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.
4) Think you travel a lot or know places well? Try out this highly addicting Google Earth game where you try and pin-point the location just purely based on Streetview. You get five rounds to increase your score. Incredibly addicting.
7) Specialized opens up in-house wind tunnel: Interesting stuff. Though, I view this more as a marketing/PR benefit than one that’s purely technical (obviously there’s still benefits there too). It allows for arguments such as “We’re the only company to have an in-house wind tunnel”. That said, would love to get some testing time in there. Another article with other photos here.
8)The bat-mo-bike? Well, something like that. Worth the read through.
12) Android affirms support for Bluetooth 4.0 sensors: While some may see this as a good thing – in reality, this announcement is actually bad. And it’s not bad because of the announcement itself, but because they’re basically saying it’s going to be months until it happens. Right now the only way apps and devices get Bluetooth 4.0 (Bluetooth Smart) support on Android is when a given app developer puts/cobbles together a custom solution for it. Nothing standardized. The hope was back at CES (January) that they’d announce operability and integration into the OS within weeks. Now they’re saying months to ‘later this year’ depending on who you ask. Really a big bummer – and a huge disappointment for those hoping to see support for things like the Wahoo KICKR, heart rate/power/speed/cadence/etc sensors and others via Bluetooth Smart on Android. I bet we don’t see anything now until September at best. :(
Crowd Funded Projects of Athletic Note:
This is a bit of a new section. 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.
Pocket-integrated sports bras: These sports bras include an integrated front pocket which allows storage of all sorts of things from phones to keys to iPods. Or just a pile of gels. Their product is out there already, their goal with the Kickstarter campaign is to bring manufacturing to the US.
Plume – Recoiling Mudguard: Plume is a recoiling mudguard for your bike. It’s designed to extend when in use, and then recoil back up when not in use.
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?
4iiii’s sending out updated Viiiiva’s: I don’t have a link for this, but all registered users were sent an e-mail. If you didn’t receive one, hit up 4iiii’s support to see if a new strap needs to be sent out (free).
Ok, so my iPad found these two iPad apps were updated from the week before:
Android App Updates this week:
Windows Phone App updates this week:
(There were no Windows Phone updates for sports apps that I have this week)
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Thanks for reading!
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Hey Ray, I started reading your site a couple of weeks ago and I’m really enjoying it, especially the race reports.
Before I started using your site I got an Ultrasport Navrun 500 to use as my first GPS watch. I can’t seem to find a review of it on your site or in the Guardian article you linked. Is it a company that you’ve had much contact with, and am I loseing out on anything by using it as opposed to a similarly priced (£80~$120) gps watch?
I haven’t talked with them yet. In general I try and review products that are globally available (or working out global distribution), and I think the Ultrasport is primarily UK based. Looking at the specs, it looks like it’s roughly in the camp of something like the Garmin FR10. If you’re happy with it, I’d see no reason to change honestly. In most cases accuracy tends to be pretty good across a broad range of units in the market today, and for most people the how far/fast/long pieces is most critical – all the bells and whistles come later.
Thanks for the reply, I didn’t realise it wasn’t available more widely. It seems to be a little short on distance compared to a friend’s nike+ app but does the job for me.
Keep up the awesome work, I have no idea how you manage to post everyday
Seeing the Polar Beat update reminded me to check if it’s available in the New Zealand App Store yet… alas, still no.
However, I did note that Polar has released a Bluetooth Stride Sensor (US & Canada only at this stage). Looks like they may be glacially moving to open (as opposed to private) standards?
Time again to go annoy the Polar twitter, e-mail, etc. folks about that release to NZ App Store!
Indeed, it’s their plan to move towards BLE. They’re making good progress on that in the app world. I’ll have an update/review on the stride sensor in late May.
In the meantime, I’ll poke them on why the app isn’t available there.
We naturally would like to get it all over the globe but have to be patient with Apple’s app store accepting the app to their selection everywhere.
We update the countries at the link as we get it out there. I personally am not aware of the reasons why the app is not yet available there but am hopeful that we’ll get it there eventually. link to polar.com
Not sure what I think of this one: link to kickstarter.com
Looks like its a fitness tracker and uses heart rate variablity(hrv) as the thing it measures with an emphsis on your breathing. (hrv data can show the breathing rate of a person as your heart rate changesa bit depending on if you just breathed out or just breathed in) But not sure how much analysizing they are really doing and if how they intepret the data means anything.
Seems cool from the tech side but I hate the shape the currently are. The shape of the drop bar version as my normal position on the hoods of my brakes when on my road bike wouldn’t work with the hard right angle there. The bullhorn shape seems like it wouldn’t work on a mountain bike based commuter as there is no place to put the shifters and brakes (looks cone shaped near the stem and flattened at the handles) Guess they are aiming at single speed bikes.
The braclet: Hmm, interesting. I’m not sure what to think of it either. I like the industrial design, but agree with you on the data aspects being potentially questionable as far as analytics go.
The bars: Really cool integration – love the internals of it. But solid bummer that they don’t have more shapes and for non SS bikes.
Going by the comment section it seems like the founders all use single speeds so that why thats all they are showing in the pics, but they aren’t quite the final shapes
Is it me or is the plume a giant slap bracelet so if you hit a bump like a pothole it could roll up on its own.
