Kibbles & Bytes Blog

  • Changes Abound in AT&T's Newly Announced Tethering and Data Plans

    As of this morning, AT&T has officially announced tethering for iPhone. While this feature is long overdue and will undoubtably make many iPhone customers happy, not all of the news is good. With the announcement of tethering, AT&T has also made some major changes to both the iPhone and iPad data plans. By far the most controversial move on AT&T’s part is the introduction of data limits on their previously “Unlimited” 3G data plans.

    Starting June 7th, AT&T will do away with their $30 unlimited plan for new iPhone users. In its place, two new plans with limited data caps will be introduced.

    *Data Plus: 200MB for $15/month. (Additional 200 MB for an extra $15)*

    This plan seems most ideal for “light” iPhone users, or those who have consistent Wi-Fi access throughout their day. Still, the plan seems a little stingy for anyone looking to stream any kind of media over the 3G network even if it is for a short period of time. Even regular web browsing/emailing over 3G can add up quickly when navigating to data rich pages or downloading attachments.

    *Data Pro: 2GB for $25/month. (Additional 1 GB for an extra $10)*

    While AT&T claims 98% of iPhone users use less than 2GB/month, the prospect of a limited data plan still seems a bit frightening. For anyone regularly streaming video to their device over 3G via apps like “Air Video”:http://www.inmethod.com/air-video/index.html;jsessionid=471FDB20A2C224C651F1FB031E413F4B, it is possible to hit 2GB of data in only a few days of regular use. Even over the course of a month, regularly using streaming radio apps like Pandora or Slacker can seriously add up.

    *Tethering: Extra $20/month for Data Pro Customers*

    Tethering is slated to be deployed with the release of iPhone OS 4.0 sometime this summer. As of now, the option is only available for Data Pro ($25/mo.) customers. The added $20/month to enable tethering raises the price of the comprehensive package to $45/month. That’s $15 more than the current Unlimited plan, but with the 2GB/mo. cap still in place.

    The newly established Data Plus plan will become available on the 7th, and the Data Pro plan will replace the formerly available $30/month unlimited data option. AT&T has confirmed that this new limited plan will replace the current $30 Unlimited iPad plan as well.

    If this isn’t quite music to your ears, don’t fret. AT&T claims that existing iPhone and iPad users with unlimited data plans will be “grandfathered” into the new program. This essentially means that existing iPhone and iPad users will be able to keep their current unlimited plans with the option of opting for a new plan at some point in the future if they choose.

    This controversial move has riled up some customers and has generated a very mixed response towards AT&T. While light data users will benefit from the option of the cheaper $15/month Data Plus plan, the majority of iPhone and especially iPad users who enjoy streaming media services such as Pandora and Netflix over 3G will likely feel a bit upset. While I have my own opinions regarding this issue, it would be great to hear other thoughts as well.

  • Tip of the Week: Hidden iPhoto Features

    I’ve recently spent a few hours cleaning up my iPhoto library. This included adding proper image titles, keywords, updating Places and Faces info, deleting duplicates (and redundant photos in general), as well as deleting albums, smart folders, and slideshows that have outlived their usefulness. Here are a few tricks I discovered that aren’t documented by Apple, and apparently little-known on the web.

    Did you know know you can compare an edited photo to the unedited original? This only works in iPhoto’s Edit mode. In Edit mode, simply hold down the Shift key and you’ll see the photo in all its pure, unedited glory.

    Also in Edit mode, it’s possible to quickly zoom in on a particular area of a photo. Simply hover your mouse pointer over the area of interest, and then press the *1* key to zoom to 100 percent in, or press the *2* key for a 200% view. Jump back to fit to view by pressing the *0* key.

    Want to hide certain photos in your iPhoto library, but don’t want to actually delete them? Simply right-click (or Control-click) on the secret photos and select “Hide Photo” at the bottom of the list. If you want to see your hidden photos, select *View > Hidden Files* in the iPhoto menu bar.

    I like Faces (though it’s not __always__ amazingly accurate) in iPhoto ’09. Did you know you can change a person’s Key Photo in Faces? This is the photo that shows on the Faces corkboard. To do this, open a photo of the person in Faces. Right-click on the image you want to be the key photo and choose “Make Key Photo.”

