WeekInReview22

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 of Note:

Ok, not much left this week. Sorta a lull. But hey, if ya need a GoPro Hero 8 Black or AirPods, it’s still on sale!

Product Sale Price Amazon Clever Training Other site Sale Notes
Apple Airpods (2nd Gen) – $ 25 off $ 134 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. Also, with the wireless charging case for $ 50 off. Personally, I just use the basic model.
Apple Airpods Pro – $ 15 off $ 234 Yup, these are the new noise-cancelling ones that don’t fall out of your ears. I haven’t tried them yet, but lots of people seem happy with them. Note: Amazon seems to go in and out of stock, so if out of stock, check back the next day.
Apple Watch Series 3 (38mm) $ 169 This is the lowest price we’ve ever seen for the Apple Watch Series 3. While the Series 5 is the new one, the Series 3 has almost all the same features (and still gets all the updates). It’s dipped a few times to $ 179, but only once ever for Black Friday to $ 169.
Garmin Instinct – $ 100 off $ 199 This is a solid deal on a solid watch. It’s flirted with $ 199 here and there at various sale prices, but with the Instinct Solar coming out last month, this might be the new norm. Either way, it’s a solid price.
Garmin Instinct Tactical- $ 103 Off $ 197 This is the lowest this watch has been ($ 100 off, and down to $ 197). Note that this is the non-Solar version, so do keep that in mind.
GoPro Hero 8 Black – $ 100 off! $ 299 ⚡ This is a great deal – and the lowest we’ve ever seen the GoPro Hero 8 down to. Of course, I don’t expect a new version anytime soon (GoPro always release late Sept/early Oct). But, the Hero 8 is my go-to cam these days.

DCRAINMAKER.COM Posts in the Past Week:

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

Tuesday: Wahoo KICKR V5 (2020) Smart Trainer In-Depth Review 
Thursday: Hands-on: CORE’s New Skin/Body Temp Sensor with Garmin/Wahoo integration

Ok, a bit of a quieter week. This week might be semi-quiet as well as I prep things for the 7-10 days ahead – but next week will definitely make up for it.

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 (and in this case, some of these are from the past few weeks to clear out the backlog):

1) Quick Page to see all Zwift Steering Events: In the approximately 72 hours after steering launched, Zwift changed how and what events steering would be available on….about 3.5 times. Making it darn near impossible to figure out exactly which events you could use it on. But, if you were among the thousands that bought a Sterzo, you’ve now got a handy option via the Zwift Hacks site to filter all events with (or without) steering enabled.

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2) Unbricking a bike with Raspberry Pi to run Zwift: Last year Flywheel got sued by Peloton for stealing code. They lost, and ultimately killed the bike platform. While not ideal at all, Peloton offered customers a swap to a Peloton bike for free (which, is a pretty sweet deal). In any event, if you had one of those Flywheel bikes, they quickly became clothes hangers. However, this developer unbricked it and make it work with Zwift. Mind you, this is definitely not an ‘Easy Button’ project, but it is super cool.

3) Photographer turns masks into mini lap pool: Yup, this is pretty awesome.

4) Google Maps gets back on Apple Watch (and updated Carplay) support: While I’m 100% a Google Maps users, I don’t tend to use it on my Apple Watch. Still, this is great for those that do.

5) Apple Watch OS7 rolls out public beta with sleep tracking: Remember the sleep tracking I previewed back in June? Now you can give it a whirl too on your regular Apple Watch. As usual, reminder – it’s technically beta. Your watch could be fine, or it could do something horrible. It probably won’t, but this is 2020 after all. I’ll probably give it a whirl in the coming days and see what’s changed.

6) Apple Health Plus Subscription Service Coming? Sounds like some sort of paid platform is on the way to Apple. It’ll be interesting to see what exactly they come up with. Rumors seems to point to instructional related, which might make sense. Though, I don’t see any threat to Peloton unless there’s some unknown hardware partnership.

7) Behind the Scenes on Garmin Instinct Commercial: I’m a bit of a camera geek, so it’s always fun to see how things are shot/made. I presume this one was sometime this winter prior to the world ending. But still, it’s interesting.

Sports Tech Device 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.

Garmin Edge 520, Edge 520 Plus, 820, 1000, and Edge Explore 820 firmware updates: There’s virtually no information on all these, except ‘stability improvements’.

Garmin Edge 530 & 830 BETA firmware update: Two bug fixes related to CIQ & Di2.

Garmin Instinct & Instinct Solar BETA Firmware Update: Minor bug fixes.

Garmin Vivoactive 3 Music & VA3 Music LTE Firmware Update: Golf bug fix & CIQ bug fix.

Garmin Venu Firmware update: A bunch of bug fixes.

Hammerhead Karoo Firmware Update: This revamps the pairing menu, notably adding in a nice pretty ANT+ Logo (among other things).

Thanks for reading!

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Product Reviews – DC Rainmaker