News Roundup

Here are some niche stories that are doing the rounds at the moment. Some are very interesting…some, less so.

 

Ride with GPS Celebrates its 15th Birthday with Freebies

Ooops. I forgot the birthday was yesterday and that was the day that everyone got a day of free access to the excellent RwGPS services.

 

The link and image below do warrant a closer look. Readers (and competitor companies to RwGPS) can see just how and when all the new RwGPS features were added. The level of complexity is immense and obviously time-consuming. If you are a competitor platform this image offers some pause-for-thought on the difficulties that lie ahead for your software development team. Perhaps instead it’s best to focus on the other things that will make you money and integrate with the established platforms…just sayin’.

 

I particularly like the company’s excellent PC-based route planner which is free to use (the one on the app requires a subscription). It’s my and my cycling group’s go-to route planning and sharing platform at the moment. Although as we all use Wahoo kit we might possibly partly move to use Wahoo’s recently added Public Route Sharing features.

Wish them Happy Birthday: ridewithgps.com

MyWindSock Introduce Feel-Like ELEVATION

I like this one.

MyWindSock factors in the effect of wind to restate your ride’s elevation profile. eg a tailwind could make a slight uphill feel like a slight downhill.

The company also adjust other ride metrics, like feels-like metres gained, to feels-like current gradient, and the impact of weather is added to your ride’s description on Strava.

 

Mio Releases Cyclo PAL

Bike computer vendor, Mio has released another new bike computer. This time it is the Mio Discover PAL at €349.99.

Mio is made in Taiwan and readers in the UK and USA may not have heard much of the brand as they tend to sell better in continental Europe. The hardware has improved significantly over more recent years but I have heard reports that the software this time round is a little flakey (which I was surprised to hear). Its perennial problem is the price which just doesn’t compare well at all to Garmin et al.

More: mio.com

 

Wahoo X Gets More Expensive

Wahoo X has increased its subscription price from $129 to $149 per year. That’s an above-inflation rise and I expect we will see more price rises over hardware and software services in the coming year.

More: Wahoofitness.com

 

 

 

Whoop is accurate – It’s scientifically official – kinda

A scientific research project recently published a study in a peer-reviewed journal that shows Whoop‘s last generation band beats the watches of the last generation from Polar Vantage, Apple Watch and Garmin (Oura too), at least it does for resting HR and HRV. Here I take a critical look at the tech used in the study and highlight a couple of obvious flaws.

Garmin beaten by Whoop: Study shows 99% accuracy

See more

 

Hammerhead Solstice Bundle

Tomorrow, Hammerhead releases challenges for us to complete before December’s solstice with the chance of winning a nice product bundle. There is a solstice shell which can be added to Karoo 2, some freebies subscription months and 2 of its rather nice water bottles (I have one, and it’s good…as water bottles go)

More: Hammerhead.io

 

SunGod £1million Crowdfunding Campaign

I used to review SunGod sports glasses as they’re good. However, once it had reached a critical mass, in its wisdom the Company decided to ditch the associates that helped them grow the brand. #Bitter #Twisted.

Anyways, it now has a turnover of around £8 million and is seeking an investment of £1million. In return, you get to become a shareholder and share in its expansion. Check that the shares you get won’t be unnecessarily diluted in future investment rounds

More: sungod.co

Nike Gets Blockchain Metaverse Thing Called .Swoosh

I used to review Nike running shoes as they’re good. However, the company, in its wisdom reduced affiliate commissions to 1% to appease the evils of the corporate world. #Bitter #Twisted (Actually I do have some reviews of Nike shoes planned 😉 )

Nike opens registration for its Blockchain Metaverse later this month. It’s great that Nike has managed to simultaneously jump on two bandwagons (blockchain, metaverse) as it gears itself towards the ability to offer communities the ability to design virtual shoes and jerseys (yes, really).

This is a good take on the Metaverse by Marques, the lesser-known Brownlee brother (he’s not).

 

More: welcome.swoosh.nike

More: nike.com

Meta Scraps Smart Watch Plans

A former Facebook employee recently told me that the company really did use to have access to the microphone on your smartphone and recorded what you said. Yes, really.

As an aside, I once had a credit card linked to my Facebook advertising account, it is the only time ever that my card was hacked and this time it was used to rack up a significant online gambling debt. Facebook did reimburse me but I was not happy as I used one of my ‘special’ passwords and there is absolutely no way anyone could have guessed it…not even my partner. Either Facebook’s system was hacked or the password was stolen by an employee.

Its recent dealings with Cambridge Analytica also didn’t go unnoticed.

Bear all that in mind when you trust this company with anything remotely secure.

As you know, the company is now called Meta and has a rather swanky logo to match. But if you think the culture of the company has changed then I suspect you are wrong. You really have to question if companies like this can be trusted with one of the possible futures of the internet let alone anything of yours that’s remotely personal.

Anyway, its advertising revenues have been performing excellently of late but may have peaked and it’s possible that unchecked, the company might gradually fade over the years ahead. The action of companies like Apple against Meta has not helped, for example when you tell an Apple app (Facebook) not to track you it affects the app’s ability to serve more expensive, tailored ads. The bottom line is that the company is spending vast sums of money on a one-way bet for a new revenue stream called the Metaverse and significant corporate efforts are focussed on owning the tech and infrastructure of the Metaverse.

Meta has wisely cancelled its smartwatch project but on the flip side, its huge Virtual Reality headsets should become slightly smaller over the years ahead.

More: Macrumours

Fiit goes for bikes

Fiit is another online multimedia fitness platform and the company’s take is to position itself as the best all-rounder, which I suspect to be a risky but worthy strategy. It already has links to Concept2 rowers, air bikes and tread machines.

Recently they added support for bike workouts because there aren’t enough online bike workout platforms.

More: fiit.com

 

Moto Watch 200

Yet another smartwatch leaked. This time via @snoopytech

 

 

 

Apple Watch: Coming Soon – Track detection

via: 9to5Mac

Listed as “coming soon” on the Apple Watch Ultra product page, track detection knows when you arrive at a running track and prompts you for which lane you plan to use.

Workout detects when you arrive at a track, and uses both Apple Maps data and GPS to provide the most accurate pace, distance, and route map, [Apple]

Apple Watch: Coming Soon –

Race route

via: 9to5Mac

If your workout routine includes outdoor running or cycling on the same route, an update called Race Route will imminently arrive in an update to watchOS 9. This looks like it will work on all Watch models that support OS9.

If it’s an Outdoor Run or Cycle workout you do often, you can choose to race against your last or best result and receive in-the-moment updates to help you get there,  [Apple]