I love to ride my bicycle (LeMond Maillot Jaune, for the curious). When I was young, it was just about tooling around town. When I got older, it became my main form of fitness. When that happens — when you get beyond the “casual rider” stage of bicycling, into greater distances — it’s time for a computer.

Bike computers measure time, distance, average speed and more. Really sophisticated ones can give you all kinds of data, like cadence and trend information, but those are more for the racing crowd.  A good computer for the recreational rider would be the Sigma Sport BC 1606L.

To start with, the Sigma is wireless. That’s what I look for; wired computers require you to wrap the wire around your front fork and up to the computer. Wireless eliminates that, and looks better on your bike.

This has all the basics like total distance, time, current and average speed, etc. A couple of additional things I really like about this are the backlight, which is great for night riders, and the integrated storage chip. The chip stores settings like total distance and wheelsize (wheelsize is important — without knowing that, the computer won’t be able to measure anything correctly). So when you change the battery, it retains all that information. With my current computer, I have to reset all the data every time I change the battery, which is usually once per year.

The Sigma is also reasonably priced. So get off the Internet, and get on your bike!

So my latest gadget was delivered today, and it’s got me plenty excited. It’s a Garmin nuvi 255W GPS. As you know if you follow this blog, I’m taking my daughter to college this week, and I wanted a GPS more full-featured than the one that comes with my iPhone (that’s not a knock against the iPhone — just that the Garmin is a dedicated unit with a lot more functionality).

I got the Garmin today, and have only had a chance to play with it for a little. I’ll give a fuller review after I’ve experienced it on the 12-hour trip (each way) to Indiana. What I like so far are the big screen, intuitive navigation, easy-to-read icons and voice capability.

One little quirk is that I had to reboot the unit three times before it would acquire any satellites. The first two attempts, it did nothing but display no progress on the progress bar. Strange. But the third time was the charm, and everything seems to work properly. Can’t wait to try it out.

My daughter heads off the college in a few days. She has a nice laptop already, but it’s large; I’m thinking she needs something with enough power, that’s also really portable. And it can’t be expensive, seeing as how we just paid the tuition bill.

That, of course, led me to examine netbooks. They offer a nice compromise between functionality, size and price. My daughter isn’t much of a computer gamer, so it doesn’t have to be a fire-breather; something with which she can take notes, check e-mail and surf the Internet (only for research for classes, of course (wink, wink)), and that won’t tire her out lugging from class to class.

Here’s what I’m zeroing in on: it’s a Dell Inspiron Mini 10v Netbook.  The 10-inch screen lends itself to small weight, but is still large enough to be easily viewable. It has an Intel Atom processor and 1GB RAM, which is plenty to run Windows XP, the operating system of choice for this netbook (Windows Vista is too resource-hoggy to use with a netbook.)

Another very nice thing is the hard drive. It comes with 160 GB, a very nice size at this price point. I’ve owned many Dells in the past, and have been happy with the quality and service they offer.

In all, this is a capable computer in a form factor that works for my daughter. It even has a webcam, so she can chat with her parents at night, and see them crying that their baby is gone!

Gizmodo has an interesting article about Apple’s AppStore and how, and why, certain applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch (right) are rejected — or not.

Apple is claiming that it hasn’t actually rejected the Google Voice application. It’s still “studying” it, the company claims. Does anyone else actually believe this? There’s no reason for Apple to “study” a proposed application for months — either it meets the criteria or not. Certainly, Google Voice meets all relevant criteria. It’s obvious that Apple just doesn’t want competition for potential voice applications from partner AT&T on this.

Shame on you, Apple and AT&T. Do the right thing and approve Google Voice. Let the market determine the success or failure of an application — and make the iPhone, the greatest gadget of all time, even more useful for consumers. Stop denying your user base access to this technology. Now.

It wasn’t all that long ago that I spent $4,000 on a 43-inch plasma-screen television. It was a Panasonic with a beautiful picture. Problem is, the circuit board in it went bad after fewer than 18 months, causing a green band to stay on the screen constantly.

Needless to say, I wasn’t impressed. It was a lot of money to pay for a product that didn’t even make it two years. Nowadays, however, you can get big-screen HDTVs for a fraction of that price. Case in point: the Vizio VO320E TV, available for a little more than a tenth of that price.

