Week in Review – May 6th, 2018

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:

Monday: 5 Random Things I Did This Weekend
Tuesday: First Ride: Everysight Raptor Cycling Heads-Up Display
Thursday: Garmin inReach Mini Satellite Communicator In-Depth Review

Sports Tech Deals:

There’s a smattering of sports tech deals out there right now, here’s what’s cookin’:

	Product	Sale Price	Amazon	Sale Notes
	AmazFit T-Rex 3 - $80 off	$199	Amazon	This is a solid deal, especially for a watch that has offline mapping.
	Apple AirPods Pro (2nd Gen with USB-C) - $100 off	$149	Amazon	⚡ Both myself and my wife have been using these since last fall, after years of using the Beats Studio Buds...man, these things rock. Sure, they're good for sports, but frankly, I use them on planes, editing, and such more than anything else. In fact, I've been listening to them now for 8 hours as I type away on my flight across the ocean. Only briefly putting them in the case to top-up.
	Apple AirTags (4-Pack) - 33% off!	$64	Amazon	⚡I make no secret how much I utilize AirTags, mainly, cause they've saved my butt numerous times already. We have them in every suitcase, and every backpack, and every bike bag. They're also hidden in most of our bikes (sometimes two of them). We were able to get our cargo bike back when it disappeared, as well as figure out when all our suitcases went missing during an annual family vacation where they were (for 5 days!), and plan appropriately. Seriously, just get them.
	Apple Watch Series 10 - $120 off $399/$499 (cellular)	$279	Amazon	⚡ This is by far the lowest price we've seen to date for the Apple Watch Series 10. Of course, we're probably only 60 days away from an Apple Watch Series 11, but Apple has alreay announced WatchOS 26 last month, which the Series 10 gets all the new features from.
	Apple Watch Ultra 2 Black Titanium - $150 off	$649	Amazon	⚡ This is the lowest price on the Apple Watch Ultra 2 we've seen to date. It's likely we'll see an Apple Watch Ultra 3 this September, but like the Apple Watch Series 10 above, WatchOS26 has already been announced and all the new features there go to the Ultra 2.
	DJI Action 4 - $90 off	$209	Amazon	While prior gen unit (and probably, 2 generations behind in a few weeks), it's still a very strong contender at this price point especially.
	DJI Mini 4K Drone - $60 off	$239	Amazon	If you're looking to get into flying with a DJI drone, this is a solid place to start. Of course, moreso than that, the days are very limited for how much longer you can actually buy at DJI drone in the US. So, grab them while you can.
	DJI NEO - $30 off!	$159	Amazon	This is the lowest price on this drone, and is a great option if you want a follow-me drone that's pretty hard to kill, at a price point that's still super reasonable.
	Elite Riser - $250 off!	$749	Amazon	This appears to basically just be an Uncle Amazon sale, but hey, if you've got an Elite trainer and wanted Rizer, this is a super good deal for US folks!
	Fitbit Ace LTE Kids Activity Smartwatch - $100 off	$129	Amazon	This is (by far) the lowest price we've seen on this watch to date. This is their first full smartwatch focused on kids activity tracking and gamification.
	Fitbit Charge 6 - 38% off! $159	$99	Amazon	⚡ This is the go-to sale price for the Fitbit Charge 6. It happens often, but it still doesn't take away from the fast that it's argueably the best bang for your buck fitness tracker out there.
	Garmin Edge 1040 Cycling GPS - $150 off!	$399	Amazon	⚡⚡ This is a very solid deal, and the lowest price we've seen to date on it.
	Garmin Edge 540 Solar - $150 off	$299	Amazon	⚡⚡This is the lowest price we've seen on the Garmin Edge 540 Solar to date, which has gained virtually all of the new Garmin Edge 1050 features as well.
	Garmin Edge Explore 2 - $60 off $299	$237	Amazon
