Garmin Edge 705 GPS-enabled Cycle Trainer with Cadence Sensor Review

I’ve found the Edge better than expected. Its good points are that it gives a calorie count regardless of cadence and heart rate monitors. You don’t need either to get a reading on calories burned.
Contrary to other reports I find the device very sensitive to satellite reception. I loaded a map of Europe which I bought cheaply through Amazon and it works well, but the screen is too small to give the sort of display you become used to with a car satnav.
Battery life is good. I have used it continuously for 8 hours and so I believe you could get 15 hours out of it. That’s (I guess) without using the backlinght. You don’t need the back light during the day or even under good street lighting.
The web site which allows you to upload your cycling history is excellent, but the instructions on how to get it up and running are not of the highest quality.
The heart rate monitir works really well, but I’m not sure its really helping me with a fitness or weight loss regime.
The cadence sensor seems fickle. You need to get the magnet on the wheel to come very close to the sensor on the frame to get a reading. They say 5mm and I believe them. 5mm is a tiny gap!
All said and done I’m glad I bought it, but could have done without the HR Monitor and Cadence sensor. The cadence sensor tells you how many times you turned the pedals and thats all it does.

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Dec 15, 2009 18:45:08

I’ve been advising the team working on Cabulous, a new mobile location-enabled app that makes it easier for cabbies to advertise their locations — and for passengers to find them.

I drove last Saturday and helped with an early beta test. John taped the first successful Cabulous hail:

A few weeks back, Cabulous had nice coverage on the old fashioned TV tubes:

Link – more info on Cabulous including a live demo of the app in use.

It’s not often I’ll be musing over a new app or gadget.  But one recently caught my eye.

Gowalla is an iPod application created by Alamofire, the same group that released PackRat, the card collecting game on FB.  Gowalla is a travel game that rewards its users for visiting places, both ordinary and extraordinary.

Each time Gowalla members visit a designated location and check in they receive a stamp on their phone, just as a traveler’s passport would get stamped upon entering a foreign country.

Members also have the option of collecting virtual souvenirs, or “icons,” at each stop.  That’s when Gowalla gets social.  The icons you collect can be traded with friends or hidden in locations for other members to find.  Upon arrival at a location, a Gowalla member can check in on their iPhone and find out what loot and what other Gowalla members are there.

Foursquare has been considered by many as the standard in location-based social networking.  But Gowalla is different.  What caught my attention is that Gowalla is the only true GPS-enabled location-based social network service.  Does that sound as strange to you as it does to me?  I’m not surprised that Gowalla intergrated GPS.  I’m just surprised they’re the first.

In addition, Gowalla allows users to create content and help map the Gowalla grid.  And because it’s GPS enabled, Gowalla is global and available worldwide.

As a tool for discovering new places and connecting with fellow explorers along the way, it’s tough to argue that Gowalla’s iteration of location-based social networking doesn’t raise the bar.  And it can also have some practical applications as well.

The Gowalla app can be used by businesses to gain info about the habits and patterns of loyal customers.  Advertising and marketing in conjunction with Gowalla could also be truly localized and relevant.  Hyperlocal ads can bring value right then and there to a Gowalla member checking in to a new location.

A few months ago, I would’ve dismissed Gowalla as YAFUU—Yet Another Flagrantly Useless Undertaking.  But I’ve come to appreciate that people far more intelligent than I (by no means an exclusive club) can swoop in and leverage these toys for profit and practicality.  It wasn’t long ago that I would’ve characterized Twitter as YAFUU.  But I’ll be tweeting about this post momentarily.

I’ve learned my lesson.  No longer will I rush to ridicule or judge.

Gowalla or go home.

New WiBro-enabled Navigation device has been announced by EASYCAR during World IT show 2009 in Korean market. It has adopted “TocToc” navigation software from Point-I that allows users to enjoy the experience of Wi-Fi/WoBro access and e-mail. Moreover, you can download many multimedia contents. This device has the ability to display the real-time traffic information and CCTV video information.

Click to know about Pocket GPS Navigator for car

This device is powered by Telechips TCC7901 Dual Core CPU at 498×498MHz. The other major features of this device are, SkyTrag GPS chipset, 800 x 480 resolution LCD screen and a rear camera. This device is expected to be available for 329,000 KRW from this month.

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How do you combine LBS technology with GPS and mobile phones with a gaming environment that is fun, educational and gives you plenty of exercise? That’s one of the questions we have for Kiwis who enter the GeoSmart Location Innovation Awards.

29 people have entered the awards so far and we know of several more people who are working on projects. A lot of interest has come from universities and we all know that university students love coming up with ideas for fun things to do. The Auckland City Flashmob Group already has 487 members who have signed up through their Facebook page.

In this blog I am going to give you some examples of applications that might gove you ideas on applications to create yourselves. One that I really like as a concept is Navball which comes from Amsterdam. The Netherlands are of course a nation of football fans and it makes a lot of sense to combine their love of the round ball game with GPS and LBS technology to come up with something that is fun, fast, competitive and very Generation Y.

The concept is that you have two teams of 11 players, just like you would in a game of soccer and they compete to kick a virtual ball into a virtual goal. The playground is a set of predefined streets, unknown to the players before they hit the field. The players off course have soccer strips so that they are recognisable from the general public and won’t cause concern for pedestrians as they go about their business.

Each player is equipped with a Nokia N95 which is GPS enabled. The players are shown where the ‘ball’ is and the location of the first ‘goal’. They have to form a line in the shape of an arrow in order to be able to identify the direction the ball will be kicked. The game lasts for 45 minutes and the winner is obviously the team which has achieved the most goals.

