Kibbles & Bytes Blog

  • Teleporting Web Links Between Devices

    Many of us use multiple Apple devices throughout the day and I am most definitely one of those people. I had one sad little tear this morning when I arrived at the office as I realized I left my iPad on my nightstand and had to actually take my MacBook Air into my morning meeting. I’ve grown very accustomed to preparing for meetings on my MacBook Air and then just grabbing my iPad or iPhone to bring the necessary notes and files while on the move around the office. I’ve talked a lot about sharing of files from device to device, but what about web pages? Many users rely on bookmarks and that works smoothly, but there are other options as well.

    With the release of Yosemite Apple introduced hand off. For some users it might have been something utilized all the time and then fell off their habits list, but it’s super handy! If you’re researching an issue on your Mac and after digging through several forums you need to need leave for an appointment but you want to keep the research going, in comes handoff.

    Handoff allows you to immediately move a webpage ( and other Apps like Mail ) instantly to another Mac or iOS device. On your Mac, to the very left of your dock if you have Safari open you will see a Safari icon with a shadow image of an iOS device. You can simply click on that and boom, the webpage that was on your iPad or iPhone is now on your Mac screen. If you’re going from your Mac to your iOS device you will see the Safari icon in your lock screen and you simply swipe up. You can also double press your home button as well to access the information.

    Another cool feature that you might have found by accident is via tabs in safari on either you Mac or iOS device. When you open a page in Safari a tab opens. You can see this easily on your Mac in the Tab Bar ( select View > Tab Bar if you don’t see it). It gets just a little bit cooler when you view all the open tabs on all your Apple devices. You can do this by tapping or clicking the tabs button. This button is a double square image on the top right of your Safari tab bar or the lower right corner on your iOS device. In this view you will see first all the tabs from the device that you are using. Beneath them as you scroll down you will see the tabs from your other Apple devices.

    Lastly, you can designate a site as a reading list. Safari can store a list of pages that you want to read later in the reading list. This is great for longer articles or just tagging an interesting recipe you found at lunch. To add the current page to your reading list on the Mac choose Bookmarks > Add to Reading List. On your iPhone or iPad, tap the share button and them tap Add to Reading List. To later access your reading list on your Mac choose View > Show Reading List Sidebar. In Safari on your iOS device, tap the book icon and then tap on the eyeglasses icon.

    In order for these features to work seamlessly on your Mac and iOS devices there’s a few important tips. First you need to be running 10.10 Yosemite or newer and at least iOS 8 on your iPad or iPhone. Lastly all of your devices need to be logged into iCloud. It’s also important that you have Bluetooth turned on as well, since handoff uses that specifically.

  • We Don't Need No Stinking Badges

    But stickers are sorta cool. iOS 10 brought stickers to Messages. With your iPhone or your iPad you can embed stickers in a thread, adjust their size, rotate them or peel and place stickers on top of bubbles or photos in your conversations. I found some animated stickers that look a bit like my dog, Jezebel but there are lots of stickers out there to buy at the somewhat hidden App store for stickers.

    Apple is great about helping you create your own stickers without any coding experience. Stickers are created with image files in PNG, JPEG or GIF format. They can also be animated in APNG or GIF format. You can learn about creating your own sticker packs at Apple’s “Creating Stickers for iMessage”:https://developer.apple.com/stickers/ page.

    Okay, where is this sorta hidden sticker store? First off, you can’t find it on your Mac. This is an iOS thing. The stickers will display in Messages on your Mac but you cannot send them. So, here’s how to find the sticker store on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch:

    # Open Messages on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch and tap a conversation in the list or create a new one. You need to have a conversation going to find the store.
    # Tap the Apps button (it resembles an App Store icon) to the left of the text entry field to access the Messages app drawer.
    # Push the App Shelf button in the bottom left corner (it is four dots in a grid).
    # Tap the Store button.
    # The Messages App Store appears in an overlay, allowing you to:

    • Browse featured sticker packs
    • Browsing sticker packs by category
    • See all sticker packs in the App Store
    • Find specific sticker packs

    # Buy by category or individual pack

    !http://blog.smalldog.com/images/5048.jpg!

