Heads up!!! Here’s your massive holiday sports tech deals list! This includes the Garmin Epix for just $419, the Apple AirTag 4-Pack for just $69, the GoPro Hero 12 Black for $249, (or the brand new Hero 13 or $299!) and plenty more! Go check out the full list of 100+ deals here!
I’m DC RAINMAKER…
Here’s how to save!
Wanna save some cash and support the site? These companies help support the site! With Backcountry.com or Competitive Cyclist with either the coupon code DCRAINMAKER for first time users saving 15% on applicable products.
You can also pick-up tons of gear at REI via these links, which is a long-time supporter as well:
Alternatively, for everything else on the planet, simply buy your goods from Amazon via the link below and I get a tiny bit back as an Amazon Associate. No cost to you, easy as pie!
You can use the above link for any Amazon country and it (should) automatically redirect to your local Amazon site.
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5 Easy Steps To The Site
1
In 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.
2
Read My Sports Gadget Recommendations.
Here’s my most recent GPS watch guide here, and cycling GPS computers here. Plus there are smart trainers here, all in these guides cover 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!
3
Have 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.
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My Photography Gear: The Cameras/Drones/Action Cams 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 (including drones & action cams!)! It’s a nice break from the day-to-day sports-tech talk, and I hope you get something out of it!
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The 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 2024 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 Gear Guide too.
You might want to give a look at Jolla Sailfish.
link to jolla.com
Well, I’m sure you’ll already be on the lookout for BLE-compatible watches and “head units”, but that looks to be an interesting space. BLE may be the downfall of ANT+, and it’ll be interesting to see who jumps on the bandwagon first (like Polar’s V800)…
I dont think it will be the downfall at all. I think everything will be connecting in as many ways as possible.
I’d be interested in iPhone apps that take advantage of the M7 chip
MWC has historically been more Android focused and has very little Apple presence.
Would be interesting to see if Android phones will get a low power co processor like the M7. Seems like there could be a big surge in activity monitors using smart phones if it could be done with less of a battery hit.
Samsung’s S5 invite to their announcement indicates the fitness side should see some changes so think there is more to it then just supporting Ant+ (i.e. s health may have some big changes)
(the green “fitness” and “outdoor” icons)
Not much of a swimmer but if you go running I’ll definitely come. Enjoy MWC, I’m just planning on getting lost and see the big announcements :)
Thought you might be interested in what the folks at The Wirecutter think of your work: link to thewirecutter.com. (I realize this isn’t exactly on point, but this seemed the easiest way to show this to both you and your audience.)
Hi Ray, I’ll be there from tomorrow for the whole show – I’m a guest speaker on the SanDisk stand. Do drop by and say hello if you’re passing the booth… don’t think I’ll be joining for morning swims (even if I was, I’m such a horrifically slow swimmer there’s no way I’d subject you to swimming with me!), though I do plan on getting some running in over the duration.
I’ll be having a scout around for anything interesting and health related too, just for personal interest – I want to see what 4iiii are up to for one.
Any new devices or apps that use HRV information?
Maybe Beddit and Withings will be there with their sleep trackers?
Any new GPS/glonass technology? Seems like the GPS chipset itself hasn’t had any announcement of improvements. Seems like there should be room to make the chipsets use less power
Technology to do location tracking without GPS. There is the location tracking for the end user which I know “Trusted Positioning” is working on as they have press releases out saying their tech will be coming out this year in some smartphones. There are also companies using this to triangulate people’s smartphones to be able to track crowds and the people in them. (a store can track how customers move through the store, who the new customers are, how many people enter the store they convert into buying something)
A trend to keep an eye on is the popularity of smart watches. Yes, there is the obvious reasons of this importance so I’ll ignore those. Thinking more about the less obvious. Low power CPU development has been pushed pretty far by smart phones in that smart phones require pretty powerful CPUs which has allowed large R&D budgets to be used to improve them. The problem for sports devices is that those CPUs are still too power hungry and there hasn’t been demand for lower powered devices to get them to improve all that much. Most of our sports devices would use CPUs that are more like what is being put into smart watches so improvement funded by smart watch popularity should help sports devices be more powerful. (So for example the Edge 810 seems to use the same processor as the Edge 800 which came out in 2010, imagine if processing speed of edge units increased like is did in cell phones)
BTW why are there what looks to be 2 android cell phones in that picture? Is there a hint of something new there?
Hey Ray,
I’m also going, maybe you could share your target stalls? Would hate to miss any cool stuff!
Dawie – South Africa
Oh, and I am very keen on those swims!
Off topic, but, the Fitbit Force was recalled today.
Between the hundreds of reports of people losing them and hundreds of reports of skin burns, numbers that just kept growing, it was about time Fitbit finally got its act together.
