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So by now, it might be clear that I am a bit of a headphone junkie. I’ve come to the conclusion that I can collect and use headphones like I do bags and purses! In my world I can never have enough, so I jumped on the opportunity this week to test our the new “**Hellas**”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900002177 and “**Reimers**”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900002181 from Urbanears.

The Hellas are an over the ear bluetooth headphone. It took a few minutes to get them paired with my computer. My only complaint about these headphones is that I found the touch-less buttons to be a bit clunky to use. The sleek design means you can’t physically see the buttons, so it take some practice and time to learn where the buttons are. However, there are a ton of other features with these headphones that make them extremely appealing. They are incredibly lightweight, comfortable to wear and they have good sound to them. I think my favorite feature about these is that the fabric on the headband and the earpieces are machine washable. You can actually wash the fabric and return your headphones to new condition. As I just started to use these the other day I have not actually tried to wash the fabric, but as more and more people are working out with over the ear headphones this is a huge selling point. Another hidden feature is that there is a built in microphone, so if you are using these with your iPhone, you can take calls without having to remove your headphones.

Also part of the active line are the Reimers. They deliver on fit and comfort while providing some great sound! I am impressed with how far ear buds have come over the years. What’s interesting about these headphones is that while they are in the active category, they are actually a wired set of headphones. However, Urbanears added several great features to ensure these headphones can stand up to the intensity of any workout. They have two clips for securing them to your clothing and they feature reflective cabling to light up during early morning or late evening runs. They use a new earlock technology that ensures they stay in during your workout, so no more fears of them falling out during sit-ups, push-ups and the like. I admit I am just a runner, so some of the more intense workouts I’ve not tried these, but judging by how well they stayed in for runs I am confident in saying they will stay put! Last but not least, they feature standard iOS controls we have all grown to expect out of headphones.

_Dear Friends_,

It was a long trip up to Daytona using the “avoid highways, avoid tolls” feature of Google Maps. I was using my Blue Ant Pump Lite Bluetooth earbuds connected to my iPhone in my pocket. I not only got the turn-by-turn directions from Google Maps but also some great tunes from my playlists. I even was able to take a phone call, although I pulled over both for safety reasons and so I could hear better. We travelled through Florida’s farm belt, orange groves (hey, their trees are full of oranges!) and Lake Okeechobee before we headed towards the coast.

It is official, Apple has sent out notices for the special “Let Us Loop You In” event on Monday. It is expected to see some new iPhones and iPads and perhaps other announcements. For those of you with a 4th Generation AppleTV there is a new app called “Apple Events” that you can download for free to watch the event which starts at 10AM Pacific time. The live stream will also be available on Macs and iOS devices through Apple’s event website. iOS 7 or OS X 10.8.5 with Safari 6.0.5 or later is required. We are excited to hear about the latest from Apple!

I am going to talk about Time Machine and Time Capsules a bit in the article below, however, this week as a Kibbles & Bytes exclusive, I am featuring the Apple factory reconditioned 2 and 3 TB Time Capsules. You can save a bunch on these Time Capsules that have a 1-year Apple warranty. Normally, the 2 TB Time Capsule, new is $299.99 and the 3TB Time Capsule is $399.99. With $20 off for Kibbles & Bytes readers, the “**2TB Time Capsule is only $159.99**”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900002182/save-20-on-an-apple-factory-refurbished-2tb-time-capsule and the “**3TB is $259.99!**”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900002183/save-20-on-an-apple-factory-refurbished-3tb-time-capsule This is a great way for you to have automatic wireless backup and the superior Apple Airport Extreme wireless access point!

This is the craziest Presidential election cycle that I have seen. I first got involved when President Johnson was running against Barry Goldwater and that seemed pretty crazy especially after I lost faith with the President over Vietnam. But this time it would be great comedy if the stakes were not so serious. I have to tell you that seeing Donald Trump ask people to raise their hands in a pledge is one of the scariest things I have seen in a long time.

Voting is so important and our system is messy with primaries, caucuses, super delgates and conventions but it is also the basis of our democracy. I am proud to say that the Vermont legislature passed an automatic voter registration bill unanimously this week, meaning when you get a driver’s license you are automatically registered to vote. You really do not have the right to complain about your leaders if you do not get out and vote. So, exercise your right and go to the polls when the circus comes to your state!

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

Your Kibbles & Bytes Team,

_Don, Emily & Hadley_

We’re all starting to chat the itch to spend some more time outside around the office. Most of us enjoy winter activities throughout the winter months, but we are coming out of one of the worst winters in a long time. There was little snow and many winter activities were cancelled over the past several months. To help get us out of the winter funk, we thought it was appropriate to celebrate “**Spring Fever**”:http://www.smalldog.com/springfever/spring-fever in our stores by putting together some great deals for accessories that you can use to enjoy the warmer weather that is upon us.