    To make sure you have this newly purchased sticker pack available be sure to set the toggle Automatically Add Apps under the Messages App Store’s Manage tab to the ON position. If you prefer, of course, you can individually manage each sticker pack to turn it on and off.

    Now you have spent your $0.99 with ApplePay for that great sticker pack. How do you use them in a conversation? Easy peasy…

    # Open Messages on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch and start a conversation or pick an old one.
    # Tap the Apps button to the left of the text entry field to reveal the Messages app drawer at the bottom of the interface.
    # Now you can either pick a previously used sticker from Recents or choose a specific sticker from one of your installed sticker packs.

    Then you just tap on that sticker to add it to the conversation. You can add some text to the sticker and hit send.

    You can peel a sticker and stick in anywhere in a chat bubble. You just tap and hold the sticker and then drag it over your selected chat bubble. You can do the same thing with photos that you have sent in chat. Just tap and hold a sticker and drag it onto the photo in the conversation and let it go.

    Rotate your sticker using two fingers. Tap and hold the sticker you wish to rotate and then tap and hold with another finger and swipe up or down to rotate the sticker. You can make it bigger, too, by swiping left or right.

    There are a lot of stickers to choose from and while it does get boring after a bit at least for me it is a great way to spice up a conversation!

  • “!http://blog.smalldog.com/images/5045.jpg!”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900002669/congratulations-class-of-2017?

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    “!http://blog.smalldog.com/images/5044.jpg!”:http://www.smalldog.com/retail/visit-us-in-store-at-any-of-our-location

  • Jordan Hoekstra

    Pets: No pets here currently but plan to get a dog in the near future Hobbies/Interests: Avid concert goer, hiker, camper, tech enthusiast,…

  • What the Cloud?

    My work includes quite a lot of explaining about how cloud backup can be configured and updated and how much it should be…

  • Tommy Allen

    Pets: No pets I love animals but don’t think its fair to them to keep them in an apartment Hobbies/Interests: I really enjoy…

  • My Celtics aren’t doing so hot in the playoffs but there are still at least a couple more games to play in the first round. Grace and I are thinking about our return to the Green Mountains coming up in a few weeks. First, we are riding the motorcycles to New Orleans for a couple of days and then packing stuff up and heading up I-95 in our annual migration.

    We have a new offer for any of our customers near our stores in Vermont or Key West. We are totally committed to our new home automation initiative and are very proud of the demo rooms in each of our stores but we want to come to your home and talk to you about home automation. We will send one of our knowledgeable team to meet with you to discuss how you can add HomeKit gear to your home and prepare a proposal for you for free. I love this technology and I think you will, too, so give us a call and schedule an appointment!

    Thank you for reading this issue of Kibbles & Bytes!

    Your Kibbles & Bytes Team,

    _Don, Emily & Hadley_

  • Charger Mix-n-Match

    I get a lot of use out of my portable mobile devices. Ever since I put a keyboard on my iPad, it has become my little workhorse throughout my day. Before work, I might be using it for a breakfast recipe and some light writing while I eat. During work it sits on my desk as a dedicated email device and I’ll bring it with me to meetings throughout the day. At night I watch TV shows on it and do all sorts of other things. All of this work takes a toll on the battery, and while it’s definitely up to the challenge, it does need to be charged regularly.

    Not all of my mornings are “read a recipe online”-smooth though. Sometimes I’m rushing, and I often forget to put my iPad or my iPhone on the charger overnight. There might be an hour at most of available charge time from the minute I get up to when I walk out the door. I hear this question a lot: How can I charge my iOS devices faster?

