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Maxx Digital iPod Speaker System
Need some sound in your life? Have an iPod but no speakers to play your rocking music? Check out the new Executive Office System from Maxx Digital. It has a built-in AM/FM clock radio and is small enough to fit almost anywhere.
The Executive Office System is compatible with any iPod or iPhone, and will even charge it while you’re jamming out. It has a built-in USB port and an SD/MMC card slot for audio playback. It also has an AUX line-in port for iPad, iPhone, iPod, computer (or any other device with a 3mm jack), so you can wake up to your favorite music. It has a dual alarm, sleep and snooze functions, and a remote so you can control it from across the room.
The “Maxx Digital Executive Office System”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/76372/maxx-iemx262-digital-executive-am-fm-clock-radio-with-ipod-dock-black is available online and at any Small Dog retail location.
**Only $39.99;** make sure you get yours while they’re still here!
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LG Monitors
A recent addition at Small Dog is the new line of monitors from LG Electronics. LG has been a leader in electronics for the past 10+ years and we’re happy to feature them in our stores and online.
The new LG widescreen LCD monitors provide a superior viewing experience without killing your wallet. With sizes ranging from 19 inches to 24 inches there is a monitor size for any use. The Digital Fine Contrast Ratio can provide up to 10,000:1 contrast and with as fast as a 2ms response time. They are some of the best monitors on the market right now, and quite affordable.
The models we are currently selling the the retail locations are the 19in, 22in and 24in widescreen versions. They are $184.99, $244.99 and $359.99 respectively. These LG monitors feature the Flatron f-Engine Intelligent Auto Resolution which is a picture-enhancing chip that provides not only astounding color, but also superb contrast and image quality. The Flatron f-Engine independently adjusts contrast and brightness to produce amazing images. Intelligent processes work to automatically adjust resolution for maximum performance and optimized image quality.
With VGA, DVI and HDMi connections on most models, you can connect these monitors to any computer, and even some DVD and Blue-ray players. Check out our selection of “LG Monitors”:http://www.smalldog.com/mfg?MfrName=LG+Electronics on Smalldog.com (or come in and see us) and order yours today.
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Featured Closeout Bundle
**MacBook Pro 13in 2.53GHz, 4GB, 250GB**
+AppleCare
+iWork with $30 Rebate
+Hammerhead Sleeve
+$100 Small Dog Gift CardSave $180: **$1499.99**
Come in and check it out!
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Wow, it is already July and summer is finally here! I know a lot of us here have been enjoying the sun while hiking, biking, BBQ-ing and hitting the beach during our free time, and we hope all of you out there have been enjoying the (mostly) nice weather and preparing for the July 4th festivities.
If you haven’t already heard, we are in the process of opening a new retail location in Manchester, New Hampshire. Progress is being made daily and the store should be open for business toward the end of the summer. We are currently hiring for the South Burlington and Manchester locations. If you’re interested in working at Small Dog, “click here”:http://www.smalldog.com/jobs to see our current openings. We’ll be sure to pass along more details as the opening approaches!
Otherwise, our South Burlington and Waitsfield retail stores have been consistently busy with the buzz surrounding all of the exciting new Apple products, from the still-hot iPad to the newly updated Mac mini!!
Did you know that we offer free Saturday seminars in our South Burlington store? We have two of these seminars every Saturday at 2pm and 4pm, and anyone and everyone is welcome to come listen in. These seminars are a great way to learn more about what your Mac, iPad or iPod can do and are a great intro into the world of everything Apple. You’ll find this month’s upcoming schedule over in the right hand column of this newsletter.
We’re also pleased to announce a brand new class offering in our South Burlington store–a comprehensive iPad course that will get you familiarized with the iPad’s operating system, teach you some nifty tips and tricks, and showcase some of the powerful and useful apps available for the iPad. Give us a call at 802-496-7171 or drop by the store for more details.
As you can tell, we’re definitely keeping busy this summer. Be sure to drop by one of our stores this month and check out all the new iPad accessories we’ve been getting in. We hope to see you soon!!
-Gary & the South Burlington Team
“gary@smalldog.com”:mailto:gary@smalldog.com -
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Small Dog Is Hiring!
Don announced a few weeks ago in one of our other “newsletters,”:http://www.smalldog.com/newsletters Kibbles and Bytes, that we’re opening our third store in a few months.
This store will be in Manchester, NH in the Mall of New Hampshire, and we are looking for entrepreneurial, driven, focused, and passionate Mac lovers to join our team.
Check out “Smalldog.com/jobs”:http://www.smalldog.com/jobs to see what’s available. We also have openings in our existing Waitsfield and South Burlington, VT locations!
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RSS Feed Basics
I started using a RSS reader recently when I was faced with far too many blogs to check per day for a fitness project I’ve been a part of. Checking close to 20 blogs every day meant opening the domain, remembering if I read that article, then going on to the next one. It ended up resulting in too many bookmark folders in my browser’s bookmark bar. Then opening all of them at once resulted in a lot of memory being used by my web browser.
