Topeak TwoUp TuneUp - makes my biking easier

Not entirely tech related, but all my regular readers know that I have a love of both photography and biking. I have previously reviewed a few bits of bike related kit, including the Trek 6700 which I currently own.

Working on and storing bikes is easy if you have tonnes of space. If like me, you have a more modest shed or workshop then the dream of fitting more than one bike in would be a dream come true. The Topeak TwoUp TuneUp bike stand came to my attention and at first I was unsure if it would deliver on its promises as the price seemed a little low. Upon arrival though, what I was presented with was a very solid and well constructed piece of kit. It is made of aluminium tubing (grade 6061 T6 tubes) and due to the material used is quite light at 5.5 kilos. It extends to almost seven feet tall and is finished in a nice black powder coating.

At the base of the stand are three tripod type legs, which has non-slip rubber feet on them. They extend enough to make the stand very stable. Also included are two bike hangers and one handlebar stabiliser, so out of the box you can put two bikes on the TwoUp TuneUp, as the name suggests. You can also get additional hangers and put another two bikes onto the stand. Now I do not have enough bikes to test this, but I would be dubious about trying this, as you would need to get the balance of load right for it to perform OK. However, the manufacturer states the stand can handle 18 kilos per hook and a total of 72 kilos per stand, so it sounds capable of managing four bikes.

In my use I have just two bikes and once on the stand the ease of access and space saving was superb. It made me feel very happy that my bikes were properly stored and I was also able to padlock both bikes to the stand for added security. The second test was to use this product as a work stand. It can save you a few pennies if you perform preventative maintenance on your bike and this stand helps so so much. Once you have a single bike mounted, you can work at a decent height without bending down all the time. It made lubricating and adjusting various things a lot easier. This is not meant as a full time heavy duty work stand, but for a family to use it is more than adequate.

What I disliked was the space taken up by the extended legs at the base, but I suppose this is required to make the whole thing stable. That said, it does take up a lot less room than having two bikes at ground level, side-by-side. What really stands out is the build quality, which far exceeded my expectations. OK, so around £150 is not an impulse purchase, but for such a great product this is superb value for money. In closing, this is not an essential piece of kit, but for anyone remotely interested in cycling, it'll certainly make your experience a lot more enjoyable.

Product: Topeak TwoUp TuneUp Bike Stand
Supplied by: Topeak
Price: Expect to pay around £155

BBC Technology of Business - Facebook Communication

Why does Starbucks want to be your friend on Facebook? A very good question posed in this BBC Tech video. It is very true, every company seems to want to be your friend nowadays. Do they really care what you think about their latest product, service, or cup of coffee? or are they simply taking advantage of the latest social networking craze? Check out the video below.

Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex TV Review

A couple of days ago I brought you my written review of the Seagate portable hard drives in the GoFlex range. It seems many of you liked my writing style, so thanks for the positive feedback. I also mentioned in that review that Seagate had developed this new GoFlex system which allows their devices to work together. The GoFlex TV is just one of those devices that I was lucky enough to test.

If you are familiar with myself and what I love, you will know I am an Apple fanboy. Owning the likes of an iPod, iPhone, iPad, Mac Pro and Apple TV speaks for itself. That last mention there, of the Apple TV, is exactly what the GoFlex TV aims itself at, directly! Opening up the unit presents you with a very nice looking box of tricks, all the cables you need and good instructions. The unit feels very well made and sports composite, component and HDMI outputs. As you can guess, I went with the highest quality HDMI straight to my TV. You can run the audio through an optical output or indeed through the HDMI along the same cable as the picture.

There is also an ethernet network connection for streaming content. I was up and running with that one in a few minutes. Plus you will find a USB connection for flash drives and external hard drives. The last type of connection is a door that opens, into which you can slide the GoFlex Ultra-portable hard drive (that I reviewed a couple of days back). From the hard drive or flash drive you connect it is possible to play back a whole host of formats (listed below) in up to 1080P HD resolution.

