Garmin Connect IQ Summit–Day 1 Announcements

Today kicked off the annual Garmin Connect IQ Summit. This event takes place at Garmin’s headquarters in Olathe, KS and attracts sports and non-sports partners, and 3rd party software developers for their Connect IQ teams. You’ll find everyone from TrainingPeaks | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Optical HR Armband Shootout: Polar OH1+, Scosche Rhythm 24, Wahoo TICKR FIT

The last few weeks, well…months really, I’ve been spending an excessive amount of time wearing optical HR sensor straps. It mostly started back in January as I was preparing my Polar Vantage M and COROS APEX reviews, with the optical | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

5 Random Things I Did This Weekend

Here’s what I was up to this past weekend as I prepped for a bit of time across the pond. Enjoy! 1) Getting the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active post out Friday was the day that never quite ended. I got | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Week in Review–April 7th, 2019

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 | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Samsung Galaxy Active GPS Watch Sport & Fitness In-Depth Review

Each year Samsung for a number of years now, Samsung has released fitness focused smart watches. Correspondingly, each year they seem to be getting closer and closer to sorting out the right combination of features and price. Finally, here in | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Your GPS watch will (most likely) continue to work fine tomorrow (April 6th)

There’s been plenty of chatter in recent weeks and months about whether this weekend’s upcoming GPS Week Number Roller (WNRO) will impact various GPS devices. In short, on April 6th, 2019 some older devices could effectively reset their knowledge of | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

How To (Sorta) Make Your CompuTrainer Wireless: PerfPro’s CT Smart Wireless Bridge

While the company is no longer in business (and still, nobody seems to know who purchased the CompuTrainer assets specifically from RacerMate), there are undoubtedly many CompuTrainers left in service out there. And aside from a handful connected with the | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

5 Random Things I Did This Weekend

First up, since I don’t have a ‘Week in Review’ post this week, if you didn’t catch the latest podcast episode that went up late Friday, here’s the skinny: We dive into left-only power meters, Apple Watch ECG expansion, early | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Four Days of Swim/Bike/Run Amazingness in Mallorca

I’ve been down in Mallorca since earlier this week, for a jam-packed slate of daily swim/bike/run workouts, with a side boatload of photo and video shooting. This trip was almost exclusively about testing a slate of devices set for review | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Friday Tidbits: Stages Factory Install, Apple ECG in Europe, and COROS adds Navigation

There’s been lots of interesting tidbits in the sports tech world over the past week that’s worth a quicker dive into…but as always with my tidbit posts, not quite a full-on standalone post. Here’s what happened in the week that | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

How to export fitness data from the Samsung wearables (and Samsung Health app)

For each of the last three years or so, I’ve started the review process of a Samsung GPS watch, all variants of either the Samsung Galaxy line or Samsung Gear lineup. And each of those years I get a few | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

5 Random Things I Did This Weekend

Here’s what I was up to this past weekend in surprisingly sunny Amsterdam. Apparently a lot of gadget shopping now that I look at the list. Enjoy!1) Samsung Galaxy Active Unboxing:Friday afternoon I got busy unboxing the Samsung Galaxy Active | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Week in Review–March 24th, 2019

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 | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Polar OH1 Plus Optical HR Sensor In-Depth Review

And just like that, Polar now makes ANT+ devices. The Polar OH1 is one of two devices today that Polar has announced that are getting ANT+ compatibility. The other being the H10. But I cover that (and thoughts around possible | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Polar adds ANT+ to two devices, contemplates ANT+ expansion to Vantage series

When you woke up this morning, I’m pretty sure the title of the post was the last bit of news you expected today in the sports technology realm. And if you weren’t at the ANT+ Symposium last fall, that surprise | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

The Podcast (now with GPLAMA) is Back! Available on lots of platforms!

That’s right folks, you may have seen the tidbits or nuggets here and there – but I’m happy to report the DC Rainmaker Podcast is back in full steam, and now back on more platforms than ever before! For those | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Week in Review–March 17th, 2019

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 | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Unboxing the YouTube 100,000 Subscriber Award

It’s Friday, and late Friday for me in particular. Heck, it’s already Saturday for those of you on the other side of the globe. As such, it’s quickie post time.  Usually I just include my various YouTube videos in the | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Garmin MARQ Series Hands-On: Everything you ever wanted to know

Today Garmin raised the stakes and announced their most expensive watch to date – the Garmin MARQ, at upwards of $2,500. Actually, it’s five watches. Five different units that mirror Garmin’s existing product lines across all of the company’s divisions. | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Fitbit Inspire HR Activity Tracker In-Depth Review

Last week Fitbit announced four new products. At the mid-range they announced the Fitbit Versa Lite variant, and for kids they announced their new ACE2 activity trackers. Both of which though were tweaks to existing products. But at the same | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

5 Random Things I Did This Weekend

Here’s what I was up to this past weekend, enjoying all the rain and wind that Amsterdam has to offer. 1) Riding the fields First up on the docket was an outside ride to take advantage of a few pockets | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

The Fitbit Versa Lite Hands-On: Everything you ever wanted to know

Today Fitbit launched their least expensive smartwatch to date – the Fitbit Versa Lite. This newish watch essentially takes the existing Fitbit Versa smartwatch and removes the music playback, along with a handful of smaller features like stair counting (and | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

PowerTap P2 Power Meter Pedals In-Depth Review

It’s been almost exactly 4 years to the week since PowerTap first announced their PowerTap P1 pedals, and it didn’t take long for them to rocket to popularity. The installation required nothing more than a simple hex wrench, and the | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

5 Random Things I Did This Weekend

And just like that, I’m back in Amsterdam. Well, sorta. By the time you read this I’ve already left the continent in search for…umm…colder weather, apparently. But more on that at the end. Let’s dive into what was happenin’ this | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Week in Review–March 3rd, 2019

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 | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Three Quick Ways to Find Your Lost GoPro

Two weekends ago I managed to drop my GoPro while out mountain biking. Actually, technically I wasn’t mountain biking anymore, but rather had hiked a hundred or so meters from the end of the mountain bike trail to the peak | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

5 Random Things I Did This Weekend: Last Cape Town Edition

Ok, a bit belated on this ‘5 Random Things’ post – but it’s been a whirlwind of a last few days, and I finally have a few minutes to write out some stuff as we complete our last flight of | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Spotify rolls out Garmin Vivoactive 3 Music Support

It’s been some four months since Garmin first announced Spotify integration for their music enabled wearables. This allowed those with music enabled devices to download Spotify playlists and music to their watch and play it back sans-phone, using just Bluetooth | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

The Challenges Ahead for Zwift and ESports

It was almost exactly two months ago that Zwift announced they received a whopping $120 million USD in new funding, whereby a large chunk of that would be spent on digital racing – known as esports. Since then, the company | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago