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.
There are no deals currently.
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.
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With that – thanks for reading!
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!
Hey Ray, any chance the fit files podcast with Gplama will start up again?
Frank’s got a great question! Ever gonna get the podcast back up and running?!
I think we’ll sort out something here eventually. It’s more of a logistical issue than anything.
Good to hear, I was worried that you and GPLama weren’t BFFs anymore
Hi Ray
Can you post the .fit file from a run with Coros Pace 2 + Stryd?
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!
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.
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.
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.
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….
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
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.