What I wear

Wearables are the next big leap for personal technology. This is not news; anyone who follows technology news will have seen wearables talked about as the ‘next (next) big thing’. While I think that the hype machine is running with full steam and setting unrealistic expectations (I think it’s hovering somewhere around the ’Trough of Disillusionment’ mark on the Gartner Hype Cycle), I do believe that this is the next big area where consumer technology will make a real, positive difference to our everyday lives.

Jeremy Kemp. - Own work. The underlying concept was conceived by Gartner, Inc.
CC-BY-SA-3.0,2.5,2.0,1.0; Released under the GNU Free Documentation License.

Rather than going on at length around my thoughts on wearables in principle (though perhaps that’s something I will share in the future), I thought I’d take you through my own current set up. This year, for the first time, I think we’re seeing the emergence of wearables as truly useful, consumer-ready devices rather than merely interesting oddities, but they still seem to remain in the territory of the early adopter. A practical example of how they have improved (or, at least, changed) my day-to-day life seems more appealing and illustrative than a discussion of the theory.

My ‘personal area network’ is now made up of three wearable devices, slaved to my phone: my Pebble, my Jawbone UP24, and my LG Tone+ Bluetooth headset. This has grown up over the past month or so particularly in response to having a large phone. I’ve been curious to see the amount of interest it’s received, in sum and by parts, and that it has proved far more useful than I had originally envisioned.

The Pebble smart watch was Kickstarted last year and was, by all accounts, pretty good (the total amount raised at that link rather speaks for the demand...), but it only received the software update that really brought it up to spec earlier this year. The basic idea is simple: it’s a watch (with a bunch of changeable digital faces) which receives all the notifications that come to your phone. When a notification hits your phone, the Pebble lights up, vibrates, and shows some or all of whatever message you’ve received. Notably, it’s currently the only smartwatch that works with iPhones (upcoming 2015 products notwithstanding). It offers a lot more than that, including activity tracker displays, Evernote, vibrating alarms, music controls, and, as of last month, even step tracking through UP. It does most of these things very well, but the notifications aspect is where it really shines.

For some people, the idea of receiving notifications directly on their body is some sort of Borg-esque nightmare. Surely it’s invasive; a way of making our over-connected, over-distracted digital chains even more inescapable. I expected a little of that, but have actually found the opposite. While it might seem counter-intuitive, this more personal means of receiving notifications has actually untethered me a little from my phone, which now lives in a state of near-permanent silence and non-vibration.

Such a personal form of notification-delivery is actually, in my experience, less distracting. The act of checking a notification is changed from taking out your phone and looking it over to just glancing at your wrist. You can decide pretty quickly if it’s worth your time at that particular moment and dismiss it, or take action there and then. When in conversation, meetings, or the like, looking at your watch can still be a little rude, but far less so that glancing at your phone. If you’re expecting an important message or phone call, you know you’re not going to miss it, even if your phone is on silent and buried in a bag. In my flat, I can go one or two rooms over before the signal starts to get a little dicey, so even if I forget to bring my phone, I’ll still not miss what’s coming through.

The only downside right now is not being able to reply directly from the watch. That’s something that the Apple Watch will bring next year, but seemingly at the cost of battery life (I’m not sure those two factors are in strict trade-off against one another, but that’s where the Pebble has the edge—it can go a little over a week before needing a recharge).

The next device that you can see me wearing on a day-to-day basis is the LG Tone+ wireless Bluetooth headset. It is great; I was looking for a device to fulfil this function for a while, and I was finally inspired by @scubbo to properly look into one.

The Tone+ sits rests around your neck in a U-shape with slightly widened ends that house the controls and hold the earbuds, held in the tips by magnets. They’re never really invisible, but are at their least obtrusive when you’re wearing a shirt with a collar they can sit under. You can slip out the earbuds and be connected to a paired device in less than ten seconds.

The big thing for me has been having earphones you can quickly put on or take off with a minimum of fuss and cable-tangling. I’m a serial listener, and the ease of donning these has let me take advantage of downtime I wasn’t even fully aware of to press on with audiobooks and podcasts.

