The razor looks more like a disposable at first glance, being all single colour plastic rather than the chrome effect I have become more accustomed to with Mach3 and Fusion shavers from Gillette. It does have replaceable heads in much the same was – with 4 blades with an Endurium coating claiming to keep the blades sharper for longer. In use I found the blades typically stayed sharp for around the same length of time as the 5 bladed fusion heads I normally use.

The actual shave it produced was very good once I had got used to a different shaving technique (mainly because the head doesn’t pivot on the handle as I am used to). It provided a smooth shave and I didn’t get any of those annoying cuts which I always seem to get when I use Wilkinson Sword Quattro razors. The end result was also about as close as I am used to getting with any competing product.

The biggest let down was the lack of holder for the razor. I am used to having a holder which holds the handle with head attached as well as some replacement heads, but KOS chose not to provide this with the Azor.

Cost wise the Azor razor are excellent value for money with the blades retailing for around £5 with 3 blades (a few quid cheaper than the Gillette Fusion range when not on offer). Heads are a comparative bargain though, also retailing for around £5 for 4 and £9 for 8. This compares to around £8 for 4 and £15 for 8 Fusion heads. There is still a huge markup on these heads though. Reports have put the costs of making a Fusion head at being around 5p so it should not be costing KOS too much more too make heads for the Azor.

Along with the new razor, KOS have also introduced some new shaving gels with the Azor branding. These are typical quality products as I would expect from KOS and I place them above the standard KOS gels and very close to the higher Kinexium products. There are 2 different gels in the range – the white pack standard and black pack menthol. I have actually now moved away from the Kinexium products to Azor gels because for the price I believe nothing helps provide a better shave.

Recently KOS have also introduced a range of razors for women which are styled on the Azor range called Azure. At first glance the appear to be the same as Azor but with different colours to appeal to women not men.

The Huntingdon centre is a converted farm with ample parking for the courses and (if the the weather is helpful) some picturesque scenery around for some landscape practice sessions. The tutor on the day (Ian) was very friendly and although teaching around 25 delegates, made time to ensure we all understood the concepts. His joking style also helped me through some of the more complicated topics like depth of field and how to calculate which settings to use for which environment. At the start of the course he also took the time to enquire what we all planned to use our cameras for, and then to tailor some of the examples to these uses.

This initial course covered using the creative modes (P, Av, Tv, M and A-DEP) to get the most out of the camera. Also covered was why lens choice also played a large part in ensuring we got good pictures. The nice part was he did not try and thrust the need for us all to go out and buy the latest greatest L-series Canon lenses (hint – these can cost many £1000). He explained that whilst the kit lens is not the best in the world, it is still an excellent lens for the money (and probably will be for many of us for the foreseeable future). The basic explanation was that Canon – like most manufacturers – produce 3 types of lens – a budget lens (silver stripe) and top end lens (L-Series) and the middle of the range lens (gold stripe). As someone who has dealt with electronics (well computers) for a number of years, this theory holds and makes sense as it allows the manufacturer to produce a product for everyone from the entry level student through to the hot shot professional. I will probably be in the silver stripe range for quite some time until I am confident of my own skills and need a better lens on the camera.

As the course went on we covered many of the possible overrides and what changes to these makes to the camera (like changing the ISO speed to something much higher can introduce so much ‘noise’ as to make a photograph unusable. This helped refresh my memory from days gone by when I used a film SLR camera. After lunch the course (a light buffet is provided as part of the course) seemed to get easier – perhaps as I began to remember some of the terminology used and how different changes cause different effects. Ian also showed us some neat tricks to taking pictures from behind fences and also a very neat trick which actually produced a picture which appeared to show a ghost on the image.

Overall I was very impressed with the course, and have since booked to go on the second part of the course where some of the more advance overrides are covered. There are 2 further parts (3 – using the flash and 4 is software) which at present I do not really feel the need to take as I am not planning on using these features too heavily.

For those who are not lucky enough to have a discount voucher, it is possible to buy both part 1 and part 2 of this course for a discounted price, with an even larger discount available for those who want to book parts 1, 2, 3 and 4 together. I would highly recommend those new to digital SLR Canon photography to take at least part 1 of the course to help them get the most out of the camera. Personally I learnt more in 1 day here than I did in reading months of magazines and dedicated camera books (I have a couple of books dedicated to the 1000d/Rebel XS/Kiss F).

