Kibbles & Bytes Blog

  • Magic Eraser for Cleaning White Unibody MacBook

    If you have one of the white unibody MacBooks, you’ve probably learned that its grippy grey base can pick up a fair amount of grime. How do you take care of this? Use a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser!

    We posted a short and silly YouTube video of a Magic Eraser cleaning the bottom of the machine. See this on our blog “by clicking here.”:http://blog.smalldog.com/article/magic-eraser-for-cleaning-white-unibody-macbook

    Just remember, take care not to bear down on the machine while cleaning it, don’t let any liquid get into the machine, and don’t use the Magic Eraser on your screen. We recommend “Klear Screen”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/41154/iklear-klear-screen-cleaning-singles-20-pack for that.

    We don’t currently sell the Magic Eraser; get them at your local grocery store. We might carry them in the future, though! Let us know if you’ve used one, or if you have a great cleaning tip for us!

  • Chill Pill Mobile Speakers in the (real) Wild!

    Here’s some fun news: “Les Stroud”:http://lesstroud.ca and his crew are traveling the Earth with our very own “Chill Pill Audio mobile speakers”:http://www.smalldog.com/chill-pill-audio!

    You probably know Les from the hit show “Survivorman”:http://lesstroud.ca/survivorman/home.php where he is dropped off without food or water in difficult, remote environments. Les then depends solely on his skills and knowledge to survive alone, without support of any kind, for seven days.

    He films the show himself with cameras he lugs around with him. The concept is compelling, the environments beautiful (though often harsh) and you get to learn potentially-useful survival tricks (which hopefully you’ll never need to use.)

    What really makes the show worth watching is Les’s personality. Interestingly, Les remains the only producer in the history of television to produce an internationally broadcast series entirely written, videotaped and hosted alone. Right now, Les and the crew are en route to Borneo after completing a jam packed tour in Madagascar, Papa New Guinea and South Africa for Les’s new show *Stroud’s Vanishing World.*

    The Chill Pill speakers are perfect for traveling. They are great in the hotel room, camping, even sharing tunes while waiting for a plane in a remote airport. See if you can find the speakers “in this photo.”:http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4040/4465473122_8d5cf79cda.jpg Hint: don’t forget the speakers have a magnetic click-together system. Learn more about Les, his adventures, and air dates for his new show by signing up for monthly newsletter “by clicking here.”:http://visitor.constantcontact.com/manage/optin/ea?v=001pRmNkNNhb39eU4-2NXtX4A%3D%3D Visit his website “by clicking here.”:http://lesstroud.ca/

  • Happy Birthday, OS X

    Mac OS X “officially” turned nine this week. It was back on March 24, 2001 that Apple released Mac OS X 10.0 (Cheetah) to the general public. Several months before that, Apple had released a very rough public beta of OS X, code-named Kodiak. Some would say the first official release of OS X was also basically a beta–but that’s another story. I remember the very first time I booted up in OS X. It was on an iMac G3 and I was at my grandmother’s farm. I ogled the shiny Aqua interface, clicked around, was confused by the Home folder–and then the entire system locked up and crashed.

    But I was smitten. I could see the future in OS X. In an instant, OS 9 seemed like the relic of a former era–which it was, being based on the classic Mac OS going back to 1984. It took two years before OS X became a truly polished operating system with OS 10.2, and many people grumbled about the imminent death of OS 9. But Steve Jobs and Apple were right to bet on OS X as the future for Apple.

    More than any other product, including the original iMac, the G4 processor, the iPod, even the iPhone, it is OS X that has fueled Apple’s amazing growth over the past decade. OS X powers all of Apple’s most popular, class-leading devices–the iPhone, the MacBook, the MacBook Pro, the iMac, and the iPod touch. OS X is the brains of the Apple TV as well as the forthcoming iPad.

    Showing true nerd colors, I’ve purchased and installed every boxed version of the Mac OS on the day of release (except Puma). I even remember the computers I installed it on. I bought Jaguar from Apple, but I purchased every other version of OS X from Small Dog Electronics. Of course.

    *10.1Puma, September 25, 2001*
    *10.2 Jaguar, August 24, 2002*
    *10.3 Panther, October 24, 2003*
    *10.4 Tiger, April 29, 2005*
    *10.4 Intel Tiger, January 10, 2006*
    *10.5 Leopard, October 26, 2007*
    *10.6 Snow Leopard, August 28, 2009*

    __Editor’s note: I was also smitten with OS X from the beginning. I never truly was a fan of pre-OS X operating systems. I mean, as much as we laughed at the shut down feature being under the Start menu in Windows, it was under the ‘Special’ menu in older Mac OSs… not much better. But I get that it was a big jump for folks who knew OS 9 and prior very well.__
    __Once I installed OS 10.0 on my iBook G3 (it was not pre-installed, but was included in the box), I never went back. I was lucky enough to not have too much on that machine in the beginning, so I could handle the bugginess that ensued. And just like Ed, I installed the new OS X releases from 10.2 Jaguar and on on the day they were released. It’s been a great (almost) decade! -KH__

  • MAC TREAT #119: Become a Friend of the Right-Click in 10.6!