Stepping away from your desk to get some water or go to the loo? I would never bother wiring myself in with headphones just to fill those two minutes, but plugging into something that’s already around my neck makes it worthwhile. I can even leave my phone at my desk. Okay, so you’ll only get in a couple of minutes at a time, but if you’re doing that on every occasion, that’s a reasonable dent in what you’re listening to. Since it’s time you’re not using for anything that’s really productive anyway, it’s essentially ‘free’ time you’ve gained. You can even leave your phone on your desk.

The Tone+ is also a wireless headset, so you can take and make phone calls on it without ever taking your phone out of your pocket (the Pebble being a handy way of checking caller ID). If you’re invested enough in your Siri usage (other Personal Digital Assistants are available), you can accomplish all manner of small tasks without burying your head in your phone while out and about.

The last of my wearable devices doesn’t synergise quite so well as the other two, but I find it useful nonetheless.

My Jawbone UP24 tracks my steps and sleep through the day, sending them to my phone via Bluetooth. Honestly, this has less of an impact on my day-to-day, but I’m enough of a nerd to invest time in tracking these alongside my exercise and calorie intake.

I’m not going to argue that it’s a game-changer or worth the time investment if you’re not interested in that sort of thing, but I find that it’s an easy way to effect positive lifestyle changes. It’s certainly true that measuring or monitoring your own behaviour tends to change it, but tracking your food intake at the very least forces you to confront exactly what you’re eating (there’re how many calories in my Whale Lard Flavoured Crisps?!). It is a time investment to track this sort of thing full time, but there are apps and devices that make it easier. If nothing else, tracking these things periodically for two weeks at a time can be useful.

You on UP. Results not guaranteed.
Photo by BMclvr. License: CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

There has been enough convergence in the last year to make dedicated fitness trackers like the Jawbone Up less necessary. Pebble can now track these things, and iPhones can now track your steps as part of iOS8. I stick with my Jawbone, for a few reasons. Firstly, it’s a lot easier to wear all the time than my Pebble or iPhone, so you’re not missing steps because you don't want to carry a bigger device. Secondly, my rationale is that a dedicated device should, in theory, be better at tracking this sort of thing that devices that have had it enabled through software alone. I have no idea if that’s actually true, but it’s good enough for me.

There’s a paradox here—however much time I’m willing to put into experimenting with these sorts of things to make myself more productive, or my day-to-day life easier, the gains are offset by the time investment to get everything working ‘just right’. So, do me a favour, and if any of these things sound good to you, check them out, and let me know how you get on.

Do you use wearables? Does this sound crazy to you, or just crazy brilliant? Questions? Sound off in the comments below.

Pebble (other colours & Steel edition available)
LG Tone+ (other colours available)
Jawbone Up24 (other colours, sizes, and non-wireless edition available)

Gearing Update: A Kit Retrospective

As many of you know, I'm a bit of a gear fiend. I tend to carry around more stuff than I strictly need, on the grounds that at some point it might come in handy. This has the power to amaze, as I whip out that elusive item at just the right time (that sounds rather too much like a euphemism, in retrospect), and to frustrate, as someone rolls their eyes at me while I throw a messenger bag over my shoulder for a simple trip to the corner shop.

Last year, I wrote a post on some of the more useful day-to-day gear I had accrued. At the time, I had been using it for just a few weeks. Now, just over a year on, I thought I'd give my thoughts on those same tools after carting them round for a longer period of time. This is a two-part post. Here, I'll talk about the products I mentioned last year. In the next part, I'll give you a look at what I currently have in my bag.

Speaking of bags, let's start with that.


Bag of Holding - ThinkGeek (49.99 USD)

The Bag of Holding is a geek classic, made by ThinkGeek in homage to the iconic Dungeons and Dragons Bag of Holding. This has been my primary bag for the past year. I carry it almost every day, and it has largely replaced my beloved Oakley Kitchen Sink backpack (though I still bring that out on occasion).

A year on, I've just reached the point where I'm starting to consider a new bag. The Bag of Holding is still fantastic, but it definitely has some downsides. It can hold a truly impressive amount of stuff and has a good number of pouches and compartments. But I can help but feel that a few things are traded off for the 'geek caché'.

The durability is okay. The shoulder strap supplied broke pretty quickly and I'm starting to see some wear and holes around some of the fasteners (but for a year of near-daily use, that's not so bad for a bag of that price). The inherent problem in the design is that, while it can hold a lot of stuff, if you really load it up, it tends to bulge out like it's recovering from an epic curry and when you pick it up by the strap the flap tends to pop open, like, well, like my trousers after an epic curry. The other issue with this is, since it's a messenger bag (though they do sell it as a rucksack), when it's fully loaded it's heavy and uncomfortable to carry. That's the time when I really miss using the Kitchen Sink.