The first thing most people will notice about the application is how similar some of the functions are to TomTom Navigator, which has been largely abandoned for the aftermarket. This helps people migrate from the aging TTN6 with its very out of date maps without a steep learning curve. Since TomTom also own TeleAtlas it can also be assumed that TomTom are probably going to be using McGuider as the replacement. Navigating using McGuider is simple and routes can be chosen from postal addresses, post codes (in supported countries) , points of interest (custom ones are supported as well as the built in ones), points on a map and full co-ordinates. Route calculation speed is not the fastest and long distances can take 2-4 minutes to calculate, but once calculated there is no noticeable lag between current position and listed map position. McGuider gives a highest priority to major roads meaning many minor road shortcuts are missed.  This is good for local residents but does mean you sometimes drive further following McGuider routes than you would with other satnavs. The eta timings are also very ambitious as they appear to use the speed limit of the road instead of more realistic speeds. From experience I now add about 15% to the listed times to get a more accurate eta.

McGuider fully supports custom Point of Interest files using its own proprietary UPI format and a converter is available from Sygic to convert tab delimited text files into this format. There are also a number of third party converters available to convert from other formats like TomTom’s OV2 files. Care needs to be taken with these though as Sygic changed the UPI format slightly when they released McGuider 2009, and older files no longer work. The Sygic converter does have an option to change these older UPI files into the newer UPI format though. For users of PocketGPSWorld speed camera database it is now possible to download newer releases in correctly formatted txt files to be converted easily using Sygics converter. Care does need to be taken with the icons to display on the maps as the only supported formats are 8bit (256 colour) and 32bit bmp files – most graphics applications save as 24bit by default. It is also possible to add custom voice/sound alerts to points of interest, using files in ogg format. PocketGPSWorld have a number available for their speed camera database.

To keep the application up to date there is a McGuider Assistant application provided on the SD card. This requires the card to be inserted into a card reader or the phone to be set to use a mass storage driver. Simply using ActiveSync or Windows Mobile Device Center will not work as the device does not show in MGA. TeleAtlas have recently released both a free map update and application update which should be run as they improve both post code lookups and application usability. For Symbian devices the application update is actually a necessity as it fixes a program crash when using custom POIs.

To conclude McGuider 2009 should be high on the list of potential sat nav software for Windows Mobile and Symbian based devices. It is not only cheap but also well featured. My mgsupport.co.uk is also available for answering any support questions you may have.

In the intervening time though I have been helping Matt with his karting. This year he has been comepeting in a few championships and race weekends at Little Rissington and Shenington. Although karting is fun, for me it is a bit of a let down compared to car racing I have been involved in for the past couple of years. The team have ambitions next year to race in Gineta G50′s, as long as a budget can be found to run them. These are really good cars which would test both Matt and the team to the limit. I really do hope more money can be found for next year to allow Matt to go racing, but in this time of economic uncertainty I do have doubts whether any large enough sponsors can be found.

As always, anyone who is interested in Matt or the team, please contact me for more info.

On Wednesday a decision was taken to build a new car with the aim of completing as many races this year as possible. Unfortunately we are unlikely to make the next round since it is only 4 weeks away and we are only just starting to strip the car in preparation for the roll cage to be fitted. The budget will again be tight as we currently have no sponsors but the are now actively searching for companies looking for a cheap way into motorsport promotion. We can offer promotion on the car and team website, use of the team and car for other marketing (please bear in mind that Matt is still at school so this kind of work will need to fit in around his education) & chances to enjoy a day at the races – meeting the team and watching many different racing formulas. Typically we race at many of the UKs finest circuits including Silverstone, Brands Hatch, Oulton Park and Donington Park.

If you are interested in supporting the team and wish to discuss any proposals further please contact me – initially by email to vince[at]marsters.co.uk.

Over time I will add more content here – on a truly random time frame. So don’t expect to see something new every few hours/days/weeks. Do call back again soon though.