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	Other site	Sale Notes
	Apple AirPods Pro (2nd Gen with USB-C) - $90 off	$169	Amazon		⚡ 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.
	Apple Watch Series 10 - $70 off $399/$499 (cellular)	$359	Amazon
	Apple Watch Ultra 2 Black Titanium - $70 off	$729	Amazon
	FORM Swim 1 Goggles (with heads-up display) - $50 off	$129	Amazon
	Garmin Fenix 8 Series - $200 Off! $999-$1,199	$799	Amazon	REI	⚡The Fenix 8 is now down to $799 for the 42/47mm AMOLED editions, and from $899 for the Solar/MIP editions. This is the first big sale, outside of a short $70 discount back in January by Uncle Amazon.
	Garmin Forerunner 965 - $100 off $599	$499	Amazon	REI	This is the lowest price to date on this watch, bringing it down to a very strong $499. This unit includes maps and is more or less a plastic Fenix 7 Pro. The FR970 just came out this week, adding ECG functionality and a few other software features...but at $250 more!
	Garmin Instinct 3 AMOLED - $50 off! $399/$449/$499	$399	Amazon	REI	This is th first official sale on Garmin's Instinct 3, which came out earlier this year. The smaller edition is $399, and the larger one at $449.
	Garmin Instinct 3 SOLAR - $50 off	$349	Amazon	REI	This is the first official sale on Garmin's Instinct 3 Solar, starting at $349.
	GoPro Hero 13 Black Bundle (extra battery/SD card/floaty) - $100 off!	$379	Amazon		⚡ This is a very solid deal. It's a Hero 13 Black on discount, but then an extra battery tossed in, then an SD card, and then a floaty.
	HoverAir X1 Drone Combo - $100 off!	$299	Amazon		This has become one of my favorite drones, given it's tiny size (fits in my running shorts pockets) and ease of use. While there's the new Pro drones, those are nearly 2x the price (and more for Pro-Max), and honestly, the video quality isn't really achieving that price point. Also note the checkbox to get yet an extra free battery (thus 3 batteries in total, based on the way it's currently coded in Amazon).
	Wahoo BOLT V2 - $30 off $279	$249	Amazon

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’

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Thanks for reading!