Kibbles & Bytes Blog

Apple news, tech tips, and more…

KB Dog

  • Bundle Up!

    I woke up this morning to negative temperatures and the forecast isn’t changing in the next few days. I’ve written about keeping your phone safe in the heat of summer, but what about in frigid weather?

    iPhones and other electronic devices are not meant to be kept in extreme temperatures. As frigid winter temperatures are upon many of us, it’s important to remember that our iPhones can’t perform well at extreme temperatures. iPhones have ideal operating temperatures and work best between 32 and 95 degrees Fahrenheit. Leaving your iPhone in the cold can have unpleasant side effects, similar to when you accidentally leave your phone too long in a hot car in the summer.

    Many of us take our phones everywhere we go, we want to have them with us be it to keep in touch or perhaps you just want to listen to your new playlist while hitting the slopes. Personally, I think there’s nothing more peaceful than a good song and a cruise down the ski slope until your music stops! When our phones are out in the cold performance issues can arise. You can experience rapid loss of charge on your battery, your phone could begin to perform erratically and it can even stop working. Over the years I’ve had countless customers come into the store during the winter months concerned they have a failing battery due to poor performance. In most cases, this is just temporary and your battery is just fine. However, continuing to expose your phone to the cold weather can have long-term effects. I recommend keeping your phone close to your body if you have it outside and avoid leaving it behind in your car in the cold. If it’s really cold out and you have to be outside, you might want to just leave your phone where it’s warm!

    Batteries in phones have a long history of troubles, it seems. There has been some press lately about battery issues in iPhones in general. When the iPhone X first came out reports buzzed about the performance of phones in the cold, Apple was quick to release a software update. I have not had any troubles with my iPhone X in the cold, but naturally, I’m not using it out in this cold weather. I’m sure many of our readers have heard and read the reports on Apple slowing down older phones running iOS 11, Apple has released an updated battery replacement program for customers.

    Battery issues will always arise with our devices, be it heat, cold, operating systems upgrades, location services and more. No matter what generation phone you have, extreme temperatures will always have a negative effect, so do your best to keep your phone safe.

  • Backwards Binoculars Traded for Magic 8 Ball

    It is traditional for me to review my 2017 predictions this time of the year. It has been a tough year in many respects with political turmoil, scandals, really awful hurricanes and wildfires and senseless acts of violence. I have to say I am not sad to see 2017 in the rearview mirror.

    So, how did I do?

    Cubs will repeat as the start of a dynasty!
    The Cubbies got the World Series hangover and didn’t make it out of the first round of the playoffs.

    Warriors will win the NBA but Celtics make it to Eastern Conference Finals.
    The Warriors did win and the Celtics did make it to the Eastern Conference Finals (and then traded off the almost the whole team)so I get the win here!

    Lots ‘o snow for Vermont and a bad mud season.
    Well, not too much snow although there is some on the ground now. Mud season came in stages and well, I wasn’t there so it wasn’t so bad. So, no win here.

    Large demonstrations in major cities protesting Trump-led changes.
    Yes, many of those but not nearly enough to make a change. We live in interesting times.

    Apple will definitely hit an all-time high stock price.
    Apple just keeps on rolling – yes, an all-time high.

    Something completely bizarre and chaotic will happen in the US political system.
    Let me count the ways. A democrat wins in Alabama? Republicans shoot themselves in the foot with a misguided tax bill? #metoo means women get some respect?
    We live in interesting times.

    There will be confirmed existence of extra-terrestrial life.
    Well now…There was confirmation of a secret government investigation of UFOs and it had some interesting reports but nope – I do not call it confirmation. I DO wonder what that long cigar-like object was that passed through our solar system.

    Apple will make a surprising acquisition.
    I was not surprised.

    Tesla will not ship the model 3.
    This one is a push. Tesla did deliver some hand-made Model 3s, mainly to employees so I guess I lose not his one, too.

    Apple will ship an Amazon Echo competitor that will make Alexa seem as lame as Google Home.
    Apple messed with me on this one by pushing the HomePod into 2018. They are going to have to do some heavy lifting to overcome Amazon’s Echo.

    And one softball… 2017 will be a much better year than 2016!
    I am giving myself a loss on this one, too, 2017 was not a nice year. 4 right 6 wrong, hence my change in predicting tools! Check back next week for the 2018 predictions.

  • Dear Friends,

    I am feeling just a tad guilty for basking in the Key West sunshine while my buddies in Vermont are freezing their Rudolph noses off. Very cold temperatures and wind have created very dangerous wind chills. Of course, that means that things are failing at my house for my tenants like the water and heat. It is a good thing I have great neighbors and people to watch out over my place.