I love the bag, but I'm starting to cast my eyes lasciviously at other ones (gear hound that I am) which offer similar dimensions, but that hold themselves together better and are easier to carry without developing back problems. Watch this space.


Telepen - True Utility (6.50 GBP)

Boy, I loved this pen when I got it. I still do, in principle at least anyway, but it's much harder to judge as it escaped from me about six months ago. It was great having a tiny-but-highly-functional pen on my keys, but because of the way I carry and treat my keys the fastening of the pen wasn't sufficient to keep it in. After a few close calls, it finally went missing, leaving me with just the stylish shiny topper on my keyring.

I love the gadget itself, but I've not felt compelled to replace it. I have a pen permanently wedged in one pocket anyway, and carry several more in my bag, so it felt a bit redundant. For anyone who needs a discrete or convenient way to carry a pen, it's a great tool, but its role is easily filled in other ways.


Microfleece Hoody - ScotteVest (75 USD)

If there's one thing I wish I had more of, more of the time, it's pockets (I long for the day when things like this aren't highly unfashionable). The Microfleece hoody gives me more pockets than a mutant kangaroo, and for that, I love it. The one problem with it is that for half the year, it's far too hot to wear. I haven't taken the time to check out any of ScotteVest's other products, but I might be interested in investing in something more lightweight that offers similar storage (and space for internal wiring).

(Editing this blog post actually prompted me to go back to the ScotteVest site for the first time in a while. It's my sort of site - they have a ticker that shows 'total pockets sold'.)


Grid-It - Cocoon (varies by size; should be sub 20 GBP)

Ahhhh, I've been saving this one until last, and with good reason. It's one thing that I am still unequivocally delighted with. I will continue to enthusiastically rave about these - I recommend them to anyone who carries any but the most spartan of bags on a regular basis. It does everything I need it to - it keeps my small items organised (also allowing a quick visual check to see if anything is missing); it allows for easy swapping of key items between bags; it lets you carry lots of smalls bits and cables without losing them in the crevices of your bag or turning them into a rats' nest. It fits whatever you need it to.

My current configuration

Seriously, if nothing else, get one of these. They come in lots of different sizes, so you can find one to fit a massive bag like mine or a much smaller handbag. You can even get them as part of a laptop or tablet sleeve. Scroll through threads of people's 'Everyday Carry gear' (for those who are as obsessive about their stuff as I am), this is the one item I see again and again.

Alright, that wraps it up for now. Come back on Monday, when I'll be showing you what I carry right now.

Gearing Up

Everyone loves a good gear up scene, so I thought I'd talk a bit about some gear I've been acquired over the last few months which, frankly deserves a bit of raving about. There are more pictures of all of these things at the bottom of the post, but the images, er, could be better.

First, the new bag. A couple of weeks ago, I got my Bag of Holding - something made by the excellent US company ThinkGeek, which I've been ogling online for a number of years. It's both a bag that's suitably capacious to hold the vast array of junk I tent to cart around with me from place to place and its own geek fashion statement.

There are a variety of video reviews online where you can get a good look at the bag, but it can fit A LOT of stuff in. I tend to carry around with me an iPad (dedicated tablet pocket FTW!), my work phone, my Kindle, and often a laptop as standard, not to mention various other smaller items (see below). The BoH comfortably holds all these, with plenty of room spare for whatever else I need to bring, though that does rack up the weight pretty quickly.

Speaking of all those small objects, here's a sample of what I aim to have with me on an everyday basis:

- torch

- 1-2 notebooks

- pens

- pencil

- portable battery (for phone/tablet charging)

- cables for kindle/Apple tech

- work ID & passes

- mouse

- headphones

Now, that's not actually that much stuff. It's just lots of small, fiddly things. The BoH can easily accommodate all of this, but you run into trouble trying to find any of it. Enter: the Grid-It!

This isn't actually full... I was using a few things at the time I took the picture.

I came across these some time last year, and recently got around do to buying a couple. It's a cross/cross of rugged, variously-sized elastic straps which an comfortable hold any small item in an organised fashion, meaning that they don't disappear into the depths of your bags, or smash into each over if they're breakable. 