For those interested in visabilioty there is: link to kickstarter.com
But not sure how durable the reflective material is as it seems like the exposed style that wears very quickly. And for caring about being scene a camo pattern is the wrong approch as that would make your body shape stick out less causing you to be a bit harder to see.
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FAQ’s
I have built an extensive list of my most frequently asked questions. Below are the most popular.
You probably stumbled upon here looking for a review of a sports gadget. If you’re trying to decide which unit to buy – check out my in-depth reviews section. Some reviews are over 60 pages long when printed out, with hundreds of photos! I aim to leave no stone unturned.
I travel a fair bit, both for work and for fun. Here’s a bunch of random trip reports and daily trip-logs that I’ve put together and posted. I’ve sorted it all by world geography, in an attempt to make it easy to figure out where I’ve been.
The most common question I receive outside of the “what’s the best GPS watch for me” variant, are photography-esq based. So in efforts to combat the amount of emails I need to sort through on a daily basis, I’ve complied this “My Photography Gear” post for your curious minds (including drones & action cams!)! It’s a nice break from the day-to-day sports-tech talk, and I hope you get something out of it!
Many readers stumble into my website in search of information on the latest and greatest sports tech products. But at the end of the day, you might just be wondering “What does Ray use when not testing new products?”. So here is the most up to date list of products I like and fit the bill for me and my training needs best! DC Rainmaker 2023 swim, bike, run, and general gear list. But wait, are you a female and feel like these things might not apply to you? If that’s the case (but certainly not saying my choices aren’t good for women), and you just want to see a different gear junkies “picks”, check out The Girl’s Gear Guide too.
Hey Ray, I started reading your site a couple of weeks ago and I’m really enjoying it, especially the race reports.
Before I started using your site I got an Ultrasport Navrun 500 to use as my first GPS watch. I can’t seem to find a review of it on your site or in the Guardian article you linked. Is it a company that you’ve had much contact with, and am I loseing out on anything by using it as opposed to a similarly priced (£80~$120) gps watch?
Thanks
Hi Nick!
Thanks for the note!
I haven’t talked with them yet. In general I try and review products that are globally available (or working out global distribution), and I think the Ultrasport is primarily UK based. Looking at the specs, it looks like it’s roughly in the camp of something like the Garmin FR10. If you’re happy with it, I’d see no reason to change honestly. In most cases accuracy tends to be pretty good across a broad range of units in the market today, and for most people the how far/fast/long pieces is most critical – all the bells and whistles come later.
Good luck!
Thanks for the reply, I didn’t realise it wasn’t available more widely. It seems to be a little short on distance compared to a friend’s nike+ app but does the job for me.
Keep up the awesome work, I have no idea how you manage to post everyday
Seeing the Polar Beat update reminded me to check if it’s available in the New Zealand App Store yet… alas, still no.
However, I did note that Polar has released a Bluetooth Stride Sensor (US & Canada only at this stage). Looks like they may be glacially moving to open (as opposed to private) standards?
Time again to go annoy the Polar twitter, e-mail, etc. folks about that release to NZ App Store!
Indeed, it’s their plan to move towards BLE. They’re making good progress on that in the app world. I’ll have an update/review on the stride sensor in late May.
In the meantime, I’ll poke them on why the app isn’t available there.
We naturally would like to get it all over the globe but have to be patient with Apple’s app store accepting the app to their selection everywhere.
We update the countries at the link as we get it out there. I personally am not aware of the reasons why the app is not yet available there but am hopeful that we’ll get it there eventually.
link to polar.com
Thanks for taking the time to reply here Chris.
I’ll keep an eye on the provided link.
Not sure what I think of this one:
link to kickstarter.com
Looks like its a fitness tracker and uses heart rate variablity(hrv) as the thing it measures with an emphsis on your breathing. (hrv data can show the breathing rate of a person as your heart rate changesa bit depending on if you just breathed out or just breathed in) But not sure how much analysizing they are really doing and if how they intepret the data means anything.
This just came out:
link to kickstarter.com
Seems cool from the tech side but I hate the shape the currently are. The shape of the drop bar version as my normal position on the hoods of my brakes when on my road bike wouldn’t work with the hard right angle there. The bullhorn shape seems like it wouldn’t work on a mountain bike based commuter as there is no place to put the shifters and brakes (looks cone shaped near the stem and flattened at the handles) Guess they are aiming at single speed bikes.
The braclet: Hmm, interesting. I’m not sure what to think of it either. I like the industrial design, but agree with you on the data aspects being potentially questionable as far as analytics go.
The bars: Really cool integration – love the internals of it. But solid bummer that they don’t have more shapes and for non SS bikes.
Going by the comment section it seems like the founders all use single speeds so that why thats all they are showing in the pics, but they aren’t quite the final shapes
Is it me or is the plume a giant slap bracelet so if you hit a bump like a pothole it could roll up on its own.
For those interested in visabilioty there is:
link to kickstarter.com
But not sure how durable the reflective material is as it seems like the exposed style that wears very quickly. And for caring about being scene a camo pattern is the wrong approch as that would make your body shape stick out less causing you to be a bit harder to see.
Holy brightness batman.
Thanks for the link though!