Kibbles & Bytes Blog

Next week is conference week for me, starting with the Annual Spring Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility conference at the Hilton in Burlington. I will be moderating a panel discussion with representatives from Senator Sanders and Leahy’s office and from Congressman Welch’s office. It should be an interesting discussion of health care reform, economic recovery and energy policy.

Right after that panel, I hop on a plane (with a surgical mask?) and head to New Orleans for the annual Apple Specialist Marketing Cooperative meeting. There should be some excellent presentations and a lot of opportunity to network with other Apple Specialists. I’ll be leaving the Kibbles & Bytes duty to Kali and Ed next week.

Thank you for reading this issue of Kibbles & Bytes!

Your Kibbles & Bytes Team,
_Don, Kali & Ed_

*Purchase any Mac with AppleCare between 4/27/09 and 6/21/09 and get a Canon MP190 Multifunction printer FREE after rebate!*

This is an in-house rebate process, meaning you only have to deal with Small Dog Electronics to claim your rebate. You can submit your rebate online, rather than having to mail it in. This is faster and easier than the traditional rebate process, and you’ll get your money returned faster, too.

You can read more about the rebate “by clicking here.”:http://www.smalldog.com/sderebate/

We kicked off this promo in time for Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, and 2009 graduation, but it’s available to everyone.

The Canon MP190 features a very high quality printer, copier, and scanner. It’s easy to use, fast, and both energy and ink efficient. “Click here to read about the MP190.”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/72260

President Obama just marked his 100th day in office this week, so I thought we’d take a look back to when Apple’s own Steve Jobs returned to Apple to run the show. Like Obama, Jobs had a huge task at hand–Apple was struggling in 1997, and Jobs was rehired to take Apple into a new creative direction (and away from financial ruin).

It’s natural for people to want to assess progress within a certain time period and use that to determine success, and the retern of Steve was no different! He was rehired back at Apple on February 7, 1997 when Apple purchased Jobs’ company, NeXT. Apple’s stock was low (a sharp contrast to their most recent numbers), and the company needed an overhaul.

Apple needed innovation and vision, and Steve Jobs had it. Simply put, Jobs shook things up. Among the highlights of his first 100 days, Jobs:

* Discontinued the Newton
* Eliminated the Apple clone project
* Announced that Apple would begin selling computers directly from their website
* Introduced a partnership with Microsoft that included their $150 million investment in Apple

It’s worth a mention that Jobs’ first keynote upon his return was not met with overwhelming acceptance. He was even booed several times during his presentation. Things looked bleak, but as my husband likes to say, “change is inherently very uncomfortable” and we all know what’s happened since then…

To wit:

* The iMac, the all-in-one Mac that changed everything (“She comes in colors…”)
* Apple retail stores
* OS X and iLife
* MacBooks and MacBook Pros
* iPhone

Congratulations to Obama on his first 100 days and to Apple’s continued success. Most of all, here’s to CHANGE!

Other fun reads:

* Apple’s list of discontinued products
* Wikipedia’s history of Apple
* “Watch Steve Jobs’ keynote from Macword 1997”:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEHNrqPkefI

__Sources:__
Cnet, “Apple after Jobs’s first 100 days”:http://news.cnet.com/Apple-after-Jobss-first-100-days/2100-1001_3-206360.html 12/15/97;
ArsTechnica, “10 years: Steve, welcome back”:http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2007/02/6890.ars 2/4/07

It was only a few years ago that flash keys (sometimes called thumb drives or jump drives) were considered cutting edge technology. They were featured as futuristic gizmos in spy movies and espionage thrillers. Various companies competed to make them smaller and smaller. Small Dog used to offer 512MB and 1GB flash drives that were mere slivers of metal, and barely protruded from their host USB port. They were popular, though expensive and easily lost.

These days standard flash keys are mostly pretty boring. They tend to vary little in appearance or performance. They’re basically the modern version of a floppy disk, though more expensive with much higher capacity.

I recently needed a 4GB flash key to format as a bootable Linux disk. While Small Dog offers several different flash drives, the LaCie itsaKey caught my eye. It’s available in 4GB and 8GB capacities, and basically looks like a futuristic car key (and even incorporates a sturdy hole to go on a keychain). However, the design is not simple whimsy — the drive is made out of tough metal, not plastic. Also, the fact that the drive is the size of a car key is very appealing to me. It’s not a microscopic device that will get lost in my computer bag.

So far, I’ve been very happy with the itsaKey. It has a fast USB 2.0 connection, and is rated to read data up to 30 MB/s, and write data up to 10MB/s. The Itsakey is hot-pluggable and compatible with Mac and PC. It was fast enough to serve as a bootable Linux disk, and now I use it for transferring and transporting data. With its metal case, it should last a very long time.

I mean, a flash key is a flash key–don’t get me wrong. While the itsaKey a usable, functional tool, it also happens to have a fun appearance. It would make an excellent gift.

See the 4GB itsaKey “here.”:http://burlington.smalldog.com/product/73397
See the 8GB itsaKey “here.”:http://burlington.smalldog.com/product/73398