A corollary benefit of this is that I tend to switch bags quite a lot. Previously, I'd often forget something in another bag, or spend a lot of time repacking them. Grid-It means I can swap it all out at once. I really can't recommend them enough for general utility, and they come in all sorts of shapes and sizes (or as part of a bigger gadget case).

The tin in the picture above actually contains a whole bunch more stuff - a variant of the urban altoids survival tin.

From this post so far, you've probably got the impression that I'm a bit of an over-prepared gadget nut. And that's a fair reaction, and something that leads me onto my last two things. 

A small but surprisingly handy one - it's always good to have a pen on you, but they're so easy to lose, and often just a bit too much of a pain to have in your pocket. True Utility's Telepen is the perfect answer to this. Clipping onto your keys, this tiny capsule extends into a small but functional and easy-to-grip pen, giving you something both forgettably portable and functional, since it's still easy to use despite its small size.

Lastly, my hoody. Another thing I've ogled on ThinkGeek for years, but made by a different company - Scottevest. The microfleece hoody is comfortable and very warm (meaning it's been a bit out of season recently, but still). Scottevest garment are extremely practical and functional. This hoody has about ten pocket or other functional compartments. Handwarmer pockets with magnetic closers, including a water bottle strap, velcro coin pouch and slipcase section. A double-ended zipping pocket on the side. A sleeve pouch. A sunglasses segment, connected to a transparent, touch-friendly phone pocket on the inside. There's even an extendible key-holder in one of the handwarmer pockets.

I'm aware that this picture does not do it justice.

All of these pockets have small slits to feed your headphone cables through, which you can then wire up into the cable management system in the neck of the hoody. Since I usually only have one pair of functioning headphones, I haven't wired them up too much (too warm at the moment for them to stay in there for long!), but the system works very well.

The whole hoody is great, and helps enable me in carrying round useful things on an everyday basis - notebook, pens, coins, glasses, etc. all fit snugly without overly distorting the lining, or being too heavy.

Right, I'll stop raving now, but all this stuff has proved really nifty and practical so far.

The Stories So Far...

As promised in my first post, I’m going to share my thoughts on what I’ve read so far. It’s currently week three, and I’m on schedule, with three books down and well into a number more (helped by taking a long flight last week!).

I’m not intending on writing full-blown reviews on every book I read (that would be a whole project in itself, I feel!), but I plan to share some of my thoughts about each one in some form, and hopefully get into some sort of discussion on them, because this is obviously something that makes reading infinitely more interesting. This is doubly important where the books are recommendations. If you’ve got your book onto my list, I want to compare notes and see what made you choose it.

First up to start off the year was Fragile Things, by Neil Gaiman (2006). Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself on Twitter) is one of my absolute heroes, and probably my favorite author of all time (you’re certainly going to see more from him on here!). I've always been particularly enamoured of his short stories, which always remind me how great a format that is.

That was a good day...

You find yourself caught up in a story within just a few lines, without the need for lengthy setup or preamble. Almost inevitably, you’re left with questions, or sometimes just a faint sense of confusion - wanting more than just the glimpse into the world you’ve just seen. Often, the shorter the story, the more you'll want to dwell on it.

You can probably tell from my gushing just what I think of Gaiman’s writing in general. Long story short - the book’s subtitle says it all: “Short Fictions and Wonders’. It’s a collection of literary ephemera and oddities, and there should be something for everyone here. (Also check out his earlier short story collection, Smoke and Mirrors). 

Second is The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern (2011). It says a lot about this one that I read all 450ish pages in one non-stop sitting - though this is the book I read on the flight, so you might argue that it just says that I had nothing else to do for 7 hours (not true, by the way). The Night Circus was recommended by Georgia, and I found myself rapidly engrossed (the flight went by VERY quickly). If you enjoy beautifully evocative ‘phantasmagorical fairytales’ (much is made of the senses, and how they can be misdirected and deceived), then definitely pick this up (and don’t plan on putting it down for a while).

The third (and currently final) book is The Revolution of Saint Jone, by Lorna Mitchell (1988). This can best be described as ‘Feminist Science Fiction’. The book is set on a distant future Earth (with still-recognisable place names ‘The Yukeys’, ‘Strylia’) where rational science and mathematics have merged with religion (forming The Church of the Rational Cosmos - the Krischans). The story sets up the contrast between the sanctified 'Krischans', striving for a rational, id-less, emotion-suppressed state of Zen, and the 'Ethnics' who represent a more 'primitive' social group (though one that seems closer to our own than the enlightened Krichans).

