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 in the past week:
Here’s all the goodness that ended up on the main page of DCRainmaker.com this past week:
Appended post – LIMITS Power Meter: It’s incredibly rare that I call out updates to older posts, despite adding updates and content nearly daily. However, I want to briefly call attention to the LIMITS power meter post I did the week prior. I had a chance to have a conference call with the product team, and as a result have added much more detail around timelines and where they really stand. If you’re already a backer, or planning to back – I’d strongly encourage you to read it (see ‘Updates’ section towards end).
The DCR Podcast:
This week was a busy one on the podcast. First up – we’re now on iTunes! Plus, we’ve also got an RSS feed for everyone else (and a simple player on this page). Subscribing and rating in iTunes is much appreciated though!
Here’s what was on the 32-minute long show:
– My plans for building my own GPS watch
– How the media takes paid trips, and conflict of interest
– How do I plan to grow the site
– Time management, and will I keep my day job
– Testing methodologies and buggy products (aka people that don’t like how I test)
– How I manage travelling and training
– Using the Vivoactive without a smartphone
It’s been a while since I’ve had stuff officially listed in The Queue section of the site, but since I continue to get more daily questions on the Apple Watch on whether I plan to review it – I figured I’d stick it there for now. Perhaps it’ll stem the tide and can be used as a discussion grounds for now. Note that my review of the Apple Watch will be 95% focused on the fitness/sport/health aspects of it (and apps supporting that effort). I’ve been starting to upload some videos to YouTube the past few days on that, which you can view in the little YouTube playlist below:
Additionally, I’ve started to work on the Sony 1000V action camera that can do 4K video. It’ll actually be a bit of a combo review of the 1000V and the 200V since both got announced at the same time. Sorta like how my GoPro Hero4 review is. I’d expect this review towards the end of May. That said, I used it a bunch this past weekend during some rides (2x1000v cameras on bike + the remote), and am really impressed with the Live View remote. Just works brilliantly. The Apps not as much, but the video quality is looking solid.
Stay tuned to that video playlist above for more details there over time, or use the link in The Queue to chat about it in the meantime.
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:
3) The Presidential Choice: The Fitbit Surge: Lots of different media outlets spotting this last week adorning President Obama’s wrist. (Preemptive notice: Political focused attack comments of any kind/party get zapped here…there are other places for that.)
5) Strava’s global breakout of users: Nope, not based on numbers that Strava released, but rather by random sampling from a creative user. Pretty cool. Though interestingly it doesn’t actually match the order of size that Strava told me during their visit (whereby Australia was the largest non-US country).
6) The 12 phases of every ride: Oddly enough, I think I went through about half of these on my rides this weekend.
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.
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?
Preemptive note: We should see some Ambit3 firmware updates early this week from Suunto, which will support the new Android app. So keep an eye out for that!
Also of note: Lots of firmware updates for various Garmin devices with Asia-specific firmware. Best to simply look at the GPS Information page for the full listing!
Thanks for reading!
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Interesting numbers from Strava. Back in January 2013 their CEO said 20% of their “over 1 million” users were premium. Two and a half years and $20 million in VC funding later… only 192,188? Something doesn’t add up.
At a minimum the methodology is flawed since it assumes a uniform percentage will sign up for pro on day 1 vs day 100. That isn’t what happens in the real world. People need some time to see the value – whether that’s 10 days, or 30 days, or 6 months. It’s the entire premise which “freemium” is built on.
A really quick-and-dirty improvement would be to exclude any users from the last 6 months. A better approach would be to look at percent pro rate by original signup date, say in 6 month buckets since 2010, then ask the question – are users signing up in 2015 different than 2010? Maybe, maybe not.
The idea of mounting a cellphone to the back of a bike to implement a combined early warning system and evidence logger seems kind of cool. Kind of a mashup between Cycliq and Backtracker (now Garmin) done only in software.
Yet, I won’t jump in on this one. The rewards are messed up (how do you get the app? is it free or paid?), and I’d also like to understand their IP position (both offense, i.e. did they file, and defense, i.e. IANAL, but some of what they describe seems like it would be protected by Cycliq and/or Backtracker).
Just opened the pool. Should be mowing the lawn….now you’ve got me planning dry ice depth charges. Thanks Ray for helping with my time managment issues.
Quick question about heart rate and the Apple Watch. Do you know of any apps that can read Apple Health data in order to give me a baseline for Resting Heart Rate? I’m excited about having constant heart rate measurements from Apple Watch but any sort of useful analysis such as calculating resting heart rate doesn’t seem possible in Apple Health.
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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.
Not sure how those pedals are in drafts, I read about them on this site. Maybe you included them in a bigger post?
Interesting numbers from Strava. Back in January 2013 their CEO said 20% of their “over 1 million” users were premium. Two and a half years and $20 million in VC funding later… only 192,188? Something doesn’t add up.
Sample size?
At a minimum the methodology is flawed since it assumes a uniform percentage will sign up for pro on day 1 vs day 100. That isn’t what happens in the real world. People need some time to see the value – whether that’s 10 days, or 30 days, or 6 months. It’s the entire premise which “freemium” is built on.
A really quick-and-dirty improvement would be to exclude any users from the last 6 months. A better approach would be to look at percent pro rate by original signup date, say in 6 month buckets since 2010, then ask the question – are users signing up in 2015 different than 2010? Maybe, maybe not.
I’d wager there are 500K – 1M pro users.
The idea of mounting a cellphone to the back of a bike to implement a combined early warning system and evidence logger seems kind of cool. Kind of a mashup between Cycliq and Backtracker (now Garmin) done only in software.
Yet, I won’t jump in on this one. The rewards are messed up (how do you get the app? is it free or paid?), and I’d also like to understand their IP position (both offense, i.e. did they file, and defense, i.e. IANAL, but some of what they describe seems like it would be protected by Cycliq and/or Backtracker).
Neat and novel idea, though…
Just opened the pool. Should be mowing the lawn….now you’ve got me planning dry ice depth charges. Thanks Ray for helping with my time managment issues.
Quick question about heart rate and the Apple Watch. Do you know of any apps that can read Apple Health data in order to give me a baseline for Resting Heart Rate? I’m excited about having constant heart rate measurements from Apple Watch but any sort of useful analysis such as calculating resting heart rate doesn’t seem possible in Apple Health.
Pedals that can tilt: link to kickstarter.com
(n theory improves efficiency, may improve comfort too)