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Week in Review–August 17th, 2020

WeekInReview22

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:

Ok, not much left this week. Sorta a lull. But hey, if ya need a GoPro Hero 8 Black or AirPods, it’s still on sale!

ProductSale PriceAmazonOther siteSale Notes
Apple Watch Series 9 - $106 off!
$399/$499 (cellular)
$292I have no idea why this specific Apple Watch Series 9 combo is on sale this much more than the other editions (which are on sale to $320), but hey...the one I've linked to is the Midnight Aluminum Case with Midnight Sport Loop, and is currenetly listed as new at $293. Else, it's $329 ($70 off).
Garmin Epix (Gen 2) & Sapphire - $300 off
$899/$999
From $549⚡ This deal is back, and at $549 for the base edition, and a mere $599 for the Titanium/Sapphire editions, it's a very strong deal. Sure, not as stong as Uncle Amazon back during Black Friday at $449, but those days are gone. Also, this Epix series just got another huge slate of new features this past week, and continues to get equal new features to the Epix Pro units.
Garmin Forerunner 255/255S - $100 off$249This is Garmin's mid-tier running watch, and is a very polished option with good multi-band GPS, and of course, a boatload of running metrics.
Garmin Forerunner 255/255S Music - $100 off!$299This is Garmin's mid-tier running watch, and is a very polished option with good multi-band GPS, and of course, a boatload of running metrics. This model also includes offline music such as Spotify and Amazon Music.
Garmin Forerunner 55 - $30 off
$199
$169This is a good little running watch, though, it also supports plenty of other sport types as well. This is the normal sales price.
Garmin Forerunner 955 - $100 off!$399This is one of Garmin's most popular running watches, and it's back down to the lowest price ever. 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...)
Garmin Forerunner 955 Solar: $100 off!
$499/$599
$499See everything I said above on the Forerunner 955 base, except this one also has solar.
Garmin Index S2 WiFi Scale - 20% off
$149
$119I use this scale, merely for the weight tracking functions (not body fat). It works just fine, and integrates with the rest of your Garmin data. If you aren't in the Garmin ecosystem, there's plenty of cheaper options.
Garmin Instinct 2 Series - $60+ OffFrom $238⚡The Instinct 2 base is from $238 (on Amazon), a very solid deal - especially with all the major software updates it's had over the last year. It's also from $249 at REI.
Garmin Instinct 2X - $50 off$399This is the second we've seen the Instinct 2X on sale, and since announcement it's received a huge slate of firmware updates and new features. It's best thought of as an Instinct 2.5, given the slightly different internals compared to the rest of the Instinct 2 series.
Garmin Instinct Crossover - $50 off$349
Google Pixel Watch 1 - $150 off$199While the new Pixel Watch 2 just came out last fall, the Pixel Watch 2 got almost all the software features via software update. The Pixel Watch 2 does have a slightly better optical HR sensor, and better battery life, but otherwise is relatively similiar. In fact, the Pixel 1 just got another pile of software updates last week.
HoverAir X1 Drone - $80 off!$349Note: There's virtually always a $80 coupon that can be clicked on the Amazon page.
Polar Pacer - $70 off!$166This is about as low as it gets price-wise for the Polar Pacer (base unit).
Polar Pacer Pro - $70 off!
$329
$269
Samsung Galaxy Watch6 - $50 off$249
Samsung Galaxy Watch6 Classic - $100 off$299This is a reasoanbly solid deal for this watch, which came out last summer.
Tacx NEO 2T Smart Trainer (+ Free Motion Plates) - $400 off!
$1,399
$999⚡ This deal is back, except now they've sweetened it by adding in the $300 Tacx Motion Plates for free (via rebate). So, in the event you didn't pick up before, go forth.

DCRAINMAKER.COM Posts in the Past Week:

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

Tuesday: Wahoo KICKR V5 (2020) Smart Trainer In-Depth Review
Thursday: Hands-on: CORE’s New Skin/Body Temp Sensor with Garmin/Wahoo integration

Ok, a bit of a quieter week. This week might be semi-quiet as well as I prep things for the 7-10 days ahead – but next week will definitely make up for it.

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) Quick Page to see all Zwift Steering Events: In the approximately 72 hours after steering launched, Zwift changed how and what events steering would be available on….about 3.5 times. Making it darn near impossible to figure out exactly which events you could use it on. But, if you were among the thousands that bought a Sterzo, you now have a handy option via the Zwift Hacks site to filter all events with (or without) steering enabled.

image

2) Unbricking a bike with Raspberry Pi to run Zwift: Last year Flywheel got sued by Peloton for stealing code. They lost, and ultimately killed the bike platform. While not ideal at all, Peloton offered customers a swap to a Peloton bike for free (which, is a pretty sweet deal). In any event, if you had one of those Flywheel bikes, they quickly became clothes hangers. However, this developer unbricked it and made it work with Zwift. Mind you, this is definitely not an ‘Easy Button’ project, but it is super cool.

3) Photographer turns masks into mini lap pool: Yup, this is pretty awesome.

