iTimbo

Reading on an iPad versus Laptop

TimM — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 12:01:09 +0000

I just received an iPad2 months ago as a down payment for a project I am working on (more on that later).

One of the first things I did was load up NetNewsWire, iBooks and the Kindle App for iPad and start reading.

Whilst I used to love reading (articles, via Google Reader) on my iMac, and then on my MBP, I am now finding the iPad is the almost-perfect device for reading.

I tried to read some RSS articles the other day on a MacBook and it was a horrendously jarring experience, to the extent I just couldn’t read the articles.

So I wonder, is there something materially different about the iPad2 that provides for a better reading (and content consumption) experience. Is anyone else’s experience the same?

Perhaps the venerable Marco Arment could shed some light.Similar Posts:

The Impersonality of Email Christmas Cards

TimM — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 08:15:49 +0000

If I was running a business with a mailing list, I think the last thing I’d do is mass email¹ a Christmas card. Seth Godin was way ahead of this, talking about it in 2003.

Businesses are taking something that ought to be highly personalised and sending something that is completely impersonal. I mean, if you meant it, why not hand write it?

I’ve just received emails from my old travel agent, my insurance broker and a few others. I don’t want, or need, Christmas cards from these guys. I pay them to do something for me, and that’s the end of it.

I don’t know what the solution is, but Christmas Cards are essentially broken. I still get joy from hand written cards from family members.

Who are the people in these businesses making these silly decisions to send email business cards? Lazy, impersonal and totally transparent.

Please stop.

¹ Personalising a mail (like from MailChimp) doesn’t count.Similar Posts:

Training for the Three Peaks Challenge

Tim M — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 02:45:33 +0000

With the 2011 Three Peaks Challenge upon us, I thought it might be useful to highlight the need for some training.

I’ll be doing the 2011 event and have adapted my standard race and L’Etape du Tour 2011 training for this event.

One of my friends tells me he is doing it, but hasn’t done any training. So, although the best time to start training was 2-3 months ago, the next best time is today.

Let’s clear one thing up: The 235km 3 Peaks is not a trifling ride. It is an absolute monster. It is equivalent to any of the Gran Fondos in Europe. The sheer amount of climbing, when combined with the long distance, will absolutely destroy anyone not adequately prepared for it.

Check out my 2010 L’Etape du Tour report if you don’t believe me. L’Etape 2010 destroyed me, and I am a reasonably able climber. L’Etape 2010 was only 180km. A ride of this nature will similarly consign an underprepared rider to the rubbish spin. It will chew you up, spit you out, and look for the next victim.

So, if you have not done any training, you need to begin, urgently.

Your training at this late stage needs to shock your body into over-drive. It is probably too late to do any climbing that will force a meaningful level of adaptation in your body.

Fortunately, I have a training plan that will help. Although it has been developed especially for Training for Etape du Tour, it can easily be adapted to training for the Three Peaks Challenge. The L’Etape du Tour is a climber’s sportif and so the training plan has been developed to strengthen riders for a bunch of hours wrestling the Grand Cols of France.

The profile of the Three Peaks is of similar scope to any L’Etape and so the L’Etape training plan readily adapts to the Three Peaks Challenge.

So if you need a training plan for the 3 Peaks Challenge, check out the TDF Tips Training for L’Etape guide.Similar Posts:

Photos: 2010 World Championship from Geelong

Tim M — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 08:17:16 +0000

Yes, these photos mainly suck. Seems I’ve forgotten how to take photos. Bumping the dial to P – wtf?

Anyway, desaturated madness is inspired by Mike Hone.

Enjoy!

[flickrset id="72157624966985537" thumbnail="square" overlay="true" size="large"]Similar Posts:

The Melbourne to Warrnambool 2010: preparations begin

Tim M — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 02:24:33 +0000

265km day race with elite riders?

Sounds ridiculous – I’m in!

