Had to.

Mondaine? Love mine, doesn’t feel too fragile so I don’t wear it, but still looks nice instead of being really chunky.

Apparently, the company that makes the chip in the Galaxy Nexus (Texas Instruments), doesn’t make new or support their old mobile chips any more, which makes it difficult for google to guarantee a reliable working port for the phone (and therefore not commercially viable, as they don’t want a reputation for putting out broken software).

However, as it’s a Nexus, it’s fairly likely that if a port is possible, one will be made for it, as there should be a lot of people on XDA etc that have one and know how to do that sort of thing, so if you’re willing to take a bit of a risk it may still be possible to get KitKat on your phone.

‘Helly Hansen Stripy One’ for me. While I like the material of the Baa Baa, the sleeves are way too short. This is especially annoying as the body fits me perfectly. Consider this a warning if you have fairly long arms.

Nexus 5 when it comes out at the end of the month. Top of the range specs at a very good price. Also, guaranteed updates within a week or so of release.

pretentious insecure middle-class snobs

Also people who like music by a skilled singer who’s taken the time to write their own lyrics.

Samuel Goddamn Jackson.

That or Tom Hanks. But he’d probably be all sad and make me cry like a baby (see Green Mile for further details).

I think you’ll like this…

Anyone else think those DW links are just ugly? It just looks like they’ve fitted the wrong rear triangle.

Advantages for me. 2.25 front, 2.1 rear. They’re not too draggy for my local riding (a lot of bridleway joining stuff up), but still grip well on all the loose flint round here when descending. They also give pretty consistent braking performance all round.

MTBbatteries XML. Bright enough that I’ve used it to ride new descents on sight at a pretty high speed. Also, I can leave it set to medium for the climbs/flats and have more than enough light and battery time.

I suppose road riding probably has more of an appeal to the masses, as it resembles (in their minds) what most people do i.e. riding along the road. Probably why all the marathons and athletics get so much coverage, as a lot of people go jogging occasionally.

Another thing is that it’s a women’s race, and they don’t really get as many races/events in the road world as far as I know, so it is nice to see them get a bit of representation on the box. Ironically, the women are given equal opportunities to the men in the downhill (in terms of entry to races from what I’ve seen), but the whole sport seems to get ignored on tv.

But regardless, it’s still cycling on TV. If seeing the pace these ladies keep up encourages a driver to respect me more on my commute, or even get on a bike themselves, it’s only a good thing.

I’d suggest that you’re prepared to run Linux/Windows on this computer, as even with a set of supposedly working parts, no amount of time, googling or foruming could find a way to make the thing work. If you desperately NEED to run OSX, you might as well save the few hundred you’d spend on the hackintosh and put it into a macbook.

Yeah, went straight to number 2 with their debut… Think the one I got was the last in town, so they must be doing well. Their live lounge was pretty good, might still be up on the R1 website.

In terms of new artists, London Grammar are pretty good in my opinion. They’ve got a good style and the lead singer is really quite good.

Chvrches are good too once you get past the stupid name.

NFC would work at home, but unless I deposited them around college and any other place I might go they don’t seem that useful. Tasker doesn’t seem to do any damage to the battery life checking GPS, so I don’t worry about it. However, if I get some NFC tags in the future and find them super-magical, I will totally redact that.

I guess they’d be quite useful if you work random shifts, as you can get your phone to set to silent when it’s set down on your dresser, whereas with Tasker you’d have to set it to change at a particular time. I guess if you want to change stuff at a whim, NFC is the one to go for, but if you want your phone to do everything itself, then use Tasker.

Oh, and Apex launcher is pretty good as well. Not noticed any real lag, and it gives you the option to make some decent tweaks to the ui like extended an dock and reassigning the home button.

BBC Weather – It’s functional, accurate and well designed.

Dashclock and the battery extension – A great widget that puts a lot of information in front of your face as quickly as possible.

Dots – Good game that actually takes a little brain power to get good at.

Snapseed – If you want some more photo editing options over the stock camera.

Google Keep is basically perfect for notes/reminders unless you’re planning on making hundreds.

Nerdy Stuff
Light Flow Lite – Allows you to set custom patterns and colours for the notification LED so you can tell whether it’s worth turning the screen on or not (e.g. I have it flash green rapidly for SMS and missed calls, but slowly and in yellow if it’s just an email.)

