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:
A huge pile of *new* deals started yesterday, especially in the GoPro/action camera realm – plus a handful of new wearables ones. Notable in the list that’s new is the GoPro Hero 5 Session down to $199USD (that’s a 4K camera in a tiny cube!), along with the Garmin VIRB 360 down $100 (first US discount we’ve seen on it). Details all below, plus my massive deals post that I still keep updating.
⚡ Both myself and my wife have been using these since last fall, after years of using the Beats Studio Buds...man, these things rock. Sure, they're good for sports, but frankly, I use them on planes, editing, and such more than anything else. In fact, I've been listening to them now for 8 hours as I type away on my flight across the ocean. Only briefly putting them in the case to top-up.
⚡ This is by far the lowest price we've seen to date for the Apple Watch Series 10. Of course, we're probably only 60 days away from an Apple Watch Series 11, but Apple has alreay announced WatchOS 26 last month, which the Series 10 gets all the new features from.
⚡ This is the lowest price on the Apple Watch Ultra 2 we've seen to date. It's likely we'll see an Apple Watch Ultra 3 this September, but like the Apple Watch Series 10 above, WatchOS26 has already been announced and all the new features there go to the Ultra 2.
This is (by far) the lowest price we've seen on this watch to date. This is their first full smartwatch focused on kids activity tracking and gamification.
⚡ This is the go-to sale price for the Fitbit Charge 6. It happens often, but it still doesn't take away from the fast that it's argueably the best bang for your buck fitness tracker out there.
I believe this is the lowest price we've seen for the Epix Pro series (which has an ECG-capable HR sensor). Note that while some sites might tout $500+ off, in reality, this watch has been floating around $800 recently.
⚡ This continues to be one of the best deals out there. While this watch won't be getting much in the way of big ticket new features, it does continue to get minor software updates - and for the money, has far more software features than any of Garmin's competitors (or for that matter, products like the Instinct 3 AMOLED lineup).
While not as good as last month's $200 off, that annual spring sale price won't likely be seen again till Black Friday-ish type sales. Thus, if you want a Fenix 8 for the summer, might as well take the $100 off and put it towards ice cream.
Honestly, I just put this one in there, merely to point out you shoudn't buy it at this price. Buy the FR255 at $30 more, far better watch.
This thing should be priced at $129 or something to move units.
⚡ This has been one of Garmin's most popular running watches, and it's down to a very strong price. I often use this in my accuracy testing comparisons when validating other watches, due to it's very strong GPS performance. Note this is the base edition without solar. It'd be hard to find any better deal in sports watches today, from any company (given this has full mapping, tons of new features even this week, etc...). I say '$100ish', because it's usually been on forever sale at $499.
⚡I believe $169 is the lowest price we've ever seen for the Instinct 2. Or at least, I have no record of it being sub-$199. Very solid deal for a solid little watch.
This is a great deal for Garmin's little-sibling to the Venu series. It has almost all the same features as the Venu 3, except the voice calling related bits.
This is a great dual ANT+/Bluetooth Smart (with two Bluetooth Smart connections) chest strap that you'll often find me using as a reference strap in heart rate sensor testing. We only tend to see deals on it around Black Friday, always topping out around 20%.
If you're looking for a good solid high-quality strap, that does both ANT+ & Bluetooth Smart, for a reasonable price...look no further than the Polar H9
Look, Samsung is less than a day away from likely announcing a new version (on July 9th), so if you buy now, you might want to wait a few extra hours after delivery to decide if you want to return it. Otherwise, this is Samsung's best watch to date.
⚡ This is a solid deal on this watch, which has offline mapping and continues to get new features. Further, it's the lowest price we've seen to date on it.
⚡⚡This is the lowest price we've seen on the Garmin Edge 540 Solar to date, which has gained virtually all of the new Garmin Edge 1050 features as well.
If you're looking to get into flying with a DJI drone, this is a solid place to start. Of course, moreso than that, the days are very limited for how much longer you can actually buy at DJI drone in the US. So, grab them while you can.
This is the lowest price on this drone, and is a great option if you want a follow-me drone that's pretty hard to kill, at a price point that's still super reasonable.