    I love, love, LOVE my Magic Mouse. But that’s another article. My Magic Mouse is set to use the right-click as a secondary button, as many mice are apt to do, and the real topic of discussion is addition of some extras in the right-click context menu.

    In 10.6, there are far more options than 10.5 in several applications. Let’s use TextEdit, for example.

    !(image)http://blog.smalldog.com/images/1622.jpg!

    Among others, you can use the context menu to select *Transformations* to change the capitalization of your text. This is so handy (pardon the pun) to have at your fingertips if you like quick ways to edit text. You may also import an image or capture a selection from your screen!

    These options (and dozens of others) are available in several native applications.

    In Mail, quick menus for *Substitutions* along with *Transformations,* *Import…* and *Capture…* have been added to the helpful shortcuts for Spelling and Grammar, Font and Speech. __Note that “Writing Direction” has been renamed “Paragraph Direction”, since it really just pertains to justifying text.__

    !(image)http://blog.smalldog.com/images/1623.jpg!

  • _Dear Friends,_

    This week it’s Ed writing for Don, who was last seen testing his homemade jet pack on a mountaintop in Maine. A few weeks ago, Don mentioned that I had taken over as VP of Marketing at Small Dog Electronics. I am thrilled to take this position.

    We are working on a number of exciting initiatives right now, including gradual (but major) changes to “Smalldog.com,”:http://www.smalldog.com some different outreach programs, an easier-to-shop retail experience, a retail experience that is more wired and connected to the web, and much more. We’ll share these as they unfold in the coming months. If you have ideas, please send them to me: “ed@smalldog.com.”:mailto:ed@smalldog.com

    We who work at Small Dog are very much like our core customers. That is, creative professionals and technology enthusiasts who depend on our Macs to communicate, maintain our business and keep in touch with the world. We want to make sure Small Dog is offering an experience we’re proud of, and one we would seek out for ourselves. It’s a work in progress.

    The technology industry is interesting, as it’s brutally competitive, with major upheavals literally every quarter. We’ve been here for over fifteen years. We started one year after Windows 95 was introduced (when we were using System 7). We believe in Macs, customer service, dogs, people, planet and profit. ‘Profit,’ so we can keep going and keep doing cool things.

    I am so psyched for our future.

  • MobileMe Sync Issues

    I am a die-hard MobileMe fan. I use MobileMe to wirelessly sync my contacts, calendars, mail and more among three computers and my…

  • Apple Excitement and Steam for Mac

    As an Apple fan, I don’t think I’ve ever been as excited as I am now. If I could roll the clock ahead to April right now then I would, and woe be it to anyone who tried to stop me. Why am I so excited? Well, two things really.

    First, obviously, is the iPad. Somehow in the last week I have gone from staunch iPad skeptic to literally “in a froth” to get my hands on one (thanks Penny Arcade for the excellent descriptor of my frenzied state). I’ll be the first to admit that as it was presented it is a fairly unassuming device. It doesn’t really do anything that you can’t do with an iPhone and a MacBook, and falls awkwardly somewhere between. But oh, the promise! The sheer potential of such a device is astounding. My intent is to purchase one as a statement, if nothing else. A statement to developers that I need them to develop great apps for it. But enough about the iPad.

    What really has me excited for April is the announcement that Valve, creators of Half Life, Portal, and Left for Dead, is bringing its Steam delivery service and Source Engine to the Mac platform. If you’re a Mac gamer, or wish you were, then this is amazing news. It’s no secret that our platform of choice is routinely ignored by game developers.

    Apple themselves have also ignored us by refusing to offer us more powerful graphics options (yes, I really do need 1GB of VRAM). Blizzard has really been the sole supporter of Macs in the game realm, steadily releasing their Mac versions simultaneously with their Windows counterparts – in some cases on the same disks. Valve’s Mac support should encourage other companies to follow suit.

    It’s already panning out like I expected. Razer already announced they will fully support MacOS X with their line of gamer-centric peripherals (I’m a huge fan of their mice). My guess is that we’ll soon see larger publishers like Electronic Arts (EA) and Ubisoft hire Mac-savvy programmers to help build native versions of their games, rather than the bogged down ports we receive now.

    Even if other developers don’t immediately jump on board, I can’t express in words how excited I am to be able to download my already large library of Source games without first rebooting into Windows. When Portal 2 is released this holiday season, I’ll finally be able to consider myself a Mac gamer instead of a gamer who likes Macs.

