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Week in Review–December 13th, 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:

There’s still tons of deals out and about, including some renewed/bigger Apple Watch Series 6 and SE deals, if you missed out on Black Friday.

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: Hammerhead Karoo 2 In-Depth Review
Tuesday: Tacx Boost Trainer In-Depth Review
Wednesday: The Massive 2020 Sportswatch Year in Review with DesFit
Friday: Behind the DCR Cave: How I Made A Smart Package Delivery Box

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 (also, this is really the last two weeks, as I didn’t quite hit publish on last week’s collection):

1) The dictator, the oligarch and the UCI president: If for some reason haven’t seen this piece yet, or read it, obviously, you most definitely should. It’s #1 on the list this week, despite being from last week.

2) Virtual Cycling and Real Cheating: Cracking Down on ‘Digital Doping’: A New York Times piece that I was quoted in a few times, discussing where Zwift stands here, mostly around the topics I discussed in this piece here.

3) The BikePaper Project: This is a 1.5” e-Paper display used on a bike computer, even with ANT+ sensor connectivity. As noted by the creator himself, this isn’t really a viable commercial project, but more of a hobbyist fun thing. Still, it’s always fun to see what people think up. Plus – these are the people that the bike computer companies want to hire. (Thanks KD!)

4) Could AI be the future of bike race coverage? Simply put – yup. At least for less important races. And we haven’t even begun to tap into what will eventually be possible here once beyond line of sight commercial media drone applications are commonplace (within a safe framework).

5) Meet the magnet bike fishers: These guys fish out old bikes, notably my older beloved Velib’s, from Parisian waterways.

6) Wristcam is a $299 Apple Watch Band: I’m struggling immensely to determine why I’d spend $299 for a poor quality camera on a wrist strap…all the size of a Babybel cheese round.

7) Fitbit Kinda Quietly Recalls Some Early Sense Units: We’re talking a few hundred units apparently, due to an issue with ECG failures. My bet here for the reason why Fitbit is doing this is since it touches on an FDA approved medical device. Versus I suspect other aspects of the device that might have seen failures might not have prompted such a recall/replacement.

8) 2020 Sportswatch Year in Review With DesFit: Just in case you missed it above in the link, here’s a super long-form chat with Des on all the watches released this past year.

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, Wahoo, Polar, and a few other firmware updates.

Garmin MARQ & Fenix 6 Series: Significant update with new features including sport-specific zones, Concept2 with PM5 module support, and a boatload of other tweaks.

Hammerhead Karoo Series Firmware Update: Largely minor tweaks.

With that – thanks for reading!

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14 Comments

  1. Rodrak

    Hi Ray,
    Regarding the E-ink project. I love e-ink on my Kindle i love BW display on my Suuntos and Bolt, but e-ink is dead end for bike computer. The referenced display guarantees 1000000 refresh cycles, thats 278 hours of ride with 1 second refresh rate, if you go 30kmph, thats 8300 km and than you may replace the display. Thats the weak spot of this lovely technology. Unfortunatelly.
    Cheers!

  2. Frank Goehner

    Hey Ray, any chance the fit files podcast with Gplama will start up again?

  3. Dave Messina

    Frank’s got a great question! Ever gonna get the podcast back up and running?!

  4. Pepe

    Hi Ray
    Can you post the .fit file from a run with Coros Pace 2 + Stryd?

  5. Bruce Burkhalter

    Ray –

    What are you thoughts on SPD power meter pedals coming to market in 2021? Think many will ship and will they be relatively accurate?

    Have a great holiday and stay safe!

  6. Duncan Tindall

    Regarding #6 – it’s close to something I’ve been hunting for ages. I run without my phone 99% of time, and when I ride then I’ll have my phone, but zipped in a pocket. And yet there are loads of times I’d love to grab a quick snap for instagram or strava, but CBA to pull from pocket.
    So a really light, fairly low resolution camera, waterproof, that I could clip on (think old Ipod nano) would be a definite purchase. Literally 20 years ago there was a UKP20 thing that was size and thickness of 2 stacked credit cards.
    In other ‘back to the past’ technology then an FM radio for running. I’ve an old Sony MP3 with FM in it and some bose earbuds – when the bose finally break then I’m stuffed. All the wireless/bluetooth earbuds don’t have the cable to act as aerial.

    • Bruce Burkhalter

      Maybe a used, older GoPro? Or maybe a GoPro Session? Might be a little bigger than you are thinking but they are pretty cheap, relatively waterproof without a case, can take some abuse, and with the wide angle you don’t have to be too accurate with your aiming.

    • Duncan Tindall

      GoPro and a clip is too big/heavy bouncy. I do have one, and have used it for paddleboarding.

      I’m after a sports version of link to getnarrative.com – simply press to take a snap, then ideally the photos upload via bluetooth app later, but even if I needed to plug into USB to download I’d be fine. Daft thing is this is really old tech – but somehow nothing has replaced it, or at least it’s been replaced by heavier, larger and with lower battery life devices.

    • Interestingly enough, an Apple patent surfaced yesterday for putting a camera below the screen of the watch itself. link to appleinsider.com

      Of course, Apple files boatloads of patents a year for things that never come true. But would likely solve the problem better than something on the outside.

    • Duncan Tindall

      Bugger. They read my post and were darn quick to lodge it. 😉

      Right, I’m off down the patent office now to protect my next idea. I’m going to add a telephone to a camera. Whilst it may sound daft that you want to talk to someone not there whilst you are taking pictures, trust me, it’s going to change the world….

    • André berger

      Maybe the Canon IVY REC can fit your needs? It looks like it can only be clipped hanging on to something in portrait orientation, but I think some kind of clip could be made and attached to get it straight. link to dpreview.com

  7. Andrew M

    The Bike Paper project could be a really good way of doing Garmin’s Extended Display, without the expense of using an over-spec’ed GPS unit as just a passive display.