This was an interesting read, but one that, if pushed, I’d say I didn’t really like. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy reading it, I’m just not entirely sure what I think of it. I could see that all sorts of analogies were being drawn and points were being made, but I found the setting too 'remote' to be able to grasp and engage with these properly. The sheer number of words and concepts created for the sake of the setting was overly distracting and distancing from what it was trying to convey. 

http://xkcd.com/483/

Right in the last chapter, though, Mitchell really hits the reader over the head with what it’s all about, but it’s all in a very Ayn-Randian way which feels like it would be more suited to a pamphlet essay that a dialogue. If you’re interested in something a bit different, maybe take a look (it’s short!), but otherwise, I’d probably pass.

So, that’s it so far. Next time it will be a little more focussed, as I’ll only be trying to cover one book, not three. I think I’ve had it easy so far, between plane rides, short reads, and favorite authors, so I’ve got some ways to go yet. 

What do you think? Have you read Fragile Things, The Night Circus, or The Revolution of Saint Jone, and want to set me right/agree vociferously? Take it to the comments below (though let’s keep it spoiler-free for those that haven’t read them yet). 

Week 3

3/52

Fragile Things - Neil Gaiman (2006)

The Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern (2011)

The Revolution of Saint Jone - Lorna Mitchell (1988)

Currently Reading:

Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy - John Le Carré (1974)

The Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett (1989)

Currently Listening To:

Jobs - Walter Isaacson (2012)

2013: George Reads a Book a Week (and maybe even blogs about it)

I use Sepia filters to compensate for my poor photography...

So it turns out that I'm terrible at blogging. Seriously. The number of times I've started and stopped at this is slightly unreasonable. I'm hoping that now that I've got a project to loosely hang things around that I'll update this slightly more often - stranger things have happened. Enough self-pitying navel-gazing about an inability to stick with something - on to some sort of point.

This year, I've decided to read more. In the year and a half since I left university, I've accumulated an increasing number of books, many of them gifts, and most of them generating some sort of excitement at the prospect of getting between their covers. The trouble? Despite the best of intentions, I've been terrible at actually getting any reading done, always allowing myself to get distracted by other pursuits. Then, shortly after the new year, after reading on Gizmodo the story of this man, I thought of way to get myself reading a great deal more.

Now, I'm not crazy - I didn't want to put all my other interests on hold for a year by trying to read quite that many books, but it gave me a starting point. My rather more conservative goal is to read a book for every week of the year. Fifty two should actually be totally achievable, so I'd like to push that out a bit further if it goes well.

This wouldn't be a challenge, or very interesting, if I were just picking out short or familiar books - I want to push myself a little more than that. So I thought it would be good to get to know the reading tastes of my friends and family a little better. I've started collecting recommendations from people on the 'one book they think everyone should read'. Most people have responded to this with a tortured look and a list of three or four. If people have been able to narrow it down to just one, I've added it to the list and committed to reading it (not to say I won't pick up any of their others - I just won't commit myself to it!). This should considerably broaden what I'm reading, and lead me to (hopefully) interesting things I would never have selected myself.

Graphic novels, audiobooks, etc. all count. Books I've already read don't, unless I decide it was so long ago that I can't remember it. Note also, I'm not trying to read each one in a week - only to end up with at least 52 at the end - I'm keeping several on the go at once, but I'll try and keep roughly to schedule throughout.

So there it is. It's week three already, and I'm on schedule with three down. If you're interested, I'll be posting updates here with what I'm reading, how it's going, and my thoughts and impressions on each book. I might start posting the ongoing reading list I'm accumulating as well.

No spoilers, please

Right, that's quite enough from me for now - there's reading to do. It would be good to see some engagement in the comments, or on #GRaBaW (George Reads a Book a Week) on Twitter, which might actually give me a reason to keep updating this ;) - follow, share, shout calculated expression of discouragement at me - just show me that someone's reading! I also might move this blog to a new domain at some point, seeing as the title doesn't contain nearly enough puns, but watch this space.

For now - happy reading!

Now I'm using black and white! I'm an arrrrtist!