Week in Review–December 24th, 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–December 18th, 2016
Monday: 5 Random Things I Did This Weekend
Wednesday: A Better Way To Pace Races: Race Screen Connect IQ App
Friday: The Podium Trainer Desk In-Depth Review

The DCR Newsletter:

It’s come to my attention that I may have never noted that there’s actually a weekly DCR Newsletter.  Even better, is that the The Girl actually writes it.  For real.  You can check out all her past newsletter missives here in the archive.

Or, you can sign-up for the newsletter here.  It goes out every Tuesday, and thus far – y’all seem to be enjoying it!

The Girl’s Baby Gear Guide:

The Girl has also been busy lately putting together a bit of baby/kid gear that we use.  I get a ton of questions about this, so we decided to consolidate this together.  Some of this is tech, but a lot of it is just day-to-day life stuff.  Obviously, we’re only experts in the 0 to 6 month range.  And by ‘experts’, I mean we have a sample size of one.  Still, it’s neat to see others’ suggestions on child/kid gear.

Hit up her full gear list here!

Last Call on Sports Tech Deals!

The vast majority of sports tech deals end at 11:59PM Eastern US time tonight (Dec 24th).  So even though these won’t make it in time for Christmas, you could buy them now in case you aren’t getting good vibes for what’s under the tree.  Almost no company would be shipping on the 24th/25th, so one could technically cancel Sunday morning before anything ships.

Outside of deals related to cheaper/older activity trackers and weight scales that we typically see in early January (for New Years Resolutions), I wouldn’t expect any major/coordinated sports tech deals for at least a few months.  Usually spring is the next stop (around April/May) for such deals.

All the deals can be found on the deals page here!  And thanks to everyone for the support via those links over the holiday buying season

YouTube Videos I Published:

Here’s some YouTube goodness that I published this past week:

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) Should we believe in Team Sky’s miracles? Caley Fretz should get the award of the week for best cycling piece.  Very well put together, and many very valid questions raised.  Shane’s piece is also pretty good too.

2) Strava’s Best Photos of 2016: I like pretty pictures.  I like pretty sports pictures.  I like pretty sports pictures with data.  This checks off all those boxes in one post.

3) Don’t get in the way of an Uber self-driving car while on a bike: Because…it might just take you for a ride.  Albeit, over the course of the week they’ve been forced off the road (the cars, not the bikes).  (via Slowtwitch)

4) Tourists paraded in ‘Walk of shame’ after stealing bicycles: I’m all right with this type of penalty for this sort of crime.  No stress/cost on jail system, and likely learned their lesson.  Though, wish their faces weren’t blurred. (via BikeHugger)

5) Firing a GoPro camera out of a canon: Sometimes you just need some Mythbusters style goodness in your life.

6) Garmin has a school program for kids: File this under the ‘things I didn’t know’ category.  Interesting stuff, though, somewhat common for tech companies, especially larger ones, to have various programs with schools in their communities.  Would be neat to have a list of the CIQ apps made by kids from the program and published online somewhere (obviously kids names can be omitted).  Like a gallery of sorts.

7) BarFly team launches CO2/Tire Lever combo package: The folks at Tate Labs have launched a combination tire lever/iron tool with a CO2 inflator on Kickstarter.  Cool stuff, especially since I keep managing to lose my CO2 inflators.  I decided to go for the 2-pack on Kickstarter (one for each of my main bikes).  Plus, it ships in January.

8) Canyon kills off Smart Bike Computer concept: You may remember this from Eurobike a year back.  Not surprising to me really.  Making bike computers is *really hard*. As a bike manufacturer, you’re in a spot where only a fraction of people would even consider your product due to the assumption that it’s limited to that bike brand (regardless of whether it actually is).

9) GoPro’s 2016 Review Video: This is one of those ones you just sit back and enjoy the impressiveness of some of the shots taken.  Even that split-second shot of the GoPro attached to the helicopter blade.  In any other video that’d last more than a split-second, here, that’s all the room it gets.

10) Why does triathlon have such a clean image? An impressively deep piece from Deadspin. Incredibly well done.

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 are 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.

Fitbit Charge 2 Firmware Update: Some solid updates here with respect to things like new functionality.

Garmin Fenix Chronos Firmware Update: Unknown firmware update contents (though likely just mirrors F3 updates below)

Garmin Fenix 3 HR/Fenix3/Quatix 3/Tactix Bravo Firmware Update: New Connect IQ support added, and a bug fix.

Garmin VIRB Edit Software Platform Update: Both Mac & PC versions updated, just bug fixes.

Garmin Vivoactive HR BETA Firmware Update: Boatload of bug fixes, few minor adds.

Garmin Vivoactive Firmware Update: Smattering of bug fixes, new Connect IQ support added

Polar V800 Firmware Update: This re-releases the firmware update from a few weeks ago, which has a boatload of tweaks/features.

Suunto Spartan Firmware Update: This is a pretty big one, which allows customization of data pages.

Xert adds Garmin Connect Autosync: I think the title sums that up simply enough.

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Thanks for reading, and have a Merry Christmas tomorrow!