This is the older gen model, and to me, $279 seems a bit high. Get the Hero 13 Black for $50 more and have access to all the new accessories. Or, save yourself $50 and get either the DJI Action 4 (prior gen) or Insta360 Ace Pro 1 (prior gen) models.
This was released back in September, and is GoPro's budget option, which includes a full color touchscreen on the back as well. It was previously released at $199, but price increases forced it up to $219. Now, it's back on sale for $199.
This has become one of my favorite drones, given it's tiny size (fits in my running shorts pockets) and ease of use. Plus, you can crash the crap out of it (hundreds of times for me and my wife) without any issues. This combo includes an extra battery and fast charger.
This is a solid deal on a solid drone, and one of the two main ones I use when taking videos of myself hiking or running. This includes the two extra batteries as well as the fast charger (so 3 batteries total).
If nothing else you should watch the first video because my intro for it is pretty damn cool.
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) GCN & Wahoo Fitness given warning from UK Advertising Authority: I had wondered why GCN was all of a sudden starting to properly disclose recently which videos were ads (most product/tech content ones). I actually don’t have a problem with media entities doing sponsored content, as long as it’s disclosed. For example, the next item in my list below (more on that in a second). I’d also argue that GCN walked away with barely a poke to the pinky on this one compared to what they could have received. But I’m happy to see they’ve changed their ways here going forward, as I love most of their videos as much as the next guy. (H/T: Derek T.)
2) Zwift Pro Rider Contract Finals: Many know that Zwift has been running a deal with Dimension Data for a pro rider contract, whereby the finalists come from Zwift. This video is the culmination of that. In my opinion, this video is a great example of what properly disclosed sponsored content can look like. It’s detailed, incredibly interesting, and well executed upon. Oh, and the relationship is disclosed.
5) Google releases Android Wear Oreo Update list of watches: In short, this is the list of watches that either have the update already available, or should be shortly getting the update. Good to see the Polar M600 on the list, as well as the Casio units. Unsurprisingly, the New Balance RunIQ isn’t on the list, likely because the team at Intel that’s responsible for it no longer exists.
6) A very detailed look at Stryd’s recent whitepaper: Stryd recently published a white paper on their accuracy indoors. This post takes a deeper look at it. Note: Like any of these sorta studies (or study-ish pieces), I’m sharing mostly because it’s fascinatingly detailed. I haven’t had enough cups of coffee yet to put together an opinion on whether it’s right or wrong. And I would note that I think it’s important that all companies that are making technical accuracy claims about anything in this space should put together such white papers – even if I or others disagree with them. (via Nuno)
7) How Brands Buy Their Way Into Major Publications: Fascinating story. While pay for play is rampant in the sports industry (especially cycling/triathlon), that’s a wee bit different than this. Typically pay for play is related to advertising payments, equally coverage. Whereas this is just straight up buying ‘journalists’ off. Crazy. What’s also moderately interesting here is how low these numbers are. If you look at typical ‘influencer’ type payment costs (linked to audience size), these numbers are actually dirt cheap. (via Caley Fretz)
8) PowerTap/Saris opens up ambassador programs: I’ve long argued that these types of programs, when executed correctly and with the right ambassadors, are often more successful from an ROI standpoint than sponsoring pros. This is the time of the year (actually, slightly towards the end of it), when these programs open up. While ambassador programs certainly do skew towards faster athletes, that’s not always the case…and again, someone with more influence that is less speedy is far more valuable than a speedy person nobody follows. As always though, both sides should be clear about the relationship (first, because it’s the right thing to do…and second, because it’s required by law in most places).
9) Apple Watch Series 1 versus Fitbit Charge: A short study on this, though, I didn’t access the full text as my desire to pay was low. The summary roughly matches what I’d expect though, as well as what I saw in my tests. Of course, both devices are now like 3+ years old, so, take this with a grain of salt. It’s really too bad studies don’t actually use modern devices….they’re hopelessly outdated by the time they release to the public. (via Tim P.)
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.
