Kibbles & Bytes Blog

  • iCloud Lost Mode

    We’ve recently had quite a few run ins with Macs that have been coming into the South Burlington location with either iCloud lost mode active, a firmware passcode active, or a combination of both. While this is usually used as a personal security measure if a device is lost or stolen, this recent surge has been of the malicious kind.

    In my experience working with Apple for a few years, the devices themselves are not being “hacked” but rather the user’s accounts are being hijacked by thieves or money hungry “hackers” in an attempt to collect money from the account holder. The only way out of this lock is to either pay the thief and hope they give access back OR be able to provide proof of purchase for your device. If you’re lucky, at least for iOS device users, you can verify your identity with AppleCare directly and regain access to your account and iOS device. But the Macs are a different story, as they often include what’s called a firmware passcode. The firmware passcode cannot be bypassed without providing a proof of purchase to an Apple Store or an Authorized Apple Service Provider, such as ourselves.

    The way the thieves manage to take control of the iCloud account associated with the Mac or iOS device is by gaining access to the associated email address, then resetting the password for the AppleID, then logging into the iCloud website with the newly stolen credential. They do this in such a way that most people wouldn’t know that it had even happened until it was too late, and they were locked out of their Macs or iOS devices. The accounts I’ve seen hijacked have all been accounts that did not have either two-step authentication nor two-factor authentication active. The thief will then activate lost mode on their devices, with a message attached to the likeness of, “To regain access to your account, email me at johnnyrotten@madeupemail.com!” They will then ask to be paid in a form of currency called “BitCoin” rather than using user’s before giving back the account.

    There is no telling when or where this sort of “hack” may happen, but there is an easy way to make sure the account is secure: setting up two-factor authentication for your AppleID account. You can do this by following the instructions on Apple’s very own website Two-factor authentication for Apple ID. If you do find yourself stuck in a situation like this, make sure to first change your email password to block out access to the attacker. Make sure to change any account passwords associated with that email as well (such as banking). I’ve posted the links to articles below to further educate you on the uses of iCloud Lost Mode and Firmware Lock.

    Stay safe out there, and keep your accounts on lockdown so this doesn’t happen to you!

  • We sadly say farewell to Hadley this week. Hadley has been a prolific Kibbles author and now I am going to have to find another hidden talent here at the dog. Speaking of Small Dog, I was out walking the dogs the other day and a couple came driving in and parked in the far corner of the lot. As they started to walk to the store, Jezebel and Half Pint came walking over to them to greet them with their tails wagging but the customers were scared. I quickly gathered up the pups so they would not feel intimidated (the pups that is) and told the customer that they could reasonably expect dogs at Small Dog Electronics. It is always sad to meet people that have not experienced the love of canines!

    Apple sent out the invites! September 12th is the big announcement day and it will be held at the new Steve Jobs Theater. The invite simply states “Let’s meet at our place.” We expect some iPhone thingy and Apple TV updates and I am sure some stuff we have not anticipated. Should be fun!

    Thank you so much for reading this issue of Kibbles & Bytes!

    Your Kibbles & Bytes Team,

    _Don, Emily & Hadley_

  • Farewell

    Sadly, this will be my last article for Kibbles and Bytes. I’m going to be moving on from Small Dog to the next chapter of my life. I’ve really enjoyed writing articles almost every week and hearing from readers who learned something new or just wanted to tell me more about the topic I wrote about. I feel like I often learn more new things when writing. Usually I start off with a topic in mind, maybe something that I thought about in the week prior, and then research it in more detail. I’ve certainly covered a wide range of topics from gamma radiation to air conditioning to electrical safety basics. For this last article, I thought I’d share a bit about how I’ve picked up so much of this stuff and despite not having much formal training.

    The only formal course I took on electronics was an in-development course in college. It was a brand new instructor and a brand new course the college was offering that year. I struggled tremendously in it. It was heavily math and theory-focused and my calculus background has always been pretty weak. I somehow managed to eke out a B average when all was said and done. I think if the course had included more hands-on learning, I would’ve done better. My skills have always been in putting theory into practice rather than just focusing on the theory alone.

    I tend to be the kind of person who will decide to build something, and then do a ton of research until I understand what is going on. I remember when I built my solar power station, I did a lot of research to understand how to size wires for loads. You wouldn’t think something like that would be complicated, but actually, there’s a lot of theory behind it. What kind of amperage is involved? What will the voltage be? How long are the wires going to be? There are plenty of resources out there on the internet to help you on your way to learning about these things. I’m a firm believer that anyone with the desire can understand how all of this stuff works.

