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.
2) Soylent: What Happened When I Stopped Eating For 2 Weeks: I found this pretty fascinating. Not because I have any desire (at all) to eat/try Soylent. But rather, because of the detailed methodology he went through on tracking all these metrics. Worth a read if you’re into data-geeking. (via Basis Twitter Feed)
4) Introducing the Cuddlebike: Yes, seriously. Cycling for two without the extra pair of handlebars. I imagine many relationships may end as a result of this bike.
6) The mother of all photo galleries of Chef Gordon Ramsey preparing for a training ride: Yes, just in case you didn’t know he’s doing Ironman Hawaii (Kona). Remember, the rules do allow WTC to allocate certain slots to celebrities/special interest cases. While I do understand the frustration with this, I also see the significant benefits to the greater sport for allowing folks like him to compete and generate publicity. Plus, at least he’s out there training. (Via Jay Prasuhn)
8) An inside look at Jamaica’s drug-testing woes: Yes, I know, more drug stuff. But, the key takeaway here is that Jamaica inexplicably managed to conduct only 1 out-of-competition test in 5 months leading up to 2012 games. Wonder why? (via Race Radio)
9) Leadville Trail 100 Run Medical Advice: While the race was last week, this advice given to participants from the medical staff is still probably quite valid for ultra runners (and even regular runners).
11) Fitbit gets $43 million in funding round: Hmm, I’m not sure I get this. In an environment where everyone has a fitness tracker out, and Fitbit has existing (great) units on the market doing well, why they need this much additional funding smells funny to me.
12) Too Fast To Fail: Larry Ellison’s bid to convert America’s Cup sailing into a high-risk action sport was labeled a disaster before the first race…how’s it turning out?
13) USB charger from fire:This camping/hiking stove attachment actually turns heat into USB power. Crazy.
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.
Power Meter in a pair of pedals – Swedish Adrenaline: New pedal-based power meter crowd-funded project with both ANT+ and Bluetooth Smart. I’m exchanging e-mails with them to get more information (hopefully they’ll be at Eurobike), as the Indiegogo page seems pretty low on information.
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 Fenix: They’ve added the Virtual Partner feature (cool!), as well as adding VIRB support (see VIRB post up above).
Leikr: Leikr has released not only a new firmware update, but also guidance on their release plans.
Wahoo Fitness: They’ve released updated apps (as noted below), but also released the KICKR Segments App (that’s the Strava one), I’ll have more about that in a post in a couple days.
iPhone App updates this week:
iPad App updates this week:
Android App updates this week:
Windows Phone App updates this week:
Thanks for reading!
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Another smart watch (not directly a fitness watch but seems like they are implying it can be used for swimming, biking, and running. Seems like a motoralla watch replacement as it runs full android): link to kickstarter.com
Eli, that Omate watch looks good! So good I just backed them on kickstarter…..Ray, what do you think the chances are of a trend away from sport only oriented watches and people gravitating towards something like the Omate that can (supposedly) make calls, track via its internal GPS etc? Seems like the future to me.
I think that until the smart watch companies move closer towards being real sports watch, these will continue to simply suck for sports. I think the Echo is the first legit option here.
The challenge you have is that most smart watches out there have software dev teams and feature sets focused on things like e-mail notifications. When in reality, in order to make a good sports watch you have to have sports-focused software teams (at least on the PM side), and a focus on sports. Right now, everyone does it half-way, and they’re horrible.
I kind of disagree. Look at the smartphone market, do any of them have sport focused dev teams? Seems like all the popular phones depend on third parties to write the sport apps. I think that is the path the smart watches will take too. The watch just needs to provide a good base to work from (waterproof, buttons/controls that are usable while exercising, good battery life) and provide good APIs third parties can use.
The dedicated watches that are out there run very simplistic OSes which allows them to be very good at running on very little power. Smart watches try to do way more and do things in generic processing way over specialized hardware so they use way more battery power. I think the electronics are slowly improving to take less power which will allow the smart watches in the future to offer functionality that would drain the battery too fast on todays tech.
beddit, maybe its just my lack of ability to find anything but seems weird that they say the Beddit pro has been on the market for awhile now but can’t find any reviews of it. Looks like the sensor on the bed is the same between the devices only the cheaper one the campaign is for just transmits the data to the phone for an app to process while the pro version has dedicated hardware to do the processing and no phone is required. (Plus they plan to file more claims about the pro device with the FDA)
Does look interesting though if it really does work (I backed it)
As Eli says the key for these watches will be third party apps. It’s interesting that they have a developers option on the kickstart I just put my name down (first kickstart for me). I have been following the WearIt closely and have got as far as setting the Android emulator up to the appropriate screen size to see what work will be needed for IpBike at least from a visual point of view. Hands on usage is of course the real test for a touchscreen device. There will need to be some tweaks but nothing that will be too hard. The fact that they claim Google Play support is interesting as they can not be within the screen size requirements for Android which would normally preclude them from my understanding of the rules correctly. There is also the issue that they are 4.2 based and of course need 4.3 for the BTLE API’s. Hardware wise they look to be a step up on the WearIt actually having the phone stuff / camera and MicroSD slot. Which may of course not be a benefit when it comes to runtime.