Indeed, great news. Though, kinda sorta want to throw my laptop out the window, since there’s an unpublished review on it. Beyond the band (both the clasp portion as well as skin thing), it was a great device technologically. Of course, those two items were deal killers. :-/
I hear you, that you can’t publish some of your work, which you always put a lot of effort and thought into. Now it is down a mention in the weekly summary. ;)
The Force was a great device, that why I purchased one for my wife, but between the rash / burn (over the holidays) and now 5 weeks after she stopped wearing it, she is stuck pretty bad round scar on her wrist :-(
Publish it!!!
Who is going to make the better version of the MotoACTIVE? I loved that device, it did both Bluetooth & ANT+. It counted steps taken, worked for cycling & running. Battery Life was a problem, but the real deal killer was the lack of waterproofing and swim metrics. Since I’m a triathlete I would need my wrist fitness device for Swimming & Running metrics.
I’ll love to join you for a morning swim. Name the time and the place. If you want I can also get you into my swimming club pool (50m outdoors, heated, open 10am-10pm) or my gym pool (50m indoors, open 6:15am-22:30pm).
I wish people would quit using “burn” to describe the allergic reaction to the Fitbit Force. It is a rash. An allergic reaction. There is a common metal allergy involved. End dermatologist rant.
Dear Dr., Dermatologist.
I apologize for using common words to describe the matter with the Fitbit Force as rash or burn in layman’s terms versus allergic reaction or even better contact dermatitis.
Please note that it would appear NOT to be the nickel allergy you allude to, which Fitbit is still hiding behind, partially. My wife and countless other people who have been affected by the Force have tested negative for nickel and/or other metals / components.
They are talking now about toxic components in the wrist band glue or sealant which the internals are covered with.
So, now when the skin or body acts against unknown toxic components it comes in contact with. Is it still an “allergic reaction” or a “chemical burn” ?
One typically hears that chemicals will irritate and burn the skin. Maybe there has to be component of time to it, as in rapidly damaging several layers of tissue to be one thing or another?
something about withings and tantia scakes integration would be great
Curious whether Withings will support iPhone’s M7.
Any chance to check progress of ANT+ trainer protocol?
Yup, absolutely, ANT+ has a pavilion there.
bing health and fitness? They just recently released a new windows phone app which can track eexercises and uses MS’s cloud to save the data to. (Anyone else using Microsoft HealthVault?)
Samsung Galaxy Gear Fit device
Obviously I write for many on this one..
Samsung Gear 2 and Gear Neo.
Some ‘First Looks’ comments such as….
How is the HRM part of the device actuated.? Do you feel it will be reliable.
Featured apps on the spec sheets list a Garmin App.. Is this location only ..??
OR and this could be BIG.. Can we download the steps and HRM functions of these devices to the new Garmin Connect..!!!
Details all over the web but listed at Android Central and Smartwatchfans..
Have a great trip, Barcelona is a fun place to visit and a BIG THANK YOU..
Yea, the article I read glossed over the HRM but really this could be the start of the cross over fitness/daily use watch.
I’d be curious about water proofing (aka sweat), and how close the HRM is to the new Mio Link.
OK It seems like we have THREE devices..
Add to the above the Samsung Galaxy Fit…
It seems a bit like the Garmin Vivofit but with a curved colour screen, HRM built in, step counter, as well as phone and messaging functions.
They did not comment on the battery life..!!!
Thanks
I wonder if the watches will support Ant+
No, they do not. The phones do, as does all of Sony’s new phones. But more on Sony tomorrow…
I wonder why in the present version of Connect app, Garmin didn’t take advantage of ANT+ present in the latest Samsung like S4……any future implementation may be?
As much as I’d love to see that, I think that’s going to be a rather big gap to cover…
If the manufactures of Bluetooth chips are attending, a roadmap of when and what chips are coming (and capabilities) would be great.
Gear fit seems too narrow to have an optical hr sensor without having issues with external light bleed
I think you could well be correct Eli.
23 mm wide it says..
Details at link to samsungmobilepress.com
Dick
For those curious, I go hands on with Samsung’s new waterproof S5 phone, full color touch screen wrist activity tracker and Gear2 smart watches–all with built-in heart rate sensors and tons more: link to dcrainmaker.com
Super excited about the Samsung Galaxy Fit, Gear 2, Neo;
Battery life with constant continous HR-measuring? Will any of these devices last as long as a Mio Alpha?
Is it possible to download/export your training sessions, or is it going to be stuck in some Samsung app/web service?
Announced third party fitness apps for these devices? I read that RunKeeper would be available for the Gear 2 – will that be able to use the built-in HRM?
Broadcom announced a new GPS chipset for the likes of us at this conference: BCM4771. But only sampling this quarter, so it’ll be a while (fall at the earliest?) before seeing it in any devices. And I haven’t seen a plainly-stated summary of how it compares to other solutions, like SirfStarIV or V.
BTW, what GPS chipset is Garmin using in the 620 and other recent devices? Are they still using CSR SirfStar stuff? Anyone know?
Not sure if this qualifies as fitness related. It’s health related though.
link to news.pg.com