A crapton of Garmin device updates: Ok, Garmin got all busy this past week and released updates for a boatload of devices. A ton of these were beta updates, all containing minor fixes. The non-beta updates though for the Fenix 5/Vivoactive 3/FR935/Chronos were with the new Connect IQ version 2.4 that you need for new apps like Garmin’s running power. Those watches also got some additional functionality too, like new sports and off-course alerts. In addition, there were updates for the Edge 1000/1030/820/520 that each fixed a minor Connect IQ bug. Normally, I’d link to these all, but everything is linked in the link above and this one paragraph summarizes it all!
I haven’t seen any other firmware updates of note this past week.
Thank you for remaining impartial Ray. I must say I was somewhat disappointed by the GCN revelation, even though it was fairly obvious that a lot of their videos had paid-for content.
Trust is everything with a website like yours. Here’s hoping us readers continue to make it worth your while to remain independent.
“Remain” independent? I get the feeling Ray wouldn’t really want to do this if he had to get “paid off” by gadget companies to survive. As he says “That’s just the way he rolls”.
That being said, I just re-upped my membership (just to make sure, ha ha).
I’ll continue to remain happily independent. Unless someone offers me some randomly high number. Let’s say like $1 Billion Dollars. Then y’all have to find a new source of sports tech news and you’ll find me on a beach snorkeling.
About firmware updates, there has been one for the Power2max NG not too long ago. Is there any way to know what’s in it? Couldn’t find a changelog anywhere.
I find the Stryd whitepaper review fascinating. Without stating it in simple terms, it goes some ways to explain the difficulty in establishing standards of ‘what is a real number’ for running power. The most precise measurement, which is close to what an in-hub power meter does on a bike, is a ground plate force measurement; this measures the output forces onto the ground in all 3 axis, and can thus tell how much output power the body is delivering. But of course it’s completely impractical – you’d need a fully-instrumented track to be able to use this level of measurement. Next best is a foot pod – and this is like measuring cycling power at the cranks, but with the drivetrain losses being part of your body – you’re introducing shoe compliance and rebound and foot attack and rebound into the mix. Measure up at the waist or chest, and leg performance comes into play. The more “body variables” come in, the more assumptions have to be made, and the less the measurements are directly related to true power delivered.
Another bike related company that in my opinion have good ambassador program is Scicon. Unfortunately is it just closed for this year. link to sciconbags.com
The one weird thing *not* in The Cave: a bike repair stand? How do you do builds/powermeter swaps/maintenance without one? Use one of the trainers (ghhh)?
Oddly enough, I’m not sure where either of the two bike repair stands I used to own in DC went to. I think I may have gifted them to a friend, but I haven’t seen them in years – never in the Cave. I just use trainers. Today building up the Canyon bike, I just used a KICKR SNAP. Worked fine.
Definitely Cave V2 will have it though, likely in a more structured bike repair bench setup.
The first step is admitting you have a problem. Officially externally they haven’t admitted to closing down the division. Of course, internally they’ve already given employees notice, as well as other partners.
I’m beginning to wonder if rumours of the death of tomtom wareables have been greatly exaggerated. The statement from the company said ‘TomTom will continue to sell consumer sports products, and support its Sports customers.’ I think they might keep one or two models in the market and update them occasionally, as opposed to developing a broad range like Garmin’s and Polar’s.
What they said is absolutely correct. But let me help translate it:
A) They’ll continue to sell inventory until they’ve got nothing left to sell, there’s always a buyer eventually.
B) They’ll continue to provide support: This is legit, I don’t doubt they’ll do this for a while.
But…will they add any meaningful new features? Unlikely. And eventually, like all platforms, I think we’ll see things start to fall apart. If you lay off/fire/etc… your core developers, eventually that catches up with you.
I don’t have a dog in this fight — I have nothing made by TomTom, including their shares :) — but let’s not mix speculation and fact. We don’t know who’s been laid off, and out of how many. It could be half the team — not all of it. We have no idea if production of their current devices has stopped or is continuing.
They automatically convert to the country you’re in. Generally that works well, as generally most people don’t cross-shop (except within Europe, where I specifically hard code them not to).