    There’s actually some interesting things going on here, and it all has to do with electricity and battery chemistry. Luckily, I have extensive experience with both and will try to explain all of it here. If you have an iPad and an iPhone, you’ll know that they each come with a different charger. The iPad (excluding the 12.9-inch one) comes with a 10-watt charger and the iPhone comes with a 5-watt charger. Each charger is outputting its power via USB which is ??always?? going to be 5 volts direct current. The iPad is a larger device than the iPhone, and it has a larger battery. Charging this battery up in a reasonable amount of time requires more power, hence Apple providing you with a beefier 10-watt charger. The iPhone’s battery is smaller and can be charged in a reasonable amount of time with only 5 watts.

    Both chargers output 5VDC USB power. Couldn’t you plug your iPhone into the larger 10-watt charger to charge it faster? The short answer is, yes. To understand why, let’s look at exactly what we’re talking about electrically in this situation. Both chargers are outputting the same voltage, but they are each rated for different ??power?? so what’s changing? Well, power is voltage times current. This means that the current is the value that’s changing. Indeed, you may actually see this listed on certain chargers. A 10-watt USB charger will by definition be capable of delivering 2 amps of current. 5VDC x 2 amps = 10 watts. The 5-watt USB charger delivers only 1amp of current. 5VDC x 1 amp = 5 watts.

    When it comes to charging batteries, current is both your best friend and your worst enemy. Current is what shoves the ions in the battery to their “potential energy” positions, ready to release and deliver power for you. So more current will mean more of that happening, and faster too. But that process isn’t free. You pay for it with heat build up and secondary electrochemical reactions that can degrade the life of your battery.

    So battery charging is typically a compromise between fast and keeping the battery life long. Ok, but wait, wouldn’t that mean you’d be ruining your iPhone by charging it off of 10-watts instead of 5? Nope. You won’t damage it at all. This verdict comes straight from “**Apple itself**”:https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202105. But why is this? Inside your iPhone, iPad, and even your MacBook is a lithium-ion battery. These batteries are amazing. Their chemistries have high voltage potentials relative to other chemistries, they’re very lightweight, and they can withstand thousands of charge/discharge cycles. However, they are ??very?? picky about how they are charged and if anything is wrong, they can be seriously dangerous. Just “**ask Samsung**”:https://www.recode.net/2017/1/22/14330404/samsung-note-7-problems-battery-investigation-explanation about that.

    For this reason, all devices with lithium ion batteries have on-board charge controllers that regulate the charging. Many modular lithium batteries have protection circuits built into them by default. So no matter how much charge current is available, the controller will always have the last say about how much of it hits the battery. This is why you can charge your iPhone with a larger iPad charger. Just because the larger charger is rated for 10-watts (2 amps) doesn’t mean it’ll be delivering that all the time. It means it ??can?? deliver up to that if necessary. There is some portion of the iPhone’s charging profile where the extra power can be safely used, but it’s only some portion of the charge process, not all of it. This is why your iPhone will charge faster, but not twice as fast.

    Can you go the other direction and charge your iPad with the iPhone charger to extend it’s battery life by charging it more slowly? No. This will not work because the iPad’s larger battery ??requires?? the extra power to charge it. The battery cannot be properly charged without the full 10 watts being available. This is why you’ll often see USB chargers say that they can or cannot be used to charge tablets. All tablets, not just Apple’s, typically require 2 amps. USB ports on most computers follow the USB bus protocol which means they can only output 0.5 amps or 0.9 in some cases. USB-C can output up to 3 amps. This is why your iPad may not charge when plugged into your laptop (though it can still transfer data over USB).

    These charging rules basically apply across Apple’s entire line of products. You can always charge a smaller device/battery with a larger charger, but not a larger device with a smaller charger. Obviously this only works if the voltages are the same. You cannot charge your iPhone with the charger for your MacBook because the voltages are different (as well as the plugs).

    I hope this was an interesting topic. We’re really getting into applied electrical engineering now!