Recently we have brought in products from several new manufacturers of speakers, headphones and iPhone accessories. One of my favorite new items that we have brought in are new “**Bluetooth speakers from Cambridge Audio**”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/87874/. These portable speakers come in a variety of colors, they easily sync to both your computer and iPhone (though not at the same time) and they have an auxiliary connection if you wish to plug the speaker directly into your device. We’ve all been impressed by the ease of pairing the speakers as well as the sound quality. These speakers normally sell for $99.99 but we have the titanium colored ones on sale for **79.99**. They are an excellent quality at this price point. Last week I introduced new Bluetooth headphones from “**BlueAnt**”:http://www.smalldog.com/category/?mmfg%5B0%5D=BlueAnt and we’ve decided to bundle these headphones with a **FREE** Belkin armband for iPhone 6/6s. We are really liking these new headphones! Check out these great “**Spring Fever deals**”:http://www.smalldog.com/springfever/spring-fever and more.

Speed Up Your Fingers with Text Expansion

With all the advances in computing and communications, it’s amazing that–after nearly 150 years!–we still use the keyboard layout from the world’s first practical typewriter for entering text into our Macs, iPhones, and iPads. Sure there are some improving dictation solutions out there but typing is by far how we input text. But we have not gotten that much better as typists, nor do we enjoy typing more–if anything, we increasingly abbreviate to avoid typing, hence “LOL, BRB, etc.” Text messaging aside, wouldn’t it be nice to be able to type less without compromising meaning or making your text look like it was composed by a trained monkey? Thanks to text expansion features built into OS X and iOS, and extended with third-party utilities, you can.

For basic text expansion capabilities in OS X, look in System Preferences > Keyboard > Text, and in iOS 9, go to Settings > General > Keyboard > Text Replacement. For both, you can enter a phrase, and a shortcut that expands into that phrase when typed and followed by a space or punctuation character. (Tip: If text expansion doesn’t work in a Mac app like Mail or Safari, make sure Edit > Substitutions > Text Replacement is selected.)

If you’re signed into the same iCloud account on both your Mac and your iPhone, for instance, the text expansions sync between them automatically. So, you can type “smh” and tap the Space bar to get “Shaking my head!” typed out for you, regardless of what device you’re using. (Another tip: don’t create abbreviations that you will also want to type normally. It might seem like a good idea to use “np” for “No Problem,” but that will get in the way of talking about Nurse Practitioners.)

With such a useful feature built into OS X and iOS, why would you want to spend money on a third-party utility, like “**TextExpander**”:https://smilesoftware.com/textexpander (Mac and iOS), “**Typinator**”:http://www.ergonis.com/products/typinator/ (Mac), or “**TypeIt4Me**”:http://www.ettoresoftware.com/products/typeit4me/. Unfortunately, OS X’s text expansion feature doesn’t work in all apps (it likely won’t work if the app lacks the Edit > Substitutions > Text Replacement menu command). The interface for creating new substitutions is cramped and hard to work with, you can’t configure the trigger characters that cause abbreviations to expand, and you can’t include text with styles, variable text like the date, or even graphics.

That’s where text expansion utilities shine. They can include styled text and graphics in expansions, insert the current date and time, respect case when expanding abbreviations, include the contents of the clipboard in expanded text, automatically fix common typos, create fill-in-the-blanks snippets that you customize on each expansion, and much more.

Here are some ideas for the kinds of things you might want to turn over to your computer for typing:
Long or complex words or phrases, such as scientific names. Aedes aegypti, anyone?

*Your address, phone number, and email address. One of my favorites is “@d” which inserts my email address. I get real tired of typing email address, phone numbers, etc. Text expansion speeds that up!

*Boilerplate text for common email replies.

*The current date and/or time.

*Special characters, so blb could expand to the British pound symbol £.

*Unix commands for Terminal, such as using ssh to log in to a remote computer.

I am sure you can come up with dozens that might work for you and speed up your typing. So think about what bit of text you might want expand automatically and give text expansion a try today!

_Dear Friends,_

I am off to Daytona for the 75th Bike Week. We went out to the 75th anniversary of the Sturgis Bike Week so it is only appropriate for us to hit the one sort of in our neighborhood, too. We will be riding on our 2003 Victory motorcycles and trying to avoid any big roads.

Sugaring season in Vermont is well underway and this time of the year in Vermont always reminds me when we used to sugar the old-fashioned way. Now it is mostly pipelines and big sugaring operations but back when we lived in North Wolcott, Vermont I had a big work horse. The horse was kind of untrained but hitching her to the sled with the big heavy sap gathering tank made her behave. We would tap the trees by hand, hang buckets and as the sap began to flow we would tramp through the deep snow to empty the buckets into the tank. One horsepower was a lot of power as the horse would make her way through the sugar maples and the tank got full. We would take it to our makeshift sugaring arch and boil the sap into yummy syrup. Some of the best times! I still prefer the “grade b” syrup over fancy grade.