The play can be followed on a Google Maps mashup which allows viewers to monitor a scoreboard and see the locations of each of the 22 players as they make their way around the course, which is the streets of Amsterdam.

Here is a promotional video of the game being played in Amsterdam.

Navball is the brainchild of The Saints mobile software, one of many innovative Dutch developers. Another application they have launched which would be great fun for both tourists and locals is Get Lost in Rotterdam. It’s sort of like a treasure hunt, except that it is simply about finding new places and having fun. It is designed such that it could be played in any city in the world.

You send a free txt message to a short code and can then download the application which has 15 consecutive instructions. I watched a video demonstration on the website, which went like this:

1. Get on the tram heading for the city centre and get off at the 5th stop.

2. Take the first Metro (subway) entrance and go one stop.

3. Follow the first dog you see for (x) time and then turn left

4. Catch the first available bus. etc

There are lots of prizes for people who send in photos from their journey and the game will run on many different brands and models of phone that have Java capability.

These games are entertaining, fun, involve adventure and exercise. I don’t know if they allow you to track the people or their trail on a map website like AA Maps, but that would obviously add some more fu, not only to the players but to others.

So there are a couple of cool examples of LBS Games. What do you think you could come up with? You can enter to win prizes with your idea at www.locationinnovation.co.nz. If it’s really good, you could be heading for a free trip to the USA to the Where 2.0 conference in May next year!

Making the old man proud (that’s J. Edgar Hoover, below): New FBI rules will enable more of the homeland covert ops, and abuses, that led to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. FBI agents will also be able to question anyone, without disclosing that they work for the agency. — mb

Justice Department and FBI officials told a news briefing the changes would allow agents in some terrorism cases to use informants, do physical surveillance and conduct interviews without identifying themselves or their true purpose.

They said such techniques currently could be used in ordinary criminal cases, but not for those involving national security, before an investigation has begun.

Proposed new FBI rules draw civil liberties worries | U.S. | Reuters.

A bumpy ride ahead for sats and power grids. (Image: NASA)

NASA today published a forecast for a “big and intense” new solar cycle in 2011 or 2012, which its suggests will wreak havoc on satellite GPS and telecommunications, power grids and air traffic.

NASA says the next solar cycle, Solar Cycle 24, “could make itself felt as never before.”

We are now at the end of Solar Cycle 23 (see graphic, and excerpts, below), according to the U.S. space agency.

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clipped from science.nasa.gov Is a New Solar Cycle Beginning It may not look like much, but “this patch of magnetism could be a sign of the next solar cycle,” says solar physicist David Hathaway of the Marshall Space Flight Center.

Homeland Security

Originally uploaded by markbaard.

Eyeballing federal offices and sensitive sites around Boston, courtesy of Google Street Views, which Google launched here today.

More images, here

– Mark Baard

Perhaps internet access will make them happy.

Buses, at least in Boston, are filthy and grossly inefficient. Accidents and shootings are common, although the police are quick to assure uninjured passengers when they were not targeted in gangster-on-gangster hits.

But since buses will be the primary mode of ground transportation in U.N.-defined urban habitats, officials and the media are trying to sweeten the experience for city dwellers.

Motorola, MIT and a supportive Boston Globe (for which I am a columnist) this week made the case for adding wireless internet access and TVs to buses, to lure individuals out of their cars.

They claim that wireless connections between bus riders will foster the growth of urban habitat areas, or “urban gardens,” as sociologist Federico Casalegno called them in the Boston Globe on Sunday (link and excerpt, below).

Casalegno, who had just designed a futuristic-looking prototype bus station at MIT, is collaborating with the university’s “Smart Cities” group, which is headed by the architect and urban planner William J. Mitchell.

But Casalegno’s real job (which the Globe article does not mention) is working for Motorola, where he is a manager.

Motorola’s and Mitchell’s plans do not allow for weekend excursions to the country, let alone opportunities to reside permanently outside the city.

But ubiquitous wireless connections will benefit Motorola, and a Sovietized transportation system will help cities such as Boston comply with the U.N.’s Agenda 21.

In his book, “e-topia,” Mitchell describes future urban centers “characterized by live/work dwellings and 24-hour pedestrian-scale neighborhoods,” according to his publisher.

And Motorola’s current vision, according to Monday’s Financial Times, is “seamless connectivity”: access to information “at any time, on any device, and anywhere.”

For more about Agenda 21, listen to Alan Watt’s May 2 and May 3 audio blurbs, which are here and here.

clipped from www.boston.com “Bus 2.0″ The Boston Globe, May 6, 2007 From Boston to Brazil, city planners and transportation gurus are reimagining the possibilities of the humble motorbus, using high-tech ’smart mobility’ to challenge the preeminence of the car — and revive the urban commons. Much of the most innovative thinking now focuses on improving the passenger experience, instead of the more difficult challenge of moving buses faster along crowded streets. But city planners, armed with affordable global-positioning and computer technology, hope that meeting these seemingly modest goals can make bus trips a far more pleasurable, even productive, experience.

Satellites, maps, keep you connected

Sprint this week announced a fairly cheap subscription plan that will make you completely trackable via the satellite global positioning system (GPS). No doubt, this will have teenagers wrapping their phones in foil to dodge their parents. But seniors and caregivers may appreciate the piece of mind that comes with knowing where everyone is.

For about ten bucks a month, the Sprint Family Locator allows to track up to four GPS phones. You can also send and receive alerts when your family members arrive at school or the doctor’s office.