It’s a little smaller screen, but the picture is better, with 720p HD resolution. This particular model is also eco-friendly, consuming less electricity than a normal HDTV, according to the company. It has all the inputs you’re likely to need, including component, composite, S-video, VGA and HDMI.

This is good news for those of you shopping for a new television; not so good news for those of us who shelled out four big ones for a plasma that kicked the bucket after less than two years.

As if the iPhone didn’t have enough problems, now there are reports that some in Europe are actually exploding. Yes, exploding.

Reuters, among other outlets, is reporting that iPhones are shattering. One story, from a website covering French news, states that a French youth heard a hissing sound from an iPhone before it exploded. The youth reportedly got a small shard of glass in his eye.

Some websites have graphic photos of iPhones with shattered faces.

Apple has stated that it’s aware of the reports and is investigating. It believes, according to various news outlets, that these are isolated incidents and not part of a widespread issue. The reports also do not show this happening to customers in the U.S. at this time.

Check back for updates to this story.

One of the very best things about the second-generation iPhone — known as the 3G — was the GPS functionality. Of course, it wasn’t as full-featured as a dedicated unit you could get from Garmin or TomTom, but it still beat the heck out of Mapquest.

Well, now the TomTom has come to the iPhone. A $99 application, it’s far from the cheapest program you can buy for your phone, but it may be one of the most useful.

The  TomTom for iPhone takes care of most of the built-in GPS’ weaknesses. The two most glaring are turn-by-turn navigation and voice directions. It also adds TomTom-only features like TomTom IQ Routes, which the company says finds the quickest, most efficient route to a destination.

Initial reviews of the app are positive for the most part. Some of the drawbacks listed by users include no spoken street names, and it lacks traffic updates. On the whole, though, most users seem quite happy with this app. Expect TomTom to update this software frequently (and for a hundred bucks, they should!), adding some of those missing features.

Can a car be a gadget? I say yes — if that car has to be plugged in, like most other gadgets. That’s the case with the new Chevy Volt, which the car maker says can manage an astounding 230 miles per gallon — mileage figures never seen before, never even dreamed about by most of us.

Chevy says the Volt can run about 40 miles on a single charge of its massive batteries. Once the batteries get really low, a gas engine takes over.

To tell the truth, it’s hard to not be skeptical of such incredible claims. And, as it turns out, lots of folks are skeptical, and saying Chevy’s claims wilt under analysis. Still, there’s no doubt that the Volt will get amazing mileage, even if not 230 MPG. And General Motors’ first ever hybrid looks like it will be making a splash in the market.

The Volt is expected to go on sale in 2011, with orders being taken the latter half of next year. If you want one, you’ll have to wait; but not for long.

I have a daughter leaving for college in a few weeks. When she goes, she’ll be taking our love and best wishes with her, along with a primary school tool: a laptop.

In a college environment, security is critically important; in many jobs, it’s just as — or more — important. Consider the cost of a stolen laptop: not just the computer itself, but the data on it, which could be vital, and worth hundreds of thousands of dollars or more.

To that end, it’s worth your while to strongly consider a laptop lock, like this Targus DEFCON 1 Retractable Cable Lock. One of the highlights of this lock is that the cable retracts into the unit itself, making it ultra-portable. It’s also a combination lock, adding another layer of security.

Another advantage of the Targus is that it can lock up more than your laptop. In a pinch, it could lock up pretty much anything the four-foot cord can wrap around.

If you travel a lot or carry around your laptop often, strongly consider the Targus or another lock. While it won’t stop a determined criminal, it will definitely scare off most everyone else that’s looking to score a free laptop.

How many of you can really put your laptop on your lap? It’s something I almost never do, for example, because it just gets too hot — both the computer, and my lap!

One very clever solution is the Targus HeatDefense for Laptops. It’s clever because it’s so simple. The gadget is just a mat filled with crystals that absorb heat. That turns the crystals into gel. Once the heat (a.k.a. the laptop) is removed, the crystals re-form. The laptop stays cool, and so does the lap on which it sits. Nifty.

It’s one of the very few gadgets you don’t have to plug in or charge. I like that. I also like the fact that the HeatDefense rolls up into a small bundle, making it very portable.

The company claims that keeping your laptop cooler will help the battery last longer.  While I haven’t used the HeatDefense, the basic premise behind that claim is correct. In any event, it’s a neat way to keep your cool and chill out.