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:
Ok, so not much. I had planned a Flux 2 review to drop on Wednesday, but then ran into a snag that Tacx and TrainerRoad had to sort out. So they’re currently sorting…
Sorry, I don’t know why the audio got offset by about 1-2 seconds on the livestream, though it’s actually fine to just listen in the background anyway. I dive into lots of topics. From what I expect coming up this spring, to the general crapshow that seems to be new trainers the last 5-6 months, to…well…all your questions!
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.
2) Garmin lists out their Pro Cycling Sponsorships: Sorta. See, it’s complicated. Take Team Sky for example, Garmin lists them, but to what end? Well, just basically head units and lights. Which is somewhat funny because Team Sky has been buying their own Garmin Edge devices for years (despite having both Stages and Wahoo as sponsors), both of which make head units. And to continue this rabbit hole further, while Shimano replaced Stages as the Team Sky power meter sponsor – Garmin also makes power meters (which aren’t used here). And, with the recent Garmin acquisition of Tacx, Garmin now also makes trainers – whereby Team Sky is sponsored there by Wahoo. And let’s not even get started on heart rate straps or other sensors.
3) Microsoft ends Microsoft Band support:Frankly, I thought this died long ago – so, yeah. I guess it was sales of the Band that died. Ultimately, while the band was ahead of its time in things like UV tracking, it was horribly behind the times in the gigantic and bulky felon ankle-bracelet-like tracker design.
5) Amazon starts to allow brands to takedown fake listings: I thought this was interesting, and I’m curious how this might impact GoPro especially. For a long while there was a DeKaSi backpack that was a direct copy of the GoPro Seeker backpack. I even did a super popular video and post on it. It even had the same name. Only thing was, it was actually better and more full-featured than the GoPro one for less than half the price. In any event, it disappeared a few months ago – and I’ve gotta believe GoPro was behind it. Still, overall this is probably a good thing for consumers in reducing fakes confusion.
6) Apple sold an estimated 22 million Apple Watches in 2018: Fitbit came in with 5.5m devices, Samsung at 5.3m, and Garmin at 3.2m. It’s not clear to me where precisely the line on ‘smartwatch’ is though. As always with IDC-type reports, that line seems to blur and bend every year. For example, Fitbit (and Garmin) heavily sell activity trackers that aren’t watches per se, and as such, aren’t counted in this number. Whereas if you look at Fitbit’s just released 2018 earnings statement, they sold 13.9 million devices. Garmin doesn’t break out shipped units by business line, so we just know they shipped 15 million devices overall in 2018 – but that includes boats, automotive, aviation, fitness, outdoor, etc…
7) DJI’s Bizarre Employee Theft Ring: I’m not sure if ‘ring’ is the right word here. Maybe scandal. Maybe ‘holy crap that’s massive’. Either way, pretty crazy stuff. And probably shows you either how fast they’re growing that they just can’t account for this, or how poor their internal controls and auditing/accounting system is that there aren’t the right checks and balances in place to question purchasing decisions.
8) Lightsabering is now an official sport: At least in France. Which, is pretty darn astounding. Though, as someone who has suffered through hours of French Olympic coverage focused near-exclusively on fencing – this seems like an upgrade. In case you didn’t know – fencing is the sport in which France has the most medals (followed by cycling). And as such, you get wall to wall fencing coverage during the Olympics.
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 and a few other firmware updates.
Polar Vantage V & M Firmware Update: This had emoji support – – as well as Japanese and Simplified Chinese languages. Oh, and some number of bug fixes.
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With that – thanks for reading!
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The big fix for me in the 7.07 beta is the issue where the Varia Radar wouldn’t reconnect after being disconnected for more than 2 minutes. I always put my 1030 to sleep (without stopping the activity) at coffeeshops, etc. but then I couldn’t get my RTL500 radar reconnected without ending the ride and starting a new activity.
Footpath is much better than strava and strava just copied him which is pretty sad. Strava has been dumpster fire recently and their premium offering is a joke.
got my Fenix 3HR update. yet- the altitude and temp sensor still go super wacko crazy when I ski.
Pretty sure I didn’t log over 100,000 vertical feet of skiing yesterday. Nor did I ski 149mph.
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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.
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.
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!
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.
I’ll go you one better. I got a fenix 3 (non-hr) update this week. [But I haven’t looked into what it included]
The edge 1030 firmware update is beta.
Was going to post the same thing.
The big fix for me in the 7.07 beta is the issue where the Varia Radar wouldn’t reconnect after being disconnected for more than 2 minutes. I always put my 1030 to sleep (without stopping the activity) at coffeeshops, etc. but then I couldn’t get my RTL500 radar reconnected without ending the ride and starting a new activity.
Ahh, good catch, missed the beta bit.
Photo of the year at PinkBike. You probably missed the first round, but still worth to check it out…
link to pinkbike.com
Footpath is much better than strava and strava just copied him which is pretty sad. Strava has been dumpster fire recently and their premium offering is a joke.
Been using s footpath since the alpha stage
got my Fenix 3HR update. yet- the altitude and temp sensor still go super wacko crazy when I ski.
Pretty sure I didn’t log over 100,000 vertical feet of skiing yesterday. Nor did I ski 149mph.
Profile pic upgrade… Kudos
:)