4) Google Maps gets back on Apple Watch (and updated Carplay) support: While I’m 100% a Google Maps user, I don’t tend to use it on my Apple Watch. Still, this is great for those that do.

5) Apple watchOS 7 rolls out public beta with sleep tracking: Remember the sleep tracking I previewed back in June? Now you can give it a whirl too on your regular Apple Watch. As usual, reminder – it’s technically beta. Your watch could be fine, or it could do something horrible. It probably won’t, but this is 2020 after all. I’ll probably give it a whirl in the coming days and see what’s changed.

6) Apple Health Plus Subscription Service Coming? Sounds like some sort of paid platform is on the way to Apple. It’ll be interesting to see what exactly they come up with. Rumors seem to point to instructional related, which might make sense. Though, I don’t see any threat to Peloton unless there’s some unknown hardware partnership.

7) Behind the Scenes on Garmin Instinct Commercial: I’m a bit of a camera geek, so it’s always fun to see how things are shot/made. I presume this one was sometime this winter prior to the world ending. But still, it’s interesting.

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 Edge 520, Edge 520 Plus, 820, 1000, and Edge Explore 820 firmware updates: There’s virtually no information on all these, except ‘stability improvements’.

Garmin Edge 530 & 830 BETA firmware update: Two bug fixes related to CIQ & Di2.

Garmin Instinct & Instinct Solar BETA Firmware Update: Minor bug fixes.

Garmin Vivoactive 3 Music & VA3 Music LTE Firmware Update: Golf bug fix & CIQ bug fix.

Garmin Venu Firmware update: A bunch of bug fixes.

Hammerhead Karoo Firmware Update: This revamps the pairing menu, notably adding in a nice pretty ANT+ Logo (among other things).

Thanks for reading!

 

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/711258243/ghost-pacer-your-personal-holographic-workout-partner/description

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27 Comments

  1. Franken

    Edge series firmware updates. Perhaps a new accessory product release? I think they’ve done similar before

    • PeterF

      I’m hoping for Tempe support. A temperature sensor underneath the saddle, out of the sunlight, would be an improvement over the built-in sensor I think.

      TBH I don’t understand why it isn’t supported already while so many other Garmin devices do support it; I’m sure it’ll (modestly) drive sales of the Tempe…

    • Pavel Vishniakov

      Wait, there’s no Tempe support on Edge units? Not even on the 1030+ ?

    • Meredith

      New models are unlikely. They have had quite a few firmware updates so far and the release cycle is longer than the time they have been out.

    • Neil Jones

      Hope, not even on 1030+, just takes it from internal sensor with no option otherwise

    • Neil Jones

      ^Nope, not Hope!

  2. Rodolfo Araujo

    Noticed a massive improvement in screen response in my 820

    • Heinrich Hurtz

      Hmmm. I might try it. I’ve gone back to and have been sticking with 11.2 on my 820 due to battery life, sensor dropouts, green screen, and other issues with subsequent releases. Seems I’ve always wound up using down rev firmware toward the end of a Garmin’s product life as the final versions were worse.

  3. So, what about that Ghost Pacer link……? 🙂

  4. Akiva Wasser

    I see you picked up on the ANT+ icon in the Karoo update (it seems like the lack of it was one of your pet peeves).

  5. inSyt

    The 245 and 945 also received big beta updates?

    • Yeah, they were the week prior. I’ve actually got a post talking about some of those things coming up, combining with something else. Just waiting on something else to drop so that it all makes sense.

  6. Pete Parfitt

    Do we assume that the 645 is now a bit of a dead duck in terms of any updates etc, whilst notionally it has been Garmin’s top running watch I’m assuming now the limitation on hardware and planned obsolesence means that the 245 has overtaken it.

    • leslie chow

      I’m reealllllyyyy hoping that “something else to drop” that Ray referred to above is a 655 (or 735). I’ll even order it before Ray’s review drops if it has LTE. PLEASE GARMIN, let me let my wife live track my long runs without dragging a phone along.

    • Dan G

      Garmin has a suggestions page; at worst asking for further 645 support is only a shot to nothing. At least it would let them know

      link to garmin.com

    • It’s definitely worth making sure Garmin hears the FR645 feedback. Personally I think it should at least match the FR245 features.

      Note – I did confirm this week that for the FR645 feature firmware updates, that “that ship has sailed”. 🙁

    • Will

      HI.
      I see that the 645 gets Connect IQ 3.2 today.
      Do you know what the impact of that potentially means?
      Thanks

  7. fusfeld

    The Edge 530 update was actually more important because the 5.66 beta was up and then pulled down quickly. Those of us that were unlucky to have installed it (and have Di2) had a nasty bug which was then fixed in 5.68

  8. Steve

    Wait…you mean you didnt know??!?!?…oh my god…stop the horses…my life will end because theres no Tempe support…what am I gonna dooooo….

    Ffs…

  9. Mike

    “This week might be semi-quiet as well as I prep things for the 7-10 days ahead – but next week will definitely make up for it.”

    Kickr Core 2020 update incoming?