Week in Review–July 6th, 2020

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!

Sports Tech Deals of Note:

Here’s a smattering of current sports tech deals. The Apple Watch Series 5 one is probably one of the most solid ones.

	Product	Sale Price	Amazon	Sale Notes
	Apple Airpods (2nd Gen) - $25 off $159	$125	Amazon	⚡ I use AirPods primarily when I'm travelling just to listen in airports, planes, etc... I don't tend to use these for workouts due to them falling out. Also, with the wireless charging case for $50 off. Personally, I just use the basic model.
	Apple Airpods Pro - $30 off $249		Amazon	Yup, these are the new noise-cancelling ones that don't fall out of your ears. I haven't tried them yet, but lots of people seem happy with them.
	Apple Airpods Pro - $50 off $249	$199	Amazon	⚡ This is a very strong deal - by far the lowest price the Airpods Pro have ever been. Note: Also flirting occasionally at $189 ($60 off).
	Apple Watch Series 3 (38mm) $169-$179	$169	Amazon	This is the lowest price we've ever seen for the Apple Watch Series 3. While the Series 5 is the new one, the Series 3 has almost all the same features (and still gets all the updates). It's dipped a few times to $179, but only once ever for Black Friday to $169.
	Apple iPad - Latest Model 8th Gen (32GB)	$30 off (10% off)	Amazon	I use my iPad primarily for TrainerRoad as well as Zwift when not with a larger display. I also occasionally use it for other apps, namely The SufferFest - but I pretty much test every smart trainer app on it. This is the latest iPad that was just announced barely two weeks ago, so not too bad to see it on sale already (US AMAZON DEAL ONLY).
	DJI OSMO Action (Action Cam) - Normally $329 $349	$249	Amazon	This is a solid price for the DJI OSMO Action, and it's a very strong first contender from DJI to compete with the Hero 7 Black (realistically, except for the dual-screen, it simply doesn't compete with the Hero 8 or Hero 9). I really like a lot of elements on the OSMO Action, but especially the dual-screen. Check out my full review for comparative thoughts. While I would have said that maybe we'd see a new OSMO Action sometime this past spring (an annual refresh cycling), I'm pretty sure COVID19 has killed any chance of that happening for a while.
	Garmin Fenix 6 Pro - 10% off $599-$1,149	$630	Amazon	The Fenix 6 Pro (not the S or X variants) is on sale by Amazon for 10% off, or basically saving $70. This is a good deal, though obviously not an incredible deal. The last time we saw Fenix 6 deals was back in May 2020, for $150 off.
	Garmin HRM-DUAL (ANT+/Bluetooth Smart Strap) - $15 off $69	$56	Amazon	⚡ This is one of my go-to straps these days (ANT+ & two concurrent BLE connections). It's floated on and off being on sale, but this is about the lowest we've seen it.
	Garmin Instinct - $30 off $299	$220	Amazon	Sure, the new Solar variants came out this summer with a few new features, but at their core the Instincts are mostly the same. This was quite a bit lower on Amazon Prime Days ($149), so $30 off isn't really a huge deal (it's normally $250ish).
	Garmin Tactix Charlie - $150 off	$599	Amazon	The Tactix Charlie is essentially a Fenix geared towards military folks (Amazon Prime Days)
	Jackery Portable Power Station - $50 off	$249	Amazon	This is something I use frequently when shooting out and about and I need to re-charge a crapton of drone batteries, action cameras, or just cameras and such. I also use it on trips to Eurobike and elsewhere to keep equipment charged. Technically you can even hook a solar panel up to it. Heck, I've even powered a KICKR trainer ride from it!
	Lasko High Velocity Pro-Performance Fan (U15617) - 16% off	$59	Amazon	This is one of the most popular indoor trainer fans out there, which rivals the Wahoo Headwind fan but cost a fraction of the price. Of course, it lacks ANT+/Bluetooth integration, but realistically if you really want that you can add a smart outlet for $10 to toggle it on/off from your phone if need be. I've actually got this fan in the DCR Cave recently on advice of many people.
	Samsung Galaxy Buds True Wireless Earbuds - $20 off	$109	Amazon	This are obviously super popular, and having them be 31% off ought to make them even more popular. Wireless Charging Case included.
	SanDisk 1TB Extreme PRO Portable External SSD - 32% off	$189	Amazon	This is the high speed drive I use to store the footage I'm actively video editing, so that I can edit it on both my iMac at the office, and then my MacBook when travelling or at home.
	SanDisk 256GB Extreme PRO SD Cards - 34% off	$66	Amazon	I use the SanDisk Extreme Pro SD Cards exclusively for all my video/photo shooting on my Panasonic GH5 and Nikon cameras (video and stills), including up to 6K recording with the GH5. I've mostly used 128's, but more and more lately I'm filling up cards faster with higher bitrates, so this sale is gonna have me pickup a bunch of the 256GB ones instead. The 128GB/512GB/1TB ones are also on sale too viathe same link.
	Suunto 7 Wear OS Watch - $50 off $499	$449	Amazon	The Suunto 7 floats on and off sale occasionally, but usually not more than 20% off.
	Suunto 9 Baro Series - $100 off $599 (non-baro is $499)	$449	Amazon	This isn't quite as good a deal as for Amazon Prime Day when it was 46% off (basically $200 off), but it's still a deal nonetheless.
	Withings Body+ WiFi Scale - 11% off	$89	Amazon	I've long been a fan of the Withings WiFi scales, especially since they can connect/push data to so many platforms, including Zwift! Note that the Body+ simply includes more data.

