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5 of the best bits of cycling gear

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 20:17:21 +0000

It’s National Bike Week, so what better time to dust off your old two-wheeled pedal pal and hit the road. And when you do, why not bring one of these accessories along for the ride?

AfterShokz Bluez

£105, aftershokz.co.uk

Bluetooth headphones are ideal for cycling because they eliminate the risks associated with having a blooming great cable flapping around while you’re riding. The Bluez, however, have something going for them that most Bluetooth headphones do not: they use bone conduction technology, delivering sound to your inner ear via your cheekbones, not your eardrums. This means you can listen to music without shutting out the sounds of the road at the same time – another thing that’ll improve your safety while you’re out rolling on two wheels. The Bluez offer a six-hour battery life and weigh a mere 48g.

Scosche BoomBOTTLE

£120 , scosche.com

While it fits snugly in your bike’s bottle holder, the BoomBOTTLE holds no liquid; instead of cool H2O, it delivers a slug of refreshing sound into your lugholes. Yes, this is a weatherproof speaker that links up to your mobile via Bluetooth and pumps out up to 10 hours of audio per charge, letting you soundtrack your rides with whatever tunes get you in the mood for some furious pedal-pumping. We like it so much, we gave it a spot in this year’s CES Hot Stuff Awards line-up.

Camera Demon

£25, proporta.co.uk

Not all accessories have to be pricy or complicated. The Camera Demon is a simple universal helmet mount for any compact camera; it uses a standard tripod mount and allows the snapper to be tilted and rotates a full 360 degrees.

Wahoo Fitness KICKR

£999, wahoofitness.com

Even if you can’t actually get much street time with your bike, you can still ride it with the KICKR, a power trainer that connects to an iPhone or iPad through Bluetooth (and yes, you’ll have to take the back wheel off your bike to use it). You can map routes on a map and the KICKR will adjust resistance accordingly (i.e. it’ll make it harder work for you when you reach a hill on your virtual journey). Heck, it’ll even take a headwind into account if you set it up to. It’s compatible with a range of fitness apps and online services, and will be available in the UK soon.

Rokform v3 BikeMount

US$70, rokform.com

Handlebar mounts for smartphones generally leave us feeling fraught at every speed bump – but Rokform’s new v3 BikeMount is a level above the disappointing pack. Made from tough, stylish aluminium, it mounts directly into your bike’s steerer tube, which improves the secureness of its fit and reduces wind drag. There’s a two-pronged method for keeping your phone in place, too: a magnet and a system of interlocking rings; if those don’t seem sufficient, you can fix it to your wrist via a lanyard as well. Currently available in variants for the iPhone 4, 4S and 5 and the Samsung Galaxy S3.

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Microsoft Xbox One vs Sony PS4: in depth

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 16:40:28 +0000

We've got our hands on both contenders in the next-gen console wars – here's the lowdown on the impending clash of the console titans

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iWin: how Apple became the accidental king of mobile gaming

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 15:52:08 +0000

We talk to the people behind the gaming greats of iOS, to find out how Apple managed to beat Sony and Nintendo at their own game

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Hands on review: Huawei P6, the world's slimmest smartphone

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 14:26:44 +0000

We wrap our mitts around the world's thinnest smartphone – Huawei's all-metal, premium P6

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Huawei Ascend P6 is revealed as 'world's thinnest smartphone'

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 13:17:06 +0000

18 June 2013 2:17pm

Follow @https://twitter.com/@esatdedezade

Huawei has revealed what it reckons is the world's thinnest smartphone. The Android-running Ascend P6 is just 6.18mm thick and will arrive packing a 1.5GHz Huawei-made quad-core processor with 2GB of RAM, all crammed into a premium brushed aluminium body.

The Ascend P6 has a 4.7in 720p LCD screen along with 8GB of storage (which can be supplemented with microSD) and an 8MP rear-facing camera that supports 1080p video recording. Not content with being a bit of a looker itself, it wants to make you look sexy too: its front-facing 5MP cam with a 'beauty shot' mode that reduces wrinkles and blends skin tones to digitally roll back the years. Fans of 4G and NFC will be disappointed at the lack of either cutting-edge feature, however – unfortunate compromises given that both are now standard in Android flagships.

Its sizeable 2,000mAH battery should be big enough to keep it ticking along all day, and begs the question - where the hell did Huawei put it?

Huawei has skinned the stock Android 4.2 interface with its colourful 'Emotion UI', which provides practically endless theming options (there are over 1000 available from Huawei) as well as tweaks including the ability to shake the handset to change the wallpaper and a virtual Dolby surround sound feature in the music player. Huawei's CEO Richard Yu reckons Emotion offers "hundreds of improvements" over stock Android, although if it is better, it would be the first time in history that a manufacturer skin trumped Google's own Android experience – so we're somewhat sceptical.

Huawei's also going big guns on distribution: the Ascend P6 will hit Europe on all major networks in July, costing just €449 or (so we've heard) as little as £350 SIM-free in the UK. Pretty tempting next to the likes of the HTC One, iPhone 5 and Samsung Galaxy S4, which all tip the scales at closer to £600. Check out our hands-on review of the Ascend P6 and stay tuned for our full review.

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LiveMap's helmet is Google Glass for bikers

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 13:00:27 +0000

Frustrated by the difficulties of using a sat-nav on a motorcycle, Russian company LiveMap has taken to crowdfunding site Indiegogo to recruit backers for its helmet with a Google Glass-style display on the inside of its visor.

LiveMap's prototype nut-case is slightly larger than normal to allow room for the display tech, electronics and battery to fit inside, leading to a flatter top profile.

While having a display on the inside of your helmet might sound futuristic, in reality the system merely beams all the usual information you'd expect on your average TomTom and in fact lacks common extras such as Bluetooth capabilities for hands-free calling (though that is listed among their stretch goals).

That being said, the hope is that by having the information front and centre, it will make navigation clearer and safer. Voice control means there's no button-pressing required either – especially useful on a motorbike.

It's Android-based, though the company is locking it down with their own skin so it won't run third-party apps. Trying to play Bejewelled via voice control or watching Game of Thrones on the M25 could be a little distracting, we suppose.

Power is provided by two 3000mAh batteries which the company says are good for a whole day's use. This is especially important as it operates independently of your smartphone, using its own power for battery-draining GPS duties.

A digital compass and gyroscope performs rudimentary head tracking to keep navigation overlays lined up so turning your head won't send you down a wrong turn.

Early backers can get one for US$1,500, with a projected delivery date of August 2014 (if the project makes it to the US$150,000 goal). Though when you can buy a reasonable motorbike helmet for £150 most bikers will take some persuading – it only has one taker so far.

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RSS Feed

5 of the best bits of cycling gear

AfterShokz Bluez

Scosche BoomBOTTLE

Camera Demon

Wahoo Fitness KICKR

Rokform v3 BikeMount

Microsoft Xbox One vs Sony PS4: in depth

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iWin: how Apple became the accidental king of mobile gaming

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Hands on review: Huawei P6, the world's slimmest smartphone

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Huawei Ascend P6 is revealed as 'world's thinnest smartphone'

LiveMap's helmet is Google Glass for bikers