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!
DCRainmaker.com posts in the past week:
Here’s all the goodness that ended up on the main page of DCRainmaker.com this past week.
Here’s the low-down on what was covered this past week in the DCR podcast:
– Garmin Vivosmart HR and Polar A360 thoughts
– Garmin Index Scale thoughts
– FitLinxx’s decision to yank the Ampstrip
– How to track resting heart rate, and what it means
– A whole bunch of questions on optical HR (this episode should have been named “The Optical HR Show”)
– Power meters with a triathlon bike
– How Quarq handles broken power meters behind the scenes
– First Ironman device decisions
– Some initial thoughts on Black Friday sales
Thanks for listening! Subscribing and rating in iTunes is much appreciated, and be sure to send in your questions via the voice mail widget at the bottom of the podcast page!
Stuff that 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) First footage from GoPro’s new Drone: Interesting, but note: Nothing earth shattering shown. I’m just as excited as the next guy for GoPro’s drone (as I’ve covered lots of stuff at the intersection of drones and sports), but I’d point out that nothing shown is beyond the norm. They showed gimbal footage. Drone footage with a gimbal is a dime a dozen these days (more like a penny a thousand). What matters is what we don’t know: How big is the unit? What functions does it have? Battery life? Safety features? Follow-me mode? Also, I did think it was peculiar that they only uploaded 1440p footage. I say this because the footage at the end implies via the logo it was shot on a Hero4 unit (Black/Silver), which also does 2.7K/4K. So why wouldn’t they upload and shoot in that for maximum effect? That omission makes me wonder if it was actually shot with something else, or heck, even the Hero4 Session instead (which does have a 1440p limitation). That in and of itself has a whole pile of implications.
2) The Biggest Rice Krispie Treat Running Shoe on Earth: Yes, this is my on post…from 6 years ago. Someone sent it to me on Saturday night, and was something I had totally forgot about for years. Pretty hilarious. It’s something The Girl and I built on a whim.
5) Ironman Race Di2 Shift Analysis: While I’ve previously talked about my favorite Di2 analysis site Di2Stats, this race report of sorts is a neat way of looking at shifting during an Ironman race. (via Steve E.)
7) Universal Sports goes off the air this month: Bummer to see USN announce they’re headed dark. They broadcast many endurance sports in the US, including many cycling events live.
9) Our CupCakery is the epicenter of Paris scary:So – #2 on the list is of course the CupCakery itself (where bodies used to be chopped up and fed to people). But #7 is actually where we have lots of CupCakery related storage. No worries…right?
Crowd Funded Projects of Athletic Note:
I regularly sift through Kickstarter and Indiegogo (plus a few others on occasion) looking for sports projects. If you’re unfamiliar with projects, read my detailed post on how I decide which projects I personally back. Note that as always with crowd funded projects, assume the project will be late and will under-deliver on features. Thus far, on the numerous products I’ve helped ‘fund’ (except a leather bike handle), that’s been the case.
Sports Technology Software/Firmware Updates This Week:
Each week I quickly highlight some of the new firmware, app, software and website service updates that I see go out. If you’re a sports technology company and release an update – shoot me a quick note (just one liners is perfect, or Tweet it at me is even better) and I’ll make mention of it here. If I don’t know about it, I won’t be able to post about it. Sound good?
BKOOL releases ANT+ FE-C update for remainder of trainers: They’ve been iterating through all of their older trainers and getting them on ANT+ FE-C. That effort is now complete/done. No link to any announcement, so instead I give you BKOOL Halloween pumpkins.
Polar Strava Update: Polar has pushed back Strava integration. I’ll be honest – I don’t get it. This isn’t rocket science. Strava has a simple API that dozens (if not hundreds) of other apps have implemented in less than a morning. This shouldn’t take 6 months. I don’t think Polar understands how many cycling-specific sales are lost here because of this.
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I can see it would be an improvement for cycling with the fenix 3, but it would ruin the accelerometer magic for step counting, swimming, run cadence/WDR…
I think it’s clear that they released the Gopro drone stuff after the Q3 profit report and the fact the their stocks have fallen through the floor ;) A panic release video if ever I saw one, meanwhile DJI are streets ahead of them….
Ray, curious if you opinion has changed as to the best smart trainer out there with some of the new TACX and Cycleops stuff out lately or if you still prefer the Kickr. Also do you if Cycleops includes the virtual training software when you buy a trainer or if you still need to buy the subscription.
GoPro footage: Based on some of the shots where it it moving between trees and such, I would say it is the same size (500 mm) as a DJI phantom. Maybe a bit bigger, but I would not say any smaller since there is a trade off in lifting capacity and battery life as you go smaller.
In relation to your firmware updates section. Perhaps you should put in a new section just for Garmin. You could call it ‘Broken Firmware Updates’ or ‘Firmware updates to avoid’. Updated the girlfriends forerunner 225 last week to 2.5. Completely killed the unit and I notice now they’ve pulled the update. This happened similarly to my Fenix 2 many months ago. When will Garmin learn that hardware is nothing without software that works. It’s called QA. It’s shouldn’t be hard. They won’t survive unless they learn it.