	Garmin Epix Pro Series - $200 off! $899/$999	$609	Amazon	I believe this is the lowest price we've seen for the Epix Pro series (which has an ECG-capable HR sensor). Note that while some sites might tout $500+ off, in reality, this watch has been floating around $800 recently.
	Garmin Epix Sapphire/Titanium (Gen 2) - $400+ off!	$469	Amazon	⚡ This continues to be one of the best deals out there. While this watch won't be getting much in the way of big ticket new features, it does continue to get minor software updates - and for the money, has far more software features than any of Garmin's competitors (or for that matter, products like the Instinct 3 AMOLED lineup).
	Garmin Fenix 7X Pro Solar - $100-$200 off $799+	$499	Amazon
	Garmin Fenix 8 Series - $100 Off! $999-$1,199	$899	Amazon	While not as good as last month's $200 off, that annual spring sale price won't likely be seen again till Black Friday-ish type sales. Thus, if you want a Fenix 8 for the summer, might as well take the $100 off and put it towards ice cream.
	Garmin Forerunner 165 (Base) - $75 off! $249/$299	$219	Amazon
	Garmin Forerunner 255/255S - $100 off	$199	Amazon	This is the lowest price we've ever seen the Forerunner 255 at.
	Garmin Forerunner 255/255S Music - $100 off! $349/$399	$249	Amazon	This is the lowest price on this watch to date (previous low was $299).
	Garmin Forerunner 265 Series - $50 off! $449	$399	Amazon
	Garmin Forerunner 55 - A Few Dollars Off $199	$169	Amazon	Honestly, I just put this one in there, merely to point out you shoudn't buy it at this price. Buy the FR255 at $30 more, far better watch. This thing should be priced at $129 or something to move units.
	Garmin Forerunner 955 - $150 off!	$349	Amazon	⚡ This has been one of Garmin's most popular running watches, and it's down to a very strong price. I often use this in my accuracy testing comparisons when validating other watches, due to it's very strong GPS performance. Note this is the base edition without solar. It'd be hard to find any better deal in sports watches today, from any company (given this has full mapping, tons of new features even this week, etc...). I say '$100ish', because it's usually been on forever sale at $499.
	Garmin Forerunner 955 Solar: $150 off! $499/$599	$399	Amazon	See everything I said above on the Forerunner 955 base, except this one also has solar.
	Garmin Forerunner 965 - $50 off $599	$549	Amazon	This had been $499 for much of the spring, so $549 isn't that great of a deal.
	Garmin Instinct 2 Series - $75 Off	$169	Amazon	⚡I believe $169 is the lowest price we've ever seen for the Instinct 2. Or at least, I have no record of it being sub-$199. Very solid deal for a solid little watch.
	Garmin Instinct 2 Solar	$266	Amazon
	Garmin Instinct 2S & 2S Solar	$217	Amazon
	Garmin Lily 2 - 20% off $249	$199	Amazon	The leather version is also on sale as well.
	Garmin Venu 3 - $50 off! $449	$399	Amazon
	Garmin Venu 3S - $50 off	$399	Amazon
	Garmin Vivoactive 5 - $110 off! $299	$189	Amazon	This is a great deal for Garmin's little-sibling to the Venu series. It has almost all the same features as the Venu 3, except the voice calling related bits.
	Garmin inReach 2 Mini Satellite Communicator (2-way) - $20 off	$379	Amazon	This is a pretty small deal for this product. 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.
	GoPro Hero 12 Black - $100 off!	$279	Amazon	This is the older gen model, and to me, $279 seems a bit high. Get the Hero 13 Black for $50 more and have access to all the new accessories. Or, save yourself $50 and get either the DJI Action 4 (prior gen) or Insta360 Ace Pro 1 (prior gen) models.
	GoPro Hero 13 Black - $70 off	$329	Amazon
	Google Pixel Watch 3 (41mm) - $100 OFF	$299	Amazon
	Google Pixel Watch 3 (41mm) - $100 OFF	$249	Amazon
	HoverAir X1 Drone Combo - $100 off!	$279	Amazon	This has become one of my favorite drones, given it's tiny size (fits in my running shorts pockets) and ease of use. Plus, you can crash the crap out of it (hundreds of times for me and my wife) without any issues. This combo includes an extra battery and fast charger.