    With electricity, there are always safety concerns. If you’re not confident about something, it’s ok to admit it. Remember that if the resistance is right, and there’s enough charge behind it, virtually any voltage can be lethal. Under most normal conditions, voltages below 48V are fairly safe. If you recall, my very first articles here about electricity basics focused on the safety factor and what was and wasn’t dangerous. If you’re looking to get involved in a project, 12 and 24 volt systems are generally pretty safe (shorts can still cause fires though). They can be a great way to work on gaining a better understanding of how electricity works. They also translate to useful projects. Most cars, for example, have 12 volt electrical systems, so if you’re comfortable working with that, there are lots of things you might be able to do.

    Finally, you can always just read about the history of inventions and developments in the world of electromagnetism. Amps, volts, ohms…all of these terms are named after people. Reading about how they discovered what they did can really help to shed light on why we do things a certain way now, or how certain modern devices came to be. It can be incredibly fascinating to learn about the processes and experiments early scientists used to discover the fundamentals of electricity and it’s a great way to get yourself into the same mindset of learning.

    Electromagnetism, at least the fundamentals of it, are what an old professor of mine would call “pure truth.” He was a professor of mathematics and computer science and he always told us that the things he was teaching us were pure truth. These things were true from billions of years before we were born, and they’d be true billions of years into the future and beyond. I always liked that. My hope in writing all the articles I’ve written is that some of you might have become more interested in some of those pure truths. Take care, and always keep learning.

  • Markup!

    A while back I wrote about some often forgotten features of the Notes app and the ability to sketch notes as well as create basic drawings. Hidden features are everywhere in our Macs and iOS devices, including features like Markup which can be found in your Mail program on your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch.

    Markup allows you to add drawings, text, and signatures to PDFs and photos. If you have used some of the Markup features within preview, you’ll be right at home using it on your iOS device. To try out these features you will want to make sure your using the Mail app on your devices and ensure that you have an active e-mail account set up as well. Recently I have found the Markup feature on PDFs to be incredibly helpful. To unlock these features you’ll first need to attach a PDF or photo to an e-mail.

    1. Open Mail and tap on the square with a pencil to launch a new email
    2. Double-tap in the body of the new email, this will pull up the option to insert a photo or PDF
    3. Once you have located a PDF or photo to add simply tap choose
    4. Tap the attachment and then tap Markup
    5. Choose the tool you wish to use and tap done

    There are several options within Markup to make quick on the fly revisions, provide instructions or give a final signature approval on a document. You can use the pen tool to draw directly on an image and you can select how thick or thing you need your lines to be. You can zoom in or out of an image and you can easily enter text, you even have a few different font options to choose from. To add a signature you simply need to select the signature option within markup and just like in Preview you can enlarge or shrink your digital signature to fit the signature space.

    Markup is a great way to keep up on basic tasks and workflow from anywhere. Combine the features of Markup with iCloud drive so you can access and attach any document you need. Markup is just another way to turn your iOS device into an invaluable resource in the palm of your hand.

  • Four Ways to Make the iPhone Easier to Read without Glasses

    I am lucky. About the same time that I started Small Dog, 23 years ago, I had Lasik surgery. They made one of my eyes really good for distance and one for close-up work. The result is that I do not normally need reading glasses unless the print is REALLY small. But as you get older, if you haven’t zapped your eyes you may need reading glasses.

    If you have 20/20 vision or are still wondering why your parents have reading glasses, count yourself lucky. But if you’re like many people–over 60 percent of the population by some estimates, including most people over 45–reading the tiny text on your iPhone or iPad screen might be impossible if you don’t happen to have the right pair of glasses handy.

    What we really want is a screen that corrects automatically for its user’s individual vision problems–research into such technology has taken place at UC Berkeley and the MIT Media Lab, but real-world products are probably years off. Until then, those of us who need a little help seeing our screens will have to rely on features Apple has built into iOS. Try these options:

    *Increase Text Size*
    Although not every app supports it, Apple has a technology called Dynamic Type that lets you set your preferred text size. In Settings > Display & Brightness > Text Size, you’ll find a text size slider, and you can see how it affects text in the iOS interface by moving around in the Settings app or looking at Mail.

    If you want a size even larger than is available from the Text Sizes screen, you can get that in Settings > General > Accessibility > Larger Text. Turn on Larger Accessibility Sizes, and the size slider adds more options.

    *Bold Text*
    Sometimes, the problem isn’t so much the size of the text, but how light it can be. In Settings > Display & Brightness, there’s a switch for Bold Text. Turn this on, and all the text on the iPhone will become darker. Oddly, enabling Bold Text requires restarting your device, but there’s no harm in doing that

    *Display Zoom*
    If you have difficulty with aspects of the screen other than text, you can use iOS’s Display Zoom feature to expand everything by a bit. The trade-off is that you’ll see less content on the screen at once, of course, but that’s a small price to pay if it makes your iPhone easier to use.