  • How Technology Improves the Life of Old Fogies

    Now that I am on Medicare and always get the senior discount at the movies I thought it was time to reflect upon how technology has helped to improve the lives of those of us showing some gray. One of the most important demographics for Small Dog Electronics is our older customers. Where technology is second nature to the millennials it has a bit more wonder for those that were used to pencils, books and talking to their neighbors.

    There are so many ways that technology and specifically Apple technology can enhance the life of seniors. I have written before about my experiences with hearing aids. Apple technology made it possible to have my hearing aids paired with my iPhone for control and streaming of phone calls and music. I always wanted to start a collection of ear trumpets but these high tech hearing aids have truly changed my life.

    Apple has a strong commitment to accessibility and has built-in many useful features for making your computing experience on your Mac, iPhone or iPad easier. We have reviewed many of these accessibility features for sight, hearing, touch and interfacing with your device. Those all make it easier to access the technology but how does this access actually help make your life easier.

    Staying in touch is one thing that most seniors want to do, whether it is by email, voice, social media or FaceTime. FaceTime has been a huge boon for seniors trying to stay in touch with their families. I remember going to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago in the 50s to be wowed by the AT&T picture phone which was going to be the future. Of course, that never happened but FaceTime did! It doesn’t matter where you are, you can easily FaceTime your family or friends or if they are not using Apple, try Skype which also will allow worldwide connections. It was so cool to be way over in China and be able to talk and see Grace back in Vermont.

    Getting out to shop for anything can be a real production, especially if you have to travel some distance. I am a very firm supporter of shopping locally but the convenience of having my dog food delivered on a monthly basis for the pups sure beats lugging those bags to the car and into the house. Mail order pharmacies have made getting medicine a bit more easy – no more standing in line at the drug store (you just have to stand in line on the phone sometimes).

    There is so much that technology can do to help manage your health. I have diabetes and my nurse practitioner is always on my case to measure my blood sugar. I have tried all kinds of devices and I have settled on the iHealth glucometer which interfaces via Bluetooth to my iPhone and can automatically send my readings to my health professional. But, this week also had news that for some time Apple has had a team working on a whole new concept for blood glucose monitoring that will eliminate the finger sticks that prevent many from bothering. It could open a whole new era for diabetes management.

    I have a smart scale that helps me lose weight, Apple’s Health app can help monitor other medical issues, remind you of your medications, track nutrition and much more to allow seniors more control over their health and eliminate some trips to the clinic.

    Video games are not just for the kids, playing games can improve cognition and mental agility. With thousands to choose from it is no longer just dealing solitaire from a worn deck of cards. Gaming involves some social interaction, too!

    Wireless internet and home automation are two pieces of technology that can really help seniors. Whether it is employing sensor devices to call out for help when needed or simply being able to turn on the lights by asking Siri, wireless technology frees up seniors. Never forget to lock your door if you have a HomeKit compatible lock and it knows when you arrived home and unlocks the door for you, too!

    Okay, it is not just that I am old but I have directionally challenged. It sort of runs in my family. Grace says I have to go someplace a dozen times before I remember the directions. That was true when I was 25, too and my daughter, Autumn seems to have inherited that. But technology to the rescue. I am so tuned in to GPS technology that I am literally never without it. My Apple watch taps me to remind me to go right or left and I have GPS on all my vehicles.

    How do you use technology to make your life better? I am a gadget geek and of course, this is what I do for a living but I see older customers come into the store every day. I love asking them what they are using their Mac or iPad for and keeping in touch is on top of the list but everything from looking up recipes to managing their retirement portfolio comes up in those discussions. Technology grants the most precious gift – time!

    A long time ago, in a galaxy far away, I reserved a bunch of domain names and aside from falserumors.com (which I REALLY want to launch), I reserved macseniors.com. Now that I have a 49-year old daughter (Happy Birthday, Zoey!) and an 18-year old granddaughter (Happy Birthday, Khadija!) maybe it is time to resurrect MacSeniors or SeniorMac.com.