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Week in Review–June 22nd, 2014

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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–June 15th, 2014
Monday: 5 Random Things I Did This Weekend
Tuesday: In Just 7 Days…
Tuesday: L’Equipe Paris 10K 2014 Race Report
Thursday: Tomorrow I’ll be on TV, live in New York City!
Thursday: Heads Up! Suunto Ambit2 & 2S sale from $219
Friday: My Summer 2014 Sports Gadget Recommendations
Saturday: A behind the scenes look at my TV appearance yesterday (and the actual video clip!)

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) No Bottle Opener? No problem: Pro rider Eric Porter shows you how it’s done. Note: I wouldn’t recommend doing this on your own bike… (via James Huang Twitter)

2) The Munga Mountain Bike Race: I have zero desire to race this, but the concept and the massive prize purse ($1 Million Dollars) look cool.  I got bored the other night on the hotel spin bike and actually read through the entire rules section – pretty interesting.  (Sent in via Dr. Jacov L.)

3) IPO strategy and documents from GoPro: Some really interesting numbers in GoPro’s IPO paperwork around action camera numbers and sales.  Cool stuff for those on the financial side of things.

4) Nike finally releases Fuelband support for Android: Though, there are some catches – starting with the fact that the original Fuelband isn’t supported.  Still, better late than never.

5) How to warm-up for long course triathlon: Very worthwhile article, especially if you don’t do any warm-up prior to a race.

6) Low Cost and ‘Fun’ Kids Activity Monitor: Neat stuff, and perhaps if kids wore them they might be a bit more active competing with friends for activity points rather than sitting in front of a TV or computer playing video games. (via Mario)

7) FitBit’s new offerings including optical? Some interesting tidbits from patent applications from FitBit. Neat stuff.

8) 25 Interesting Running Blogs: Turns out, I was one of them.  However, some of the other 24 are ones I happened to read as well. Good list.

9) Samsung Smart Bike Comes With Lasers: Yes, fricken lasers. How awesome is that? (via Janne Kallio)

10) Two sports tech contests of note: First up is a deal from CycleOps if you record a video and GPS route for their virtual training platform, you could win a cycling trip to the French Alps.  And second is one from Garmin that wins you trips to pretty cool places (and devices) for recording videos of your adventures and submitting.  Obvious DCR Observation: You can hit two birds (contests) with one stone (video) here…

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.  If you’re unfamiliar with projects, read my detailed post on how I decide which projects I personally back.  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.

Headbones: Bone Conducting Headphones deliver

HEXO+: Your Autonomous Aerial Camera:

Both this project and the one below it are very similar (and released the same day), but both very cool.  They allow you to attach a GoPro to the copter and actually automatically follow you and pre-create shots.  I ended up going with HEXO over Airdog, despite the slightly longer timeframes.  I did so primarily based on price.

AirDog: World’s First Auto-follow Action Sports Drone

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:

Leikr Firmware Update: Lots of goodness there this week with support for ANT+ cycling sensors as well as various other smaller fixes/improvements.

Polar V800 Firmware Update: A number of minor tweaks and bug fixes.

Bia/MapMyFitness hook up: Bia now adds direct sync with MapMyFitness. This is especially cool since it happens via cellular networks without even a phone required.

Garmin Edge 1000: Slew of bug fixes, a few new features.

Garmin Forerunner 220: Added elevation data field, calibration based on GPS, other fixes.

Garmin Forerunner 620: Added cycling mode, activity profiles, configurable lap banner, other features, additional fixes.

Garmin Fenix2: Added Android support for automatic uploads, LiveTrack, faster GPS from downloaded satellite data file, ability to download Courses and Workouts.

iPhone Apps:

20140620_004542000_iOS 20140620_221059000_iOS

Android Apps:

Screenshot_2014-06-21-23-27-21 Screenshot_2014-06-21-23-27-57

Screenshot_2014-06-21-23-31-09 Screenshot_2014-06-21-23-31-46

Screenshot_2014-06-21-23-31-54 Screenshot_2014-06-21-23-32-06

Screenshot_2014-06-21-23-32-18 Screenshot_2014-06-21-23-32-29

Screenshot_2014-06-21-23-32-58 Screenshot_2014-06-21-23-33-12

Windows Phone Apps:

(No Updates on my Windows Phone for sports related apps this week)

That’s it, thanks for reading and have a good remainder of your weekend!

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34 Comments

  1. Gunnar

    Simply brilliant beverage opening technique. Might come in handy after you complete The Munga!

