RX100 via eBay? I sold mine on there recently and replaced it with an X100, also from EBay. It’s in superb condition, and so was the RX I sold.

Google’s own My Tracks is the best phone gps I’ve seen, and its free! A must have game is Survivalcraft, a Minecraft clone that’s better than the original. Another good game is Monster Pinball.

Check out these live wallpapers too: forestHD, OceanHD, sunbeam, A Wave live wallpaper, and space colony.

I went from owning every previous iPhone to the HTC One and I’m really happy with it. The speakers and screen make all the difference. Android 4.3 is excellent too.

Things to watch out for:

The white resin is prone to staining, especially on the back. Be careful about the case you put it in. I line mine with a cut-out of thin cellophane and this resolves the issue.

Don’t buy HTC screen protectors. They don’t fit!! . Get the FoneM8 ones from amazon. They work perfectly.

The Proporta case is excellent and made from real leather. The Stilgut case is quite good but probably not real leather despite it claiming to be. Both these cases need lining. Avoid the HTC double dip case, it’ll damage the phone! The HTC flip case is good but does stain the resin.

Other than all that, it’s a superb phone. You’ll love it!

None of the reviews reflect the real world behaviour of the lens. In some cases, it’s been proven that they’ve swapped the samples around, probably by mistake: ‘This image is sharper therefore it must be the Plus’. My side by side tests consistently showed the Black to be noticeably sharper every time.

It might be that the review version is different to the consumer one, in which case the reviews are largely pointless. Either way, the Plus will give you a softer (best described as ‘a bit mushy’), image unless you have it pointed directly at your face for the entire sequence.

Something else to take into consideration. The Plus has new contrast and colour control profiles. These gives a very dynamic and punchy image if you leave Protune turned off. It achieves this at the loss of almost all detail in dark areas. The original Black’s auto profile retains an excellent amount of information in dark areas, allowing for a good deal of tuning, even out of Protune. The Plus pretty much records a deep shadow as an untunable pure black mass.

Edit: Youtube is never a good way to judge image quality but the Bikeradar footage does seem to show the issue, especially in the forest sections in the second half. Running the raw footage on the PC really brings this out.

With the RTF Phantom, can you just program in a GPS route and it’ll track that, and follow pre-set height settings too?

Doubt it. The lens has a fixed focal length. The detail it loses in the mid and far distance can’t be recreated with a firmware fix. If it’s not there at capture, it’s not coming back. You could crack open the camera and try turning the lens a bit… 😐

That’s interesting about your mate’s prototype Plus. Tell me more!

NW- I got a Black Plus for testing using GoPro’s 30 no questions return and can confirm that the problem affects both footage and stills. It’s very noticeable if you’re used to the Black’s picture quality.

The images used to promote the Plus are lovely, and they have a lot of noticeably sharp background detail. It’s proven impossible to capture that sharp detail with the Plus, but possible to replicate a similar level of sharpness with the original Black.

It’s also fairly certain that they’ve used Blacks to represent images allegedly captured by Plus’s. They seemed to forget that motorbikes have mirrors that clearly show Blacks being used! It’s pretty bad.

Yep. They’re completely addictive!

Now you’re asking!

So long as you’ve got a reasonable chipset in there then you should be fine. GP Studio has a lot of default conversion settings that cover custom movie levels to low end YouTube outputs. The compression process will be where the pain (and the hardware strain)lies. Just be realistic about your hardware’s abilities.

If you haven’t already sprung for a Gopro, there are some things to take into consideration.

Firstly, Gopro isn’t the only game in town. Sony have just released their update to the AS15, the AS30. It’s an incremental update, so no changes in megapixels or lens type, but the addition of GPS data might be interesting. It’s well reviewed anyway, and there are some fans on this forum. A solid buy.

The Gopro situation has become a little confused lately. The Black Plus has just been released, with Gopro boasting about a raft of incremental changes. Most of these changes are very welcome, but the claim that image sharpness has improved by 33% is misleading to say the least.

The Black has a lot of features that broadcast professionals want. In a sense it’s a pro-level camera. Even the automatic output settings are flatter and more muted than other makes. This is a design feature, as the clips tend to contain much more information allowing you to adjust the image later in professional software or Gopro’s own excellent and free editor. The focal length of the Black allows for objects in the foreground to be in good focus, while keeping the background nicely crisp.

