Week in Review–June 13th, 2016

The Week in Review is a collection of both all the goodness I’ve written during the past week around the internet, as well as a small pile of links I found interesting – generally endurance sports related. I’ve often wondered what to do with all of the coolness that people write, and while I share a lot of it on Twitter and Facebook, this is a better forum for sending it on to y’all. Most times these different streams don’t overlap, so be on the lookout at all these places for good stuff!

So with that, let’s get into the action!

DCRainmaker.com posts in the past week:

Here’s all the goodness that ended up on the main page of DCRainmaker.com this past week.

Sunday: Week in Review–June 5th, 2016
Monday: 5 Random Things I Did This Weekend
Tuesday: Suunto rolls out refreshed Movescount site, announces new Spartan Ultra GPS watch
Wednesday: Hands-on with new Withings Body Cardio WiFi Scale
Thursday: Dîner en Blanc 2016–the best night in Paris!
Friday: Garmin Forerunner 735XT In-Depth Review

Sports Tech Goodness on sale!

The theme of this week’s sale is definitely ‘The last sale is new again’.  Technically these are all Father’s Day sales, but in reality, they are merely Mother’s Day sales rebranded.  Either way, stuff be on sale, and you be savin’ money.

Fitbit Charge HR – $129 (was $149) – In-depth review here

Polar A300 – $79 (was $99) – Hands-on here

Mio Alpha 2 – $129 (was $149) – Hands-on here

Garmin Vivofit – $49 (was $79) – Review here
Garmin Vivofit with HRM strap – $79 (was $109) – Review here
Garmin Vivofit2 – $69 (was $99) – Hands-on here
Garmin Vivofit2 with HRM strap – $99 (was $129) – Hands-on here
Garmin Vivosmart HR – $129 (was $149) – Review here
Garmin Vivoactive – $169 (was $249) – Review here
Garmin Vivoactive with HRM strap – $199 (was $299) – Review here
Garmin Forerunner 15 GPS watch – $99 (was $119) – Review here
Garmin Forerunner 15 GPS watch with HRM strap – $129 (was $149) – Review here

I would not see any of these sales as indicative of something immediately new coming that replaces them.  Rather, this is mostly just having a sale on slightly older products given the excuse of a holiday to market it with.

YouTube videos I made:

Ok, technically I didn’t really make this first one.  I mean, sure, I setup a camera of which the footage was used.  And there is another which has additional footage I shot.  But otherwise it was 99% David from our Diner en Blanc last week.  But I’m in it a bunch!  Oh, and The Girl too!

Stuff that I found interesting around the interwebs:

Here’s a not-so-small smattering of all the random things that I stumbled on while doing my civic duty to find the end of the Internet:

1) Hidden Motor Scandal Part 2: Just wait until part 18 or so. I’m almost certain it’s really gonna get better, sorta like Orange is the New Black – it’ll take a while to get cookin’.  Note the linked story is in English, which explains the video segment below that aired this weekend (in French).

2) Garmin FR230 tear-down: I’ve always wanted to do these, and it’s so rare that anyone does one that covers the endurance sports space (usually just things like iPhones). I think it’d be fun from a photographic side if done rather cleanly like some big tech sites.  The challenge is I just don’t know enough about the chipset components to make it interesting enough. Shame. (via Eli)

3) TomTom rolls out underwater correction mode for Bandit action camera: Pretty cool to see. It’s interesting though. For close-up fish on coral shots I like using something that gets rid of the blue. However, if I’m shooting something wider (i.e. a whale shark), then I find the blue background feels far more natural.  Seems like I’ll have to go back to the Maldives (where I first tested the TomTom Bandit action cam) to test this mode…

4) Lenovo outs a smart shoe? Not sure I’d be buying my footwear from a laptop company…though, I suspect like most things that you see at these types of events – I doubt it’ll ever come to market.  Still, neat to see continued innovation.  It sounds very similar to the Under Armour smart running shoe I tested this winter.

5) NYC’s underground half-marathon: Well, not really underground, but sorta.  Either way, cool idea for a race.  Sorta more like taking the concept of some of the adventure races where you need only hit each checkpoint and everything in between is up to you. (via Randy)

6) City using Strava data to ban mountain bikers: Really interesting, though also disappointing.  However, legally Strava speeds would be unlikely to hold up in court. Just too much error for using GPS instant-speed while mountain biking, especially with aspects like smart recording or switchbacks to consider.  That’s like taking the absolute worst possible accuracy case and trying to use that as being true. (via Randy)

7) Please don’t wear 10 fitness trackers at once to test them: Especially for heart rate data where for wrist based ones, it’ll interfere with each other, which impacts your HR accuracy data.  For steps, it’s not as big a deal, but it certainly can if the weight of all those trackers starts to impact natural movement.  My general rule of thumb these days is no more than one optical HR device per wrist, or no more than two non-optical HR devices per wrist (separated by a spacer).  In talking with companies in the space, they don’t have a problem with that test design either.

8) Bike thief lassoed and stopped by man on horse: Because…ummm…’Merica?  Seriously, just watch the video.

Sports Technology Software/Firmware Updates This Week:

Each week I quickly highlight some of the new firmware, app, software and website service updates that I see go out. If you’re a sports technology company and release an update – shoot me a quick note (just one liners are perfect, or Tweet it at me is even better) and I’ll make mention of it here. If I don’t know about it, I won’t be able to post about it. Sound good?  Oh – and if you want to get a head start on things, this page is a great resource for watching Garmin firmware updates.

TomTom and Sport Tracks add automatic sync: Apparently TomTom was busy last week, also adding in connectivity with Sport Tracks (to their new underwater camera mode).

Wahoo ELEMNT firmware update: Two bug fixes this week.

Polar M400 firmware update: Some minor tweaks/adds, plus some bug fixes.

Garmin Edge 1000 firmware update: Handful of new features, including being able to set ride type. Also some bug fixes.

Garmin Edge 520 firmware update: Same as Edge 1000.  The ride type feature on both is particularly well implemented.

Garmin Edge 25 firmware update: Boatload of bug fixes and small new features.

Garmin Forerunner 25 firmware update: Mostly bug fixes.

Garmin Fenix3/Tactix Bravo/Quatix 3 BETA firmware update: Minor bug fix. F3HR variant here.

Tip of the week to companies: If you have an RSS feed for updates I can subscribe, like Garmin, Polar, Adidas, Wahoo, and others – it’s nearly 100% how I remember to find these updates.  If you lack that, I likely won’t have your updates in the above.  Plus, users like it too.

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Thanks for reading all, have a great weekend!