Kibbles & Bytes Blog

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See all specials on our “Specials Page.”:http://www.smalldog.com/specials

Windows. Unfortunately, for some people it’s a fact of life, like death and taxes. Ok, I’m teasing. I’ve always tried to downplay the Mac vs Windows debate, so I shouldn’t even bring it up. I prefer the Mac for a number of reasons, but I know that the various flavors of Windows all have benefits. I do tip my hat to Microsoft for offering a platform that made mass computer ownership feasible, even if some of their best ideas were cribbed from Apple (who in turn cribbed some of them from Xerox).

For a few weeks, Small Dog is offering discounted prices on popular Macs with Parallels 4 and Windows Vista pre-installed. Parallels is an excellent program for running Windows, Linux, and other operating systems on a Mac. It’s a virtualization program, so you can run your Windows apps next to your Mac apps, without having to reboot your Mac. We’ve sold hundreds of copies of Parallels, and users consistently report great results.

The “Home” edition of Vista has the been most popular flavor of Windows that we sell pre-installed on Macs (“XP Pro”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/40086 had that distinction, but Vista Home has caught up).

Again, the bundles include “Windows Vista Home (OEM), Parallels 4 OEM, and installation.”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/42448 for $169.99 (normal cost is $209.99).

For example, here is a “2.0GHz MacBook with 2GB RAM, 160GB hard drive, SuperDrive, Parallels 4.0, Windows Vista Home, installation of those titles, and free shipping, for $1459.99:http://www.smalldog.com/wag/g18792/

Pre-installation of Vista and Parallels is available on in-stock iMacs, MacBooks, MacBook Pros, and Mac Pros. Email Sales@Smalldog.com with questions or a quote.

Next week: Valentine’s Day promos!

Make sure your new Mac has the latest version of iLife! As of now, Macs shipped from Small Dog will either have iLife ’09 pre-installed, a DVD insert of the upgrade, or be eligible for an instant $9.95 rebate.**

You can upgrade to iLife ’09 for $9.95 if you have a qualifying Mac with iLife ’08. The Up-To-Date Program ends March 28, 2009, and applies to Macs bought on or after January 6, 2009.

See all qualifying computer models here: http://images.smalldog.com/pdfs/ilife09_qualifying_macs.pdf

Download the iLife ’09 Up-To-Date form here: http://images.smalldog.com/rebates/ilife09_UTD_v2.pdf

Still have questions? Email us at Sales@smalldog.com or give us a call at 800-511-MACS; we’d be happy to assist you.

*Note that the $9.95 coupon applies only to the purchase of the following Mac (all other Macs include iLife ’09 in the box): MacBook Air 1.6GHz 2GB/80GB
http://www.smalldog.com/product/70760

iLife Retail Boxes are also in stock:
http://www.smalldog.com/product/72885

**The iLife Up-To-Date program (and subsequent coupon) is applicable for new Macs only; not valid for demo or used product.

The blogosphere has been abuzz with claims that the first Mac virus or trojan has been identified in the wild. It’s been reported that many users downloading iWork ’09 or Adobe Creative Suite 4 programs from less-than-legal sources (read: pirating it) got more than they bargained for.

It’s been reported through several outlets that the installer packages contain more than what they advertise. These snippets are rumored to “call home” to the programmer who created it, but it is not clear exactly what information is transmitted.

Basically, the code is a trojan, not a virus. Morgan Aldridge, Developer, Admin, and IT for Small Dog, says “a trojan is a malicious program that someone actually has to run on their computer thinking it’s something else (hence the name), but a virus uses security holes to infect someone’s computer and/or files and then further spreads itself in the same manner without any interaction from the user.” The jist here is that the trojan is not able to spread itself, and it requires a user to authorize its installation by entering an administrator password.

You are in no danger if you surf responsibly; use common sense, and do not download software illegally. To be clear, the Mac remains a virus-free platform, and right now there’s no reason to think that is going to change any time soon!

__Note: iLife ’09 has started shipping, and we’re eagerly putting it through its paces. This week we have an overview of iPhoto ’09. Next week, our focus will be on iMovie ’09.__

Along with iTunes, iPhoto is an essential part my daily digital life. For the past few days I’ve been testing the newest version, iPhoto ’09, and so far I’ve been impressed with the upgrade. iPhoto is still easy to use, but it now has smarter tools, faster response, and some great new features that truly make interacting with digital photos fun again.

The biggest features of iPhoto ’09 include Faces (nearly automatic, seamless facial recognition and tagging of your photos), new built-in uploaders to Flickr and Facebook, Places, and over-all speed and stability enhancements. There are also new editing tools, printing options, and themed slideshows.