It’s really too bad studies don’t actually use modern devices….they’re hopelessly outdated by the time they release to the public. Chances are the actual work was started at least two years ago, when that gear was pretty current. Before they could start acquiring data, they’d have to write an ethics proposal and have it passed by the university – easy for something like this compared with a new anti-cancer agent, but still has to be done and it takes months. Even if the first journal you submit to accepts the work, by the time it’s gone through review, revision, reviewers confirming the revisions match what they’ve requested, and typesetting and proof-checking, that’s often a year right there. Electronic submissions have accelerated the review process, and online publication means you no longer have to wait for space in the printed journal before your work is available.
Conference abstracts are usually much more current – what you need is a contact who goes to the right kind of meetings.
That’s actually more expensive than the usual DCR discount that’s available 365 days a year via Clever Training (which is 10% off, taking it to $1,439.10…plus free shipping). :)
Ray you should really put the Amazfit Pace 1 (and 2 that is being released in the beginning of 2018) on your list. They are very cheap (I got mine from GearBest at 75€) but the accuracy and build quality is awesome. GPS in particular is among the best watches I had (Suunto Ambit 3 Peak & Sport, Fenix 2 & 3 HR, TomTom Adventurer). The cardio is a little less great compared with TomTom in initial testes but o pair with Fenix 3 HR.
The only thing missing (don’t forget it’s a sub-100eur watch) is complex interval training, swimming mode and probably the option to use an external HR Band. But version 2 will introduce this for about the same price.
It’s really incredible and with a greater availability I see trouble for big players.
I saw Race Face/Easton finally did an official launch of the Cinch power meter (even though it’s been available for months). Does that mean we can expect a review from you on it soon?
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Is the Samsung Gear Sport review close to ready?
I second this question. Christmas is getting near, would be great to have this information.
Hoping to wrap it up later this week.
Thank you for remaining impartial Ray. I must say I was somewhat disappointed by the GCN revelation, even though it was fairly obvious that a lot of their videos had paid-for content.
Trust is everything with a website like yours. Here’s hoping us readers continue to make it worth your while to remain independent.
“Remain” independent? I get the feeling Ray wouldn’t really want to do this if he had to get “paid off” by gadget companies to survive. As he says “That’s just the way he rolls”.
That being said, I just re-upped my membership (just to make sure, ha ha).
I’ll continue to remain happily independent. Unless someone offers me some randomly high number. Let’s say like $1 Billion Dollars. Then y’all have to find a new source of sports tech news and you’ll find me on a beach snorkeling.
About firmware updates, there has been one for the Power2max NG not too long ago. Is there any way to know what’s in it? Couldn’t find a changelog anywhere.
I find the Stryd whitepaper review fascinating. Without stating it in simple terms, it goes some ways to explain the difficulty in establishing standards of ‘what is a real number’ for running power. The most precise measurement, which is close to what an in-hub power meter does on a bike, is a ground plate force measurement; this measures the output forces onto the ground in all 3 axis, and can thus tell how much output power the body is delivering. But of course it’s completely impractical – you’d need a fully-instrumented track to be able to use this level of measurement. Next best is a foot pod – and this is like measuring cycling power at the cranks, but with the drivetrain losses being part of your body – you’re introducing shoe compliance and rebound and foot attack and rebound into the mix. Measure up at the waist or chest, and leg performance comes into play. The more “body variables” come in, the more assumptions have to be made, and the less the measurements are directly related to true power delivered.
Target.com has the vivoactive 3 for just under $225 with there green Monday sale.
Thaaaaaank you for costing me $225. ;)
Now let’s just hope that Gear Sport review is as bad as we expect it to be.
Dang, that’s a sweet price! Nice find!
Another bike related company that in my opinion have good ambassador program is Scicon. Unfortunately is it just closed for this year. link to sciconbags.com
The one weird thing *not* in The Cave: a bike repair stand? How do you do builds/powermeter swaps/maintenance without one? Use one of the trainers (ghhh)?
Oddly enough, I’m not sure where either of the two bike repair stands I used to own in DC went to. I think I may have gifted them to a friend, but I haven’t seen them in years – never in the Cave. I just use trainers. Today building up the Canyon bike, I just used a KICKR SNAP. Worked fine.