Yeah I’ve always been surprised we haven’t seen Garmin do anything with it. Perhaps once SRAM starts getting out into the market and we get more folks gathering shifting data we’ll see Garmin approach it on GC. Till then, Di2Stats rocks!
Hrm… that SHIFT kickstarter kind of makes me think of the mounts that are used for skydiving altimeters… not sure I would like it but my wife doesn’t like wearing her watch in the normal position that most do and might appreciate the different position/angle that this watch band offers.
What do you have to think/say about the Polar team? I started out very happy with my M400. and it definitely does its job when I’m either running or cycling. But it is beyond annoying the lack of follow through it seems there has been on the development side. Scrolling through the pages of polar update history they have struggled to hit targets and it has just made me become frustrated. It is always addressed last minute that it won’t actually happen before they add on super long periods for their next “release estimate” It’s like they just make up the dates at the beginning.
I am seriously disappointed by Polar, they have not managed to implement Strava in several months and i have to rely on flow2strava.
What about hiring that guy? He could probably do the job in a few days
Next device going back to Garmin, enough is enough.
Did anyone manage to get the ANT+ FE-C update on Bkool Classic to work? I’ve updated the Bkool app on Mac, but don’t see the ANT+ FE-C option anywhere. No option to update firmware either.
I’m done with Polar, this is unacceptable. Between a terrible web service, a barely functioning Android app, poor software progression and repeated hardware failures (my M400 has been warrantied twice for the same issue since I bought in February), I can’t find a compelling reason to stay with them. Hi Garmin.
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Shift …. seriously.. who slows down to look at their watch??
I can see it would be an improvement for cycling with the fenix 3, but it would ruin the accelerometer magic for step counting, swimming, run cadence/WDR…
I think it’s clear that they released the Gopro drone stuff after the Q3 profit report and the fact the their stocks have fallen through the floor ;) A panic release video if ever I saw one, meanwhile DJI are streets ahead of them….
Ray, curious if you opinion has changed as to the best smart trainer out there with some of the new TACX and Cycleops stuff out lately or if you still prefer the Kickr. Also do you if Cycleops includes the virtual training software when you buy a trainer or if you still need to buy the subscription.
GoPro footage: Based on some of the shots where it it moving between trees and such, I would say it is the same size (500 mm) as a DJI phantom. Maybe a bit bigger, but I would not say any smaller since there is a trade off in lifting capacity and battery life as you go smaller.
In relation to your firmware updates section. Perhaps you should put in a new section just for Garmin. You could call it ‘Broken Firmware Updates’ or ‘Firmware updates to avoid’. Updated the girlfriends forerunner 225 last week to 2.5. Completely killed the unit and I notice now they’ve pulled the update. This happened similarly to my Fenix 2 many months ago. When will Garmin learn that hardware is nothing without software that works. It’s called QA. It’s shouldn’t be hard. They won’t survive unless they learn it.
However is head of testing/QA at Garmin should have been fired long ago. Or maybe they have been, as it seems Garmin has outsourced testing to users…
Thanks for picking up my shift data analysis! It’s pretty amazing that amount of data we can gather and crunch these days.
Just wish Garmin would figure out how to integrate it into Connect. Any line on that Ray?
Maybe Brian from Di2Stats can sell them his site? :)
Yeah I’ve always been surprised we haven’t seen Garmin do anything with it. Perhaps once SRAM starts getting out into the market and we get more folks gathering shifting data we’ll see Garmin approach it on GC. Till then, Di2Stats rocks!
Wow, I remember I noticed that bar next to your cupcakery on my visit to Paris!
Next time I have to pay a visit.
Hrm… that SHIFT kickstarter kind of makes me think of the mounts that are used for skydiving altimeters… not sure I would like it but my wife doesn’t like wearing her watch in the normal position that most do and might appreciate the different position/angle that this watch band offers.
What do you have to think/say about the Polar team? I started out very happy with my M400. and it definitely does its job when I’m either running or cycling. But it is beyond annoying the lack of follow through it seems there has been on the development side. Scrolling through the pages of polar update history they have struggled to hit targets and it has just made me become frustrated. It is always addressed last minute that it won’t actually happen before they add on super long periods for their next “release estimate” It’s like they just make up the dates at the beginning.
I am seriously disappointed by Polar, they have not managed to implement Strava in several months and i have to rely on flow2strava.
What about hiring that guy? He could probably do the job in a few days
Next device going back to Garmin, enough is enough.
Did anyone manage to get the ANT+ FE-C update on Bkool Classic to work? I’ve updated the Bkool app on Mac, but don’t see the ANT+ FE-C option anywhere. No option to update firmware either.
First beat athlete gets discontinued link to firstbeat.com
Polar are the next Nokia
– Too slow
– Too obsessed with hardware
Hey, I see a possible moneymaking opportunity with guided tours in your haunted locations! Pretty interesting stuff!
I’m done with Polar, this is unacceptable. Between a terrible web service, a barely functioning Android app, poor software progression and repeated hardware failures (my M400 has been warrantied twice for the same issue since I bought in February), I can’t find a compelling reason to stay with them. Hi Garmin.
Noooooo :( I really love Universal Sports