Week in Review–December 22nd, 2012

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, Facebook, and Google Plus, 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 this past week:

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

Sunday: Week in Review–December 16th, 2012
Monday: The Santa Corrida de Noël 10K Race Report (2012)
Tuesday: Annual Public Service Announcement: How to fix heart rate strap dropouts/spikes
Friday: BKOOL Wireless ANT+ Trainer In-Depth Review
Saturday: An Istanbul Runaround

Paris Blog Posts:

Here’s all the Parisian fun we’ve been having on our Paris sub-blog.  And yup, they’re back in the main RSS feed these days!

Saturday: Getting our Christmas tree home by bicycle

To see all previous Paris Blog posts, simply click here.

The Queue posts:

The Queue is a place where I post quick galleries of products that have just started the review cycle.  Here’s more from the onslaught of new products that have come in lately (tons more planned over the next few weeks). At the moment, these don’t show up in the main RSS feed since they are just quick galleries.  You can however subscribe specifically to The Queue RSS feed here (mostly to just use it as a notification mechanism).

Monday: Wahoo Balance Bluetooth Smart Scale
Friday: Bluetooth Smart Metawatch Strata Unboxing

To see all previous Queue galleries, simply click here.

Slowtwitch Notable

Woot, I was featured over on Slowtwitch yesterday in a brief interview (live and unedited video!).

We’ll be doing a bit of a video check-in every month or so, talking a bit more next time in detail about a product segment or two.

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) New $15 USB-enabled pedometer: Interesting project that combines a USB-stick pedometer (to track steps) with a RoadID-esque pod.  Perhaps a bit big, but $15 isn’t too bad.  (via MissZippy)

2) Top 10 Most Influential People in Triathlon in 2012: There’s actually two lists here.  First is Inside Triathlon’s Magazine’s list, and then is Joel Filliol and Paulo Sousa’s list as a response.  In reality, I don’t think either one is holistically accurate.  Inside Tri’s list seems to focus more on the industry side, whereas Joel/Paulo’s list focuses mostly on the high performance racing side (especially ITU).  In my opinion, the real list would focus on those that influence the other couple hundred thousand folks that compete in triathlons each year.  I think the list is probably somewhere in between the two, though probably slightly more geared toward Inside Tri’s list.  Still, good names to know on both lists.

3) For the ladies: Two weeks ago I posted in my Week in Review some athletic photography content geared towards men (or ladies who appreciate ladies).  Since I’m an equal opportunity poster, this one is more for the women (or, the guys that like guys).  It comes from a running race in Boston…with rather little clothing involved.  (Thanks to Christina for sending in).

4) A Cycling Photographic Year in Review: Albeit perhaps a bit Aussie focused, there re still a ton of great photos in there, well worth it.

5) An incredibly well put together NYT article/project on last year’s deadly ski accident: Last year just beyond the boundaries of Stevens Pass (near Seattle, a ski area I ski every year) there was an avalanche that took out a large group of some of the world’s most elite backcountry skiers, killing three of them.  This NYT’s micro-site is pretty incredible, well worth reading and browsing through.

6) A really, really, really big tree: Given how many of us hang out in the woods running, cycling or doing whatever it is that you do – I figure most will appreciate this incredible composite photograph of the worlds second largest tree.  Be sure to scroll to the bottom and look at the person and the scale involved.

7) Treadmill Fails: Leave it to Steve to search out a couple of good Friday treadmill fail videos.  A solid way to start off your weekend (especially since the world didn’t end).

8) Wanna charge your USB device directly from your snowboard?  Apparently, there’s hope for ya.  Though designed for charging the iPhone, it looks like a standard USB charger into the binding area.

9) NYC Marathon offers refunds or redo: Good move by them to try and fix what has been a stream of missteps from the organization.  (via…my Dad)

10) A rather loud bike horn: Pretty cool concept.  Watch the video, I like that I can give a quick friendly boop versus a bigger honk.  For the price, I went ahead and bought in.  The timelines are a bit long (especially if you had a good few months for the Kickstarter lateness factor).  Go to about the 1:40ish marker on the video for the different sounds/etc…

 

11) Openstreet Maps (OSM Maps) available for Garmin Fenix: This would allow you to get some better resolution maps on your Garmin Fenix unit.  It’s not a supported solution by Garmin, though I suspect that matters to few. (Via GPS Tracklog Weekly Waypoints)

12) A rich time for endurance sports events: Steve Fleck looks at just how incredibly diverse and wide the options are for endurance athletes these days.

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 is perfect, or Tweet it at me) 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?

FINIS Releases a new Swimsense Log: This is for their Swimsense and Hydrotracker devices, includes both a new desktop client as well as website.

TrainerRoad adds ability to change username: Pretty straightforward, and a nice little update.

iPhone Apps that were updated this week:

 

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