Being able to communicate directly with people all over the world helps me share my thoughts and opinions, but I was dubious whether there was an app out there that could positively affect my health and well-being. I’ve done my research on this and there are plenty that assist in helping achieve a balanced and healthy lifestyle, but last week I came across one, costing 99p, that has since made me re-evaluate the true power of the iPhone.

It’s called Sleep Cycle.

Sleep Cycle uses the sensitive accelerometer in your iPhone to monitor your movement in bed. It then determines the best time to wake you up by measuring your sleep phases, and rousing you when you are in the lightest sleep phase. You can of course set a half hour period in which it does this.

A natural way to wake up where you feel rested and relaxed.

I was dubious at first but was swayed by the positive reviews on the app store. But it works! I’ve been using it for a few days and have instantly noticed a difference. Even the alarm sounds are a massive improvement on the standard alarm, and the fact you can review and save a chart of your sleep phases night after night is a huge plus.

Now you may not be aware of the fact I’ve just become a dad again for the third time recently, and am loving it! But, believe me, I have years of experience in dealing with sleep deprivation and understand how it can really affect your day.

Sleep Cycle doesn’t shut my kids up or tuck them back into bed (how I wish there was an app for that!) but anything that eases the affect of interrupted sleep and helps me come to my senses in these dark, miserable mornings is a winner in my opinion.

It may also have woken me up to the true potential of iPhone apps.

This book came to my attention via a colleague of mine (@mspownall) who sent a link to a competition on the e-consultancy website. I’d never heard of the book, or the author, but e-consultancy is a trusted resource of mine so I entered it. All I had to do was explain what my passion was.

I sent an email:

My passion is…divided. Work/life balance is very important to me, so family always comes first. Parenting is a hugely rewarding challenge, especially when you have 3 children at the age of 28! Professionally I thrive collaborating on exciting, innovative products and campaigns for a variety of clients.

Anyway, a few days later I received an email with the subject line WINNER. Bonus! Another few days went by and the book landed on my desk. A signed version no less. Queue the questions from everyone in the office asking who the hell Gary Vaynerchuk was.

“No idea” was my reply.

But hey, what better way to find out than stick my nose in on my daily travels to and from work!

It turns out Gary is a the epitome of the American dream. And was recently listed in the top 10 internet entrepreneurs of the moment.

Born in Bosnia (or Serbia, I can’t remember) he moved over to America when he was a young lad, and eventually ended up working at his fathers liquor store. He’d always had an entrepreneurial instinct but working day in day out in a liquor store has it’s limits.

Then the spark happened.

Gary discovered the Internet.

There are lots of similar stories out there, granted, but Gary’s sheer enthusiasm for the power of the Internet, and belief in following and promoting the one thing you are truly passionate about really struck a chord with me. He also stresses the importance of personal branding, and delivers some great insight into how to promote yourself whilst remaining true to your personality. He is a family man, like myself, and it is refreshing to hear that you can put family first, but still ‘crush it’.

Anyway, this lad Gary really knew his stuff when it came to wine, so he set up a video blog, pimped himself all over forums and the social web, and Winelibrary.tv was born.

The hard work didn’t stop there though. His straight forward language and abrasive style really caught on, and his sheer determination and effort to engage fully with customers and prospective viewers/ customers very quickly made him his fortune.

He now runs a consultancy firm that guides businesses on how to reap rewards from the Internet.

It’s a really easy to read book. Gary’s personality really comes across and his advice is spot on.

Passion + hard work + good use of online tools = success

Simple as.

You can buy the book from Amazon or if you want further views email me at mail@kevcharlton.com – (tip from Gary, include your email address as often as you can )

Yup, it seems that the recession has turned everyone towards growing their own veg! It costs an arm and a leg to get a decent salad nowadays, so it’s good to see more and more people turning their back on overpriced supermarket veg and returning to good old allotments.

I’ve had mine, which me and the missus share with friends of ours, for about 6 months now and it’s starting to take shape. We took it over after a guy got kicked off for mis-treating chickens, so now all the bones, and glass, and nails have been removed, and after a lot of back breaking work, we’re finally starting to see some results.

I’ve uploaded some pics on flickr for now…but it’s still early days. Watch this space.

Also keep an eye on Landshare, which is a collaboration between River Cottage, Mint Digital and Channel 4. It basically matches up people who have spare land, with aspiring gardeners looking for allotment space. Great idea, and fantastic to see the web having an impact on real life issues.

So a few days after getting back from btween09 and on reflection it was an amazing experience. For those who don’t know btween is an Interactive Digital Media Forum set up by Just.b Productions in Sheffield. It was sponsored by the likes of The Guardian, The Big British Castle, Ogilvy and NewMediaAge and attracts some of the brightest minds from the worlds of Advertising, Creative Technology, Film, Games, Mobile, TV and Web.

It was spread over two days so there was a lot to take in, but it was an extremely inspiring few days. I loved the twitterfall feed screen, and the way that opened up the debates to the audience, and the venue itself (Fact in Liverpool) was a great place.

As well as the great talks and debates I did pick up on a few sites/projects that I hadn’t come across before! As ever, I’ve bookmarked these under a specific tag in delicious. Check them out here: http://delicious.com/kev_charlton/btween.

Below is a short video created by Ogilvy at the end of the first day. Looking forward to btween10 already!