Week in Review–July 16th, 2023

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!

DCR Posts in the Past Week:

Here’s all the latest on the site:

Sunday: Week in Review–July 9th, 2023
Tuesday: Huge Amazon Prime Day 2023 Sports Tech Deals Tracker!
Wednesday: Garmin Forerunner 255/265/955/965 Get Slate of New Features in Beta
Wednesday: Apple WatchOS 10 Topographic Maps: Hands-on with the Public Beta
Thursday: Garmin Adds Training Readiness & Morning Report to Instinct 2 in New Beta!

By happenstance, I suspect posts this upcoming week might bear strong resemblance to post titles from last week.

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!

Some Leftover Sports Tech Deals:

There’s a few things left over from the Amazon Prime Day sales that are worth considering, probably mostly that still very solid Edge 1030 Plus deal (it dropped down to $299 for Prime Days, but $319 is still insanely good).

	Product	Sale Price	Amazon	Other site	Sale Notes
	AmazFit T-Rex 3 - $55 off	$224	Amazon
	Apple Watch Series 10 - $70 off $399/$499 (cellular)	$359	Amazon
	Apple Watch Ultra 2 Black Titanium - $70 off	$729	Amazon
	Elite Riser - $250 off!	$749	Amazon		This appears to basically just be an Uncle Amazon sale, but hey, if you've got an Elite trainer and wanted Rizer, this is a super good deal for US folks!
	Garmin Edge 1050 - $100 off!	$599	Amazon	REI	⚡This is the first time we've seen teh Edge 1050 on sale, since being announced last June (2024). It continues to be the most full featured bike comptuer on the market, and both reviews and consumers seem to be pretty happy with it. It's the unit I use if not testing anything else.
	Garmin Edge 540 - $100 off	$249	Amazon	REI	⚡At $249, it's pretty much impossible to beat this deal in terms of bike computers. There's no competitive option that beats it on features/battery/etc at this price, or frankly anywhere near it. Sure, it doesn't have a touchscreen, but it's not as bad as it used to be (I did a stint on it this winter for a week or so, and was fine).
	Garmin Edge 840 - $100 off	$349	Amazon	REI	This is Garmin's main mid-range cycling GPS, it's what my wife uses and she's perfectly happy with it.
	Garmin Enduro 3: $100 off $899	$799	Amazon	REI	This is the biggest sale we've seen on this to date. As noted above, the Enduro 3 is simply the Fenix 8 with a MIP/Solar display (but without the scuba or voice calling features). It gets all the Fenix 8 features and updates otherwise.
	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 265 Series - $100 off! $449	$349	Amazon	REI	This is actually the biggest discount the Forerunner 265 has seen since launch. Obviously the FR570 (successor to FR265) just came out this week, though with relatively modest updates.
	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 Varia Radar (RTL515) - $50 off	$149	Amazon	REI	This is Garmin's standalone radar+taillight option, and $149 is pretty much the standard sale-price.
	Garmin Venu 3/3S - $100 off	$349	Amazon	REI
	Garmin inReach 2 Mini Satellite Communicator (2-way) - $100 off	$299	Amazon	REI	⚡ This is my defacto satellite communicator when out of coverage area, and I've used it on a number of major treks over the past two years when well outside of cellular service, both in a 24x7 tracking mode for friends and family, but also there in case of emergency. Would strongly recommend for anyone doing anything in the wilderness.
	Garmin inReach Messenger Plus - $100 off!	$399	Amazon	REI	This came out last fall, and is the first time this has been discounted. The key difference with the new Plus model is that it adds the ability to send photos and voice messenges via satellite. I've used it a bit, and it's pretty cool because it makes it a lot faster to just say something rather than type it out, but the $499 price seemed excessive. $399 makes it slightly more palatable.
	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.
	Suunto Race - $70 off! $449/$549	$379	Amazon
	Suunto Vertical - $130 off!	$499	Amazon
	Wahoo BOLT V2 - $30 off $279	$249	Amazon

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:

1) Did Posting to Strava Get Russian Sub Commander Killed? Well, it probably didn’t help. But again, OpSec. As has always been the case, if you have a reason (be it personal privacy or military operational security), don’t post things to social networks that give away your location (or operational details). This isn’t new. It’s not some new-fangled realization of 2023 or even 2015.

2) Cowboy creates app to hep VanMoof Bike Users: With VanMoof apparently a sinking ship, this app from their e-bike rival lets one create a virtual key to access your bike, in the event VanMoof goes entirely out of business. I’m still dumbfounded as to how VanMoof screwed this up. Hopefully they sort it out, if for no other reason than the dozen teenagers on my Amsterdam street that own one.

3) Stages M200/L200 get upcoming climb details: There isn’t a ton of information on the firmware updates page, but I’ll try and get a unit updated to give a whirl later this week.

4) The life of a Tour de France Mascot: If you gave me a hundred guesses, I never would have guessed the person actually stuck inside one of those mascots.

5) Quick Hands-On Look at new WatchOS 10 Features: Matt gives a nice cinematic look at what’s new in WatchOS 10.

6) RAD Bikes pulls out of Europe: Can’t say I’m surprised here. While we do have one friend that has one in France, I rarely see them on the roads of Amsterdam (despite RAD Bikes having their European HQ here).

7) I don’t have a #7. Usually I have no problems getting to 8 or more things, but outside of having 20 Tour de France things (of which, many are worthy), it was actually kinda a quiet week in sports tech-ish kind of news. Or, at least news I thought interesting. On the bright side, I’ll be back at the Tour de France this week for the time trial stage, plus more adventures in the mountains. Fun times!

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