Definitely Cave V2 will have it though, likely in a more structured bike repair bench setup.
I think you have discussed this before but I can’t find it — do we know for how long tomtom have committed to for supporting their web platform?
The first step is admitting you have a problem. Officially externally they haven’t admitted to closing down the division. Of course, internally they’ve already given employees notice, as well as other partners.
I’m beginning to wonder if rumours of the death of tomtom wareables have been greatly exaggerated. The statement from the company said ‘TomTom will continue to sell consumer sports products, and support its Sports customers.’ I think they might keep one or two models in the market and update them occasionally, as opposed to developing a broad range like Garmin’s and Polar’s.
What they said is absolutely correct. But let me help translate it:
A) They’ll continue to sell inventory until they’ve got nothing left to sell, there’s always a buyer eventually.
B) They’ll continue to provide support: This is legit, I don’t doubt they’ll do this for a while.
But…will they add any meaningful new features? Unlikely. And eventually, like all platforms, I think we’ll see things start to fall apart. If you lay off/fire/etc… your core developers, eventually that catches up with you.
I don’t have a dog in this fight — I have nothing made by TomTom, including their shares :) — but let’s not mix speculation and fact. We don’t know who’s been laid off, and out of how many. It could be half the team — not all of it. We have no idea if production of their current devices has stopped or is continuing.
In short, we don’t know TomTom’s plans.
We actually do. It’s just that we isn’t published on a public site.
The guys who designed that silicone wrist mount were probably still running with Garmin 205s and 305s until now.
Ray
Any reason a bunch of the amaon links to the .ca site not .com? You shopping in Canada now?
They automatically convert to the country you’re in. Generally that works well, as generally most people don’t cross-shop (except within Europe, where I specifically hard code them not to).
Better question: You in Canada now? ;)
That watch is ugly. Maybe that is why the say it improves your “EFFICIANCY”
watch band
It’s really too bad studies don’t actually use modern devices….they’re hopelessly outdated by the time they release to the public. Chances are the actual work was started at least two years ago, when that gear was pretty current. Before they could start acquiring data, they’d have to write an ethics proposal and have it passed by the university – easy for something like this compared with a new anti-cancer agent, but still has to be done and it takes months. Even if the first journal you submit to accepts the work, by the time it’s gone through review, revision, reviewers confirming the revisions match what they’ve requested, and typesetting and proof-checking, that’s often a year right there. Electronic submissions have accelerated the review process, and online publication means you no longer have to wait for space in the printed journal before your work is available.
Conference abstracts are usually much more current – what you need is a contact who goes to the right kind of meetings.
Amazon Germany has the TomTom Adventurer for even less: 129 Euros.
link to amazon.de
Just wondering If TomTom ever shuts down their sport swatch division, would it still be possible to get the data from the watch?
Ray,
I posted a link to amazon.de, but it looks like it’s converted to an amazon.com (afilliate) link.
Froome fails his drug test… Noooooooo
…not super surprised.
Tacx Neo Smart for $1,475.00 with an instant rebate. Discount appears when you star to check out.
link to bicyclebuys.com
That’s actually more expensive than the usual DCR discount that’s available 365 days a year via Clever Training (which is 10% off, taking it to $1,439.10…plus free shipping). :)
Ray you should really put the Amazfit Pace 1 (and 2 that is being released in the beginning of 2018) on your list. They are very cheap (I got mine from GearBest at 75€) but the accuracy and build quality is awesome. GPS in particular is among the best watches I had (Suunto Ambit 3 Peak & Sport, Fenix 2 & 3 HR, TomTom Adventurer). The cardio is a little less great compared with TomTom in initial testes but o pair with Fenix 3 HR.
The only thing missing (don’t forget it’s a sub-100eur watch) is complex interval training, swimming mode and probably the option to use an external HR Band. But version 2 will introduce this for about the same price.
It’s really incredible and with a greater availability I see trouble for big players.
I saw Race Face/Easton finally did an official launch of the Cinch power meter (even though it’s been available for months). Does that mean we can expect a review from you on it soon?