	HoverAir X1 Pro Drone Combo Kit - $155 off	$599	Amazon	This is a solid deal on a solid drone, and one of the two main ones I use when taking videos of myself hiking or running. This includes the two extra batteries as well as the fast charger (so 3 batteries total).
	Hyperice Normatec Elite Leg Recovery System - $100 off	$999	Amazon
	Insta360 Ace Pro Action Cam - $50 off	$239	Amazon	This is the previous edition, as the Ace Pro 2 just came out last fall. But for this price, it's hard to beat.
	Nespresso VertuoPlus Coffee and Espresso Machine by De'Longhi Delux Kit - 30% off!	$149	Amazon	⚡ Let's be honest: This place runs on Nespresso (or, well, the knock-off pods we buy). But, the machine is Nespresso. Without it, reviews most definitely would not get done (and certainly not on time). This is a pretty sweet deal if you ask me!
	Ooni Karu 12 Multi-Fuel Outdoor Pizza Oven - $80 off	$319	Amazon	I use the Fyra 12 (with wood pellets), and love it. The Karu 12 is essentialyl the newer version of that, and there's both a gas-only version, and a multi-fuel option (gas or wood). Love it!
	Oura Ring 4 - $50 off!	$299	Amazon	This is the first time we've seen a deal on the Oura Ring V4.
	Peloton Bike - $300 off!	$1,144	Amazon	This is still a solid bike, and actually one that I use at home (I have the newer Peloton Bike+ at the office). Both my wife and I use these bikes interchangeably, and while the Bike+ has a bigger screen and better accuracy, there's very little difference in the core Peloton experience. I'd still recommend this model to most people.
	Peloton Bike+ is $500 off	$1,995	Amazon	This is a solid deal for the Bike+, albeit largely the normal sale/deal price. Both my wife and I use both the Peloton Bike+ and the regular Bike (one at home, one at office) on a weekly basis. We like both. The Bike+ is more accurate than the regular bike, and also has a bigger screen and automatic resistance control. That said, the core Peloton experience isn't any different between the two - it's the same platform there.
	Peloton Row - $330 off!	$2,964	Amazon
	Peloton Tread - $300 off	$2,694	Amazon	This is my main treadmill at home, and I really like it. I've got no complaints about it, and am happy I went with the smaller Peloton Tread versus the bigger unit.
	Polar Verity Sense - 15% off $99	$84	Amazon	I use this as one of my reference devices for heart rate accuracy testing.
	SHOKZ OpenRun Headphones - 31% off	$89	Amazon
	SHOKZ OpenRun Pro 2 - 31% off!	$124	Amazon
	SHOKZ OpenRun Pro 2 Mini - 31% off!	$124	Amazon
	Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 (40 & 44mm) - 50% off	$159	Amazon	As with the Samsung Watch Ultra, Samsung is less than 24hrs away from announcing a new version of the Samsung Watch series.
	Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra - 50% off	$325	Amazon	Look, Samsung is less than a day away from likely announcing a new version (on July 9th), so if you buy now, you might want to wait a few extra hours after delivery to decide if you want to return it. Otherwise, this is Samsung's best watch to date.
	SanDisk 1-4TB Extreme PRO Portable External SSD - 30% off	$128-$279	Amazon	⚡This is one of the two the high speed drives types I use to store the footage I'm actively video editing. I typically buy the 2TB and 4TB ones, and then eventually offload the footage onto a NAS array when I'm done.
	Wahoo BOLT V2 - $30 off $279	$279	Amazon
	Wahoo KICKR Bike V2 $3,999	$2,974	Amazon	⚡ This is one of the lowest prices we've seen the Wahoo KICKR Bike at (ever).
	Wahoo KICKR CORE with Zwift Cog+Click ($75 off) $499	$424	Amazon
	Wahoo KICKR MOVE - $190 off $1,599	$1,104	Amazon	⚡ This is a very solid deal.
	Wahoo KICKR ROLLR - $90 off $599	$509	Amazon