  2. Bob langkammerer

    Great job on the show with the segment. I really enjoy your blog and your sense for detail of products. Thanks bob

  3. Kris

    Does the Fenix2 update mean that one can now schedule workouts in garmin connect and have them show up on the correct day on the watch (as they do in the forerunner 610?)

  4. Joe Meehan

    Ray, Love your blog, been reading it for years now. I could do without the new annoying floating side-bar table of contents though…

    • Thanks Joe. It’s been around since January or so, most like it. In today’s post it looks like I have a minor formatting error that has it incorrectly enumerating a few extra sections. Unfortunately I’ll have to wait till I get back to my computer a bit later to tweak those.

    • Adam

      I find it quite annoying too, especially when viewing on mobile devices.

      Great job though and I enjoyed the TV appearance!

    • Strange, you shouldn’t actually see it on a mobile device (phone). Which device do you have/use?

    • Matthijs

      I see it on my HTC ONE M8 in Chrome browser… It’s just a little inconvenience to me, but since you ask.

  5. Kate

    The laser bike lane projection looks like this, right? link to superbrightleds.com

  6. Troy Braxton

    Nice post. I did my first duathlon yesterday and am trying to upload the workout as one multisport workout, but it keeps getting cut into the different sports, except in Training Center. Do you know if there is a possible way to upload this as one workout with the transitions and have the ability to share it with my friends? I use a Forerunner 305 to track and Endomondo, TrainingPeaks and SportTracks to upload.

  7. followme

    The autofollowing drones look like a cool idea! I gotta believe organized races will have something to say about their use, and commercial uses are currently only approved on a case-by-case basis by the FAA until their comprehensive drone rules some out. But recreational users can use largely at will below 400 ft right now, I think.

    All that’s for the U.S. No idea what drone restrictions are in other countries.

  8. Hi Ray,
    Do you plan to update your excellent in-depth review of the FR620 to cover the new “Race” and “Bike” additions?
    Thanks in advance
    Kristian

    • I’m working on something now, for tomorrow. Not crazy in-depth, but covering all the concepts.

    • Meg St. Clair

      Looking forward to it! I just removed the mount for my old (very non-gps!) cycling computer from about 6 years ago. Just getting back into cycling. I’m looking forward to being able to track both my running and cycling in one place.

      And nice work on the television spot!

      Meg

  9. simon

    FWIW there was a Quarq firmware update a few days ago

  10. Keegan

    Ray,
    Why did the 220 not add cycling support if the 620 did?
    Thanks for all your work.

  11. azlie

    No android love for fenix1?

  12. David Manley

    Liking those drones. I’d be lynched if I bought one but both impressive pieces of kit. I would agree with your choice of the hexo but like the idea of the airdog.

  13. Josh Parks

    Regarding the EDGE 1000 firmware update – it DOES appear to have helped significantly with the Bluetooth connectivity – based on a drive that I completed as a test (can’t trust it yet with rides, right?) – I will continue to test on the road (currently keeping my 800 until things stabilize).

    Ray, no disagreement with you regarding the beta testing being done on the consumer and your notes on segments being weak (are in my area too, just outside NYC?), and all the rest. Same time, if they get the software right will you revisit your review, as you’ve done numerous times before? First I agree with you that a really great connected 510 with Text Messaging READING is probably more universally interesting to the public. Same time, there’s a ton of promise in the 1000 – the screen is easy to read, the wifi is great when it works (620 being a great example).

    It’s funny because I really like it and want it to be great and believe that’s possible – this is perhaps buyers remorse or confirmation bias working together…

    hopefully the first firmware update of many to come.

  14. eli

    Know if the device transfer functionality will come to the edge 810?

  15. Patrick McIntyre

    Oh how I would love to see the laser bike lane turned into draft boxes for triathlon…

  16. Bryan

    Can’t wait for today’s 620 race review

  17. Pedro Santos

    Awsome

  18. Steve S

    hahaha …… Fricken lasers …….. hahaha….. love it.

  19. David

    For next week:
    link to withings.com

    Looks really nice. But still not for me. I’m quite happy with my existing watch.

  20. Amazing projects, we just think an open-source camera solution goes hand in hand with these cool drones. Please check out the world’s smallest camera board with replaceable wide-angle lenses. Support us on link to kickstarter.com

  21. Eli

    What keeps the drones from crashing into obstacles? Bike under a tree while the drone follows you?