Yes, my penchant for silly ridiculous feats of achievement will now extend to the Melbourne to Warrnambool.

I planned on doing it last year but had to nix the idea due to illness, so, here I am 1 year later.

There’s no way I’ve done enough training – I’ve been sick for nigh-on a year, so am just getting back into it. I am way, way underdone, so for me this will be a day of survival. Should be rad!

Now that the enormity of the challenge is a) becoming a lot clearer, and b) is only a few weeks away, last week I began looking into how I was going to survive this thing. I also thought it might be prudent to start doing some training. Prevarication, anyone?

For those who don’t know, the Melbourne to Warrnambool (or “The Warnie”, not to be confused to an mobile phone trigger happy spin bowler) is a 265km day race from Melbourne to, er, Warrnambool.

Interesting facts:

The Warnie is the second oldest bike race.
The Warnie is the second longest one day race. It used to be the longest (at around 290km I think) but has been shortened.

The history is pretty interesting, particularly how it started.

Anyway, the practicalities are now starting to need to be sorted out.

I am racing it with my 4 Ex Machina Racing team-mates, so we have a team car. Our feed crew are just about sorted.

I spent about 5 hours reading the Hammer Nutrition website to get an idea on proper fuelling. Traditionally in long rides and races, I fuel at a rate of 200 calories an hour (now known to be insufficient).

I’ve come up with a requirement of 270 calories per hour, after the first 2 hours.

Using the info on the Hammer Nutrition site, I’ll have 2 bottles of fluid every 2 hours, and use Hammers Electrolyte solution (Enduralyte) for electrolytes (after a bad cramping experience at L’Etape du Tour 2010), their gels and their HEED solution.

Pretty much I am out to just survive this ride. Team EMR team mate Clarky tells me the biggest danger is in the feed zones, where if you crash, you’re gone. I plan on hanging on to the peloton as long as I can and doing no work whatsoever.

Worst comes to worst, iPod goes on, and I get a long, long training ride for the 2010 Tour of Bright.

So, to those who’re reading this who’ve done this event, or something similar, got any tips? Drop them below.Similar Posts:

How to: L’Etape Registration

Tim M — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 09:32:16 +0000

The L’Etape registration is a very fun part of doing L’Etape.

The Entry

Apart from the necessary registration, the L’Etape registration is a fun few hours hanging out at a mini bike show.

Loads of manufacturers like Time, Ridley, Look, Specialized, Trek, SRAM are at the registration with loads of things for sale.

You’ll be able to buy energy gels and bars, as well as probably the best cycling socks I’ve ever bought (3 pairs 2009, 6 pairs 2010).

We turned up at 8.00AM and promptly were turned around as registration didn’t start until 9AM. We headed down to the Pau train station (Gare de Pau) and had coffee and croissants.

Registration times are advised closer to the date, however they are roughly:
-2 days prior: 2PM-8PM
-The day before: 9AM-8PM

If the registration days are on TDF days, you’ll be able to register in the morning and head to the TDF to watch if it’s nearby.

The registration is actually pretty painless and well organised.

You take your entry passport and passport to a section dedicated just to your group (e.g. riders 2000-3500), and present it (hint: knowing some French, at least “hello” and “thank you” is much appreciated by the French – check out CoffeeBreak French).

After receiving your entry pack, you go and get your backpack and tshirt (medium is the smallest size?!!). The backpack comes with Etape waterbottle and other schwag.

Hint: if your pack doesn’t get this red mark on it, you could probably pass it to a friend and get them to go and get another tshirt/backpack pack.

Entry pack!

After this, you’re free to roam around taking in the sights and sounds.

You’ll need cash is in case you find anything you’d like to buy. There are loads and loads of very cool and great-value souvenirs. Whilst most places accept credit cards, some take cash only.

Happily, there’s usually coffee, and the Rapha VW Kombi was there knocking out some pretty respectable coffee.

