A sidekick for cyclists
Don’t get lost on your bike, don’t fall victim to revolting peasants and don’t let your photos let you down
By Tim Martin
Beeline smart compass £99/$129.98 Urban cyclists tired of pulling their phone out at traffic lights may find a less flappy solution in this unique bike navigation system, which sits on the handlebars, links to a phone and displays a minimum of direction prompts. An arrow points in the direction of your destination, a numeric countdown tells you how far away you are or how fast you’re going – and that’s it. What’s clever about Beeline is that it provides support without slavishly following a route: it’s down to you to spot shortcuts and detours or wander to where you’re going. Waterproof, portable and with a startlingly long battery life, it’s a mind-broadening sidekick for the cyclist-flâneur.
Reigns: Her Majesty, PC/Mac/iOS/Android £2.99/$2.99 In this comic storytelling game about a dynasty of hapless queens – a bizarre crossbreed of Tinder and the Tudors – you have to swipe left or right to endorse or reject the advice of wily counsellors and subjects: one after another, your queens are guillotined, starved in towers, burnt for heresy or crowd-smothered by the adoring populace. The game hinges on balancing obligations to the church, the army, the people and the royal coffers, but the shrewd writing, from former games journalist Leigh Alexander, rolls a sardonic feminist commentary into this featherlight premise. All considerably more fun than a royal wedding.
Affinity Photo, iPad £14.99/$14.99 Adobe has brought down the up-front cost of using its flagship Photoshop program by turning to a subscription model, but now a competitor is offering outright ownership of good image-editing software for the price of two months’ worth of Photoshop. Affinity Photo squeezes all the features of Affinity’s popular desktop app onto the screen of a tablet. Comprehensive tutorials provide the run-down on everything from minor tweaks and colour adjustments to powerful functions like compositing, inpainting and dodging. The fabulous touch interface is the real treat here, particularly if you’re using the Pencil stylus.
ILLUSTRATIONS ANDY MARTIN
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