I then remembered a little icon I’ve see before in my browser. (If you’ve opened this article in a web browser, there should be one at the top of this page.) This means that an RSS feed is available for the blog or article website you’re reading.
What’s an RSS feed? RSS (usually) stands for “Really Simple Syndication.” This means you can have your article without all the ads and spam that cover some web pages. All you need to do is find the URL, or address, for the feed you’re looking for. For Google BlogSpot blogs, this means using a special link in conjunction with the blog name. For other websites, they may need to provide it for you.
For example, take the “New York Times.”:http://www.nytimes.com I would have to check this website every day, along with all the other news sites I read. What if I’m more interested in just receiving the new articles? Or even a specific category of articles? If you’d rather check the articles in this manner, you could check and see if they offer an RSS feed (most sites do now). I just searched Google for “nytimes rss” and immediately was given one of their own pages, listing their RSS feed addresses.
What program should you use for a RSS reader? I’ve tried a couple on the Mac, and I’ve settled on Shrook for the moment. It’s very simple to use, and has an iTunes-like interface. It’s a light program too, that doesn’t take up too much space or memory. If you leave it running, it will automatically check for updates every 30 minutes and alert you with a badge on the dock icon when there are new articles or blogs.
But wait! There’s more! If you prefer to keep all your updates in one place, Apple Mail can also check RSS feeds for you! Just click the little + in the lower left of the Mail window and select “Add RSS Feeds…”.
The iPad now has some pretty nifty ones, with nice touch interfaces, like “Reeder.”:http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/stat?id=19XpSnZWhPI&offerid=146261&type=3&subid=0&tmpid=1826&RD_PARM1=http%3A%2F%2Fitunes.apple.com%2Fus%2Fapp%2Freeder-for-ipad%2Fid375661689%3Fmt%3D8%2526uo%253D6%2526partnerId%253D30
Just about all devices have access to RSS feeds now, and with just spending a few minutes of your time adding the RSS links you read on a regular basis, you can save yourself a lot more time in the long run.
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Easily Upgrade Your Older MacBook
Now and again, Apple’s technical specifications state a maximum amount of RAM that’s not actually correct. It was the case with the iMac G4, and believe it or not, it’s the case with some MacBooks and MacBook Pros. Any 2.2GHz or faster MacBook Pro (except the 2.33GHz models), and any MacBook made in November 2007 or sooner, actually supports 6GB of RAM, not 4GB! Like all our RAM, “our 4GB PC5300 chips”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/72604/pc5300-so-dimm-4gb-ddr2-667-ram-module carry a lifetime warranty and are guaranteed Mac-compatible.
You can tell the speed of your Mac by selecting About This Mac from the Apple menu on the upper-left corner of your screen. If your MacBook Pro is at 2.2GHz or faster (excluding 2.33GHz), it will accommodate the upgrade, but it’s a bit tougher to tell if your MacBook qualifies. Your MacBook’s serial number is the best way to know for sure whether it can hold 6GB.
Your serial number is very deliberately constructed. The first two characters tell you where the machine was manufactured, the third tells you the year in which it was manufactured, and the fourth and fifth characters tell you the week it was made. Let’s take a hypothetical serial number and dissect it–say, W88231FMYK0. W8 indicates that the machine was made in the Shanghai, China facility. The second 8 indicates the year of manufacture (2008). And the fourth and fifth characters show the week it was made. So, we know from this serial number that the MacBook was made in Shanghai in the 23rd week of 2008.
How does this relate to RAM in your MacBook? Well, MacBooks manufactured in the 48th week or later in 2007 qualify for the 6GB RAM upgrade. When you look at your serial number, you can ignore the first two characters, as it really doesn’t matter where your machine was made. But make sure the third character is 7 followed by 48 or higher. Any MacBook made in 2008 qualifies for the upgrade.
I know your next question already: What about requiring matched pairs of RAM for fastest performance? Well, I’ve never really believed that the average user can tell a difference between a machine with matched pairs and one without. There are several studies out there confirming that the infinitesimal speed loss from not interleaving is more than offset by the availability of more physical memory. Any time you can avoid the use of virtual memory, you’re going to see a big speed boost.
Apple’s newest MacBooks and MacBook Pros actually support up to 8GB of RAM, but the type of chip is different. You’ll want to pick up “4GB PC8500 chips”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/73111/pc8500-so-dimm-4gb-ddr3-1066-ram-module for all unibody laptops and the newest Mac Mini.
Interestingly, Apple’s serial format changed at the start of 2010, so any machine made this year and moving forward has a serial number that can’t be decoded.
It’s a bit complicated I know, but our sales team is trained to know whether your machine qualifies. Swing by one of our stores, give us a ring, or email our “support team”:mailto:support@smalldog.com and we can help.