GPS watches and me: the Nike GPS watch - stay away

I am a self confessed gadget freak. I love them but they need to actually work. I have many and most of them I really like. My BB 9900 and Playbook for example are really good, my Macbook is fantastic.

I have been running for a few years now and wanted to get more techy data sometimes I feel a bit like Sheldon but there you go.... I tried to use my 9900 to do this but its to heavy and I didnt like carrying my phone. Partly because its heavy

I had a look at loads and finally plumped for the Nike GPS watch because I use the website and already have loads of data there. Another reason was indeed because its was much cheaper than the Garmin ones.

So my first impressions were good, it has a screen large enough for me to see with my middle aged rubbish vision - I run with my old glasses on which are not exactly strong enough but as long as I miss the cars I'm fine..... but then I got to use it and was less impressed.

The GPS is from TomTom which should mean that it works, on the whole it doesnt. I am amazed at how long it can take to get a fix on my position - it that works at all. I run in the same area all the time and it can take more than 5 minutes to fix my position. This is just rubbish. Even if I stand still it often doesn't manage to find me. Once everything is connected- then its OK but the GPS location is very very bad. It utterly fails to impress. Then I managed to drop it but as the watch is for outdoors I had expected a stronger screen. My screen now has a pretty crack in it. If you make anything meant to be used outdoors in a sporty environment is it not supposed to be strong enough to handle this?

I also have a Polar heart rate monitor watch which, you will not be surprised, has been on the floor a few times and is just perfect.

I think I got what I paid for  - my Nike was half the price of the Polar and Garmin GPS watches but not worth the money. I should have bought either of them.

TomTom seem to have created their own sports watch - I would be very reluctant to chance it. I hope someone does a demo concentrating on the build quality, GPS location and ease of use (for lefthanders)

Waterrower machine fails on monitors

Further down in my (few) posts you will see that I bought a Waterrower indoor rowing machine a year ago. As a rowing machine its great, as a monitor its rubbish.

We have had issues with the monitor from the start. It stops monitoring your progress, the screen goes blank, it stops, its goes to 0.0 etc etc . We have had the measuring disc replaces by the shop where we bought the thing and finally in December it went back to Waterrower themselves where they replaced the monitor. I had hoped they would have checked everything out but when it came back ( a month later) the problem is still there.

I find this just ridiculous. The machine itself costs over 2000EUR and the monitor is just rubbish. If I had bought a cheaper machine - and there are many- I would be less concerned but this is the supposed top of the range indoor home rower! and its just not fit for purpose.

The competition is the Concept 2  a machine we decided not to buy because the Waterrower was better looking and took up less space.

I advise Waterrower to get their act together regarding the monitor - if you offer a system with this feature, it must work. They say you can go online and row against others- that is also a nightmare. The Concept 2 online community is huge, waterrowers hardly exists. I don't really want to go online, but I would like to record what I do on my laptop. This is possible, only for Windows! (I have a Mac). I did use it on an old PC but even the Windows software is described as Beta and is horribly clunky, complicated and little use. It looks like it was made for Win95.

All in all I dont know if I would recommend a Waterrower anymore. I love the rowing experience, I hate the electronics which just dont live up to the promise at all. It seems like this lack of IT savvy is over the entire company - their websites are also rubbish. Try looking at the online shops in different European countries for a laugh.

OK rant over

Water Rower - get on the case PLEASE you have a great machine which fails on one feature. Fix this and it will be fantastic.

The Airborne

Today, like early September for the last 66 years, the people in and around my village will remember the Battle of Arnhem. About 30,000 people will come to the village and walk past sites which were significant in Sept 44.

http://www.airbornewandeltocht.nl/en/

The Dutch love organised walks, this one is the biggest single day event in the world. The gardeners have been tidying the area for a few weeks and it's all set for a very busy day. The longest walk of 40km starts at 7:30, I will start at about 10:30.
Photos to follow.

Bank of Scotland admin - useless

I decided to post my comments on the recent example of garbage admin by my bank in the hope that even if they don't see it, others may and laugh at them.

In my time living outside the UK I have had to cope for years with no access to online banking as I didn't live in the UK. The  fact that I lived in a place with no access to any branch made Internet banking perfect but the Bank of Scotland took years to finally accept this and make it possible for me to do so.
I came here 11 years ago and at the time it was not possible to get access to my UK account funds from an ATM (the Royal Bank has had this feature available for years before) - the reason?  ''No demand''

Havers  - they did tell me that there was one in Torremolinos - that appeared to be the only concession to a Brit abroad. My parents had been to Canada on holiday years before and they could take money out the whole in the wall (Royal Bank of Scotland) - but BoS, in Europe? Nope!

Back to my recent experience....