  • A Missing Dock and Lesson in Basic Troubleshooting

    My young niece called me last night for help, as friends and family often do, with her grandmother’s MacBook. The Dock and Dock preferences were suddenly inaccessible. While she could navigate through the Finder and launch applications, she could not enjoy the convenience of the dock. She’s not a Mac user, and was in a panic thinking she’d ruined Grandma’s computer.

    Troubleshooting began by shutting down the computer and “safe-booting”:http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1455?locale=en_US it by holding the shift key immediately after the startup chime. Safe booting will disable any third party or extraneous Apple kernel extensions (kexts), and will disable automatic login. It’ll also do a file system consistency check equal to the “repair disk” function of Disk Utility if booted off your computer’s restore disks. Of course, the computer belonging to Grandma, she did not know the password. Another normal restart revealed that Grandma had automatic login enabled, so we were free to navigate and troubleshoot.

    First step was to check to see if the restart fixed the issue (it didn’t). I then directed her to Activity Monitor, where I asked her to show All Processes from the Show pull-down menu. Filtering by the %CPU field revealed nothing unusual, so I asked to quit Activity Monitor and navigate to ~/Library/Preferences and delete com.apple.dock.plist. This revealed another problem: she was unable to modify anything in this folder.

    I checked the folder’s permissions, and they were set properly. The only option I had was to use Terminal to delete the file. My niece deftly navigated to the upper-right corner of the screen to type Terminal into Spotlight. With terminal open, I had her type the following (if you ever need to do this, substitute your user’s name for “nana”).

    rm /Users/nana/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock.plist

    and then

    killall Dock

    This removed the preferences for the Dock, and then restarted the Dock process. The Dock popped right up at the bottom of the screen, with all the icons from before.

    I can’t say what corrupted those specific files, and it’s rarely the case that I can. The theory behind this step is to remove an application’s or processes property list (plist, or preference) file so it can be regenerated. If something is not behaving as it should, this is often the troubleshooting step that resolves problems.

  • MobileMe Sync Issues

    I am a die-hard MobileMe fan. I use MobileMe to wirelessly sync my contacts, calendars, mail and more among three computers and my iPhone. In general, MobileMe syncing is phenomenal. Unfortunately, it’s not flawless.

    The first thing to do when troubleshooting a MobileMe issue is to identify which device (i.e. Computer or iPhone) is having the issue. The best way to do this is to first check your MobileMe Cloud by logging in to “www.me.com.”:http://www.me.com If none of your data is on there then syncing is not working from any of your devices. If your data is on there, see if you can figure out which device is having the sync issue by adding a new calendar item or contact to your devices and then force a sync.

    On an iPhone, the syncing will be automatic. On your computer, you can force-sync by going to the Sync icon in your menu bar (it looks like two arrows chasing each other) and select “Sync Now.” Then, reload the MobileMe Cloud website and see which device successfully synced the data and which device did not.

    In general, most MobileMe sync issues can be resolved by simply toggling synchronization on and off. For example, if my contacts aren’t syncing to my phone I’d go to *Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > My MobileMe account* and toggle the “Calendar” switch off and back on again. If the issue was that my phone was syncing fine but the data wasn’t getting to my computer, I’d go to *System Preferences > MobileMe > Sync* and uncheck “Synchronize with MobileMe” and then tell it to sync again.

    Sometimes, resetting MobileMe syncing does not resolve the issue, and then you need to dig a little deeper. First off, make sure it’s not user error. Check syncing preferences on both your iPhone and your computer and make sure they’re set appropriately. Next, make sure you’re looking at the right screen on your iPhone.

    For example, if you think your contacts are not syncing with your iPhone, be sure you are viewing the “All Contacts” screen. If you think your calendar is not syncing to your iPhone be sure you’re viewing “All Calendars” and not just an individual calendar on your iPhone.

    The issue that I ran into today while helping a client was a “data integrity error” that he received when attempting to sync his calendar from MobileMe to his computer. In this situation, I had to reset his sync preferences. First, I backed up his calendar in iCal. Next I reset the sync preferences by disabling MobileMe syncing in System Preferences. Then I opened iSync and ‘Reset Sync History’ in preferences. I then re-enabled syncing and, when prompted, I told MobileMe to replace all data on the computer. So far so good!

    It should be noted that there are different ways to reset syncing depending on what version of the operating system you use. The above scenario was in 10.5.8. Apple has three great articles on how to resolve MobileMe sync issues:

    “MobileMe: Troubleshooting iPhone or iPod touch sync issues”:http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1672
    “Mac OS X v10.5, v10.6: Resetting the SyncServices folder”:http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1627
    “Sync Services: Advanced troubleshooting for contact and calendar syncing”:http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2481

    Check those articles out if you need further help. Happy syncing!