    Okay, I am not really feeling guilty because I have the doors open, there is a nice ocean breeze and my feet have tan lines from wearing sandals. As we wrap up 2017, I am looking forward to a fresh new year. I will be heading out for my annual trip to Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show and will report on the latest trends in technology.

    Key West has a big New Year’s celebration with a concert at the newly constructed waterfront amphitheatre, fireworks and not one, not two but three separate “drops”. There is the cross-dresser in the giant red heel, the huge conch shell at Sloppy Joes and the wench dropping from the mast of the tall ship at the docks. While the recovery is still on-going from hurricane Irma, it has very clearly taken its toll with businesses here in the Keys as tourist traffic is down significantly and even parking downtown is easy.

    This week’s Kibbles & Bytes Exclusive is a Hammerhead bundle. Hammerhead is our house brand, originally named after my late bulldog. We have a number of Hammerhead products but this special consists of two long 2 meter Apple licensed Lightning Cables, one 2-port USB Charger, one 2-port car charger and a green selfie stick – okay, we will toss in a pair of Chill Pill speakers, too! This bundle is only $39.99!

  • Stay Away From Windex!

    All iPhones pick up fingerprints, and it’s all too easy to get your iPhone dirty with ink, lotion, makeup, dirt, food, and oil….

  • Crypto Craze Part 2: Party on the Blockchain

    What a whirlwind it has been these last few weeks in the world of cryptocurrency. Bitcoin hit the milestone of $10k/1 BTC (and growing!), LiteCoin soared from ~$60/1 LTC to an ATH (all-time high) of ~$371 in a matter of weeks, and Ether (ETH) nearly doubled in value in less than a month. It certainly has not been dull since the last issue of Crypto Craze. As for me, I’ve been shopping around and soaking up as much information as I can with other, lesser known alt-coins and seeing some potential in every direction. Now, it should be stated before I continue to churn out these Crypto Craze issues, I am NOT an expert on cryptocurrency, investing, or finances. These guides should not be taken as investment advice.

    But let’s get down to it!

    Last time we glazed over the genesis of Bitcoin and the early days of cryptocurrency. In recent weeks, with the surge in price, Bitcoin is becoming more and more of a household name. But how does it work? What separates Bitcoin from traditional fiat currencies? How are transactions completed? Well, dear friends, that brings us to Part Two: Party on the Blockchain.

    In order to grasp the theory behind blockchain tech and protocol, we will take a look at a traditional transaction as we know it today in a hypothetical scenario.

    Let’s say Don has this really nice 15” MacBook Pro for sale that Connor has been eyeballing for some time. Connor could pay with cash or check, but as we all know- most transactions are completed via Credit or Debit card these days. Traditionally, Connor would slide his card, wait a few moments for the transaction to clear by his financial institution, and a few moments later he has a nice new MacBook Pro to enjoy on Christmas morning. Simple right?

    But why don’t we take a step back to examine what actually takes place when you swipe that card. A typical Visa transaction involves four parties: the merchant, the acquirer (the financial institution that enables payments to the merchant), the issuer (the card holder’s bank), and the individual cardholder. When the card is swiped, the authorization has to travel through several different parties in order for payment to pass through. While generally this is not time consuming, we are all familiar with credit card issues such as extended hold times, contested charges, foreign transaction fees, late fees, interested charges, and potentially adverse effects on your credit score.

    Now the same hypothetical scenario, but instead of using a credit card, we’ll use some Bitcoin.

    Don wants to sell me a 15” MacBook Pro for 1 Bitcoin, (currently valued in the ballpark of $15k. That’d be one sweet machine!). Instead of swiping the credit card and involving a third-party financial institution, I decide I’m going to pay him in Bitcoin. In order to do this, Don would need a digital Bitcoin wallet of his own (we’ll touch on wallets soon). A wallet is an online, offline, or physical storage unit for storing cryptocurrency and it has both a ‘Send’ and ‘Receive’ address. In order for me to give Don the agreed upon amount of 1 BTC, he would need to supply me with his ‘Receive’ address which is typically a long strand of alphanumeric digits that is unique to his ‘Receive’ wallet. When Don gives me his ‘Receive’ address, I would then open my own digital wallet, navigate to my own ‘Send’ address, punch in Don’s ‘Receive’ address, designate the amount of 1 BTC and hit confirm the transaction. Note: almost every exchange or wallet you will find applies this same operation for BTC, albeit the user-interface will differ between them.