Rapha Coffee

There are usually some free mechanics on site for Etape entrants to make use of. We all had our bikes checked for various reasons (turns out the noise in my cranks was a cracked bottom bracket, which I found out upon my return) in 2010.

In 2009 and 2010 Mavic provided this service, with multiple mechanics on site and almost all speaking some English.

However, I strongly recommend getting your bike serviced before you go, and don’t plan on using them unless absolutely necessary.

Below are some photos I reeled off, including Cancellara’s motorised bike!

This is pretty cool

This is where the motor goes

Time

This was LIGHT

So was this

LaPierre's fairly-awesome TT bike

Retro awesomeness

Crazy

Again, pretty retro

All in all, a pretty fun morning, and I can’t wait to do it all again next year!Similar Posts:

The 2010 Tour de France and L’Etape du Tour Trip Wrap Up

Tim M — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 03:30:23 +0000

2010 was a doozy of a trip for TDF Tips. I, and my equally loony travel partner, the inimitable Michael J Brown, took off around the world to tackle L’Etape, eat croissants, drink (usually bad) coffee, drink some sneaky Heinekens, ride in the warm French summer sun, and revel in the greatest sports spectacle on this awesome planet.

And we did it in under 2 weeks. Insane? Yep. Fun? Hell yes.

You’d think after the trials and tribulations (and this one: photo rock) and obsessive planning I did, this trip would have gone as smoothly as a 20 year old Scotch goes down the hatch.

I got it wrong.

I was struck by my own ineptitude and conspiring nature of circumstance on this trip. Despite the fact that I’ve highlighted that you MUST get to Tour stages early – it’s one of the Key Tips of the Cycling Through France guide, we didn’t. And despite my best efforts to the contrary, I again wracked up an extraordinarily high phone bill (disclaimer: Telstra later wrote off the bill).

We cut costs on flights and paid the price. And lastly, I was hugely underprepared for L’Etape.

So let’s look at the mistakes, and highlight what you can do to avoid them to ensure you have a kick-butt trip.

Flights
As we get older, the threshold for getting mucked around and/or slumming it on cheap flights with long layovers into non-hub airports in order to save some money, gets a lot lower. I think I left mine behind in my early 20s.

When we looked to book for 2010 in late 2009, flights were around AUD$2700 into Barcelona or Paris, with no extra baggage. We managed to score an around the world (ATW) fare for around $2300, which gave us 2x23kg all the way ATW as we were flying via the US. A few months before we were due to leave, our fare rules on our Toulouse-Hong Kong leg changed from 2x23kg to 1x20kg (thanks for that, Lufthansa). As I said earlier, we paid the price for being cheaper.

Lesson: Cheaper is NOT always better.

I recommend booking a slightly more flexible fare, and have covered airline options here as well as extensively in the Cycling Through France guide.

The Tour Stage
As I’ve written before, you absolutely MUST get to your vantage point early. Plan for everything to go wrong. Plan for traffic, overly-judicious gendarmes, rain, flat tyres.

You’ve gone to all this effort to get here, and the worst thing you want is to miss the stage, or to be stuck in a crappy spot. Trust me it happens; read my stories here (Stage 13 2009), here (Stage 16 2010) and here (Stage 17 2010).

Other key tips for maximising your TDF experience include:

Be on a steeper uphill to maximise all the free stuff from the caravan. Being on a downhill means you’ll get almost nothing.
Have a back up plan, including a different road/bike route to get you where you need to be.
Ignore gendarmes (walk your bike slowly and innocently up/down the road, staying well off the road) or go around them. My failure to man-up cost me a ripping downhill hairpin in 2010’s stage 16, which looked up and down the road. The photos would have been incredible.
Pack for bad weather (2010 Stage 17). Had I been better prepared (I had a poor quality “wet weather” jacket), I could have been up the road on the Soulor for some epic hairpin photos.
If the weather looks the least bit sketchy, and you have camera gear, have a back up plan and position for photos. Pack a plastic rain bag/hood that covers all of you. There’s nothing worse than standing in the miserable rain, getting wetter and wetter. Plastic hoods/bags don’t look cool, but they work.
Be prepared to walk (take note of point about rain gear). Pack food and water in case you can’t find a place that sells food and water, and prepare to be located in a place with no toilets.
And, the number 1 tip: GET THERE EARLY. You can usually find the expected arrival time of the caravan and the lead group to key areas, which lets you plan. Allow for traffic. This means if your vantage point is up a Col/climb, and you are climbing from the other side that the Tour ascends allow 6 hours. I promise you won’t regret it. Once the caravan is on the climb, you’ll be pulled off the road. If you’re climbing up the same way as the riders, you have a bit more leeway, as you can walk you bike up the road.

L’Etape
L’Etape is a beast of a ride worthy of a TDF Tips guide of it’s own (hint: this is in the works, make sure you subscribe to the mailing list here to get advance warning and discounts), however, I’ll cover what went wrong for me briefly.

Preparation: I was hugely underprepared for the 2010 Etape. I was laid low for several months with an illness, and was unable to train or race. This affected me hugely, and the difference between my 2009 ride and 2010 ride is glaring.

Regardless of my underpreparedness though, the around the world flight did both Mike and I no favours. That long in the air (Mel-Syd/stop 1 hour/LA/stop 7 hours/Frankfurt stop 2 hours/Toulouse) dehydrated us immensely, and we arrived on the ground with about 48 hours to rehydrate and acclimatise. In 2009 we flew in about 10 days before hand so had ample time to build energy and hydrate, get our bodyclocks into the EU time zone, and get some riding into our legs.

I could (and will) write a lengthy guide on preparing for L’Etape properly, but briefly:

Arrive in Europe at least 1 week before L’Etape.
Spend some time riding, drinking loads of water, sleeping and eating properly.
In the 6 months prior to L’Etape, train your bum off. Unless you ride a lot already, you’re going to have spend hours and hours riding, including in the hills.
During the ride, you’ll need to hydrate and feed effectively. Don’t drink too much water (as you dilute the salt in your blood, then start cramping) and eat enough. There’s been a lot written on feeding properly in long races, and I’ll save this for another time.
Make sure you get enough sleep leading up to L’Etape.
Make sure you stretch before L’Etape (and after).

In the forthcoming Guide to L’Etape, I’ll be discussing some training, nutrition and stretching routines specifically designed to help you do L’Etape. Make sure you subscribe to the mailing list here to get advance warning and discounts.

At the Airport
These may be obvious, but:

Get to the airport early, or your bike may get left behind. This happened to us in 2010, but it was fortuitous, as it meant our bikes were shipped all the way to my front door, which made getting to/from the airport in Hong Kong much easier (and cheaper).
Lufthansa (and others) sometimes don’t weigh bike bags (certainly not when you’re late to Toulouse airport). I’m told this is common practise at airports that service the cycling areas.

Some people don’t mind missing flights, but I hate it. You don’t want to be doing 160km/h up the freeway to make the flight. And then find there isn’t a petrol station at the airport. And then get stung 90 Euros for them to refill the tank with 10 litres.

Packing
These are really important, pay attention!

Pack your bike carefully. Read this post on how to pack your bag properly, and this post which discusses a couple of different bike bags.
Pack light! Don’t be like me and have 3 Packing Lists for camera gear, bike gear, casual gear and miscellaneous debris like laptop, chargers, books etc.
Get a helmet pod or bag from Wiggle or a Giro helmet pod from Chain Reaction and take it onto the plane or pack in a hard case.

Mobile Phone
Seriously, read these posts on mobile phone data roaming. They’ll save you a load of money.

What went right?!
So, after all that, what went right?