The Black Plus has taken a different route. Colours are more intense and white balance favours deeper blacks. Foreground sharpness is very crisp, but this has been achieved at the expense of background sharpness. Running a clip taken on a Black and Black Plus side by side, the Black will have a generally crisper feel because it retains high level of sharpness throughout the scene.

The good news is that the Black is probably quite a bit cheaper now, and is arguably the better camera. I’d say it’s significantly better in fact.

The White Edition is basically a Gopro 2 with some enhancements. The Silver Plus is a scaled back version of the Black Plus, so will have the various improvements with the corresponding loss in overall image quality.

If you can get hold of a reduced price Black, you’ll have an absolutely superb camera that should last you for years. I suspect they’ll become much sought after as supplies run out.

If you wait a week, John Lewis should have them and they give an additional years warranty, taking the cover to two years. Very handy. Also bear in mind that if you buy direct from GoPro, you can return it within 30 days if you don’t like it, for whatever reason.

Not very impressed with the Trabec I just bought, it’s going back…

Glentress is full of POCs…and everyone wearing them looks like they’ve got an upturned medical support on their head….or something. Gopping object.

Really, try the TLD A1 if you can. It’s incredibly well made (lacquered foam), improbably comfortable, no hotter than a trabec and if you avoid the sparkly gold version (!!), actually very handsome.

Oh it just felt over-forked for the frame material. The original ScAndal was a semi-racing frame for On-One at the time. That Scandium rear triangle really gave the frame an almost steel-like liveliness. It was/is a wonderful design. Crashing down a scree track at 30mph on a compliant frame like that…I was always holding back. Partly through fear of stressing the frame, and through fear of breaking what was becoming a rare classic.

The 456 evo geometry shares a lot with the Scan, but the difference in downhill performance is, well, it’s not comparable. In fact, with the spring and weight saving of Ti, I’d day it betters the ScAndal in pretty much every category, except weight. In its final build, my Scan was only just heavier than my hack road bike. A frame like that isn’t really made for big stuff.

Brilliant frame though.

I’ve got a ScAndal (first edition no less), and it’s an epic XC muncher. Compared to modern 456 geometry ( in the form of a ti 456 in my case) though, there’s no real comparison I’m afraid. I upped the travel on the ScAndal to 130 mm briefly and it felt inappropriate to say the least. The 456 is an un-defused bomb however. I’d say stick with the ScAndal in its intended form ( easier said than done once the bug bites), and make the 456 an Xmas project.

(Whispers): 4-5-6 E2…much cheapness 😉

😉 it has, but still, it couldn’t be better filmed if done by a production team. Absolutely Terrifying!

Build and quality of Time is excellent, but I moved from Eggs to Atacs and really didn’t get on with them. My cleat seemed to pivot on the pedal too much and I suffered my only clipped-in crashes while using them. That was a few years ago though. Tried Looks instead and found them to be my perfect mtb pedal for years until they were suddenly destroyed at a trail centre. Now back on my (re-greased), 2004 egg beaters, and really glad I am too!

Trail Centres are the uk ski resorts in a sense (leaving aside Avimore). It’s where the sport’s zeitgeist exists. I really enjoy TCs, and without them the sport wouldn’t be anywhere near as healthy as it is, but I’d take a good natural trail over them most days.

RX100. The best. Don’t go for a rugged one unless you intend swimming. Picture quality first, size second, sealable sandwich bag thereafter.

Went through this sort of BS for years on the towpath commute. Eventually stopped using the bell and adopted the warning phrase of ‘look out behind’. I wanted something that would prick up ears ‘look out!’ and give a direction for the warning ‘behind’. Sounds idiotically simplistic but I’ve never had a bad experience since adopting it several years ago. The tone you deliver it with, and the following Hugh Grant-esque ‘Awfully sorry. Thank you so much’ is crucial to success.

I consider this a trivial inconvenience as it is a 2 second fix so if thats the worst thing thats happened to your Thomson…

Love the tone adopted there :D, but quite right in fact. A bit of a clean, a dab of loctite and a quick twist with a strap wrench and that should sort it. So why would I send it back under warranty? I didn’t actually request a warranty repair or exchange in fact. I asked about the best way Thomson would advise about fixing the issue, and queried the noisy travel return.

I actually don’t know what issue the warranty is attempting to cover! 😯

Worms?

This! This is what happened!

It’s not worms.

I did a little searching this afternoon about the problems I’ve had (there. I’ve said it!), and Thomson have actually flagged one of them on their support page.