TASKER – My favourite app. A little bit of work makes your phone a lot smarter. For example, automatically turning sound and wifi on when I get home, silent mode at college. Also, it can be used to change the UI; I’ve got it leaving a permanent link to voice actions in the notification bar. 7-day trial if you go to their website.

Still not as bad as the woeful “music” on those new Sainsburys adverts. Seriously bad.

Right now? Probably Elon Musk for being as close to a real-life Tony Stark as possible.

I reckon cycling to college and back should count too, so yes.

Santa Cruz Highball seems to get decent reviews. Choice of alloy or carbon.

Red hot sunglasses have some pretty good prices on Oakleys too.

The Line 6 Pod is a good one to go for. It looks a bit pricey, but comes bundled with some really god amp simulation software that lets you create pretty much any tone you can think of and play with it real-time. Its also survived a few years of being chucked around a class full of music tech students, so you shouldn’t be able to break it too easily.

<Self-plug> If you want to hear it in use, I used it for the guitar at around 2:00 in on my coursework.

Michelin Country Rock for me. 1.5″ width, fairly fast rolling but good side knobs so that you can actually corner off-road. Got them for £9.99 on CRC and there’s still a decent amount of tread on the rear.

You could try getting some of those expanding foam ear plugs, punch a hole down the middle of them and use them instead of the rubber buds.

The riding’s fairly open and not all that technical round here, so I can ride it all pretty much flat out without much trouble. However, when/if I next crash, it is going to be a monumental stack.

Sennheisser HD-202 for me. Really comfortable and don’t fall into the trap of overdriving the bass and screwing up your music which has become popular for some reason. Also, they’re really cheap and have a 2 year warranty.

Could always try this: portable firefox

Google Keep is a good simple notes app. There aren’t loads of settings available, but if you just want to make a list of notes in various colours to look back at in the future, it does the job perfectly.

Also, because it’s one of google’s own apps, it syncs to drive so you can edit/create your notes from any old computer as well (drive.google.com/keep)

What it doesn’t say there is that it’s a bit tricky/expensive to get Hope brakes in New Zealand (where the guy’s from), so he got the doctors to cut open his hand instead of cutting through the brake, and that same lever is now back on his bike.

Joggers.

I just recently got a Charge Spoon. After sorting the angle out, it feels brilliant. Doesn’t get in the way on the descents and you don’t slide off it on the climbs. Did 40 ish miles on the thing the other day with no arse pain afterwards too.

Most importantly, it’s under £19 in a load of different colours at cycle surgery. I can’t think of what the scoop could do to be worth more.

The less tacky way to cache offline is to click in the search box and scroll to the bottom where there’s a big friendly button.

I’m happy personally, as I’ve never used the my maps feature. For getting around a town/city you don’t know or finding people’s houses I think it’s better, but if you do more advanced stuff with it, I can see how it would be a bit disappointing.

Chromatics – Chilled out electronic music that sounds like everything has a purpose, not just mindless loops designed to get radio plays. Spotify link

Marika Hackman – Folk music with hints of mediaeval styles and scales. Well sung and manages to stay interesting after multiple listens instead of being two-dimensional like some folk can be. Free album stream here

Also, another vote for AlunaGeorge, for managing to mix pop and R&B and still sound fresh.

EDIT: OH, and The Weeknd! Makes hip-hop but is actually a skilled vocalist that hits some brilliant notes. Maybe not to everyone’s taste, but give him a try.

The quick rides I do around my side of town probably total 5-10 miles, but that’s going over every mildly interesting thing I can find.

If I go to the decent trails across town then that probably totals around 20 miles.

Then I have the big days out where I ride across town and then onto the proper hills. A good ride with a bit of everything in there tends to total around 45-50 miles.

Mtbbatteries XML does a more than good enough job for me. Bright enough that I was able to ride a new descent at decent clip on sight and light enough that I don’t get neck ache on the way round.

Problem solved. 😀

The google play music app that came on my nexus is pretty great. If it’s not preinstalled, google do put their stock apps in the play store.

Discovery by Daft Punk is a brilliant example of this, it actually feels like a journey. Watch the animated movie of the album if you can find it on youtube. It’s called interstella 5555.

Frank Ocean’s Channel Orange and Gorillaz’s Plastic Beach are also really good to listen to from start to finish.