DCRAINMAKER.COM Posts in the Past Week:

Here’s all the goodness that ended up on the main page this past week:

Sunday: DCR Video: Riding Zwift on the Actual Champs-Élysées
Tuesday: Garmin Acquires Firstbeat Analytics: A Quick Analysis of the Winners and Losers
Tuesday: Polar’s Unite Fitness Watch: Hands-on Details and First Run
Friday: Stages Bike (SB20) In-Depth Review

YouTube Videos This Past Week:

Here’s what hit the tubes over on the You of Tube, definitely don’t forget to subscribe there to get notified of videos the second they hit!

Stuff 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 (and in this case, some of these are from the past few weeks to clear out the backlog):

1) The Banned Vanmoof Ad: The ad was OK, but of course, the real magic was having it manage to get banned in France – and just drawing attention to the situation.

2) Google acquisition of Fitbit getting closer scrutiny from EU: It’ll be interesting to see what, if anything, Fitbit launches this fall. Given the company is still operating independently of Google, it puts them in a tough spot – unless they simply decided to go towards Wear OS anyway for new devices per their previously announced plan with Google.

3) Apple sleep tracking planned for over five years: While a good headline, I’m sure someone had it on a notepad somewhere to add sleep tracking. Ya know, given it’s been on every other competitive wearable company for 5-6 years. Plus, they did buy a sleep tracking company a few years later. That said, I completely agree on the REM sleep aspects of the interview.

4) Peloton rolls out Roku streaming app: It’s a super smart strategy to be as device agnostic as possible on the platform side (for those without bikes). They also rolled out Apple TV support back a bit ago this fall. Still, these apps lack significant amounts of workout target type metrics that the bike does have.

5) Lululemon buys Mirror for half a billion dollars: Well then.

6) Google Glass Part 2? Google buys North, a company focused on smart glasses. Ultimately, this product category won’t catch on in sports until GPS is integrated, battery life is 6-8 hours, do *everything* a watch or bike computer does, and the entire package looks like normal glasses. It’s this last line item and 2nd to last item that’s currently failing. (via Patrick)

7) Older Apple Patent around Cyclist Wind Resistance Shows up in News Cycle: However, this first came around 3-4 years ago when the patent was first applied for, but the patent hasn’t actually been issued yet best I can tell. Which, makes sense…cause it’s pretty much exactly what the PowerPod/iBike from Velocomp has been doing for probably a decade prior to Apple’s patent.

Sports Tech Device 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 and a few other firmware updates.

Garmin Instinct Beta Firmware Update: Compass bug fix

Garmin Fenix 6 Series/MARQ BETA Firmware Update: Bug fixes

Polar Grit X Firmware Update: Some bug fixes, some tweaks to existing features

Suunto 7 Firmware/Software Update: Adds better integration to Google Fit, improved GPS accuracy, other tweaks

Wahoo ELEMNT/BOLT/ROAM Firmware Update: ‘Stability Improvements’

—

Thanks for reading!