I don’t have any urge to get a sat-nav and for my limited UK use, and a week or two in Spain each year, CoPilot Live on the iPhone works perfectly. As with other turn-by-turn applications, it can run independent of any network connectivity – a real money saver when travelling in Europe. But CoPilot Live does not have what I am looking for in a tool to explore our new home in South West England. ---- All rights reserved. nd.com Read on...

For accurate detail, I don’t think you can beat maps by Ordnance Survey. I was taught to read them when I was knee-high to a grasshopper, and have used and trusted them on many a journey, particularly on foot. So when I saw an iPhone app that would give me official OS maps for an entire area of the country, right in my hand, I had to have it.

Outdoors

Outdoors South West covers – you guessed it – the South West of England. A quick peek at the Ordnance Survey site and I estimate it covers the same as about 25 x 1:50k OS maps. Those would work out around £200 to buy, where the app costs just £14.99.

The app allows you to enter a route and save it, with descriptions not only of the route as a whole but any of its way-points. There are a small number of cycle routes in there already, but I haven’t yet worked out how (or if) you can add additional routes from elsewhere.

The maps are downloaded to the phone, so do not require a network connection to use. They are location-aware, so, like other mapping apps, you can pinpoint your location using GPS. In addition to the whole South West, the application contains the entire UK mainland at a resolution similar to a typical road map (1:250k).

The whole of the UK seems to be covered, with other versions for South East, North West, etc. Each the same price. There are specialist maps covering all the national parks, for example, and a low cost whole UK 1:250k scale map at just £0.59.

This enthusiasm may sound like some advert for the app. But no, I’m simply delighted to have all these quality maps so accessible, even in the middle of no-where.

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Insomnia frequently lurks nearby and rarely do I find a night’s sleep properly restful. Elements such as stress, food, or inappropriate light levels, can cause my sleep patters to stumble. ---- All rights reserved. nd.com Read on...

For example: particularly during grey winter months I use a bright daylight lamp in my office to help in maintaining concentration all day. But should I lose track of time and stay under such light too late into the evening, I can find myself still awake at 2 am in the morning – tired, certainly, but sleepless.

Having tried, and learned from, various forms of sleep diaries, a very clever use of accelerometer technology in the iphone, might give me a level of understanding about my sleep that I never thought possible.

Accelerometers (movement sensors) are appearing in all kinds of devices in recent times. Unfortunately for devices such as the iphone, they are to often used for ineffective reasons, such as clearing content of a screen or throwing some dice, where a button would provide a more effective user interface.

Sleep Cycle has taken the accelerometer technology – which is quite sensitive – into a new area: to monitor your sleep.

Its primary intent is to act as an intelligent alarm clock. You set the alarm to your desired time, and the application monitors your sleep in an attempt to wake you during a period of light sleep, rather than deep sleep. If at some point up to 30 minutes before your alarm time, it sense a lighter sleep phase, the alarm will sound.

The instructions show how to place the iphone face down in the corner of your mattress near (but not under) your pillow. The application must run continuously, so connection to a power cable is essential. It is also placed under the mattress sheet to prevent it falling off.

As you move around at night, it senses movement in the mattress using the iphone’s accelerometer, and continuously records your sleep state based on those movements. Once the alarm sounds, it will store that data and provide a visual representation of your night’s sleep.

Of course, this is not as accurate as having electrodes stuck to your head (and presumably also attached to an appropriate monitoring device), but provides a genuinely useful understanding of one’s sleep patterns throughout the night.

This is my chart from the first night I used the application:

Sleep statistics for 03 – 04 Feb (Thu).
Went to bed / woke up: 00:00 / 06:00
Total time: 5h 59m

I have no way of confirming it’s accuracy throughout the night, but I do remember waking up at a sniff after 3 a.m. to look at the bedside clock. And as you can see, the chart registered that I was in an awakened state around that time.

Here’s is a chart from the third, and significantly more disturbed and less restful night:

Sleep statistics for 05 – 06 Feb (Sat).
Went to bed / woke up: 21:29 / 07:01
Total time: 9h 31m

A marked difference in the sleep pattern, and clearly reduced very deep sleep. (The cause of the poor sleep described in this chart was the result of staying overnight away from home, in a strange bed and strange environment, and after many hours of driving.)

