![WeekInReview_thumb_thumb_thumb_thumb[1]](https://media.dcrainmaker.com/images/2014/04/WeekInReview_thumb_thumb_thumb_thumb1.jpg "WeekInReview_thumb_thumb_thumb_thumb[1]")
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 past week.
Sunday: Week in Review–April 6th, 2014
Monday: 5 Random Things I Did This Weekend
Wednesday: First look at the new Garmin Edge 1000
Gadget Hot Deals Ending (and Starting) Shortly!
Garmin Edge 500 – $159: This is pretty straight forward. Clever Training has the little cycling unit down to $159 until the end of Monday. Just a short 7-day stay. Free shipping as well. The DCR code does not apply here because it’s a deep-discount sale, but it still supports the site.
TomTom Runner + Heart Rate Strap – $199: This sale stats today, April 13th, and continues until April 26th for the Runner edition. This is a reduction from the normal rate of $219. Note, this is not the newly released Cardio optical edition.
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) Uber launches bike courier service in Manhattan: While certainly not the first company to do so, it’ll be interesting to see if they can do better than past entrants.
2) Half-Marathon sorta-cancels race, sorta doesn’t – due to lack of water: Well, this looks like a grand cluster! Just read on to to get the full low-down on the race morning mess. Sent in by reader (and runner in the race), Mick W.
3) Test your running knowledge in this quiz: Ok, well, I got off to a good start. Then things went downhill.
4) In New Exhibit, Running Shoes Are Potent Symbol Of Boston Bombing: This is a exhibition of objects left at the site after the bombing, now on display at the Boston Public Library.
5) Dear World: Boston Marathon: Survivors and responders return to the finish line to tell their stories. Worth clicking on through.
6) Hexoskin Wearable Body Metrics: Basically, you plug your clothes in and get various athletic metrics during activity. That said, it’s sorta expensive looking. (Thanks to Bob G. for sending in)
7) Some mountain bike sweetness: Mostly because it’s super-high resolution (4K/2K), and just looks incredible. Be sure you’re on HD mode! (via Race Radio)
8) Everything you wanted to know about Shimano Di2: While trying to figure out what exactly I needed to order to make my bike Di2 friendly for upcoming product tests, I stumbled on this page. Very well done, and impressively already updated for details around support of the Edge 1000 & Mio 505. That said, I still wish there was a simple shopping list generator somewhere for all these parts. Ultimately, ended up just calling my local bike shop to let them order/install it all for me.
9) Ironman Maryland announced! This will take the place of what was Chesapeakeman (a race I did the duathlon in a few years back). Starting this fall, cool stuff!
10) Modifications for the cobbles of Paris-Roubaix: The epic race is today (Sunday the 13th) starting nearby-ish Paris and is well know for the cobbles. This post goes into some of the tweaks the bikes have had done specifically for this race.
Crowd Funded Projects of Athletic Note:
Most of this content used to be found within the main section, but I figured I’d just call it out up here and make it easy to find. I regularly sift through Kickstarter and Indiegogo (plus a few others on occasion) looking for sports projects. Note that as always with crowd funded projects, assume the project will be late and will under-deliver on features. Thus far, on the numerous products I’ve helped ‘fund’ (except a leather bike handle), that’s been the case. And finally, me simply mentioning them below is definitely not an endorsement, it’s just me mentioning they exist.
Hoop Tracker: Basketball Shot Tracking SmartWatch
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 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?
Site/Firmware Updates:
Garmin Fenix2 Firmware Update: Another slew of updates and tweaks.
Quarq Firmware V21: A bunch of minor firmware updates and tweaks. Note, requires the Quarq app & if on iOS, then the Wahoo ANT+ adapter to update. (via Bob G.)
Cycling Analytics site updates: They’ve added in torque effectiveness and pedal smoothness, and done so in a pretty cool way that actually makes the data look useful. Check out the graphs. Very nice stuff.
TomTom List of Planned Features: Woot! Great to see sports tech companies outlining their plans for the year. This is a list of what’s coming for the watch and the platform. Nicely done.
TomTom fitness unit firmware updates: This adds in heart rate training zones and various bug fixes.
Adidas Speed Cell Now supports running without a watch: This is really cool. The unit now supports being able to download runs afterwards to the app. So you just wear the footpod on your run, that’s all. And then afterwards you can download the whole run. Previously, the app was really only geared for various team sports.