I had a ball doing L’Etape. Yes it hurt, yes it was a terrible result, but boy was it fun.
Downtime. The last year has been a mental and physical overload, and it was good to ride with a chilled out group of friends, read some books, watch some Tour, eat croissants and get on the bike in the warm French sunshine.
Similar Posts:

Avoiding an International Mobile Phone Bill Blowout

Tim M — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 01:29:04 +0000

I wrote a post over on tourdefrancetips.com today about how to avoid an overseas phone bill of $2000.

I’ve reproduced it below, as I think it’s useful for all travellers who are taking their smart (e.g. iPhone) phones.

This post is all about how to avoid a $2000 mobile phone bill
This post just goes to show, despite your best planning to prevent things going wrong, they can, and will. This is the Black Swan event which is a very interesting topic in and of itself.

After the absolute debacle of 2009, where I returned home to an AUD$2200 phone bill (around USD$2000) – read more about that by clicking here – I was determined not to come home to a big phone bill again.

I did a lot of research and wrote a post about the various plans available for our Australian readers.

Since I am on Telstra (for those international readers, Telstra is the ants-pants, rolled-gold mobile phone carrier in Australia. More expensive, but very fast 3G everywhere), I signed on to their $160 for 60MB of overseas data plan. You can read a comparison of the plans here.

I thought that for 2 weeks, 60MB would be plenty of data, given we were staying in one place and had Wifi. Last year, I used around 200M, and was constantly on Twitter and Google Maps.

Before I left, I reset my iPhone data usage stats to 0MB. I turned all my email data push and app push notifications off. This meant data would only be downloaded when I specifically asked an app to do so.

When I got home I’d used 61MB according to my iPhone, so I expected excess usage charges for 1MB.

When I got my bill for AUD$1900, it would be fair to say I was shocked.

My SMS and calls added up to AUD$400 (Note to Telstra: you NEED an international call and sms pack like the one Optus offers), my month-and-a-bio of international roaming was $200, so Telstra was telling me I used $1300 (around USD$1100) of excess data (around 130MB). No way.

When I looked at the bill, the data usage had been reconciled into minutes/seconds, with some calls showing 394 minutes. Clearly something was awry.

I rang Telstra, telling them that I thought the bill was erroneous, and if they couldn’t reconcile the bill into data (bits and bytes, not minutes and seconds), then I clearly couldn’t confirm the accuracy of their bill. They told me this was all they received from the overseas carriers.

Honestly, in the year 2010, telcos, who are at the cutting edge of technology, can’t get their billing systems into the year 2010? Shocking it is.

Happily, Telstra saw the folly of the situation and wrote a significant portion of the bill off. Compare this to Vodafone who operate a global network – at least when I got their bill it was unified and in MB so was clear to see what I was using (Google Maps) and how much time/data I used (unfortunately, Vodafone’s Australian network is average in terms of coverage).

Despite your best intentions to protect yourself, you may still get a hefty bill. So, how do you mitigate this, and what are the lessons here.

Option 1 (good): I highly recommend getting a Vodafone SIM card and adding overseas data roaming if your local Vodafone offers it. For Australians, they offer $200 for 120MB or $329 for 200MB. Get the cheapest monthly SIM you can, about a month before you leave, and add the data component about 1 week before you go. You may have to pay a $300 bond for the roaming (returned to you when you pay you bill). Vodafone’s roaming between countries (Germany->France, France->Spain and so on) is seamless and the benefit is you get a bill that’s likely to be accurate.
Option 2 (best): This is by far the most cost effective option. Go into an SFR (Vodafone France) and get a prepaid SIM; the SIMs usually come with €5-10 of credit for SMS and calls. Get them to add data. It’s not publicised, but they have a product where you can add data for 20 days; the data is unlimited! Be aware that they need to activate the data for that SIM, so make sure you do it all at the one shop at the same time. I can’t stress this enough. Speaking a bit of French will help you a lot (check out Coffee Break French for 80 free lessons).