    You can also scroll your mouse over the Key Photo in Face’s corkboard view, and while the photos are flipping through, click the space bar on the photo of your choice. That will be the person’s new Key Photo.

    Here are some more tips about Faces, “from Macworld magazine.”:http://www.macworld.com/article/141746/2009/07/faces_tips.html

    I also enjoy Places, iPhoto ’09’s geotagging feature. It’s fun to see my photos on a map. iPhone photos are automatically geotagged, but my other cameras lack a built-in geotagging tool. It’s easy to manually add this information to a photo, but it’s a chore to do this for a big batch of photos.

    However, I discovered that it is possible to copy Places information from photo to photo. Simply select a photo that has been tagged with the correct information, right-click (or control-click) on it and choose “Copy” from the contextual menu. Now select your batch of untagged photos, right-click (or control click) on them, and choose “Paste Location.” Now they all share the same location information.

    When you delete a photo from your iPhoto library, it goes into iPhoto’s trash. This gives you a margin for error if you accidentally delete a photo. Over time, iPhoto’s trash can fill up with hundreds or even thousands of photos, stealing gigabytes of space from your hard drive. To see the contents of iPhoto’s trash, click on the trash can icon in the left panel of the iPhoto interface. In iPhoto 09, it’s under the “Recent” header. To empty the trash, click on *iPhoto > Empty iPhoto Trash* in iPhoto’s menu bar at the top of the screen.

  • AutoCAD Comes Back to OS X

    Autodesk’s AutoCAD drafting software may finally be coming back to OS X. Discontinued almost twenty years ago for Mac, this software is the…

  • June Coupon

    !(image)http://blog.smalldog.com/images/1713.gif!

    *$5 off iPad cases*
    Bring this in or mention it at checkout to save on any iPad case during the month of June!

  • June Specials

    *$5 off Otterbox cases*
    (in stock items only; no backorders)

    *Buy ANY buffalo drive, get 50% off your backups!*

    *Timbuk2 bags starting at $8.99!*
    (while supplies last; Waitsfield only)

  • June Classes

    *Absolute Mac Basics,* S. Burlington –
    Sun. 06/13/10 5:15pm to 6:45pm

    *Mac Basics Level Two,* S. Burlington –
    Sun. 06/20/10 5:15pm to 6:45pm

  • Free Saturday Seminars in S. Burlington!

    No registration required. Each seminar lasts about 40 minutes and includes take-home materials!

    *6/5: iPods, 2pm*
    *6/5: iPad, 4pm*
    *6/12: iWork, 2pm*
    *6/12: iPad, 4pm*
    *6/19: System Preferences, 2pm*
    *6/19: iPad, 4pm*
    *6/26: GarageBand, 2pm*
    *6/26: iPad, 4pm*

  • Meet our Dogs

    Ernie can be found roaming around our Waitsfield retail store, his favorite thing is howling at the other dogs in hopes he can…

  • Show Us Your Small Dogs!

    We have seen Small Dogs at the top of the Empire State building, Small Dogs sitting by the Grand Canyon as well as pictured with the Golden Gate Bridge.

    If they are out on the town or simply herding around your computer, we’d love to see them! Send photographs of your Small Dogs to “sales@smalldog.com.”:mailto:sales@smalldog.com

    We’ll put them up on our “Flickr page,”:http://www.flickr.com/photos/smalldog/ so round ’em up!

  • Sorting Your Mailbox

    I try to keep my email as organized as possible, but sometimes I just can’t find what I’m looking for. Generally, the toughest emails for me to find are those that have an attachment (Spotlight can’t find everything!). I remembered that I used to have a column in my inbox that would show a paper clip next to messages with attachments, but I couldn’t figure out how to get it to show up.

    Turns out it’s one of those quick and easy things: while in your inbox (or any folder in Mail for that matter), select Columns from the View menu and choose what you want and don’t want to see. Alternatively, you can right-click on the column headers and choose from there. I have Attachments, Date Received, Flags, and From in use. Discovering this feature was particularly nice because I actually removed some columns and reduced clutter.

    When you click on View in the toolbar, under Columns you might have seen “Sort By.” This will automatically sort by the selected attribute–for most, sorting by Date Received is best, but it’s great to know you have the option to sort so many different ways.