The application allows direct posting of the graph and data that you see above to your facebook account, or export and send to an email address.

I would like to see one more thing added to this application: the ability to attach notes to a particular night’s data. This way I could record anything that might have affected the sleep pattern.

What will I get out of this?

In the past, my sleep diaries consisted of timing notes, activities and food from the previous day, and how I felt when waking in the morning. With this application I hope to gain some deeper understanding of the differences between good and bad nights of sleep.

Precisely how much this will help in day to day life, I am not sure. But having some grasp of that mysterious unconscious period between going to bed and waking will, I am sure, provide some comfort through understanding.

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A brief disclaimer: I was supplied with a pair of boots and socks to test in return for an honest, impartial review. ---- All rights reserved. nd.com Read on...

I’m a traditionalist when it comes to walking boots, and it took me some adjustment to move from chunky leather boots that take weeks to wear-in. I already own more modern hiking boots, but the  Salomon Elios Mid GTX- Autobahn and Asphalt that arrived in the post a few days ago are very different to those I have used in the past.

First impressions were how slim and sleek they seemed, light in weight, too. The build quality was immediately apparent, and I hoped the sculpted tongue was not merely for show. They fitted snugly, but I would not describe them as tight fitting. Though if I wanted to wear thick hiking socks with them I would need a size larger than my regular choice.

The upper is a combination of leather and man-made materials. They are, as you might expect, gore tex boots, and the inner is branded Ortholite, promising air flow, cushioned comfort, moisture wicking and anti-odour and fungal properties. From the first few hours of wearing it was clear they would need some breaking-in, but nowhere near as much as a traditional leather boot.

What impressed me most was their grip. Our apartment block has a painted concrete floor. When wet it demands delicate handling in nearly every other shoe I own. The Salomons were unusually sure-footed. I feared this might be at the price of grip elsewhere., but a walk for some shopping along snow-sprinkled, hilly streets proved otherwise.

Worthy of note are the laces. I am not sure how they are constructed, but apart from being attractive on the boots, they stay firmly tied without double-knotting to keep them tight. After wearing the boots for several hours, I felt no need to tighten the laces.

I also received a pair of teko Extra Heavyweight sports socks. These are simply glorious with a construction that forms around the foot and a looped lining that feels almost like fleece. Despite the chill weather, my feet remained comfortably warm in these socks, even during periods of inactivity. There’s no way I am every buying traditional woollen hiking socks again!

The Salomon boots are a perfect compromise between all-out walking boots and all-day every-day boots. I would not feel comfortable in them on heavy mountain terrain, but feel confident they can hold up to extended use elsewhere, offering protection and grip. They are also light and slim enough to allow driving – something I have a great deal of trouble doing with heavier soled boots.

Boots and socks supplied by FitnessFootwear.com.

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[The typewriter] bears an anti-apartheid sticker on one side of the object and is boldly signed across the front casing by Adams in his unmistakeable hand. It comes housed in its cardboard box which Adams used to transport it, namely packaging from Simon and Schuster, originally containing copies of Adams and Terry Jones’ collaboration ‘Starship Titanic’. An address label to Adams’ office at the Digital Village, London, remains stuck on the box too. ---- All rights reserved. nd.com Read on...

The most interesting part of the description is this:

The keys of his typewriter all still bear the marks of Adams’ tortured labour. Significantly, the ‘x’ key is particularly discoloured.

The only thought I have is that he skipped past words or passages to return to them later. I have heard a number of writers who on coming across a potential block, simply enter a long string of X’s to visibly mark the place to which they need to return. It helps to avoid stalling the workflow altogether on just a minor point, coming back to it once there has been time to give it more thought.

I’m not the collector type, but this would be a remarkable item to own. Now all I need is to find just under $27k – keep using my GoDaddy codes, people!

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So feel free to torture me further by purchasing their delicious chocolaty goods and letting me know just how tasty they are.

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