Everyone seems to have forgotten that Gordon Ramsey was a professional athlete. He was a football (soccer) player forced to retire through injury before his chef days.
I’m definitely looking forward to hearing more about this power meter from Swedish Adrenaline. Update us when you hear more Ray!! Just curious if its a more stripped down version of Garmin Vector and at a way more competitive price point. Love to hear more!
I’m also looking forward to hear more about Swedish Adrenaline. As far as understood the little information they give is is that they do not use the typical strain gauge used by other companies. Curious what the advantages of this ‘resonating strain gauge’ technique is and how close they think they are to releasing a final product keeping the Garmin vector in mind
Not impressed with the Dailymail coverage of the Ramsey ride. They didn’t even call out the appalling faux-pau of Guru shorts & a Specialized jersey. What kind of bike is that anyway? Sure isn’t a Shiv…
(Also, “He was careful to avoid the dreaded bleeding nipples that triathletes regularly face by wearing a white singlet underneath” where he was pulling up his bib shorts…)
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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.
Sleep tracking:
link to indiegogo.com
Another smart watch (not directly a fitness watch but seems like they are implying it can be used for swimming, biking, and running. Seems like a motoralla watch replacement as it runs full android):
link to kickstarter.com
Eli, that Omate watch looks good! So good I just backed them on kickstarter…..Ray, what do you think the chances are of a trend away from sport only oriented watches and people gravitating towards something like the Omate that can (supposedly) make calls, track via its internal GPS etc? Seems like the future to me.
I think that until the smart watch companies move closer towards being real sports watch, these will continue to simply suck for sports. I think the Echo is the first legit option here.
The challenge you have is that most smart watches out there have software dev teams and feature sets focused on things like e-mail notifications. When in reality, in order to make a good sports watch you have to have sports-focused software teams (at least on the PM side), and a focus on sports. Right now, everyone does it half-way, and they’re horrible.
I kind of disagree. Look at the smartphone market, do any of them have sport focused dev teams? Seems like all the popular phones depend on third parties to write the sport apps. I think that is the path the smart watches will take too. The watch just needs to provide a good base to work from (waterproof, buttons/controls that are usable while exercising, good battery life) and provide good APIs third parties can use.
The dedicated watches that are out there run very simplistic OSes which allows them to be very good at running on very little power. Smart watches try to do way more and do things in generic processing way over specialized hardware so they use way more battery power. I think the electronics are slowly improving to take less power which will allow the smart watches in the future to offer functionality that would drain the battery too fast on todays tech.
beddit, maybe its just my lack of ability to find anything but seems weird that they say the Beddit pro has been on the market for awhile now but can’t find any reviews of it. Looks like the sensor on the bed is the same between the devices only the cheaper one the campaign is for just transmits the data to the phone for an app to process while the pro version has dedicated hardware to do the processing and no phone is required. (Plus they plan to file more claims about the pro device with the FDA)
Does look interesting though if it really does work (I backed it)
As Eli says the key for these watches will be third party apps. It’s interesting that they have a developers option on the kickstart I just put my name down (first kickstart for me). I have been following the WearIt closely and have got as far as setting the Android emulator up to the appropriate screen size to see what work will be needed for IpBike at least from a visual point of view. Hands on usage is of course the real test for a touchscreen device. There will need to be some tweaks but nothing that will be too hard. The fact that they claim Google Play support is interesting as they can not be within the screen size requirements for Android which would normally preclude them from my understanding of the rules correctly. There is also the issue that they are 4.2 based and of course need 4.3 for the BTLE API’s. Hardware wise they look to be a step up on the WearIt actually having the phone stuff / camera and MicroSD slot. Which may of course not be a benefit when it comes to runtime.
Everyone seems to have forgotten that Gordon Ramsey was a professional athlete. He was a football (soccer) player forced to retire through injury before his chef days.
Woah, woah, woah… how did this not get called out? Gordon Ramsey has no belly button? That’s my only takeaway from the gallery.
The Fire -> USB thing has been around for a couple of years. I own a BioLite stove, which is an all in one.
link to biolitestove.com
Different type of arm sleeve for iphones (seems like they only care about iphones now): link to kickstarter.com
I’m definitely looking forward to hearing more about this power meter from Swedish Adrenaline. Update us when you hear more Ray!! Just curious if its a more stripped down version of Garmin Vector and at a way more competitive price point. Love to hear more!
I’m also looking forward to hear more about Swedish Adrenaline. As far as understood the little information they give is is that they do not use the typical strain gauge used by other companies. Curious what the advantages of this ‘resonating strain gauge’ technique is and how close they think they are to releasing a final product keeping the Garmin vector in mind
Not impressed with the Dailymail coverage of the Ramsey ride. They didn’t even call out the appalling faux-pau of Guru shorts & a Specialized jersey. What kind of bike is that anyway? Sure isn’t a Shiv…
(Also, “He was careful to avoid the dreaded bleeding nipples that triathletes regularly face by wearing a white singlet underneath” where he was pulling up his bib shorts…)