    (EXTREME word of CAUTION to anyone interested in delving into trading coins- NEVER under any circumstances make your ‘Send’ address known to anyone other than yourself. Treat this as your bank account number. If your ‘Send’ address were to fall into malicious hands, there is nothing to protect your coins. And yes, coin theft is a very real threat, but if you treat your digital wallet as you would a bank account number or SSN, you will decrease your chances of coin theft.)

    Once the transaction has been completed, the funds will be deposited into the recipient’s wallet. And in order for it to be finalized, the transaction must be ‘confirmed’ by various nodes and it is then posted on the blockchain ledger for all to see! But I’m sure many of you are wondering HOW this transaction is completed and confirmed. Have no fear! We’ll do a deep dive of the ins-and-outs of the Bitcoin ledger on the next edition of Crypto Craze.

  • Flashing folder after installing High Sierra or an update?

    So, you’ve just updated to the newest version of High Sierra. Perhaps you moved up to High Sierra from an earlier operating system to take advantage of the newest features and security patches. After installation, instead of your familiar desktop photo or login screen, you’re greeted with a flashing folder and there is seemingly nothing you can do about it. Enter recovery mode!

    Recovery mode is a tool that’s been available to the Mac user since the introduction of OS X Lion (10.7) it’s essentially a separate partition created on install. 10.7 was the first Mac OS to eliminate physical install disks, this new partition provides access to the tools that were only previously located on recovery disks. Those tools include “Disk Utility”, used to create/erase/modify internal or external hard drives and their subsequent partitions (portions of space created on the drive for use) “Restore From Time Machine Backup” which allows you to restore your machine to a previous state that you would have stored on an external hard drive using Mac’s built-in backup software. Lastly, the most helpful tool when it comes to reinstalling an operating system that may have gotten corrupt or damaged during install “Reinstall macOS”.

    To get to recovery mode, you start with the machine fully powered off. Press the power button as if turning the machine on as normal and immediately press and hold both the “command” key and “R”. Hold those keys until you either see the Apple logo or a spinning globe. If you see the Apple logo it is booting into its recovery partition, if you see the spinning globe it may ask for your WiFi password as it’s starting from an internet based recovery program.

    Now, back to the main topic. You’ve suddenly been greeted with a flashing folder, so we want to get into recovery mode first (CMD+R) once at the utility screen you’ll want to choose “Reinstall macOS.” Follow the prompts. When it asks where you want to install you simply choose your main drive (typically listed as Macintosh HD unless you’ve otherwise changed it) and that should be it, just let the machine do its thing and reinstall the operating system.

    If after the reinstall you’re still greeted with the flashing folder, it is a signal of a deeper lying issue and may require service. If that’s the case, bring it on by one of our stores and our talented technicians can see what they can do to bring your machine back to life!

  • Hello Tech Tails readers!

    The temps dropped down quite fast here in South Burlington as we complete the final push of holiday traffic. We’ve been busy all week, and we’re all looking forward to the New Year! In particular, I am looking forward to seeing the iMac Pro ship out, and AirPods return to normal stock levels. The last few weeks, we’ve seen a dramatic shortage of these handy little headphones, and I can totally see why! A lot of our techs have been using the AirPods this year, and the employee reviews have been outstanding.

    The other thing we’ve been getting a lot of calls about is Malware. If you’ve recently added virus protection software to your Mac, like “MacKeeper” for example, you may want to stop by the store to have it removed. This is something we’ve always strongly advised against, as it tends to cause more problems than necessary. I always tell my customers, the weakest link in your Mac OS is the end user. Like it or not, a virus can occur if you surrender your password at the wrong time. Always verify the source of your downloads, and ensure that when Apple asks “is this a trusted source?” you are answering with confidence.

    Around this time last year, we were seeing a fraction of this type of malware, somehow it has increased in popularity. Nevertheless, our tech department remains at a 2-3 business day turn around time for hardware repairs. This time of year is usually slower for repairs, but I remind folks that Christmas gifted Apple products mean this could be the last week of your warranty!

    Anyway, I’m headed back out to the sales floor to restock those stocking stuffer products, everyone has a great week and enjoy this edition of Tech Tails!

    Patrick McCormack
    patrickm@smalldog.com

  • I hope that you have a great holiday. I know that I will because I will have some visitors to entertain, family to hang out with and probably some good food mixed in there, too!

    All of us at Small Dog Electronics wish you a very Merry Christmas and thank you so much for your support. It is loyal customers like you that make this all worthwhile and we appreciate you!

    Thank you for reading this issue of Kibbles & Bytes!

    Your Kibbles & Bytes Team,

    Don & Emily