I like the second option best, as you pre-pay for everything and can get help when you’re there. With unlimited data, you’ll be able to go crazy. Of course, if you want to keep using your home SIM card, take an old phone you can make calls and SMS from.

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France 2010: Final Day – the Aubisque and Marie Blanque

Tim M — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 04:15:35 +0000

Sadly our last day was upon us.

I’d not had anywhere near enough riding so was glad to be heading out for a final long hit out in delightful warm France. I keenly felt the approaching return home as I’d been told it was miserable, cold and wet in Melbourne. Yuck.

We made the plan to hit the Aubisque and Marie Blanque. I wanted to include the Soulor but that didn’t happen for some reason. We rode up to Arrette for a pre-ride coffee, as is the way in this part of France. Very civilised way to start a ride; coffee and croissant.

Pre-ride rest

The day was slightly cloudy, with splashes of sunshine. We rode out through the valley toward the Marie Blanque, but then went the other way before Escot. The peloton did the Escot approach as part of Stage 17.

We wound our way through some hilly roads – some roads of a very poor quality – with little to no traffic.

Rolling hills

It was a delight to just be cycling along with no traffic to speak of, and when a car did go past, it did slowly, and with a wave. Such a nice experience to ride in France, rather than deal with the aggro of Melbourne’s roads.

Approaching Bielle

We eventually found our way to Bielle (scene of the now-famous Oondrew Klook sprint victory) and then headed up through the very pretty Laruns and Eaux Bonnes which is home to some thermal hot springs (Eaux chaudes I think it is, which means, Hot Waters). We passed some people riding in The Freedom Machine kit; a couple of whom didn’t seem to much be in the mood for talking, given the laborious nature of the climb even at this early stage.

I hope their resolve stiffened, as the grade up the road certainly did (from a very gentle 4-6% up to a nasty stretch of 10% plus).

I forgot how tough the Aubisque climb was – we’d stopped halfway up on the way to the summit to watch Stage 16 by an impenetrable wall of gendarme. It is a HC and is a reasonable test. It only reaches around 1700m, but is of a pretty tough grade, particularly after Eaux-Bonnes.

On this day, it was foggy and starting to get chilly.

Michael had taken off just after Eaux-Bonnes, but I’d spent a considerable time keeping him in sight and putting on spurts of speed to reel him in. At one stage, I was only a couple of hundred metres behind.

Eaux Bonnes

He took off again (to my frustration) but I got very, very close to the top; it was good to be able to keep contact after the travails of the last 8 months.

It was pretty cold at the top, and very foggy, so we waited for Amy to catch up to us, took some happy snaps (horses wandering around everywhere), then took off back down.

Summit

Horses

We reeled off some photos for Ex Machina Racing, then stopped in Laruns for coffee.

Looking over Gourette

Gourette ski area

Col de Marie Blanque - Bielle approach

It was sunny and warmer again, and so we headed off for the Marie Blanque, which we were tackling in the reverse direction from the way undertaken for L’Etape.

It’s a fair old climb up the Marie Blanque from the back, but more of a long grind than a very sharp carnage-maker like the side from Escot. We didn’t have any water so had to fill up at a roadside stream. It’s pretty safe to do so in the hills, but I was pretty dubious the quality and was worried about drinking cow-pooh water.

Anyway, when in Rome…

1/3 of the way up - yes, I know that I am looking fairly chubby

1/3 of the way up

Looking out toward Bielle

The plateau about 3/4 of the way up is great for a rest and some photos. It’s an alpen playground; camping, mountain biking, little streams everywhere. The scenery is enhanced by the stern, impassive rocky peaks towering around you; jagged teeth reaching into the clouds. It’s very humbling being surrounded by impressive geology and physiography like this.

Still 6k to go

Near the plateau

We reached the top and stopped again for some pics and then descended like hellcats down the other side – reaching speeds above 80km/h.

The top

We had only about 15km to Arrette, but my legs were starting to feel very, very peaky.

