Week in Review–May 15th, 2016

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 and Facebook, 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.

Sunday: Week in Review–May 7th, 2016
Monday: 5 Random Things I Did This Weekend
Tuesday: Why GoPro’s integration announcement with Polar is far wider reaching
Wednesday: Hands-on with the new Garmin FR735XT Triathlon Watch
Thursday: Hands-on with new CycleOps Hammer Smart Trainer

Like I said, a bit of a backlog of new product announcements kicked off this week.

My YouTube Uploads of Note This Week:

Here’s the new videos that I uploaded the Tube of You this past week!  Definitely swing over to the channel to subscribe, or hit up that like button.

We’ve got my overview of the new CycleOps Hammer-time trainer:

And then the FR735XT overview and model comparison video:

DCR Podcast!

Here’s a handful of the topics discussed in this past week’s podcast:

(Note: This isn’t quite available yet, but should show up any minute…hour…day now)

• How the new FR735XT fits into the world
• Some thoughts on the new Hammer trainer, but also what the summer brings
• A new reader intro to the DCR Podcast
• The Casio smartwatch, and other Android Wear devices
• Keepin’ it in the Suunto family
• Your HR sensor says your about to die

Listen to the full podcast here on the Podcast player, or just download it directly here.

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) Unreal details on Sochi Olympic Doping – Like a James Bond Movie: Not like a James Bond movie, actually legitimately involved spies – Russian intelligence folks.  If you pick just one article to read on doping this year, make it this article.  It’s both depressing, but actually kinda impressive.  The years of planning and details they went to is…astounding.  It makes Lance’s motoman look like a toddler.

2) Power Meter Beta Testing – Team ZWatt:  While there are consumer recognizable & visible power meter companies (i.e. Quarq, PowerTap, etc…), there are also a handful that instead work to supply other brands with power meter tech. Think putting a power meter into another brand’s crank arm or solution.  That’s what Sensitivus does.  I’ve met with them the last two years at Eurobike, and even briefly tried out some of their tech in a casual setting (non-analytic focused).  In any case, they’re looking for beta testers to try out products (potentially partner products) and provide data back to them.  They see this as a bit more of a long term thing than just a single product.

3) Periscope adds drone streaming: This is most notable because they’re going to allow you to dynamically switch between a drone (DJI Phantom series), and a GoPro (plus a phone camera), thus effectively giving a very determined person the ability to live-stream some sort of (athletic) event very cheaply.  Sure you could technically do all of this today with a bit of effort on other platforms, this makes it silly easy.  Note: This update went live to the Periscope app yesterday.

4) Microsoft Research Shows off Swim App…Sorta: Apparently the video was uploaded using MSN Online dial-up service (sans v.90), given the quality.  But, kinda interesting concept.  Though getting from theory to implementation is super-tricky with water devices.

5) Another brilliant Danny MacAskill video: This one is a bit different in that they are actually bystanders around the town watching him.  Definitely worth the watch. (via Graham)

6) LG announced LTE-connected action camera: This would hardly be the first LTE connected action cam for live streaming video to the web. Every year at CES a handful of companies show off models.  None seem to catch on.  What’s more notable here though is the lack of resolution spec.  It carefully uses the term “HD” in the specs, and not 720p/1080p/etc… Hopefully they at least use the common standard term of HD being a minimum 720p.  Finally, it’s kinda crazy, but the mount on the unit shown on the off-road vehicle looks identical to the GoPro Hero4 Session ball joint mount and frame.  Odd.

7) Samsung creates a smartphone enabled surfboard: I suppose that a surfer’s desire to be loosely connected to incoming texts is really no different than a cyclist or runner out for a long workout. (Via Kyle)

8) The only women to ever officially race the Giro: Neat article about the one and only women that ever raced (and finished all stages).  Cool stuff.

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?  Oh – and if you want to get a head start on things, this page is a great resource for watching Garmin firmware updates.

Mio Cyclo Firmware Update: This adds in Strava support, as well as a slew of other minor adds and tweaks.  Good to see some life back in the product.

Polar M400 Firmware Update: Fixes the Strava paused time item, among other tweaks.

Pebble Health Update: Lots of new functionality for Pebble units within this health-focused firmware and app update.

Wahoo KICKR & KICKR Snap Firmware Update: Finally, proper FE-C support!  While both units have had this in beta since last fall, Wahoo pushed it out the door into production.

Garmin Fenix3/Tactix Bravo/Quatix 3/Fenix3 HR BETA Firmware Update: Fixes a bunch of bugs.

Garmin Varia Vision firmware Update: Adds FR735XT support, adds new data fields, and other misc items.

Garmin VIRB Edit update: Finally support for speed sensor data (useful for indoor cycling) in videos, plus Cycling Dynamics and other tweaks.

Tip of the week to companies: If you have an RSS feed for updates I can subscribe, like Garmin, Polar, Adidas, Wahoo, and others – it’s nearly 100% how I remember to find these updates.  If you lack that, I likely won’t have your updates in the above.  Plus, users like it too.

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Thanks for reading all, have a great weekend!

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