Magellan Active Website Update: They’ve added a quick gallery of apps that support the Magellan Echo watch, as well as a few other miscellaneous items.
iPhone Updates:
iPad Updates:
(None)
Android App Updates:
Windows Phone App Updates:
—-
Thanks for reading!
FOUND THIS POST USEFUL? SUPPORT THE SITE!
Hopefully, you found this post useful. The website is really a labor of love, so please consider becoming a DC RAINMAKER Supporter. This gets you an ad-free experience, and access to our (mostly) bi-monthly behind-the-scenes video series of “Shed Talkin’”.
Support DCRainMaker - Shop on Amazon
Otherwise, perhaps consider using the below link if shopping on Amazon. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. It doesn’t cost you anything extra, but your purchases help support this website a lot. It could simply be buying toilet paper, or this pizza oven we use and love.
I received an update for garmin forerunner 620 a couple of days ago. Any idea what was in the update?
More than likely you’re referring to the 2.60 update for the FR620. I will list the updates below for this specific update but for more details see the official Garmin page at link to www8.garmin.com.
Changes made from version 2.50 to 2.60:
Enable operation of WIFI channels 12 and 13 by region.
Corrected WIFI communication errors on certain networks.
Corrected issued with GPS failing to update when GPS is disabled.
Various minor fixes.
Changes made from version 2.30 to 2.50:
Added feature to allow the CONNECT key to wake the device and start a Wi-Fi transfer.
Fixed issue where running dynamics data could drop out during an activity.
Fixed issue where the reported battery capacity could be inaccurate.
Improvements to indoor distance and pace calculations.
Fixed issue related to the recovery adviser feature not displaying properly.
Improvements to the interaction between foot pod and GPS.
Fixed issue with resetting totals not working correctly.
Added feature to inform the user when returning to the target range of a workout step.
Fixed various issues with smartphone connectivity and the LiveTrack feature.
Fixed issue with running workouts contained in triathlon/mixed sport schedules not being retained on the device.
Fixed several other minor issues.
Updated translations.
Changes made from version 2.20 to 2.30:
Fixed an issue where the watch could still display UTC for time of day after acquiring a GPS fix, regardless of the user’s current time zone.
Disabled Wi-Fi auto upload attempts while the device is charging to prevent a potential issue which could drain the battery.
RossM, received FW as well, this is GPS firmware update. Tried with few runs, distances measured are around 2% more, on same routes with old FW, not sure if this is good or bad.-)
Last week was the firmware update, this week was a chipset update. Typically speaking chipet updates are to address various items in the GPS chipset. It usually doesn’t introduce a wholesale massive shift in accuracy (though, it can), but often addresses edge cases.
You can easily track most Garmin firmware updates here: link to gpsinformation.net
I wasn’t sure if you were just going to include it in next week’s list but Nike+ Running was just updated with the ability to add a run. Oddly, the update included auto-pause but I’ve had that active on mine since 1-2 updates ago.
I really like the addition of the ability to add runs in the mobile app as I no longer use Nike products or software to record my runs. I use a Garmin FR620 and then manually input the data into the Nike+ app in order to keep the social aspect going with my numerous friends who only use Nike. I prefer the details provided by Garmin Connect and Runkeeper Elite.
Looks like Garmin turned on a lot more of the “modern” Garmin Connect site this morning. I’m a Vivofit user but now the sports centric stuff is coming online… weight, calendar, training plans etc. are all there in their “big” page format but the mini-desktop widgets for many just have place holders. You no longer really need to go to the “classic” site and can do everything from the modern page.
All that said… horrible UI, not a single thing new that is anything other than slightly different looking… so there is that.
Yeah, slowly but surely adding in the rest of the pieces. That said, I’m still not a fan. Kinda agree with your take – I didn’t get anything new out of it functionality-wise (except Vivofit stuffs), and ultimately the data displays feels more cobbled together than before.
Totally agree.
Garmin does not ever seem to grasp the various ways people would use Connect. They just grabs bits and pieces of ideas from other sites and slap them together.
No daily runner motivation or social features like Daily Mile.
For the data obsessed, deep dive metrics trends are completely buried in individual activities.
Group and trainer based functionality is non-existent.
Size of modules isn’t compatible with displaying useful trends or graphs.
Still no swimming workout options; has been listed as ‘Coming soon!’ for 2 years.
Ray, thanks for the mention of my Di2 article. Per your suggestion, I added a section entitled “What Components do I need to put together my own Di2 system?”
If there’s anything you need, please let me know.
Awesome, nicely done!