After installation, iPhoto ’09 scans your photo library for faces. This can take over an hour if you have thousands of photos. It’s then up to you to go through your library to actually name the Faces identified by iPhoto. It’s very easy to do this, and actually rather fun. When you later add new photos of these people, iPhoto will automatically sort them by name in a new “Faces” tab. In this new Faces tab, you can also enter their email addresses and Facebook information.

In my testing, Faces worked well but didn’t always automatically detect people. Still, it worked better than expected, and was fun to use as mentioned. I tried to make Faces automatically recognize my dog, Spy, but it didn’t work. That would actually be a useful feature for me, as I must have thousands of photos of that darn dog. Some people report success in getting iPhoto to recognize feline faces. Interesting bias or limit of the software? You decide.

Places is the other highly-touted feature of iPhoto ’09, and like Faces, it’s surprisingly fun and easy to use. This feature can use data from GPS-enabled cameras or the camera on iPhone to categorize photos by location. This information can also easily be manually added by place name or zip code. iPhoto will connect to Google Maps to locate your photo on a global map, which you can view on your computer. I’m not sure how much I’ll use this, but it’s intriguing to categorize and search photos by location. I did appreciate Places’ highly detailed maps, which even included the option to view topographical features. Location information can optionally be added for photos uploaded to the Internet.

There are also new editing features. For example, it’s now possible to increase the saturation of a photo without over-saturating skin tones. There is a new Definition slider which improves image clarity and focuses detail with better results than the old Sharpness tool (which usually resulted in grainy/digital-blah looking photos).

I welcome the built-in Facebook and Flickr uploading tools in iPhoto ’09. I tested both, and they were fast and very easy to use. As I use both Flickr and Facebook daily, I definitely appreciate the uploader integration.

iPhoto ’09 blends familiar features with new fun and useful features. My iPhoto library will be better organized then ever. I would pay $79 (the cost of iLife ’09) for iPhoto alone. It’s a killer app.

We’ll offer iPhoto ’09 tips, tricks, and gotchas as we spend more time with the application. Also, please send us your reviews and thoughts of iPhoto ’09!

Do you ever have two or more PDF documents that you’d like to merge together into one single PDF? It’s actually very easy to do this with Preview in OS 10.5 Leopard. I’ve not tested merging PDFs in Preview with Tiger, but I suspect it works.

To do this, open one of the PDF’s in Preview. Make sure Preview has the Sidebar open. Open the Sidebar in Preview by clicking View > Sidebar, or by clicking the button at the top of the Preview window labeled “Sidebar.”

Now, drag the icon of the second PDF from your Documents folder or Desktop (or wherever you have the PDF stored) into the Sidebar of the open PDF in Preview. That should be it – you’ve now got a single document with all the pages of both PDFs. Depending on the permissions of the PDFs, you can reorder pages as needed. Make sure to save the PDF with a new name by clicking on File > Save As in the menu bar.

Note that if you have duplex printer that’s capable of printing both sides of a sheet of paper, you can use this technique to make single-page PDFs into two-sided documents. You’d then typically select Long Edge Binding under Layout when you print the PDF to get a two-sided document. This is a easy way to save paper when you have two separate single-page PDFs to print.

In last week’s Kibbles & Bytes, we wrote about Vermont outlawing slavery. Indeed, “Vermont abolished slavery in 1777”:http://www.slavenorth.com/vermont.htm (not 1977), via the newly-formed state’s constitution. We apologize for the error (and as reader Joel noted, we must still be “stuck in the Carter years!”).

Thanks to all who wrote in!

_Dear Friends,_

I started playing with the new features in iPhoto, which is part of iLife ’09. I love the Faces feature and started to go through my photo library and identify faces. I started out with my grandkids and it was funny that iPhoto thought the faces were the same as their dad and mom. Once I had identified them, however, it was fast and easy to have a complete library of photos of the kids. I highly recommend this upgrade! All of our new Macs now come with iLife ’09.

I was in Montpelier yesterday to meet with the public policy coordinator for Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility, Andrea Cohen. That’s really just a fancy title for lobbyist, and it is great to have someone as qualified as Andrea representing businesses with a different point of view. There were hearings going on about a number of bills and issues and the state house was full of legislators, lobbyists and advocates.

Every time I go to Vermont State House I am filled with pride for Vermont. I do not know of many other states where I could drive up, park right in front of the State House and before I have a chance to hang up my coat, I am greeted by first name by legislators and state employees. It is the epitome of open citizen led government. I spent some time talking with Andrea about the issues that might come up while I am on vacation, and while we were in the cafeteria, we met several of the principals in the issues we were discussing. Democracy feels good.