Week in Review: April 5th, 2021

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!

Sports Tech Deals:

There's a handful of sports tech deals out there right now:

Apple AirPods with Wireless Charging Case - $50 Off!

$149

⚡ I use AirPods primarily when I'm travelling just to listen in airports, planes, etc... I don't tend to use these for workouts due to them falling out. Personally, I just use the basic model.

Apple Airpods (2nd Gen) - $30 off
$159

$119

I use AirPods primarily when I'm travelling just to listen in airports, planes, etc... I don't tend to use these for workouts due to them falling out.

$149

This is the first time we've seen the Edge 130 Plus on sale. The 'Plus' variant is notable compared to the regular unit for having ClimbPro on it, plus a handful of other tweaks. $149 is a good deal for it.

Garmin Edge 130 Plus Bundle - 20% off!

$199

Competitive Cyclist

This is the first time we've seen the Edge 130 Plus on sale. The 'Plus' variant is notable compared to the regular unit for having ClimbPro on it, plus a handful of other tweaks. This bundle includes a heart rate chest strap as well.

Garmin RVR315 Varia Radar - Save 20%

$120

Competitive Cyclist

I believe this is the first sale of the Garmin Varia RVR315 cycling radar. This unit doesn't have a taillight, so it's a bit smaller as a result. Same radar tech though, and compatible with Garmin/Stages/Hammerhead/Wahoo bike computers.

GoPro Hero 9 Black - $50 off

$399

⚡ This is the camera I use for all my daily shooting during sports. Actually, I've bought a few of them. Note that if you're a GoPro Plus Subscriber, then it's a bit cheaper at $349 from GoPro directly, but otherwise, it's $449.

DCRAINMAKER.COM Posts in the Past Week:

Here's all the goodness that ended up on the main page this past week

Sunday: Week in Review-March 28th, 2021
Tuesday: Polar Ignite 2 Hands-On: What's New & Different
Wednesday: Suunto adds Komoot Routes Turn by Turn Integration in Latest Update
Wednesday: Tacx & Garmin Increase Tacx App Integration, Plus Training Status Plans
Wednesday: Peloton's $120 Credit & 10X Points for Chase Sapphire Cardholders (US only)
Friday: Review: Bike Mount for DJI Drones to use with Active Track

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. Also, there's a few things this week that were actually from a week or two ago - I'm just catching up on this list:

1) A deeper look at the Wahoo Speedplay Power Pedals (engineering perspective): For those that know Keith, he's one of the most public power meter developers in the industry, and also behind many sports tech gadgets within the cycling world from a number of companies. Here's his most recent look at the FCC filings from Wahoo, on their recently announced Wahoo Speedplay power meter:

2) ZwiftHub Closing Down: Congrats to Toby (the person behind it) on his new job at Wahoo. Unfortunately, it means at the end of the month, ZwiftHub is no more. Perhaps Zwift will consider acquiring it for a fair rate.

I do think this once again though shows how big a boon it would be for Zwift though to actually have a proper/supported API, akin to what Strava has, for people to Create Cool Shit. It's these sorts of projects that should eventually be built into Zwift (or acquired). But as Strava and their 20,000+ apps shows, there's an incredible potential for 3rd party apps to fill in the gaps and increase the community around Zwift.

3) Peloton closes Precor acquisition - shifts focus to Commercial usage: In the grand scheme of sports tech deals, this is one of the bigger ones in recent years, as it will dramatically increase production capability for Peloton. However, when it was announced last December, it didn't mention increasing focus on the commercial side of Peloton - it just mentioned getting gear into 'members sooner. However, the new announcement specifically calls out using Precor to focus on the commercial aspect of Peloton (e.g. hotels/apartments/etc...), which by and large Peloton has treated as the red headed step child over the years. Yet, it's also a great place to introduce people to the Peloton brand with zero marketing cost.

4) A look at how the 2021 Chip Shortage: This is a good dive into the semiconductor chip shortage and how it's impacting the industry (including sports tech). While sometimes this will be obvious to you as a consumer, most times it won't be: It'll just mean delayed product launches behind the scenes, or perhaps limited availability without a reason. This is mostly the reason.

5) Casio launches new WearOS watch: Though, perhaps unsurprisingly, without solar capabilities. Given WearOS has the well earned reputation of being the Cookie Monster of battery burn, the trivial amount of power that solar delivers in most watches probably wouldn't last more than a song on WearOS. Still, good to see more options. Hopefully we'll see Casio find a way to refine what they have sports-wise today, which in my testing of their GBD-H1000 (solar, with FirstBeat Analytics) seemed like a promising vision, but fell pretty far short in reality. For example, there was only one sport mode (running/hiking), which meant if you wanted to use it for a ride - it screwed up all your data.

5) Garmin engineer discussing dual-band GPS implementations: Nothing crazy deep, but some tidbits there from those that are interested.

6) Want a cargo bike emoji? One emoji developer is looking at submitting a cargo bike emoji for consideration, however, is trying to nail down the design. Give a quick tap on this Twitter vote to help.

#CargoBike #CargoBikeEmoji
1. You may have used or maybe a ❤️(emojis) in your messages?
For transport there is bike emoji, however no cargo bike emoji
So, what cargo bike type/design would best represent ALL cargo bikes with 1⃣ single emoji?
Vote

- David Majarich (@davidmajarich) April 3, 2021

7) Equipping cyclists to identify bad bike intersections: This project equipped 700 cyclists with little beepers that they'd tap when they stumbled upon a poor/clumsy bike situations. During the trial some 36,000 situations in Amsterdam were identified, giving city planners areas to consider upgrades for. Looking at the map, I'd definitely agree with most of the larger dots.

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, Wahoo, Polar, and a few other firmware updates.

Garmin Swim 2 Firmware Update: Bug fixes

Garmin Fenix 5 & 5 Plus Series BETA Firmware Update: Bug fixes (including fixing a Physio True-up updating issue)

Suunto 5 Firmware Update: Adds turn by turn with Komoot, supports POI interest/navigation

Suunto 9 Firmware Update: Adds Tour battery mode, turn by turn with Komoot, POI, and Suunto Plus Red Bull app.

(Kinda a quiet week for firmware updates)

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With that - thanks for reading!