat. You can move, stretch, or shorten individual notes without changing the good parts of your recording. And Flex Time is great for creative inspiration: Extend guitar riffs, alter vocals, try different rhythms, and get new ideas. Your Flex Time edits are highlighted so you can easily see your changes. Click the Flex Time button at any time to compare your edits with the original performance.

    *Groove Matching* – Instantly match the rhythm of your whole band to a single track. If you’re working with a bunch of different tracks–like a guitar, bass, keyboards, percussion, and a drum loop underneath it all–chances are that one (or all) of them could be a little out of rhythm. Groove Matching brings all your tracks together beautifully. Just select any track in your song and make it the Groove Track, and all other tracks instantly match it. If not every track needs adjusting, you can choose only the tracks you want. Groove Matching helps Apple Loops fit the feel of your song even better, too.

    *New Guitar Amps and Stompbox Effects* – GarageBand brings you seven new guitar amps for a total of 12. They’re modeled after the most revered gear in the world–from clean sounds to heavy distortion and everything in between. You can also reproduce the sound of classic foot pedals with five new stompbox effects, making 15 to choose from. Mix amps with stompboxes and find thousands of ways to rock. And with the Apogee GiO (sold separately), you can control GarageBand hands-free, so you don’t ever have to stop playing. The GiO lets you control stompbox effects, recording, and transport controls with your feet. Plug an electric guitar into your Mac, crank it up, and let it rip.

    *”How Did I Play?”* – Put your skills to the test while you’re jamming on a lesson. First GarageBand taught you how to play. Now it tests your chops. As you play along with any lesson, record yourself. GarageBand listens in real time and tells you how you’re doing. You’ll see how well you played with colored notes, a progress bar, and a performance meter. You can check your rhythm and note accuracy, keep track of your progress, and beat your best score–all while perfecting your skills.

    *New Lessons for Piano and Guitar* – Learn to play piano and guitar even better on your Mac. With 22 new genre-based lessons (40 in all), you can pick up the basics of piano, guitar, or even both. Video demonstrations, synchronized notation, and instrument animations make lessons fun and easy to follow. And you can learn at your own pace. You’ll jam with the Blues Guitar and Rock Guitar series. You’ll master classical piano pieces by Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, or Chopin. And you’ll play Top 40-style piano with the Pop Piano series. The new built-in glossary is a great reference for tuning your guitar, changing strings, reading music, finding basic chords and scales, and more. With the Chord Trainer, you’ll master the most important guitar chords by shape, which makes it easier to keep them straight.

  • Overview: iPhoto '11 New Features

    iPhoto ’11 was released today at Apple’s Back to the Mac press conference, as part of the new iLife ’11 multimedia productivity suite. Some 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”:http://daringfireball.net/ tweeted: “Can you imagine any other computer company offering letterpress as a mass-market printing technology?”

  • Apple Announces Mac App Store

    The Mac is about to get its own app store, just like the App Store for iPod touch, iPhone and iPad! Aptly enough this will be called “The Mac App Store”. (See how I did that?) On its website Apple says that the Mac App Store “revolutionizes the way applications are installed on a computer–it happens in one step.”

    The Mac App store features one-click downloads, purchased via your existing iTunes account. There will be free and Paid apps, and developers will get the same 70/30 split currently used in the iOS App StoreOne great feature: Mac apps can be installed on every Mac you use and can even be download again. This is especially convenient when you buy a new Mac and want to load it with apps you already own.
    Apps will be stored and organized in the new Launchpad feature in Lion.

    You can browse Mac apps by category, such as games, productivity, music and more. Read developer descriptions and user reviews. Flip through screenshots. The Mac App Store keeps track of your apps and tells you when updates are available. Update one app at a time or all of them at once, and you’ll always have the latest versions.

    “Click here to learn more.”:http://www.apple.com/mac/app-store/

    Want to develop apps for the Mac App Store? “Click here!”:http://developer.apple.com/programs/mac/

    Some people have expressed concern that the Mac App store means that Apple will exert undue influence on third-party Mac software. It’s an interesting question, though it’s important to note that most software will be available via optical media and downloads from third party sites years into the future. This is meant to supplement not supplant existing software distribution channels.