This week’s Kibbles & Bytes exclusive brings back the “**Chill Pill six-pack special.**”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900002006/ These little portable speakers have been around for a long time and I need to reduce our inventory. So, you can get 2 Black, 2 Red and 2 White Chill Pill speakers for only $29 this week. They make great gifts and are great for camping or just hanging out in the yard. Normally, they are $9.99 each but this week 6 for “**$29!**”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900002006/

It is definitely feeling like spring here in Key West as the flowers are blooming and we wake up each morning to the birds singing (okay and the roosters crowing, too). I get the morning snow (or lack thereof) report from Emily every day and spring hadn’t quite arrived up in Georgia when I was there, either.

Grace and I are heading up to the 75th Annual Daytona Bike Week for a couple days and then hitting a Cirque du Soleil show in Miami on the way back. Somewhere in there I will be writing Kibbles, perhaps on my iPad mini 4.

Thank you for reading this issue of Kibbles & Bytes!

Your Kibbles & Bytes Team,

_Don, Emily & Hadley_

No, not some new invasive species, but rather some really cool wireless headphones! BlueAnt audio is one of our newest headphone lines that we have begun to carry here at Small Dog. The “Pump Mini”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/87884/blueant-pump-mini-wireless-hd-audio-sport-buds-purple Wireless HD Audio Sports Buds have become my latest must have! These are lightweight, hold a great charge and come in several colors.

When I first saw these headphones I was a little skeptical. I actually hadn’t ventured into wireless earbuds before trying these headphones and had heard customer complaints in the stores about different varieties over the last year or so. The biggest issue that I had heard was comfort and how well they stayed in your ears, so I had no idea what I about to experience! I charged up the headphones and tested them out on some morning runs before work and was very pleased with them. I easily connected the headphones to my iPhone and enjoyed great sound out of them. They were comfortable and stayed in my ears easily. I was even able to take phone calls with them and those I was talking to could easily hear me. I also connected them to my Apple Watch and as you might guess, preferred this over carrying my iPhone with me.

I’ve begun using these earbuds in the office as well with my MacBook Air. I unfortunately have to wear glasses, so I find that many over the ear headphones (and I’ve used countless ones!) inevitably give me a headache from the pressure the headphones put on my glasses behind my ears. Contacts aren’t an option for me so I have found these headphones have begun to serve a truly universal role!

With all the news surrounding the government’s attempt to force Apple to write software that doesn’t exist to crack an iPhone, iCloud has been in the news, too! Do you use iCloud? Apple has some huge server farms to support this amazing technology and I thought it would be good to do a brief review of some of the features as they relate to Safari.

iCloud has sort of settled to the back of my mind because it just does its thing in the background and serves up features that I take for granted. But this week, I ran into a dilemma that puzzled me for some time. I noticed that I had accidentally deleted one of my folders in my Safari favorites bar. These were important bookmarks and I needed them back. Well, like a good boy, I have a Time Machine backup and quickly went back in time and restored my Safari bookmarks from a time before I had deleted them. Good stuff, but when I went to look the next morning, the folder was gone again. This happened a few times with me going back in time to get the .plist file. Then I figured it out – I had Safari active in iCloud so my bookmarks were being synced in the cloud. So, every time I restored it, it would eventually be overwritten by iCloud. The solution? Really sort of simple, I turned off Safari in iCloud preferences and turned it back on, problem solved.

Activating Safari in iCloud gives you some great tools. You can start browsing on your iPad and pick up seamlessly from your Mac or you iPhone. It syncs your bookmarks and tabs and if you also use iCloud Keychain it will remember all those passwords for the websites you visit. If you use the reading list function of Safari it will also keep those current across your devices.

As with the other features of iCloud, the features only work if you are signed on with the same Apple ID on all of your devices. It won’t know that you are signed onto one AppleID with your Mac and another with your iPhone. Most common issues with iCloud come down to this simple issue. Apple has not made it easy to merge Apple IDs so at least for iCloud you should be consistently using the same Apple ID. Open the iCloud System Preference on your Mac and choose Safari to activate iCloud on your Mac or go to the iCloud Setting on your iPhone or iPad to activate.

You can also access the Safari tabs that you have open on your Mac on your iPhone or iPad. It is a bit different looking on the iPhone or iPad. Open Safari on your iPhone or iPad and then tap the tabs icon. You will see all of your open Safari windows but if you scroll down at the bottom will be all the tabs open on your Mac and you can click on any of those to make it active.