    To enable Display Zoom, go to Settings > Display & Brightness > View. Once there, you can compare the difference between the standard and zoomed views in three sample screens by tapping the Standard and Zoomed buttons at the top–notably, you’ll lose a row of icons on the Home screen. If you think zoomed view might be better, tap Zoomed and then tap Set. Your iPhone has to restart, but it’s quick. Unfortunately, if you decide to switch back to standard view, you’ll need to rearrange your Home screen icons again.

    *Zoom*
    The iPhone’s full Zoom feature is particularly useful in two situations. First, it’s easy to invoke and dismiss if you need a quick glance while wearing the wrong pair of glasses. Second, if Display Zoom doesn’t magnify the screen as much as you need, the full zoom may do the job.

    Turn it on in Settings > General > Accessibility > Zoom and zoom in by double-tapping the screen with three fingers. By default, the Zoom Region is set to Window Zoom, which gives you a magnifying lens that you can move around the screen by dragging its handle on the bottom.

    Tap the handle to bring up a menu that lets you zoom out, switch to full-screen zoom (which can be harder to navigate), resize the lens, filter what you see in the lens (such as grayscale), display a controller for moving the lens, and change the zoom level. To get back to normal view, just double-tap with three fingers again.

    So, if you don’t want to use those granny glasses try some of these tricks to make reading your iPhone easier!

  • _Dear Friends,_

    Grace and I had a great visit to Asheville, NC to see the eclipse. As it is with most of our motorcycle trips it is usually the journey that is the adventure rather than the destination. This time, however, we visited our friend Jen Mayer (no relation) who owns an Apple Premier Partner in Asheville. Jen used to work at Small Dog and if you are not going to come to Small Dog Electronics for your Mac needs, Charlotte Street Computers is a world-class resource in Asheville.

    We stayed with Jen for three days and fell in love with Asheville. Maybe it was Jen’s tours of downtown, maybe it was the journey to the eclipse, maybe it was the Blue Ridge Parkway but Asheville felt like home. We arrived on Sunday and most of the morning on the day of the eclipse we debated whether the 99% coverage at Jen’s house was good enough or whether we should brave the expected traffic to head to 100% totality. Fortunately, Hapy was in Oregon at the time and he and I were texting and he said the 98.2% he experienced was just not good enough. So, we piled into Jen’s car and drove to totality. We did not encounter any significant traffic and pulled into a rest area off the highway just in time to see the sun disappear and for it to get dark. Well worth it!

    The trip on the Blue Ridge was so incredible. If you have not driven down the Skyline Drive which starts near Washington, DC and connects to the Blue Ridge Parkway – you have not seen one of the most beautiful roads in the world. It is over 500 miles of non-commercialized roadway with hundreds of turn-outs, hiking trails and vistas all along the spine of the Blue Mountains. It is well worth the time. We saw bears, deer, eagles and lots of beautiful views. Before we got to the mountains, I had a little encounter with Bambi who ran out and committed suicide on my motorcycle. Luckily (for me) she hit me broadside so no damage other than feeling bad for the fawn.

    This week’s Kibbles & Bytes exclusive features the Apple Factory Refurbished 27-inch iMac bundled with AppleCare Plus. This iMac features the amazing 5K Retina display and the 3.2GHz processor. It has 8GB of RAM and a 1 TB Fusion drive. Just like new Macs it has a 1-year Apple warranty but we are bundling it with AppleCare Plus that covers it for 3-years, provides you with 3-years of Apple technical support and covers 2 incidents of accidental damage (for a deductible). This iMac with AppleCare Plus is over $100 off for Kibbles & Bytes readers this week at $1499.99!

  • It’s hard to believe that summer is just about over. My kids return to school on Monday, my oldest is entering sixth grade and my youngest is going into the first grade. Each of my girls has her own level of excitement and denial about school starting back up. Both miss their classmates as summers are always hard to arrange get-togethers and while they won’t admit it, they miss school as well. For me back to school means coordinated search parties for lunch boxes, backpacks and library books that have been tossed aside for the last few months.

    After confirming and locating the safe return and organization of necessary school supplies I’ll be spending the rest of my weekend relaxing and enjoying some good music with friends and family. Hopefully, I’ll start of the first week of school refreshed and organized.

    Enjoy what’s left of summer!

    Your Kibbles & Bytes Team,

    _Don, Emily & Hadley_

  • Like a Regular Wave, Only Smaller

    In my last article about lasers, a reader pointed out that in the history of the laser started off as something called a MASER. These devices were identical in functionality to a laser, except the beam was composed of microwave radiation, rather than visible light energy. In researching for my article, I had actually come across this fact, and I thought I mentioned it, but in re-reading the article, it looks like it slipped through the edits.