The first issue is that in some posts from the earliest production run, the bushing cover securing the extending part of the post, had threads contaminated by oil. This could lead to the bushing loosening and causing excessive play to develop in the post. This is what happened to mine, probably within 40 miles. Except with mine, the bushing cover became almost completely unscrewed during a long bumpy descent. Something of a surprise. I cleaned the threads and applied a little loctite, but this didn’t completely solve the looseness.

The other issue may or may not even be a problem: When the seatpost returned to full extension, it made a fairly loud ‘thunk!’. This doesn’t have any effect on the operation of the post, but there are reviews out there where the silent operation of the post is highlighted. So, is this a problem? Who knows, because nobody connected with Thomson has replied to any of my queries about it. The first email went off three weeks ago.

So yeah, early adoption and all that. This sort of thing doesn’t bother me too much. If you’ve got a dropper post, you’ve definitely got a spare seatpost. It’s the other stuff that’s the confusing part. That I can’t really get into until it’s resolved.

Should this stop you buying the post? Well, it’s not a great start that’s for sure, and so far I can’t comment on Thomson’s warranty process in the UK, but this is just my post. When it worked (and it never actually stopped working), it was a great bit of kit.

Someone mentioned cream?

(hairdryer makes no difference incidentally

Wow really? That’s pretty amazing.

Unless there’s a chemical reaction issue, you should be able to safely remove it using a hair dryer to heat the glue first.

I’m going for having it surgically removed after the return spring proved to be a little too powerful.

😆

Not quite, though I knew someone in the 90s who suffered a sudden and painful non-dropper seatpost/saddle/orifice interface. That definitely did require surgical intervention. 😯

Nope. Not until it’s all sorted out. Suffice to say that it’s been….interesting, and not confined to mechanical issues.

More next week.

regardless of whether you think that’s willy waving or not the point is valid, 70 odd miles is not much of a test, that is only 1 or 2 rides to some people, and gives no idea of actual longevity or reliability, all it really does is confirm that that one example didn’t explode straight out of the box…

Sigh. 😐

Have I, for one moment, given any indication as to the current operational state of my Thomson dropper? Have I yet mentioned that I’ve had multiple problems with it in the space of 70 short miles, rendering it inoperable?

No.

What sort of clamp are you using? Sound like the post is slipping very slightly. I had exactly the same (maddening) issue with my Hope QR. Switched to a Thomson clamp and the problem disappeared.

So a weekends worth of riding?

Ooh, get you.

totally irrelevant. They can make a good tube with a clamp on the end, but have no experience with seals, bushes, valves etc.

This might indeed be the case in fact.

The cable operation on the Thomson works extremely well. It’s genuinely pleasing to use. The cable doesn’t kink or interfere with the bike or my riding style. If you’ve got concerns about it then put them aside…unless you object to cable operation in principle. In that case I won’t waste my breath.

Early experiences with the post were very good. The finish and external build quality appear to be high. Doubt I’ve seen higher in fact. The surface finish in the post is extremely durable. When I removed the post a couple of days ago, it cleaned up to look brand new. That’s after 70 or so miles on it…

I’ve been running one for a few weeks now….

Hmmm…. 😐

Congratulations to them. It’s great to see their growth and success.I remember when I wouldn’t touch Kinesis bikes with a barge pole; dodged looking designs, horrible graphics, unappealing marketing. Now their website is full of very desirable stuff.

Astounding! Great post.

and the public transport works well

Well it is Germany 😉

Opera! Blimey you Outsider you 😉

Firefox seems to have the least overall issues, and the new Safari in iOS 7 is a vast improvement. I’m not a massive fan of Chrome, but I’m using it right now, so I guess that says it all really. IE is still bollocks.

Don’t know about you Bunnyhop, but I’m restored to full moral after that lot. Amazing pictures guys ❗

Sign up for a month’s free Netflix and watch ‘Funeral in Berlin’ (1966), the sequel to the brilliant ‘The Ipcress File’.

I was completely floored by the scenes of post-war Berlin slowly crawling its way back to some form of normality. If you’re going to Berlin, I can’t think of anything better to give you a feel for what that city had to cope with until very recently.

Oh, and it’s Michael Caine as the kitchen sink anti-Bond, Harry Palmer. Great stuff!

In the film, watch out for the use of Helvetica signage in Berlin Airport. Not only hasn’t it dated a jot, it actually looks cutting-edge contemporary 😆

Just bloody speak to them.

Are you the neighbour? 😐