Sport gadgets for running, cycling, walking and fitness

The Flip Ultra: your next sports video camera?

fbm — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 23:36:16 +0000

The Flip Ultra is a tiny camcorder that embraces the “less is more” philosophy. It’s small and compact. The screen doesn’t swing. You can’t take pictures, only does video. It only has four buttons: record, play, delete and zoom. It can record for 30 o 60 minutes depending on the version, so there’s no need for and SD card or a hard disk. Once you’re ready to show the world your movies you just plug the camera to a computer through the integrated USB port and you can upload them to YouTube. It’s simple and limited, but what else do you need?

I’ll tell you: I need to put the device under water and I need to put it on my bike helmet. Guess what, the Flip Ultra has two accessories to do just this. The Underwater Case lets you use the camera underwater allowing full access to the camcorder controls. The Action Mount attaches de device to any handlebar or helmet.

With these two accessories the Flip Ultra becomes an all uses camcorder. It’s not specifically sports-oriented (see the ATC-2K ActionCamera if you need one which is), but if you are looking for a digital video camera to use in multiple situations and environments, here you have it.

Links:

Heart Rate Monitor without Chest Belt

fbm — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 15:12:45 +0000

One of the reasons I don’t use a heart rate monitor often is that I hate the chest belt. To avoid this annoyance, Mark of Fitness has created a finger heart rate monitor, the MF-180.

You can buy the MF-180 on Amazon.

Casio Pathfinders Reviewed and Compared

fbm — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 14:53:48 +0000

The Watch Report has reviewed and compared two very similar Casio Pathfinder watches: the PAW1300 and the PAW1200.

Both sport watches offer the same functionality, being the 1300 much smaller (among some other differences). These are the main features:

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Dual Concept Bike made of Wood

fbm — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 05:48:34 +0000

The folks from GP Design have developed a bike that can be used for fitness training and also for going to work, the Jano dual bike. They claim that this is a new type of bike with a new market segment, and I agree with them: sometimes I wished my mountain bike transformed into a city bike.

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Tracking your Workouts with a Phone

fbm — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 05:21:05 +0000

Nokia Sports Tracker is an application that tracks your sport activities that runs on Nokia S60 smartphones with a bluetooth GPS device or with an integrated GPS (see below the full list of compatible devices).

The application records your position, speed, distance and pace. It has a training diary and can do some fancy graphics like the one shown above (speed vs. time).

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Garmin Rino Mini Site

fbm — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 10:38:13 +0000

Garmin has recently put online a mini site dedicated to the Rino series GPS receiver, where you can find information on the Rino (the 530 HCx model right now) and some usage videos, like the “Behind the scenes” one that you can also see here:

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Condoms for your Gadgets

fbm — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 10:10:51 +0000

How many times have you seen this: your Camelbak reservoir spilling all the water and soaking all your backpack, including your last generation mobile phone. Your precious little digital camera swimming in you pocket because of the rain (that’s why you should have bought a waterproof digital camera, or a better coat!). You kid using your mobile phone as a shovel to make sand castles on the beach. For these situations and many more, Skins Mobile comes to the rescue.

Skins Mobile is a transparent cover specially designed to protect mobile phones (and any other gadget that fits) against water, dirt, mud, snow and so on.

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Greener Outdoor Sports

fbm — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 12:09:54 +0000

Warren McLaren has written an extensive article on TreeHugger on how to green your outdoor sports.

Although this is not a gadget I highly recommend reading the article for two reasons:

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Omron HJ-112 Pedometer Review

fbm — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 09:59:24 +0000

Wendy Bumgardner at About:walking has written a review of the Omron HJ-112 pedometer.

This is the summary of her review:

Pros
Tested as highly accurate
7-day memory
Counts steps and aerobic steps
Silent

Cons
Larger than some pedometers

The Omron HJ-112 Digital Premium Pedometer is one of the best pedometers for walking and jogging. It has the following features:

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GlobalSat GH-615B: a Forerunner’s Competitor

fbm — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 10:43:12 +0000

The GlobalSat GH-615B is the new sports watch from GlobalStat that integrates a GPS receiver to record routes. This product is specifically aimed at hikers, runners, bikers, skiers, or any type of outdoor sports practitioner.

In many ways it’s similar to the Garmin Forerunner 205: size, technology used, price (with the Amazon discount), lack of heart rate monitor, and so on. See the comparison in the links section below.

The GH-615B has the following features:

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