    Obviously it’s easier to conceptualize lasers you can see. A MASER would be invisible since we can’t see microwave radiation. While the MASER didn’t really proliferate in the same way that lasers have, microwave radiation is one of the many things that makes our modern world work the way it does. To start off, let’s go to the obvious place, your microwave oven. Every single microwave oven in the world uses microwaves to heat food, but how does it work? First, we have to define what microwaves are.

    Microwaves are electromagnetic radiation (yup, that same ol’ spectrum). They are defined as having wavelengths between one meter and one millimeter and frequencies between 300MHz and 300GHz respectively. Microwave radiation at about 2.45GHz has a special property though. When it passes through dielectric molecules, like water, it causes them to rotate. This rotation is the absorption of the microwave energy by the molecules. If you remember back to an article I did on cooling and temperature, the heat we see in the molecules is the result of them now moving. So the microwave oven isn’t heating your food, it’s heating any water or moisture present in the food. You can actually see the wavelength of your microwave by removing any turntable and placing a plate of shredded cheese inside. Turn the microwave on for approximately 30 seconds and take the cheese plate out. You’ll notice that there are rows of melted and unmelted cheese. The space between the melted rows is the approximate wavelength of the microwave.

    Heating food isn’t the only use of microwaves though. Microwaves are the primary radio waves used for all modern communication. L band microwaves, from 1-2GHz are used for GPS, GSM mobile phones and amateur radio. S band microwave, from 2-4GHz are used for weather radar, microwave ovens, other mobile phones, WiFi, Bluetooth, and more GPS. The automotive radar I wrote about a few weeks ago is also a microwave. Some automakers will even call it “millimeter wave radar”. These microwaves are in the Q band ranging from 33-50GHz. Microwaves, unlike lower frequency radio waves, operate by line of sight and as such they are excellent for point-to-point communications.

    I wonder if anyone caught something in that last paragraph. “Hadley, are you saying that the same band used for microwave ovens is used for cell phones?!?!” Yes, it’s true. Many mobile phones operate in the same frequency as microwave ovens. This is partially what caused a lot of concern when cell phones first started to proliferate. Is there a risk? Technically speaking, yes, but the risk is so incredibly minute, it would take decades of talking on the phone with it right to your ear before your ??chance?? of experiencing negative effects even rose a little bit. The reason for this is power. You may know how much power your microwave oven is rated for. Many are in the 1200 watt range. That’s 1.2 kilowatts of power. That’s ??a lot?? of power. That’s more power than a hair dryer might use, and the only way for most of us to get that power is to plug into the grid. A tiny cell phone battery is not capable of producing even a fraction of that power, and devices like WiFi transmitters are regulated to only transmit a certain amount of power.

    Finally, why do we even call it radiation? Microwaves can’t cause chemical changes by ionization so they aren’t radioactive like plutonium is radioactive. This is one of the times we use “radiation” to mean energy radiating from a source. Technically you could call the light from a flashlight “light radiation”. The radiation itself is non-ionizing and therefore is not dangerous. The only danger from microwaves is if they are backed by sufficient power. Then your body could experience dielectric heating, just like in a microwave oven.

    Hopefully this was a helpful discussion of what microwaves are and what they aren’t, and maybe I’ve removed some of the mystery of certain technologies that use them.

  • This week I’ve had a longer than usual morning commute. As it’s the last week of my kid’s summer vacation we’ve been staying at our camp about forty minutes from work. Normally my drive is about three minutes to get to the office. In the past week, I’ve observed a handful of trees beginning to change color. I’m never sure what to think when it’s August and the leaves are starting to show hints of yellows and reds. After all, peak foliage season isn’t typically seen until early October. It’s a subtle reminder that it’s time to start thinking about all those projects we didn’t finish in the spring and that before I know it I’ll be turning in my flip flops once again for real shoes.

    This week’s “**Kibbles & Bytes exclusive special is the ultimate back to school bundle.**”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900002781/ This bundle covers all the essentials for whatever demands your next year has in store for you. I’ve bundled together an Apple Factory Refurbished MacBook Pro 15in w/Touch Bar 2.6GHz i7 QC 16GB/256GB with AppleCare+, a 2TB USB-C backup drive, and a sleeve to carry it around in. In addition to the savings, you’re getting with a factory refurbished computer, which has the exact same warranty as a brand new computer. You’re also saving another $200 on this bundle. “**This deal would normally cost $2459.96, but this week only (don’t tell Don) you can get it for $2259.99!**”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900002781/kibbles-bytes-ultimate-back-to-school-bundle? This is an incredible deal with a limited supply so you don’t want to miss out.

  • Apple Pencil

    I am by no means an artist nor someone who has drawn anything beyond your standard High School art class. However something drew…