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/X 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!
DCR Posts In The Past Week:
Here’s all the latest on the site:
Monday: Polar (Sorta) Launches Whoop-like Competitor: The Polar 360
Wednesday: Zwift Increases Prices (App & Hardware): What you need to know!
YouTube Videos This Past 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 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) The Insta360 fiasco is in full swing: The short version is that Insta360 asked some top-tier camera YouTubers to do sponsored videos, but asked to not mention it’s sponsored (which, is a violation of US FTC laws, among other country laws). This won’t really surprise too many people in those circles, Insta360 has built their name through heavy sponsorships of YouTube videos. The company says they currently work with some 1,500 creators (which btw, is mind-boggling). The kicker is, Insta360 does make good products. I think their Go 3 is one of the coolest blends of a product out there. And the Garmin/Insta360 integration is absolutely what others (especially GoPro) should be doing. It’s not perfect, but has gotten really really good & useful. Still, asking creators to hide sponsorships, or for that matter, sponsoring some 1,500 creators to blanket coverage, is a problem. Another video here as well, with more insights. (Oh, and no, I’ve never seen any other reputable brand explicitly ask for sponsorships not be declared, though, another action cam/drone brand gets incredibly close to that line).
2) GoPro sues Insta360: This apparently happened a few months ago, but nobody caught it till now. I’m actually somewhat surprised GoPro went this direction, as they’ve tended to avoid filing lawsuits against competitors (in the same way we don’t tend to see Garmin file lawsuits, even for obvious infringements). I’ll add this to my legal tracker thingy, and see what happens.
3) How to remove a rounded out bike bolt: I appreciate the very detailed, and cumulative step-by-step here. There’s lots of garbage articles on the internet, but this definitely isn’t one of them.
4) Apple gains further FDA approval for usage in medical studies: This happened the previous week, but actually gives medical/clinical studies the ability to use the Afib detection features, as part of the MDDT program. This is beyond the existing ability for consumers to use it as a certified medical device for ECG usage.
5) Peloton partners with Hyatt for 700 gyms to get Peloton Bikes: Remember they previously also partnered with Hilton, so this is adding yet another brand.
6) Super cool hydrofoil windsurfing from drone video: Seriously, this is a crazy cool shot.
7) Behind the scenes – World’s Longest Ski Jump: A great look at both the design of this jump (which took more effort than I expected), and the iterative process (I’m sure they did quite a few more jumps).
8) New Holobike Indoor Cycling Thing on Kickstarter: The company reached out, but it sounds like a demo is a bit further out. Still, Wired (linked) did get a demo at some point recently, and it sounds pretty rough. That’s even more notable since the author noted that they couldn’t remember how many years it was since they rode a bike. To their credit, they identified many very obvious concerns about the platform, both software and hardware. The biggest one in my mind is actually the date though. Saying ‘Winter 2025’ realistically means ‘Winter 2026’ in Kickstarter lingo. Given how many great indoor bikes there are today, and given we’re likely coming up on announcement season again this summer (with usually immediate availability), I simply see no reason to risk money for something that’s 1-2 years away (if ever). Still, I’d love to see the technology myself, and whether it’s game-changing (either for a company to license, or consumers to buy).
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With that – thanks for reading, and stay tuned for a rather busy week!
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You mention Garmin doesn’t use even for obvious infringement. Why not?
On your item #6: indeed very cool shots, even better is doing windsurfing/windfoiling yourself 😀
You live in the Netherlands so you got all the opportunities to learn it.
Stop being stupid. When Ray starts windsurfing, he won’t have time to test all that stuff (and, more importantly, write it down).
I tried windsurfing during one of my winters in Perth. I loved it. I mean, except for the literal oceans of seawater I drank.
I’ve always been tempted to try it here in the Netherlands. Obviously, the beaches are super popular for it, but so is the lake that the DCR Cave sits on.
Did you progress until fully planing ? I guess not because you would have been hooked for life 😀
Hi,
What about the promised Polar Grit X2 in depth review ?
Looking forward to it.
Thanks
……we wait and hope
The written post is done. It’s the video companion/review that’s got me bogged down.
Maybe I’ll just release the written post and eventually hit publish on the video side.
Yes please
Yeah, the Holobike thing doesn’t look promising. I read the Wired article and looked at their Kickstarter page. No mention of power, no mention of pairing to HR, no mention of gearing, no mention of whether or not there’ll be a FIT file to upload to the usual places. They do have what looks to be Look pedals in the pictures and there are buttons on the handlebars that might be for shifting. I’m not sure who they’re marketing this to. They did fulfill their goal, though, but it was pretty low.
Hi Ray,
In Matt Legrand’s video following the open “cave” 2023, you were unboxing the Insta360 AcePro. You never mentioned anything about said camera. Is it because you want to keep out the fiacso? or do you consider reviewing it sometime? Following GoPro’s disappointing Q4 results, it’s interesting to see how things are developing in the action cam field.
Thanks for the great site
Nah, this fiasco is all afterward (I had bought the Ace Pro myself, so wasn’t privy to the entire creator mess back then).
