Tuesday, January 20, 2015

smrtGRiPS, Brilliant!



smrtGRiPS are the World's First Connected Bike Grips. A bike upgrade that makes your bike smarter, safer and more enjoyable to ride without ever needing a display.
These are brilliant, better for road bikes (coming soon I hope), but in general, just plain smart. 
smrtGRiPS seamlessly integrates eyes-free navigation, haptic feedback notifications and a bike tracker. iOS and Android Ready. All right in your hands.


Thursday, January 15, 2015

Pivotal Living, The Perfect Fitness Band!

What makes this perfect, $12, that right, by now most everyone has heard of Pivotal Living. They are the company that turned the wearable market on it ear. In a couple months last year they made such and impact that it completely changed everyone's marketing strategy. $12 for a band, brilliant, well its $12 a year for their services. Smart, considering most people stop wearing them after a couple months.
The interface and graphics are nice, there are some bugs but PL says they are working them out. To compensate all the early adopters they are giving users another year. So $12 for two years, again brilliant.
The best thing is the sleep alarm, it gently vibrates you awake. Hey if you only wear it to sleep, a $12 alarm is a steal.
Pivotal Living

Monday, January 05, 2015

New Year, New Gadgets, Garmin fēnix, Wear it All The Time!

When it comes to watches, it is hard to have one that does it all. Dinner, work, weekends, working in the yard and of course your active lifestyle. Well Garmin fēnix comes close

Uncompromising Multisport Training GPS Watch

  • Stainless Steel EXO™ antenna with GPS + GLONASS support for fast fix and accuracy
  • 1.2-inch sunlight readable color Chroma™ display
  • Fitness training features like VO2 Max and Recovery Advisor (when used with a heart rate montior¹)
  • Outdoor navigation features like 3-axis compass, altimeter and barometer, TracBack and Sight’n Go
  • Connect IQ™ compatibility for customized apps, widgets, watch faces and data fields
  • fēnix 3 is the rugged, capable and smart multisport training GPS watch. With feature sets for fitness training plus feature sets for outdoor navigation, fēnix 3 is ready for any training activity and competition. Access to theConnect IQ platform allows customization of watch faces, data fields, widgets and activities. And, fēnix 3 is a thin, light multisport training GPS that won’t slow you down whether for training or every day use.

    Serious Style That Stands Up to the Roughest Conditions

    fēnix 3 is available in 3 bold models: gray with high-strength, scratch resistant, crystal and black band; silver with red band; and the premium sapphire model with a stainless steel band and sapphire lens. Each watch features a protective stainless steel bezel and buttons, and reinforced housing for extra durability. A sunlight-visible high-resolution color Chroma display with LED backlight lets you access your data in any light. fēnix 3 iswater rated 100 meters and has a battery life of up to 50 hours in UltraTrac mode, 16 hours in GPS mode and up to 3 months in watch mode (all depending on settings).

    Advanced Fitness Metrics

    fēnix 3 is packed with training features to tell you about your form and fitness. The first is the VO2 max estimator. When used with a heart rate monitor¹, fēnix 3 crunches data, including your running speed, beats per minute and heart rate variability to estimate the maximum volume of oxygen you can consume per minute. Track changes to your VO2 max to see your fitness gains and to compare with your peers. Other fitness metrics include recovery advisor with a recovery timer and recovery check, plus a Race Predictor, which estimates your ideal finish time based on your current VO2 max number.
  • Swim Profile and Ski-board Mode

    The fēnix 3 isn’t just for running; special feature sets help swim training and skiing too. Borrowing from the Garmin Swim™, fēnix 3 tracks your distance, pace, stroke count and more. You just tell fēnix 3 the size of the pool you’re swimming in and begin your workout. Ski-board mode puts speed, distance, vertical drop and an automatic run counter (with Auto Pause for the lift line) and more at your fingertips. You can even use your fēnix 3 as a glove-friendly remote, via ANT+™, for the VIRB® and VIRB Elite action cameras.

    Navigate Your Way

    No other navigator GPS plus ABC (altimeter, barometer and compass) wristwatch offers you the combined training functions and our leading GPS technology. fēnix 3 provides comprehensive navigation and tracking functionalities to guide you on and off the beaten track. Its built-in sensors provide information on heading, elevation and weather changes.
    It records a GPS track log creating a “bread crumb trail” as you move. It also allows you to mark locations, such as a start/finish line, course checkpoint, or a campsite, vehicle or other point of interest. With fēnix 3, you can create and follow courses, mark up to 1,000 locations and store up to 10,000 track points and navigate to them.
    Plan trips and share adventures with friends and family using BaseCamp™. fēnix is equipped with both ANT+ and Bluetooth® Smart capabilities to wirelessly share locations, routes and geocaches.
  • Altimeter, Barometer and Compass

    fēnix 3 altimeter
    fēnix 3 is equipped with ABC sensors to provide relevant real-time information. The built-in altimeter provides elevation data to accurately monitor ascent and descent, while the barometer can be used to predict weather changes by showing short-term trends in air pressure. The 3-axis electronic compass keeps your bearing whether you’re moving or not.
    fēnix 3 auto-calibrates its ABC sensors using its GPS receiver and also auto sets the time based on location. For an extremely accurate temperature reading, pair it with our tempe™ external temperature sensor.
  • Connect IQ

    fēnix 3 uses the ConnectIQ platform for specialized software so you can personalize your watch with customized apps, widgets, data fields and unique watch faces that make your Garmin smartwatch even smarter.

    Stay Connected

    Smart Notifications lets you receive emails, texts and alerts right on your watch, even if you're on the trail. fēnix 3 receives the wireless signal from a compatible iPhone® 4s or Android™ smartphone² and let’s you know you have a message, displaying the text on its own screen whenever you’re ready to read it.
That about does it. Can't wait for my Polar to crap out, since the back is rusted might not be to long.
Garmin here I come!