I’m DC RAINMAKER…
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The DCR Analyzer
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5 Easy Steps To The Site
1In Depth Product Reviews
You probably stumbled upon here looking for a review of a sports gadget. If you’re trying to decide which unit to buy – check out my in-depth reviews section. Some reviews are over 60 pages long when printed out, with hundreds of photos! I aim to leave no stone unturned.
2Read My Sports Gadget Recommendations.
Here’s my most recent gadget recommendations guide (Winter 2018-2019 edition) and trainers here (2018 edition) – covering almost every category of sports gadgets out there. Looking for the equipment I use day to day? I also just put together my complete ‘Gear I Use’ equipment list, from swim to bike to run and everything in between (plus a few extra things). And to compliment that, here’s The Girl’s (my wife’s) list. Enjoy, and thanks for stopping by!
3Have some fun in the travel section.
I travel a fair bit, both for work and for fun. Here’s a bunch of random trip reports and daily trip-logs that I’ve put together and posted. I’ve sorted it all by world geography, in an attempt to make it easy to figure out where I’ve been.
4My Photography Gear: The Cameras and Equipment I Use Daily
The most common question I receive outside of the “what’s the best GPS watch for me” variant, are photography-esq based. So in efforts to combat the amount of emails I need to sort through on a daily basis, I’ve complied this “My Photography Gear” post for your curious minds! It’s a nice break from the day to day sports-tech talk, and I hope you get something out of it!
5The 2018 Swim/Bike/Run Gear I Use List
Many readers stumble into my website in search of information on the latest and greatest sports tech products. But at the end of the day, you might just be wondering “What does Ray use when not testing new products?”. So here is the most up to date list of products I like and fit the bill for me and my training needs best! DC Rainmaker 2018 swim, bike, run, and general gear list. But wait, are you a female and feel like these things might not apply to you? If that’s the case (but certainly not saying my choices aren’t good for women), and you just want to see a different gear junkies “picks”, check out The Girl’s 2018 Gear Guide too.
Tag Archives: Fitbit
First Look: Fitbit Charge 3 Activity Tracker with SpO2 Sensor & Sleep Disturbance Tracking
No matter how you slice it, the Fitbit Charge series is Fitbit’s leading line to date. Having sold over 35 million units amongst the various versions, it accounts for the bulk of their sales. Thus despite all attention on the … Read More Here
Fitbit Versa In-Depth Review
Do you know what happens when you remove GPS and style from the Fitbit Ionic? You end up with a Fitbit Versa. Which is probably the easiest way to describe the two watches. Certainly, the Fitbit Versa can be stylish … Read More Here
Fitbit rolls out slew of apps to Ionic…and…umm…virtual cats
It’s been just over three months since Fitbit announced their Ionic GPS smartwatch, and about two months since they started shipping it out into the wild. The watch is generally seen (by themselves and others) as critical to Fitbit’s revival … Read More Here
Fitbit Ionic GPS Smartwatch In-Depth Review
Last month Fitbit announced their latest device – the Fitbit Ionic. This would be a significant step forward for the company, as it would represent them stepping into a slightly different (and higher end) market. While it was previously difficult … Read More Here
The Fitbit Ionic Smartwatch: Everything you need to know
Today Fitbit launched their first legit smartwatch with 3rd party apps, wireless payments, and music support onboard. That’s all in addition to a revamped optical heart rate sensor, refreshed GPS platform, new coaching services, and a boatload of smaller features … Read More Here
Investor Call Tech Tidbits: Fitbit Q2 2017
As I noted just a few hours ago, when I’m sufficiently bored, I listen to investor calls for companies in the segment. In today’s case, that was two investor calls. It’s that time of quarter with plenty of earnings calls … Read More Here
Fitbit Alta HR In-Depth Review
In what may seem like a sea of Fitbit models, the Fitbit Alta HR attempts to strike the balance between what folks want as a straightforward activity tracker, while making some nods towards basic workout support. I’ve been wearing a … Read More Here
Fitbit Charge 2 Activity Tracker In-Depth Review
It’s been a bit over two months since Fitbit announced their latest wearables, the Fitbit Charge 2 and the Fitbit Flex 2 (they also announced some Blaze updates and Alta bands at that time). This review however is purely focused … Read More Here
Garmin enables migration from Fitbit: Here’s how it works
Over the last few days, Garmin made three fitness related software announcements: A) They (finally) enabled you to combine activity tracker data from multiple devices into one cohesive picture B) They enabled Strava Beacon support through Garmin Connect Mobile C) … Read More Here
