Heads up! Here’s your massive list of sports tech deals! This includes the Garmin Forerunner 965 for just $499, Garmin Epix for $429, the Apple Watch Ultra 2 Black Titanium for $735, the GoPro Hero 12 Black for $299, (or Hero 13 bundle for $339!) and plenty more! Go check out the full list here!
I’m DC RAINMAKER…
I swim, bike and run. Then, I come here and write about my adventures. It’s as simple as that. Most of the time. If you’re new around these parts, here’s the long version of my story.
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Smart Trainers Buyers Guide: Looking at a smart trainer this winter? I cover all the units to buy (and avoid) for indoor training. The good, the bad, and the ugly.
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FAQ’s
I have built an extensive list of my most frequently asked questions. Below are the most popular.
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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.
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!
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.
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!
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.
The pixel watch link is directing to a fossil watch instead.
Any chance you’re in Germany? Looks like Amazon is auto-redirecting there for that particular link (from Amazon USA). :-/
I started a Reddit post about the iGS 800, where I gathered some links to videos about it:
link to reddit.com
While I agree that it seems ridiculous, that they unveil a device and haven’t put any info about it on their own webpage so far I have no doubt that it will hit the stores eventually.
The other bike gps – iGS630s – gets some positive reviews here in Poland, where I live.
Hey Ray, 945 LTE has been unavailable on Garmin’s website for many months now. Thinking it’s discontinued? Any rumblings of something new and cellular?
Interesting, I hadn’t caught that. Looks to be the same on the EU side as well. Huh.
I’ll give a poke.
Much appreciated! It’s been since November at least even though the page on Garmin is still active.
I suspect (hope?) this may be related to some forthcoming Garmin LTE product release, the new BETA 17.10 for F7/Epix series contains this unexpected but interesting little tidbit: “Added Messenger App”
WHY would an app like that be worthwhile on my watch IF this kind of message could only ever be sent over Garmin’s Iridium satellite network?
dark mode added just in time for daylight savings to end (and be commuting home in the dark) in the southern hemisphere, good timing! i still miss the auto swap garmin does at sunrise/set, though.
What’s the point of night mode if the screen is not OLED. Even at night I prefer a bright screen. The black map is illegible.
Less brightness hurting the darkness adaption of your eyes. On a OLED, night time is when you might *consider* black-on-white. Night time, when the white does not have to be an that bright to be legible. But you’d definitely want white-on-black in daytime unless your device is powered from a bottomless external source.
Have you read my post? Oled ok, you save energy. ROAM has MID, so the energy is the same whether light or dark. Even in the dark, the white screen is readable. DAY NIGHT OPTION only for OLED.
> 3) Smartwatches shouldn’t make you choose between Apple & Android
Apple could clearly offer more APIs to a client smart watch app. The limits on messaging making replying from the watch tethered over bluetooth are fairly ridiculous.
Presumably integrating LTE/5G messaging untethered to a phone and VOIP between the watch and phone using a common public phone number is some weird stuff that only Apple can do in collaboration with the carriers also but is only functionally disallowed by the implementation being private.
I have messages on my watch turned off and would never use this but I would leave my phone at home if I could make an emergency call from my Garmin watch with tethered headphones.
Apple also doesn’t make Apple Music available on any watch other than Apple Watch despite making it available on other manufacturer phones and smart speakers. Apple Music is operated as a service except on the watch where it operates as a lock-in feature. If it were really a service, the economics would favor the widest possible availability. I would prefer to have an Apple Music provider on my Garmin to the Amazon Music app that I actually use if only because I would not have to maintain multiple playlists.
Number 6 is interesting…a whole new market for drones…seems like extended range models with known directions to rescue crews…
Would be keen to see/understand Red Light/Green Light more and see how that can interplay with training plans – including if you have e.g. a 3 day per week trainer road bike plan but then structure your own swim and run.
3.
The Apple fanboy comments on that post are nuts.
At the end of the day, Apple’s justifications for closing its APIs to third party developers are flimsy. Samsung, for one, is vertically integrated yet non-monopolistic, supplying parts for everyone and using the entirety of the market to gauge demand. A decent case can be made that it’s not good for Apple’s shareholders; separating the Apple Watch and iPhone divisions may lead to increased sales as both focus on their core competencies rather than spend resources walling customers into gardens.
I am somewhat of a newbie – how do I get the watch link to go to Amazon US?