Quarq has now added a firmware update section to their website, with the changelog of all versions of firmware.
link to quarq.com
Awesome, thanks! Just updated to that instead. Much better! Now, if only I could convince Stages to do the same as well…
Man that MT bike video made me feel old.
Ray, did you go for Ui2 or Di2?
I had my Di2 given to me, but despite being a long term Dura Ace user, if I’d had to pay, then I think I would’ve gone for UI2 since I think the price premium on the Dura Ace is no longer worth the money.
I’ve also had some reliability issues with the 11 speed Cassette on Dura Ace (on my second one, and this ones on the way out too), and based on a thread on weight weenies, others have had issues too… Apparently the Ultegra equivalent is fine though!
Shimano seem to be quietly ignoring the problem.
Current plan is Ultegra, but, gotta sort that out on Tuesday when the LBS opens back up.
The temp in strava seems a bit high this weekend for recorded rides
FYI- Bought the Edge 500 earlier this week and the code did work. $143.99! WooHoo!!!
Having issues with my fenix 2 update. Ran a half marathon on Saturday. At mile 5 I lost my HRM-RUN connection. Could not get it back. At 8.38 it locked up and had to be power button reset. I was able to resume the activity but lost a full mile. Killed my virtual partner pace. Went from about 15 seconds ahead to 6:30 behind when it rebooted. Fortunately I knew about where I was on my pace and it was all downhill from there so I was able to keep ahead and beat my goal. Still would not reconnect to the heart rate strap until I ended the activity and restarted the watch. Did not have any of these issues on my 12 mile run the weekend before before the update.
Ray,
just curious. Is there a lot of difference with calories calculated on a 810 with/without using a powermeter?
It’s generally in the same ballpark, usually not spot-on, but pretty close.
Ray, I’m curious about the Hooptracker. Well, in generic terms, I’m curious if you’ve seen any work in higher resolution INDOOR position tracking? I read through the Hooptracker page only to be disappointed at the end to find it’s not tracking your position in any way, it actually tells YOU where to shoot from and keeps score. I figured it had to be that way, but it still made me wonder…
So any work being done in that arena (heh)? As far as I know, you’d really need to add triangulation in some way, which would mean putting a couple radio transmitters on the court on each side of the mid-court line and then have one in the shot sensor. But with no low cost building blocks for this technology, well, the cost is going to go through the roof (yeah, I did it again).
Curious if you’ve seen anything happening in your trade show travels.
–Donnie
There has been talks about it, some of it being done by Google and others for doing indoor GPS acquisition. There was an article somewhere about it last year sometime, relating to malls. I think we’re a long ways away from seeing it either commonplace in indoor sports, or to the point of having high enough accuracy in indoor sports.
I have seen similar technology being used in an entirely different realm. Take a look at the way this device works:
link to amazon.com
I feel like something like this could be used to do indoor sports position tracking.
Actually, Mitch, I don’t see that as something that will work. It’s using one broadcast point and combining that with what it knows about its own ability to move. Basically it’s getting data from itself likely using wheel speed. You can’t do that with an athlete.
Thanks for the reply, Ray. Sounds like there’s not much more than what I already knew about. 🙁
It would be way cooler to combine some high res position data with accelerometers/gyro inside a watch to know when you actually shoot a ball that you could get some really interesting basketball workout data, anyway. Not sure it’s terribly useful for too many other spectator professional sports, though, so likely not enough money around to drive it…
–Donnie
Isn’t that exactly what Apple’s iBeacon does/will do?
No. As I understand iBeacon, it will give you fairly detailed proximity information in terms of distance from your phone to the beacon. But I don’t think the range is designed to go 50′, I think it’s more like 30′. If it can go more like 75′ reliably in an open room, then you could theoretically create your own app that could listen to three beacons (since they are BTLE, not standard BT) and calculate position. But I doubt the accuracy is quite good enough to get fairly accurate position data on a basketball court. *shrug*
–Donnie
I was hoping that the new “modern” update to Garmin Connect would give us some more metrics in planning our workouts. Actually, I was hoping for just one- 3sec average power as a cycling target metric. It is really annoying to make your workout online in Connect, send it to your device and then go into your device and have to change instant power it to average power (as the actual numbers reset too).
Unfortunately, nothing to do with workouts has changed. yet…?
Hi Ray, I was researching about Hexoskin and was wondering whether you wrote something about it. And I found only this little notice. Do you have it on your “to-do” list, do you plan reviewing it? Thanks for your answer and your great work! Barbora
No, nothing written about it yet – haven’t tried one. Sorry!
Thank you anyway! Hope you will give it a try 🙂