Formats Supported
MPEG–1, MPEG–2 (VOB/ISO), MPEG–4 (Xvid), DivX Plus™ HD, Xvid HD, AVI, MOV, MKV, RMVB Real Media, AVC HD, H.264, WMV9, VC–1, M2TS, TS/TP/M2T

Picture quality is very good indeed, very detailed and smooth. Sound is equally impressive, so nowt to disappoint there either. I suppose my only disappointment was that the menu, although pretty, is still quite sluggish. I have experienced this with other media players (not the Apple TV) and I think that many manufacturers neglect the performance to combat manufacturing costs. It is not abysmal, but could just be a bit more responsive.

The icing on the cake is online services… you get Netflix (US only), YouTube, Paramount, Mediafly and Flickr to name just a few. They all work well and serve up added value to an already keenly priced piece of kit.

Would I buy one? At the asking price yes, if I didn't already have internet in my TV and streaming to my PS3. Even though I have what I personally need in terms of streaming content, the GoFlex TV certainly is a very neat solution and is well worth checking out.

Product: Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex TV
Supplied by: Seagate
Price: Expect to pay around £70

BBC Technology of Business: Avatars

Can avatars and hyper-real video conferencing replace business meetings? As more and more of us choose to work from home, or perhaps not venture into the office as much, the BBC have put together this very cool video about the increase in the use of video conferencing. Check out the video below.

Make time to do what you really, really love. Part 1

The Dell Small Business team have been busy producing something a little different. This video shows a young entrepreneur enjoying life out of the office and doing the things he really, really loves; in this case mountain biking down some narrow steps. As in real life, carrying out these stunts sometimes comes with a few surprises and in this case, as he cycles down, a water melon vendor appears unexpectedly from a side street and collides with our entrepreneur. Enough said, check out the video below.

Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Ultra-portable Hard Drive Review

I have the fortunate pleasure of testing a lot of kit in the Geekanoids studio, with absolutely tonnes of hard drives coming my way. It is not very often that I get something a little different to play with, so for this special occasion I wanted to put pen to paper, well actually fingers to keyboard (you know what I mean) and write up a review for a change.

Seagate very kindly sent me a couple of their ultra-portable external hard drives to test. They come in a variety of colours and I received a rather fetching 500GB red model (you can also get blue, black or silver). The hard drive is very small and glossy and has no external power supply. Instead it is powered from the USB 2.0 port on the back of the unit. It feels very well made and is just 111x83x14mm in size, so perfect if you are on the move. At just 150g it is pretty light too.

In use it performs very quietly, just a slight spinning sound of the tiny 2.5-inch hard drive doing its job. Actual data performance is nothing to dance or shout about, but what would you expect? after all it is just a hard drive. Hold your horses! Don't stop ready so fast! The GoFlex moniker on this hard drive is very important. What Seagate have done is develop a complete range that interact with each other. They have done a similar thing with their desktop range too. You can purchase add-on cables that slot onto the back of the hard drive and change the interface to USB 3.0, eSATA or FireWire 800. Not only does this change the physical connection, but also the data transfer performance too. So you can start off with USB 2.0 and then when you get that super duper new laptop with USB 3.0, spend another twenty quid and you get a faster hard drive. How cool is that!

On top of all this improved speed, Seagate also have a couple of other products worth mentioning. They have the GoFlex TV (review coming soon) and the GoFlex Net Media. GoFlex TV allows you to dock one of these tiny hard drives and access its content on the big screen, in up to 1080P resolution. GoFlex Net Media lets you dock up to two of the hard drives and access the content from your networked computers, mobile phones, or in fact from any connected computer wherever you are.

So, this hard drive is not the run of the mill offering. It starts off as a simple hard drive and then opens up all sorts of possibilities. A very good buy if you ask me.

Product: Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Ultra-portable 500GB Hard Drive 
Supplied by: Seagate
Price: Expect to pay around £55-£60