Heads up! Here’s your massive list of sports tech deals! This includes the Garmin Forerunner 965 for just $499, Garmin Epix for $449, the Apple Watch Ultra 2 Black Titanium for $735, the GoPro Hero 12 Black for $299, and plenty more! Go check out the full list here!
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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.
4
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 2023 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.
Those screenshots of updates must have been a lot of work, but truly, I just skipped over them.
That’s kind of why I skipped them. ;) It was easy to do the iPhone ones since it just took two seconds. But doing the Android, then Windows Phone, then the iPad. Phew.
Seems like all phones these days tell you when an update is available so I only skimmed the screenshots in case there was some cool functionality in an app I don’t have. Maybe have a list of the sports apps somewhere with a general summery of what you find good about it would be more useful?
I also believe that most users use the automatic update options of their system…
As far as Peaksware buying MakeMusic, and the reason behind it, the article says that Peaksware’s common strategy is “deliberate practice”. So I guess they’re saying that this goes beyond sports and fitness to include anything which requires practice, training, commitment, etc.; which would definitely include music. Whether this is just corporatespeak or not, I don’t know, but that’s what they’re saying about it.
Yeah, no doubt understand that. I guess I’d be concerned that any acquisition of that sort will require a shift (or expansion) in focus from senior leadership, and eventually portions of the current company if they plan to enable synergies that would make such an acquisition worthwhile.
I think it’s corporatespeak.
If you really look at the focus of Peaks – how they position their products, their marketing and corporate communications – you can tell the C-suite would rather sell solutions to “coaches” (broadly – people who teach things). I don’t think it’s any coincidence that they are hiring salespeople to sell to coaches – a lot of those hires are prolly gonna be making calls to piano and voice teachers now. :)
It will be interesting to see them evolve. The Hunter/Allen team and original founding board members have got to be pushing 60 now right? I read an interview with one of them (can’t remember which) saying he’s pulling in $700k/year. And why are you still working!?!?
Maybe an IPO soon??
This would make an interesting business school case (and even though that would be a better place for discussion of it than here in the comments section of the DCR sports technology blog, here goes …). It’s the difference between a channel marketing strategy and a production specialization strategy; or, vertical vs horizontal (as an example, we see channel strategies by bicycle manufacturers who also sell clothing, lights, bags, shoes, etc. These items have nothing to do with manufacturing bikes, but everything to do with the same customer – you and me). So as long as Peaksware was just making and selling the TrainingPeaks (and WKO+) software, it was just one product, so there was no difference between vertical (sell to athletes and coaches) and horizontal (good at developing software that manages scheduled activities and their metrics). So in a way Peaksware is saying that it may have previously looked like they were just in the business of selling this software for endurance sports training (vertical), but now their software development skills (horizontal) also allow them to extend that to other types of activities.
Only time will tell if they are right. You can make good arguments both ways. That’s what would make this a good business school case.
I have a birthday coming up but I didn’t think 45 was THAT old.
Hahah… postbait! :) You can’t just drop by and not comment on the IPO. C’mon… give the Rainmaker readers an inside scoop.
I just skipped over the updates too, however a list of apps that were updated with links to their app store/play store page would be a nice lower effort compromise.
I do like reading about new interesting apps though.
Love the “Week in Review.” Still hate the floating “Jump To:” menu in the left hand margin. FWIW
On mobile devices the floating panel on the left is realy obnoxious — you only see a few pixel’s worth of it anyway.
The little arrow/triangle at the top of the menu slides it into view.
Hmm, you should never see the floating panel on a mobile device – it’s not displayed. Which mobile device, and have you forced it over to desktop view by chance (scroll to very bottom and there’s a toggle)?
I see it consistently on iPad.
I’ll have to double-check on the iPad (don’t have one handy at the moment) to see if that defaults to being a “mobile device” (aka phone) or a non-mobile device. If it’s in the way there we can tweak stuff.
That said, most folks do like it quite a bit, especially when trying to navigate the longer reviews/posts.
I like reading the updates that are available but don’t need the screenshots. Thanks for all your hard work Ray in bringing us all this interesting info!
Agreed entirely! It’s great seeing your summary of the updates that have occurred, but the screenshots seem to be in the diminishing returns zone.
Thanks again for everything!
Hey that surf watch is vapor ware! And I know your thoughts on vapor ware.
+1 on no need for app updates unless they are core rebuilds like TrainingPeaks, Garmin Connect or similar. While I agree that apps auto update I have found a ton of functionality through things you show in the updates section. Maybe a better use of your time might be a quarterly app commentary, like what you use, what you stopped using and what you think needs better functionality.
Still no movement to the downside for power meter prices. Though I have seen some flex on the higher end via some online retailers…
Yeah, you won’t likely see much further movement until Eurobike/Interbike.
Indoor ski resorts are an awesome business.
1. Build massively energy-intensive indoor ski resort.
2. Global warming goes up, and without snow all your outdoor competitors go under.
3. Profit!!
Oh well, here in California the whole ski industry is corrupt, making money off advertising SUVs that are wiping out our ski season :(
It seems Mio has also made the V4.1 firmware update available last week, I haven’t had the chance to try it yet. Still a lot of complaints on their facebook page though…