I transferred a few hundred euros to the BoS account and they sent me a confirmation letter - all printed on paper to confirm my electronic transaction - that is bad enough. They then sent another 15 letters all saying the same thing. In total, 8 to me and 8 to my husband. I can only assume that, as its a joint account, they feel the need to tell both of us (I don't understand that either) but 8 times?
Did this not trigger a question that their system created 16 letters, printed and posted 16 letters to tell me something I already knew? I can access my account via Internet banking, I can see that the funds left my Dutch account and got to the UK account and how many pounds they had become - its a complete waste of time and effort on the banks part to send this confirmation by paper mail - then they do it another 15 times....

They need to rethink their policy of paper confirmations of electronic transactions and while they are at it, they can have a look at the need to send it to both account holders names (we live at the same address) - and lets not forget the extra 15 letters..

The great China trip

Daughter left yesterday to go on a school trip to Beijing. It should be a great experience for her. The last I heard from her was yesterday evening when she phoned home - clearly excited - before she boarded the flight. They have a blog set up which will hopefully let all of us left at home know what on earth they are getting up to. This is the blog - today its empty, what will tomorrow hold?

http://beijingstudiereis2012.blogspot.com/

There was the usual drama before it the trip was all arranged: visa, no visa etc but everything was finally arranged.

Lets see how they get on.

Rowing on the water

In December in a fit of - 'I need to do something to avoid having to run in the cccccold' I bought a Water Rower - rowing machine.  It took 3 weeks to delivered so I have only started using in from Jan 12th but think I can safely say I love it. It looks great, sounds better and is even a lot of fun to use. I had decided that I should get a Concept 2 but was talked out of it in a sports shop, they recommended a water resistance rower. After trying many different kinds of these water resistant rowers I plumped for the wooden Waterrower itself. I don't regret it. I bought the Heart rate monitor extra (which should really come as standard) and its fantastic.

The only thing I don't like is the data screen and the convoluted way it connects to my laptop to monitor what I do. I love all things gadgety and am normally happy to spend hours working things out, but this took me a DAY. I finally got them to talk to each other but on the second monitored row - it crashed...... The entire data collection system seems fragile and given the cost of the machine, I expected better.

I think if they spend some time getting the monitor to be more intuitive and back light the things so I can see it!! it will be a great improvement. I think they should also hire some IT  people to write their own software - Why do I need to be connected to the internet to monitor my rows? I want to record my rows locally  - stroke rate, heartrate, speed  - all in the one locally saved file - possibly also in a form I can export to excel to play with the data.

I blame my education which gave me a love of experimenting and recording my results - I used to do it with a paper chart recorder but would now expect to create a file and watch it all on a tiny screen - so come on Waterrower -get yourselves into the 1990s and record your data locally and simply - don't make us all use the internet.

I have tried the Concept 2 and didn't like the noise it makes or the feeling of the rowing stroke, my waterpower is smooth and fairly quiet apart from the swooshing of the water as it goes round in the tank.

Here is a look at the thing itself - I recommend it.

My Pretty Playbook

Well, I finally did it. After months of pondering I bought a Playbook. Really because the price had come down to something which was more realistic with what I wanted to pay.

First impressions - really well made as with all my previous Blackberry phones - I am a loyal fan of these things. I have a 9900 and love it to bits. I upgraded from my Bold 9000 when the 9900 came out and have not regretted the swap. But I digress, the Playbook is a great machine which feels well built and the OS is intuitive. I am not best please that, as I live in NL, I don't get the Podcast app, but I am sure I will find another one I can use instead. So, for build quality and usability its just what I expected and think its very good.

What I miss? -Apart from the obvious email, calendar and contacts its really the scarcity of apps which I would want to install. I have scoured the Blackberry World system and found very little that appeal. I have no interest in Tetris or Need for Speed - I would be very interested in a Zinio and Kindle app. What about Pocket Informant? Nope not there. The book shop is Kobo - but I like my Kindle books and want to read them on the Playbook too.

Much is promised with the OS upgrade, whenever it gets here, and I  am pleased I didn't buy one when they first came out or I would have had to wait more than a year for the OS upgrade. This should make it the device it should have been when it first launched.

What I get now and really like? - the cameras are great. The forward facing 5MP is wonderful and the video looks great on the excellent screen. The 'facing the user/instant aging' camera is about 3MP and is fine too.  The Kobo bookshop is OK but doesn't have any magazines which is why I am really looking forward to the Zinio app which will hopefully come out with or (cross fingers) even before the OS 2 upgrade.

All in all I really believe this thing has loads of potential,  especially when it finally gets the apps it should have. I am amazed it doesn't have a Webex app - my 9900 does which works really well. This is a designed for business device - where are the business applications? I mentioned the lack of calendar and email - I can see all of this when Bridged to the 9900 - but why should I have to? All is fixed with the OS upgrade so i will just have to wait.

I would like to see note taking, mind mapping, lists, tasks etc but there are not there yet either. There is no photo editing software either - or at least that I can find.

It synced all of my iTunes library so now I don't need to take my Macbook wherever I go - which was the point of the Playbook in the first place - another BIG PLUS.

So in short IMHO - the Playbook is a lovely thing which should have a bright future - as long as it doesn't take too long to get the new OS software roll out.