All of the above links help support the site as well, which makes you awesome.

YouTube Videos I Made 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 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.

(This is more like…last few weeks in review.)

1) Peter Sagan’s $330,000 Facebook post and the value of cyclists’ social media: It’s interesting to see some comments that note disappointment that athletes have to push their sponsors via social media in this day and age. I find it funny because these comments totally misunderstand the entire basis for pro sports, which, by their virtue depend on others for funding. In this case, sponsors. Without sponsors, there would be no money in pro sports. And without money, there would be no career in pro sports.  And without all of that, you wouldn’t be able to watch those same athletes.  Which isn’t to say there aren’t numerous ways sponsorships can be improved (they obviously can), but there are very few sports where professional athletes can sustain a career without business sponsorships. And in today’s world, those businesses expect a return on their investment via social interaction.

2) Paris Velib hell: To any Parisian, this was merely an inevitable tidal wave. Anyone who used Velib’s could see it coming as early as last October when they started shutting down the previous generation/system stations while not actually turning on replacement ones till January.  They then doubled-down on that by having the cutover date by a single point in time (January 1st, 2018), versus a phased roll-out such as in November or December. Never mind the countless stations that were shut down in November and not actually removed till January. It’s really too bad – as I used the Velib’s probably 2-3 times a day on most days.

3) Intel puts final nails in ‘new devices group’: This is the group that once owned Basis as well as Recon, as well as being responsible for 3rd party projects like the New Balance watch and Oakley glasses.  Many of these people actually were let go last August, but some stayed on for other projects like another type of heads-up display that Intel just announced…only to now kill.  Seriously, I can’t imagine ever being a startup and selling out to Intel, unless you just wanted a boatload of cash (which to be clear: Is a perfectly valid reason.)

4) VanMoof goes into a subscription model for bikes: Pretty interesting concept. At first glance, I thought it was stupid, but after digging into it a bit more, it could make some sense, given they’ll handle all service and getting you a bike swap.  As a funny aside, one office building I was looking at here in Amsterdam actually gifted you (permanently) a new VanMoof bike, which is also a Dutch brand. The space didn’t work out for a number of reasons…but the bike was tempting!

5) How Alpe du Zwift was made: One of these days I’ll get to ride it. But until then, this behind the scenes from a Zwift designer perspective is super interesting.  It’s been on my to-do list to link to for a while, some great work by Simon putting it all together.

6) Pandora learned the cost of ads and subscriptions: This is a fascinating look at how Pandora did A/B testing on subscription models. It’s fascinating because you so rarely get a look at real data from companies like this, and is something that almost any entity pondering subscription vs ad-based revenue models should consider – be it in sports tech or otherwise.

7) Boston Marathon awards cash to non-Elite Women: A good look at the controversy that’s erupted over the last few weeks with respect to some non-pro women running faster than pro women.

8) Ranking US cities for bicycle friendliness: And a bit of detail on how the rankings are decided.

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 are 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?  Oh – and if you want to get a head start on things, this page is a great resource for watching Garmin firmware updates.

Garmin Edge 1030 Firmware Update: New Connect IQ support, new radar support, and an absolute crapton of bug fixes (seriously, that list is massively impressive).

Garmin Forerunner 645/645 Music Firmware Update: Mostly minor improvements/tweaks.

Garmin VIRB Ultra 30 Firmware Update: It merely says ‘resolved miscellaneous issues’. I’d suggest the VIRB team talk to the Edge 1030 team about how to complete a change log.

Hammerhead Karoo Firmware Update: Ability for user to change/add route mid-ride, plus a boatload of bug fixes and performance tweaks.

Polar M600 Firmware Update: They’ve switched over to the Wear OS branding, and along with that you get an updated version of Android Wear/Wear OS along with a handful of new features.

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Have a good remainder of the weekend all!