Fitbit Alta In-Depth Review
It’s been a touch over two months since Fitbit announced their most recent wearable, the Fitbit Alta. Like all of Fitbit’s entrants this year, it was designed to be more fashion focused, while giving incremental upgrades in terms of features … Read More Here
Fitbit Blaze In-Depth Review
Almost exactly two months ago at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Fitbit announced their latest higher-end wearable, the Fitbit Blaze. The company positioned it as a smart fitness watch, aiming to offer something midway between the higher-end … Read More Here
First Look: Fitbit announces new Fitbit Alta activity tracker
Today Fitbit announced their latest activity tracker – the Fitbit Alta. This unit is effectively a replacement for the existing Fitbit Charge (or previous to that, the Force). However, unlike those, this unit sports smartphone notifications, move reminders, and the ability … Read More Here
Fitbit’s Bad Day: How it ended up with multiple optical HR lawsuits, and a 20% stock drop
For the San Francisco based firm Fitbit, yesterday was likely the mother of all bad roller-coasters. They started off the morning at 7:30AM with a packed press room in the Las Vegas Mandalay Bay Convention Center with the launch of … Read More Here
Fitbit Announces New ‘Fitbit Blaze’ Smart Fitness Watch
Update – March 2016! I’ve published my full Fitbit Blaze In-Depth Review here! Swing on over for all the details after extensive use! Today at CES Fitbit announced their latest wearable, the Fitbit Blaze. This new unit is effectively a … Read More Here
Strava news of note: Fitbit integration & Local Routes
Over the last week, Strava has rolled out two new integrations – one mostly driven by Fitbit, and the other solely by Strava. I wanted to briefly go through them since I think both are important for slightly different audiences. … Read More Here
Fitbit Charge and Charge HR In-Depth Review
It’s been a few months now since Fitbit announced and then subsequently released their Fitbit Charge and Charge HR units. At the same time, they announced the Fitbit Surge GPS (which I’ve already reviewed here). For this post though, we’ll … Read More Here
Fitbit Surge In-Depth Review
It’s been a few months since Fitbit announced a trio of products, including their first GPS watch – the Fitbit Surge. This joined two other activity trackers, the Fitbit Charge and Charge HR within the announcement (my review of the … Read More Here
A few quick thoughts on Fitbit’s new activity trackers, GPS watch (with optical heart rate!)
(Update February 26th: I’ve published my Fitbit Surge GPS In-Depth Review here and my Fitbit Charge and Charge HR In-Depth Review here. Go head over to those posts to get all the details!) This morning Fitbit announced a bundle of … Read More Here
MWC 2014 Roundup Part 1: Fitbit Force tidbits, Sony Core activity tracker and new Sony waterproof ANT+ phones, update on Mio Link
While last night’s big news was Samsung’s introduction of multiple smart watches, a new activity tracker, and their flagship S5 mobile phone – there are 8+ massive halls full of other companies exhibiting at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain … Read More Here
FitBit Zip In-Depth Review
Here’s a fun fact to start out with: The FitBit Zip is actually probably the only product where I’ve written the review after over a year of use with the device. Well, two devices actually. But, more on what happened … Read More Here
CES 2013: Health and Activity Monitors–Bringing it back to reality edition
How about them apples? Seriously, that was first thought about seeing the below situation from afar. The folks at the booth nearby had urged me to go over and try and ascertain what exactly was going on in there. Given … Read More Here
Test of the weekend: Battle of the fitness/step monitors
Bonjour! This weekend is more than just two days, for me, I’m making it a four-day affair. I’m over in Paris for some work related stuff on Friday and Monday, so I decided that given I’ll be doing a ton … Read More Here
A weekend with dueling power meters, activity monitors and more!
After a rather busy travel week last week, I was looking forward to relaxing a bit this weekend. I landed safely back in DC around 1AM Saturday morning. I mention ‘safely’ since our plane had a minor gear issue which … Read More Here
CES 2012 Health and Fitness Gadget Roundup: Part I
I spent a crazy busy 24 hours in Las Vegas on Wednesday, as part of speaking at a session/panel on Wednesday there (which I’ll be posting on here shortly). During that time I talked to just about everyone that I … Read More Here
ZEO, Fitbit and other tidbits
First off – sorry for the slight silence the last few days. I’ve been fighting a cough for the last three weeks, and it seemed to be winning the war over the last few days. Between the 12-14 hour workdays … Read More Here
