Kibbles & Bytes Blog

  • My Stubborn Flash Drive

    This week I was having issues with my little Mimobot 2GB “flash drive”:http://www.smalldog.com/category/x/x/x/Storage_and_Backup|Flash_Drives. I had a some documents saved on my flash drive (not totaling more than about 62MB worth of space); however, my flash drive was telling me I only had 775MB free, which wasn’t possible.

    I had deleted some documents off of the flash drive–and had emptied my trash–so I knew I deleted everything! I was trying to load about 20 songs onto it, but they would just not load. Getting frustrated, as I needed iTunes to jam out to at work, I decided to pull up Disk Utility (found under Applications > Utilities Folder).

    I decided I would just erase the drive and start fresh, as I had everything saved on my personal machine. I selected my little flash drive “2.0 GB Mimobot Media” on the left hand side, and then clicked the “Partition” tab.

    From there, I selected “1 Partition” under the “Volume Scheme” (I chose to partition it because sometimes I use my flash drive to show customers on PCs how they can transfer things from their Mac–it’s formated in MS-DOS (FAT) which is read by both the PC and the Mac). Then I hit “Apply”; it took about 35 seconds and my drive was erased. All of a sudden I had 2.1GB! I went ahead and reformatted all my flash drives and got all my gigs back!

    Personally, I will do a flash drive “clean up” about once every three months just to make sure I am getting the maximum space possible.

  • Tip of the Week: Advanced Google Tricks

    While there are plenty of viable search engines out there like Yahoo, Dogpile, and even Microsoft’s new Bing, we all know, love, and constantly use Google. There’s more to Google than simple search of the whole Internet. Here are a few ways to Google like a pro.

    Exact phrase search is possible by wrapping your search terms in quotations marks. For example, “small dog electronics” vs. small dog electronics will bring up slightly different results, particularly if you use the Google News or Images service.

    You can exclude words from a search by using a hyphen (-). Form your search for Lance Armstrong articles that don’t talk about doping by typing “Lance Armstrong” -doping.

    You can get the definition of a word by typing define:obscure.

    To show search results within a certain numerical range, you want to type your search terms followed by the range. For example, Michael Jackson 1970…1980.

    Many of you recently asked if there’s an easy way to search Small Dog’s “Newsletter archives”:http://www.smalldog.com/newsletters. Yes, and this applies to any website. Simply browse to the site you wish to search, type your search terms into Google followed by site:blog.smalldog.com/techtails (or, the site you wish to search). For example, consulting site:blog.smalldog.com/techtails will yield all the articles discussing our consulting offerings.

    If you read something fascinating and wonder who else links to the page you’re on, type link:twitter.com/hellosmalldog

    Finally, you can do unit conversion right in Google. For example, 23 miles to km, 56 USD to Yen, 1 yard to meters.

    There are plenty of other power-user features of Google, which you can find by Googling!

  • Happy Tuesday,

    Every so often I call for an all-hands meeting of the Small Dog service department, and tomorrow morning we’re all gathering in our Waitsfield headquarters for a few hours of discussion on policy, pricing, bundles, best practices, product offerings, and how we can service you more quickly and efficiently.

    After all, we wouldn’t be here if you didn’t entrust us to do the best job as fast and completely as possible. One thing we’re unveiling, as hinted in “previous issues of Tech Tails”:http://blog.smalldog.com/techtails is a glass and screen replacement service for aluminum unibody MacBooks and MacBook Pros. These items are listed in the “parts section”:http://www.smalldog.com/category/x/x/x/Parts of our website, and you’ll find that glass and screen repairs are up to half the cost of Apple’s asking price for physical damage repairs.

    Just send an email to “support@smalldog.com,”:mailto:support@smalldog.com call us at 800-511-6227 to arrange for a repair or order the parts alone for self-installation (at your own risk!).

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

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

  • Did you know that Small Dog Electronics matches charitable donations? Get into the spirit of the new year and make a donation today—it…

  • January is National Blood Donor Month

    The American Cross estimates that “every two seconds someone in America needs blood.” That’s where you come in! January is National Blood Donor…

  • Hope everyone had a safe and happy new year’s eve, and a great start to the new year. Ed and I, along with…

  • Our First '10 Contest!

    How about a contest for the new year? We will be randomly selecting three winners of a Mac/iPod gift pack from our “Facebook fans,”:http://www.facebook.com/pages/Small-Dog-Electronics/18904017006 and “Twitter followers”:http://twitter.com/hellosmalldog and newsletter subscribers.

    If you’re not already in our Facebook group, you can join here:
    “Small Dog Electronics on Facebook.”:http://www.facebook.com/pages/Small-Dog-Electronics/18904017006

    Not on Facebook? “Sign up here.”:http://www.facebook.com

    Do you use Twitter? We post Mac tips, tricks, news, contests and more on our Twitter feed. “Click here to follow us on Twitter.”:http://twitter.com/hellosmalldog

    We’ll be announcing the winners in February!

  • January is National Blood Donor Month!

    The American Cross estimates that “every two seconds someone in America needs blood.” That’s where you come in! January is National Blood Donor…

  • Dew Active Gear Quiver iPod Shoulder Strap Review

    If you enjoy running, biking, or snowboarding, you’ve probably brought along your iPod to keep the energy flowing and have realized that reaching into your pockets to fumble with your iPod to change songs can be tricky (not to mention dangerous).

    The Quiver aims to eliminate this hassle, sporting a simple yet ingenious design that allows you full control of your iPod or iPhone while keeping the headphone wires under control and your iPod safely tucked away. The design is reminiscent of an arrow quiver used by archers (hence the name) and is worn across the torso, similar to how you would wear a messenger bag. The material is stretchable and
    water-repellent, so it remains comfortable and will get you through virtually anything Mother Nature can throw your way.

    Right on the front and in easy access in a line of five buttons that make up the Quiver’s “inSound” control system—allowing you to play and pause your music, answer a call on your iPhone, skip tracks, and raise/lower the volume. These controls are enabled by plugging your device into the dock connector in the Quiver’s main pocket.

    Headphone management is the other area where the Quiver shines. No one likes to deal with tangled, dangling wires, especially in the middle of activity. The Quiver allows you to feed your headphone cord through the fabric and to the pocket where your iPod sits. This allows enough cord to comfortably and safely wear your favorite headphones without getting them tangled in a tree branch or other obstacle.

    Once you have your headphones and iPod in place, adjust the Quiver to fit against your body snugly, and you’re off! Perfect to make the most of a long winter or to motivate you to keep that new year’s resolution to stay active!

    Kibbles & Bytes Exclusive
    Save $10 and get free shipping for one week only on the Dew Active Gear iPod Shoulder Strap:
    Buy at $79.99