Thanks for the great article, very interesting to track what is happening in this space.

Just wondered whether you felt there was a possibility of this technology filtering back to other trainers. There are a few of our group that have the Lemond UT. I was thinking as this has a USB port, measures power, heart rate and changes resistance based on the loaded firmware – it wouldn’t be to much of a stretch to modify the firmware to accept instructions from a Ant+ USB would it? Or am I just dreaming…..

…finally, note that *each* profile defines its own sets of data pages for each “mode”.

You can have a different set of data pages for each of watch, track, nav & indoor, and all that is unique for each profile.

Then change profile, and set up another set of data pages for each mode.

This is hugely configurable, and a real pain to do on the fenix itself.

Fortunately, someone has recently written both a document describing the numerical fields in the profile GPF files, *and* an Excel spreadsheet “profile builder”:

link to forums.garmin.com

The profile/data pages thing is a bit confusing, being rather over-engineered yet not well documented.

As you know, a data page is a collection of 1, 2 or 3 data fields displayed together, where the data fields are chosen from a large array of possibilities, plus a few full-screen/with-graph ones.

These data pages are combined into sets, with the data pages for the “active” set shown in sequence when you use the RHS up/down buttons.

The fenix has 4 modes of operation, and each mode has its own unique set of data pages. Each set can have as many data pages as you want, I think. Only one set is active at any one time, depending on which mode of operation is in use.

The 4 modes relate to the GPS state, and they are:

1. GPS off
2. “Tracking” – GPS on, not navigating
3. “Navigating” – GPS on, navigating, e.g. routing to a Waypoint
4. “Indoor” – GPS set to “Indoor” (Setup – System – GPS Mode)

Again, each of the 4 modes above has its own set of data pages, through which you traverse using the RHS up and down buttons.

Mode 1 – “watch” mode – is odd: its set of data pages is not configurable (about the only thing on the fenix which isn’t).

It displays: time, compass, altimeter, barometer, temperature, heart-rate and world-time (the latter only if extra TZ have been configured). You cannot change which data pages are displayed, nor which fields are in each.

For modes 2, 3 & 4 above, you may configure a separate set of data pages for each, in Setup – Data Pages – .

Which set of data pages is currently “in use” will depend on whether the GPS is on or off, and if it is on, whether it is set to Indoor or not, and if GPS on but not Indoor, whether you are currently navigating.

I hope that helps – please reply if I’ve made anything unclear…

In the meantime, I’ll poke them on why the app isn’t available there.

Thanks for the comments!

I wouldn’t necessarily tie REI’s stocking to others. I know that most distributors heard sometime very late March, early April (which is how it leaked out across the internet). Mid-2012 wouldn’t have made any sense, far too early. Distributors would never be told that early, as it would have easily leaked out then. Almost every leak you see out there today in the sports technology world comes from distributors/retailers posting pricing information.

Each company decides what to stock. For example, Clever Training could certainly stock the silver version if they wanted. It’s just a matter of them requesting it to be sent over, it’s available from their upstream distributors (I realize your example is REI, but I can’t speak for their thoughts).

At this point though, most retailers I talk to are simply trying to get rid of the Ambit1′s and get them out before they become any more undesirable than they already are. :-/

Which, just to edit/add that I’m not absolving Suunto of blame here. Just providing perspective on the retailer side of things.