More results...
School is coming before you know it, so be prepared!
We’ve created a *Mac to School Essentials Bundle for MacBook + MacBook Pro 13in* that will put everything you need together in one package AND save you money *($80, to be exact)*!
Bundle includes: iWork, AppleCare, Surge Protector, Ethernet Patch Cable, 2GB Flash Drive, and MacBook Sleeve.
“View it here; come on in to buy!”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag19258_atbis
Agent18 iPod/iPhone Cases
Get $5.00 off all Agent18 iPod and iPhone Cases!
Click here to view what we have, then come on in to grab one (or two)!
**Nothing But NOODLES iPod nano Contest:**
Small Dog Electronics and Nothing But NOODLES are partnering up to give YOU a free iPod nano! Enter at our South Burlington location or Nothing But NOODLES for the chance to win one of the following prizes:
1st Place – Silver 8GB iPod nano
2nd Place – $50 Gift Card to Nothing But NOODLES
3rd Place – $15 iTunes Card
“Read more about Nothing But NOODLES here.”:http://www.nothingbutnoodles.com/
**Higher Ground iPod shuffle Contest:**
Small Dog Electronics and Higher Ground are teaming up to offer you the chance to win a Green iPod shuffle, tickets to “Les Claypool”:http://www.highergroundmusic.com/calendar/show/3243/ on July 12th, and a Les Claypool bundle of goodies!
Enter now! **Sign up to enter at: “intern@highergroundmusic.com”:mailto:intern@highergroundmusic.com**
Looking to get a new iPod or Mac? Why not trade-in your older Apple equipment towards the purchase of new Apple stuff! Contact us at 800-511-MACS, email “tradeins@smalldog.com”:mailto:tradeins@smalldog.com or stop in at either of our retail locations to get more information!
Visit “Smalldog.com/tradein”:http://www.smalldog.com/tradein for more info and specifications on our trade in program.
These days everyone is tight on both office space and budgets when it comes to office equipment, the Canon MP190 is an excellent multifunction printer that addresses both of these concerns. We have been using one of these units in our Waitsfield store for some months now and have all been impressed with the quality of the printing, scanning and even wireless printing.
I was skeptical at first about this printer, so I put it through a few tests, including scanning. I was pleasantly surprised that even with physical objects (such as mouse pads) the scanning quality was excellent. The scanning feature was quick and easy, the software that comes with the printer easily integrates into iPhoto for images, documents are easily saved as PDF’s or sent directly to your documents folder. Printing of documents is fast, even when your copying a document.
For just under $70 this unit is a great value, even the consumables are reasonably priced at $19.99 for the black ink and $24.99 for the color cartridge with estimated yields of up to 500 pages depending on coverage. The inks for the unit feature canons 100 year ink technology, so your photos and documents won’t fade over time. For a limited time we are offering this printer free after mail in rebate if you purchase it at the same time you buy a new computer with us, so hurry up and grab one before supplies run out.
One of the toughest things a technician has to do is tell customers that their hard drive has failed and recovering the data will likely cost thousands of dollars. A Small Dog customer brought in her 24-inch iMac earlier this month because it would not start up. It was on the bench and diagnosed as a failed hard drive a few hours later, and we contacted her with a few options: replace the hard drive under warranty and return the failed drive to Apple, or send the drive to DriveSavers for professional recovery.
DriveSavers is widely acknowledged as the most capable and best-equipped data recovery firm in the world, and our customer was happy to receive an external hard drive with 100% of her data mere days after sending in the toasted one. She was not happy about the bill, though, which was more than the cost of her computer!
We spoke at length on the phone about how all hard drives fail eventually and how she needs to have a backup system in place. She clearly understood what I was saying, and I made it clear that our conversation was not really about sales but about her protection. No backup drive was purchased.
Three weeks later, the warranty hard drive replacement has failed again. She didn’t back it up and has lost three weeks of work and simply cannot afford the pricey recovery again.
David Lerner, an owner of the preeminent New York City Apple Specialist and repair shop Tekserve, has in his email signature __”May you have 1,000 backups and never need one.”__ It’s a mantra we all should take seriously.
This is just one more sad story about 100% preventable data loss. Do yourself a favor and get a Time Capsule, an external drive, even email important documents to yourself or stash them on your iDisk. A $200 Time Capsule is much cheaper than a $2200 data recovery!
Do yourself a favor… __(be sure to click the green links on the following product pages to view all specials)__
“Time Capsule 500GB”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/70770 from $199.99
“Time Capsule 1TB”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/70771 from $349.99
For more tips, tricks, and news at Small Dog, sign up for our Tech Tails or Kibbles & Bytes newsletters at “Smalldog.com/newsletters”:http://www.smalldog.com/newsletters
Did you know that Small Dog offers on-site Consulting in your home or office?