The Ace Pro was actually something I thought I might publish an update of sorts on last week, but alas, I’m behind on a few other things for this week. As noted above, the integration with Garmin/Apple (and soon COROS) is very legit cool. It doesn’t solve for every single scenario, but it solves for basically every bike/run scenario where you’d use the camera. Or, any scenario where you’re wearing a watch or bike computer from one of those companies.
As far as the Ace Pro itself, I do wish the FOV was wider compared to GoPro. Likewise, while I do think the flip-screen is cool, it’s not super practical to flip-up while riding along at high-speed, to validate framing (compared to the front displays of GoPro/DJI). But otherwise, I’m actually pretty happy with the camera – the fast charging is insanely fast. The other big thing GoPro should copy (DJI already has it).
Ok – i’ll just put in another article that might be interesting. Until now astronauts at the ISS have not been using VR for excersizing. Here is an article the recent test of VR on the ISS for cycling link to ing.dk – did watch a video of him telling about the immersivenes and how it actually helped Andreas Mogensen (and some of the others who tried it as well) during his recent stay at the ISS.
uhh found an article about it and “new bike day” at the ISS from ESA here link to esa.int
500W maks though.
That’s pretty crazy. All aspects of it! From the hardware/trainer to the software and quirks of the VR headsets without gravity. Nice find!
A legal note about the FTC’s endorsement guidelines: This is not actually law; it’s the FTC’s interpretation of the law (which bars “unfair” or “deceptive” marketing practices). The FTC’s interpretation would likely not hold up in court under the First Amendment, which allows the government to require disclosures only under very narrow circumstances. The disclosure has to be part of “commercial speech,” which means advertising. A youtube video that’s under the editorial control of the reviewer probably doesn’t count as commercial speech under the relevant precedents. It’s also unlikely that a court would consider a failure to disclose to be inherently misleading. The FTC also knows that these guidelines would likely not be enforceable, so it typically just sends warning letters without actually doing anything about it.
“A youtube video that’s under the editorial control of the reviewer probably doesn’t count as commercial speech under the relevant precedents”
Insta360 requires their sponsored creators to send copies of the video to them for approval (see the 2nd linked video).
in stark contrast to european law. Non-disclosure of sponsored videos are illegal in Europe.
But insta360 requiring that kind of control over content, completely pulls all credibility for factual videoreviews of their products.
I will though note though, that for non-sponsored people/media (like myself), Insta360 hasn’t required me to send anything in for approval (which, I’d never do). DJI has asked (repeatedly) previously, and I’ve always said no as well (again, nothing sponsored there). I’ve never had any other company ask.
Ah, that would likely be a much closer case, then.
Incidentally, I don’t practice in the UK, but as of a few years ago, their test was basically “did the brand exercise editorial control,” and if it did not, then no disclosure was required. That seems sensible to me because posting something on a personal blog or youtube channel implies that it’s your own words and opinions.
I think it’s about 2 years ago that the EU made some huge changes about mandatory disclosure of sponsored videos – not just a small “this is a sponsored video” at the beginning” because it was completely impossible to determine if the text in the video was an actual opinion or something read from a script provided to influencers. We have had several cases in the EU already about this. In Denmark alone i think i can count about 3-4 cases with “high profile” danish influencers being fined for not disclosing sponsorships ranging from product placements to travels or events.
well your integrity is not on the line :-) – you have always been completely transperant about how things are run. That is also the only way you can have the credibility and influence from the vendors point of view – no matter how bad a review is. The only thing is that you only have to depart from that line once, and that credibility is gone and will take a long time to recover from. Take a look at Linus tech tips. They do have some bumpy rides once in a while, but watching their friday night show actually portrays a very honest Linus that you dont always see in the normal videos. :-) (and a lot of things have gone both south and north after a WAN show, but they usually own theit mistakes)
Hey Ray,
I am sure you have noticed that, but I can’t find anything on the internet regarding the new release of a beta software for the Epix Gen2 Pro with an addition of the Messenger. From what I found regarding the app itself is that it can actually send messeges via the iridium sattellites network but I have no idea wehther this works with the watch. Any clues? Can you refer to that in any way?
Here’s what I found in the usual place (the Garmin Forums Beta section). This update is for the non-Pro only (the one I have).
Change log for version 17.19 (changes since v17.17):
Updated Translations
Fixed issue where a messenger message could fail to send
Garmin has devices/platform called inReach, which gives you worldwide satellite communications using Iridium. So far as I know, no Garmin watch has inReach built in. They have dedicated devices for this, and have a few handhelds that have it built in. So you have to have an inReach device and subscription, and then you can pair to your inReach device and send messages from your watch. (I’ve been wondering whether Garmin would build inReach into a watch for a long time now, especially considering that they’re pretty lackadaisical about LTE, but I suspect the problem is the big antenna bump you see on inReach devices.) This is similar to what Apple does; you can send emergency messages via satellite from certain iPhones, but not from an Apple Watch so far as I know. So far as I can tell from a quick search, the Messenger app is for iOS/Android and only runs on phones.