Corn everywhere

After a short final climb above Arrette, we descended down, and rode downhill into Aramits, for the short 10%+ climb back to our accommodation.

We got home and Qty:1 Heineken disappeared stat. A great way to finish the trip, with a day in the Pyrenees.

Performing the Heineken maneouvre

Garmin data, for those interested, is here.

Moving time: 6 hours, 7 mins, Elapsed 7’36″
138km, calories 2592C
Elevation gain 2833m

Summary

Map

Speed, Elevation, Heart (200bpm interference)

Cadence, Temperature

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Gear review: Lowepro CompuRover AW Backpack

Tim M — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 02:08:58 +0000

*Apologies for the sometimes-less-than-optimal photos, I was late for my plane.

With the advent of cheap prosumer digital SLRs, I thought it would be interesting to review my new Lowepro Compurover AW backpack to help you decide upon a backpack to travel with, if you have camera gear to take overseas.

When looking at a backpack, I have a few core requirements:

Carries camera, must travel (and protect said camera).
Needs loads of pockets, appropriate to shooting and travelling.
Excellent ergonomics; straps, and keeps weight low (camera gear kept low on hips).
Laptop pocket, for easy access at airports.

I’ve previously used an fstop Tilopa for this task. Good and bad features include:

Internal Camera Unit (ICU) – makes the bag bulky, but protects your kit.
It has rear access which is awesome for on-location shooting, but the ergonomics are terrible.
It has loads of pockets, but not much spare volume (spare tshirts etc for long haul flights).
No laptop pocket that can be easily accessed.
Distributes some load up high.
Phone/camera pockets on waist straps are great.

Generally I will use the Tilopa on an organised shoot, or if we’re roadside for the Tour and I can put it face down, unzipped with access to lenses etc (I don’t carry two bodies overseas, so need to be able to change lenses).

However, the rear entry is bad for quick access, as you need to take the whole pack off, so you can’t quickly reel off some shots.

Tilopa; front pockets are nice and big

Rear access; protects camera

Top access and pockets; very clever

Travel stuff

So, onto the CompuRover AW. I did a lot of research before buying this bag.

Brand new

I realise it fills a slightly different function to the Tilopa; I think the Tilopa is a bit more appropriate for on-location and transit. I think the Compurover is more of a transit, day pack; more of an all-rounder.

The key features that attracted me were:

Excellent strap system.
Relatively quick access to camera gear.
Distributes load down onto hips.
Dedicated laptop storage.

Below we can see them back to back. Hands down, the CompuRover is has a less bulky profile.

Back to back

The CompuRover has a number of features that I think you will appreciate when travelling or hiking around.
On the exterior there is a pretty deep pocket for necessities you need quick access to; wallet etc.

Internally, there is a clear pencil case/zipped holder which I use for money, USB stick and a spare pen.

Secure pocket

There’s also a dedicated pouch for Compact Flash or CD cards.

For Memory Cards

The camera gear can be access from the front zip, which allows the camera storage to open out of the bag, or from the top inside the main top zip (which would require you not to have anything sitting on top.

In the photo below, I have a Canon 40D, a 70-200 f/4 IS USM L, a 17-55 EF-S f/2.8 IS USM, a 10-20 Sigma and various cables, battery chargers, card readers, lense cleaners etc.

Kit

Although I didn’t take a photo, directly behind the back padding, is a dedicated laptop slot, which can accommodate a 13″ Macbook comfortably, as well as a note book (for written notes) and your travel doco. This made transiting through security that much more pain-free it wasn’t funny.

The only downside to this bag is its storage; as well as my kit, I can fit laptop charge, iPhone charger, 2 spare tshirts, and some other miscellaneous items, 2 books, but not much else.

However, at the end of the day, you want to travel light, and this encourages that.

Overall, this bag is a worthy contender for those of you journeying with camera kit and a laptop.

Note, all Amazon links in this post are Amazon affiliate links.
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