I would like to take a moment and introduce Small Dog’s WatchDog Consulting team. Our Mac Consultants, Jason and Rebecca, are both Apple Certified Mac Technicians (ACTC) who can help you with a wide range of support–from setting up your printer to configuring your business network.
Whether your business is strictly a Mac environment, all Windows or even a mixture of the two, Small Dog Electronics can provide the consulting support that you need. We have over 20 years of experience in the computer business!
Make an appointment today, or contact me at “rob@smalldog.com”:mailto:rob@smalldog.com for a free evaluation. For more information about our Consulting services, visit “Smalldog.com/consulting”:http://www.smalldog.com/consulting or call 1-800-511-6227 x512.
*Greetings!*
Great news! Vermont has announced not one, but two tax holidays: August 22, 2009 and March 6th, 2010 (both fall on Saturdays). This means that any purchase (up to $2,000) will be tax-free! What great timing with back-to-school coming up–it’s a great reason to step into a Mac.
We were pleased to see the new additions to the Apple notebook family! The MacBook Pro now has “two 13in options”:http://www.smalldog.com/category/x/x/x/Apple|MacBook_Pro_13in which start at $1199.99! Apple also revamped the specs on the rest of the MacBook Pro line; “check that out here”:http://www.smalldog.com/macs This means there is now one option in the “MacBook family”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/73835 which starts at $999.99! BUT! We also have “previous generation MacBooks with closeout pricing”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/73058 starting at $899.99!
At our South Burlington location we have just added more classes! We have Absolute Mac Basics available for those of you who are just getting acquainted with your new Mac and Mac Basics Level 2 for those of you who feel comfortable navigating on your Mac and want to learn more about the core Mac OS Leopard (10.5) applications ! “Check out class dates here”:http://www.smalldog.com/search/?find=mac+basics
Don’t forget! Small Dog has “1st generation 16GB iPod touches”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/70103 in stock for $209.99. You can get 16GB of space for LESS than a current gen 8GB iPod touch! An upgrade to the new iPhone OS 3.0 software is only $9.95 through iTunes.
_Our retail stores will be open Friday, July 3rd until 4PM and we will be closed Saturday, July 4th._ Enjoy your 4th of July weekend! “I know we will!”:http://www.flickr.com/photos/smalldog/2653221400/in/photostream/
Katie (and the rest of the Small Dog family!)
“katie@smalldog.com”:mailto:katie@smalldog.com
Firefox, many users’ browser of choice, released an update today: v3.5. Among the new features (from Mozilla’s release notes): Available in more than…
*Small Dog is donating $10 to the VT Food Bank for every copy of Parallels Desktop for Mac 4.0 sold!*
There’s never been a better time to get Parallels for your Mac. At just $69.99, Parallels 4.0 is one of the leading applications available for the Mac. __”It’s an intuitive, easy-to-use vitalization platform for switchers who need to run Windows applications alongside OS X.”__ –InfoWorld 2008 Technology of the Year.
If you’re thinking about making the move to a Mac or already have and need Windows, Parallels is what you need. You’ll get the programs you need and the computer you want. The best of both worlds!
Power Mac G5s are becoming increasingly scarce, and other than the occasional liquid cooling system (LCS) failure, we don’t see many in for repair. The other day, though, I received a June 2004 Power Mac G5 with some interesting freezing issues. This machine and its apple desktop connection (ADC)-based display were both checked in and I basked in their former glory.
I booted up the machine and was greeted with a spinning beach ball just after login began (auto-login was enabled). I forced a shut down by holding the power button and rebooted into safe mode by holding down the shift key on the connected keyboard. The machine went straight to the desktop after a longer-than-usual boot process–part of the safe mode boot process is the “repair disk” function found in Disk Utility, which can add up to five minutes or so to the process. I tested the unit with an Apple-supplied diagnostic suite, but that didn’t yield anything useful (it rarely does).
I then booted the computer from a known-good installation of Mac OS X on an external FireWire drive, and was able to replicate the issue there. Is this hardware or software? The graphics card in the Power Mac was an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro, so I pointed Safari to the new AMD/ATI website and found updates to the Macintosh drivers. I downloaded and copied these updated drivers to a USB drive, rebooted the Power Mac into safe mode, installed the drivers, and restarted. The same problem was present. Even with the “updated” drivers, the Mac still refused to log in fully to the Finder.
In the end, I replaced the ATI card with an NVIDIA card that also had the ADC connector, and our customer is back in business. It seems something was wrong with the ATI card, but the experience taught me that portions of the video drivers do not load until completion of the login process.