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/X and BlueSky, 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!
…hang tight, next week’s gonna be a busy one! For that matter, June is gonna be arguably the busiest June in as long as I can remember.
Sports Tech Deals:
We’re in the midst of the spring sports tech sale. Some of these end this weekend, some of these end closer to the US Father’s Day. And some of them, who knows when they end. Either way, there are some fantastic deals in here, especially if you were looking at a Fenix 8.
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.
⚡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.
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.
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!
⚡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.
⚡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).
⚡ 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.
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.
Got all that? Good. Enjoy!
YouTube Videos This 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:
1) Apple reportedly to re-number operating systems, including WatchOS: This actually makes a ton of sense. Especially for platforms that are updated annually (without fail), just makes it a heck of a lot easier to keep track of things. And in the case of watches, it should reduce confusion a bit. Because up till now, the Apple Watch #’s have been offset 1 digit from WatchOS #’s. Meaning, Apple Watch Series 10 came out with WatchOS 11. In any event, I’ll be there in person next week to dive into any name changes, and more importantly, the actual WatchOS changes.
2) Garmin May 2025 Quarterly Software Update: In case you’ve been ignoring the e-mails Garmin sent you over the past week, they added a slate of new features to mostly newish watches, including Rucking, Breathing Variations, pin passcode, and more. Most of these features have launched on other watches in recent months, and are now available to a wider range of watches.
6) Zwift Splits/Lap Feature Rolls Out:While previously outlined at Zwift Community Live, this feature is now live, allowing you to take/create splits.
7) Google Pixel 9 phones can now use GoPro cameras as camera source: Somehow I totally missed this (and seemingly, so did most of the internet). You can now select a GoPro as a camera source (secondary camera), sorta like how you’d do so for a webcam in Zoom. That’s pretty cool/interesting. I’d love to have that capability on iOS as well.
Just curious thoughts about what might happen first, Garmin releases an Enduro for smaller wrists, or Suunto releases a new Vertical with their updated on wrist heart rate sensor? I’ve narrowed down my search to these wishlist items. 😀
That’s a tricky question. Frankly, I have no idea. I feel like Garmin thinks/believes there isn’t a market for smaller sized MIP based displays in the ultra segment (beyond Instinct series). I think there’s probably some truth to that, in terms of the market size Garmin now needs to justify making a product.
If we look at UTMB finishers (for the full-length one, the one that would justify the battery needs), only 12% were women in 2023 (first stat I found). And of course, some portion of those will be fine with medium sized MIP units (and inversely, some portion of men will prefer smaller units).
Whereas Suunto has a bit more flexibility on what it takes to ‘make it worth it’ for them (even moreso applied to COROS too). Of course, as always, Garmin *hates* the idea of someone stealing their lunch. So eventually, if the demand is there, Garmin will make a smaller unit with those features. But it make take an iteration or two. I’d say it’d be interesting to see in a Fenix 9 (or whatever it’s called), if they bring back the smaller Fenix S sized MIP unit or not, which they ditched for Fenix 8. If not, then I’d argue that fate is sealed.
Where can you see breathing variations? My Forerunner was updated to include them a while ago but for the life of me I can’t figure out where is this data located.
1) In Garmin Connect , under the same page as sleep stats (look at left side).
2) On the watch, within the sleep stats section for last night, akin to things like sleep phases/stages
Note that it does require PulseOx be enabled (during sleep), otherwise it won’t show up.
Thanks for acknowledging my Escape Collective story documenting Matthew Lefthand’s record-breaking 24-hour virtual ride. He is an amazing athlete who’s primed and ready to rewrite the ultra-cycling record books.
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Just curious thoughts about what might happen first, Garmin releases an Enduro for smaller wrists, or Suunto releases a new Vertical with their updated on wrist heart rate sensor? I’ve narrowed down my search to these wishlist items. 😀
Thanks!
That’s a tricky question. Frankly, I have no idea. I feel like Garmin thinks/believes there isn’t a market for smaller sized MIP based displays in the ultra segment (beyond Instinct series). I think there’s probably some truth to that, in terms of the market size Garmin now needs to justify making a product.
If we look at UTMB finishers (for the full-length one, the one that would justify the battery needs), only 12% were women in 2023 (first stat I found). And of course, some portion of those will be fine with medium sized MIP units (and inversely, some portion of men will prefer smaller units).
Whereas Suunto has a bit more flexibility on what it takes to ‘make it worth it’ for them (even moreso applied to COROS too). Of course, as always, Garmin *hates* the idea of someone stealing their lunch. So eventually, if the demand is there, Garmin will make a smaller unit with those features. But it make take an iteration or two. I’d say it’d be interesting to see in a Fenix 9 (or whatever it’s called), if they bring back the smaller Fenix S sized MIP unit or not, which they ditched for Fenix 8. If not, then I’d argue that fate is sealed.
Where can you see breathing variations? My Forerunner was updated to include them a while ago but for the life of me I can’t figure out where is this data located.
It’ll show up in two places:
1) In Garmin Connect , under the same page as sleep stats (look at left side).
2) On the watch, within the sleep stats section for last night, akin to things like sleep phases/stages
Note that it does require PulseOx be enabled (during sleep), otherwise it won’t show up.
Thanks for acknowledging my Escape Collective story documenting Matthew Lefthand’s record-breaking 24-hour virtual ride. He is an amazing athlete who’s primed and ready to rewrite the ultra-cycling record books.