Falconportal.com
I've come to the conclusion that unless I write in some form of cryptic code, any mention of a certain fruit company will bring all the fanboy/zealots out of the wood work. See I made the mistake in my last entry to ask for information before I settled on a final opinion. Tim was nice enough to provide some additional input Fruit related and Ed once again had to waste precise time and effort typing in the obvious. Don't get me wrong Ed is a good friend of Falconportal but what he said shouldn't need to be said. I.e. stuff should be built better.
Unfortunately I got other forms of feedback by way of email. In it I was once again treated to the reality distortion field by people who can't bear to look outside the Fruit World.
So here is the deal. I was emailed by a person who I guess was following me on twitter, then checked my site and have now taken it upon himself/herself to have me get a fruitphone. Their premise goes something like this. When you buy the fruitphone you are not just getting a phone but a replacement for so many other things. Their example goes something like this. You like to ride a bike and run. The Runkeeper App can help you do that and they went on to list all these neat feature the app has. They continued by showing how if I only had a fruitphone I wouldn't need a bike computer because I could just use my phone with a soon to be released holder for your bike. So being the good little engineer I headed off to the video they sent me and watched. The idea is a sound one but ( apologize for putting it this way but I can't think of a way to say it) if you actually ride that mountain bike the way it was meant, that stand will get snapped off in the first 30minutes of your ride. Between branches, falls, jumps, and bail outs (where you let the bike go thus allowing you to get off the bike before something bad happens to your body) it just won't last.
But I decided to play the numbers game and see how the whole thing would play out.
Since they mentioned RunKeeper I'll go with it. It should be noted up front that if you run this app on the original iphone your data will not be accurate so the 3G/3Gs is a must.
So let's start keeping track of pricing.
$100 for G and $200 GS.
RunKeeper was going for $10 but now has a free version and a pro paid. $10
The bike Mount for phone goes for %60. Monthly fee for the iphone: I've seen 50 a month all the way up to 150. Two year contracts are required so I'll use $50 month.
50 * 24 = $1200
Phone = 100
SW = 10
Stand = 60
Total = $1370.
Now lets go into my world. The world that includes 20 plus years of cycling experience.
My phone cost alittle over $35 with tax and S&H
I don't have a contract but I do pay 100 a year for prepay. So $200 for 2yrs.
If I were to purchase Garmin's top of the line unit I would pay about $550.
That makes my total
total = $785
A savings of $585 over the fruit phone option.
fruitphone version – No cadence, No Heart Rate, No auto snyc, No virtual training partner, No Multisport, No Altimeter, and No power meter.
Weight of Garmin set up = 3.7 oz. I won't beat a dead horse, the phone case/stand along weighs more then that. Sorry but more weight equals slower speeds. Oh and did I mention, I still have $585 to spend on say a top of the line netbook?
"But Mark you can't run with the Edge!
Fair enough. To solve that problem I'll buy the Forerunner® 310XT instead.
This device is water resistant to something like 50 feet which means I don't have to worry about a little water. It Needs no stand, and comes in the size of a watch. All for $170 less then the Edge. That brings my savings from $585 to $757.
Here's the real kicker, Cnet proved that driving while talking/texting on the phone is worse then being partially inebriated. Do you really want that lack of focus transferred to riding a bike?
Yup, you really convinced me to get an fruitphone. (rolls eyes and laughs) Look if you like your phone, I'm happy for you. Just stop trying to convince me I need one. If for no other reason, I would smash the screen on my first mountain bike ride.
Category: Technology | Permalink | 4 locked comments
Ed Hurst posted the following comment:
––Poke me! I love it.
Not so obvious: Riding is my primary means of transport. I get exercise whether I like it or not, rain or shine, since the nearest place worth going to is 7 miles over many hills. I'm lucky to have a very rudimentary cellphone, which I have to protect from weather.
Is it rude to say I can't imagine needing directions from a device, nor distance tracking? The Army paid a lot for my training. My maps skills are probably the one place where I'll contend I can compete world class. I can envision what the topographical elevation loops look like on the ground. My only real dependency is a decent map, and with Google Maps or various terrain map sites, I no longer have to hunt down and buy piles of paper.
Good thing, too. My budget is almost non–existent. But I love reading about this stuff anyway, in part because I have even less reason than you for buying the Fruitphone. You come up with such a fun collection of toys!
on Thu, 24 Sep 2009 06:09:18 -0700
Mark posted the following comment:
––Tim – But you're still into the phone for $1200. Plus from what I hear, you can't multitask on the fruit phone so when you answer a call you lose GPS features.
Ok, So I'll take my $757 and buy a top of the line Tom Tom for $350. (just looked at their site, plays mp3, voice nav, etc etc.) Leaving me $407. So I now have a top of the line GPS watch and Nav system.
Look I understand the whole multitasking thing. I buy one thing and it does it all. Problem with that idea is that one thing doesn't do any of the tasks very well. Just good enough. For me it's the reason why I carry a Swiss Army knife with me. Sometimes you need to fix something now. But if I'm at home and have the proper tool, I'm not using the knife.
As I just showed I can take that same amount fruitphone people are spending and get much better equipment with more features and still have money left over. $407 would still get me a nice netbook to cover the rest.
Ed – Directions no, but distance, you got me. I have a bike computer so when my ride is over I know what my total distance was, avg speed, and total ride time. As for directions, sometimes getting lost is the best thing to happen to you because you get to see new things. ;–)
on Thu, 24 Sep 2009 07:00:14 -0700
Timothy R. Butler posted the following comment:
––If you had no need for a smart phone, yes, you'd be silly to get an iPhone. It only makes sense if you already have a need to get one. The iPhone compares favorably in price to a Blackberry, Nokia/Symbian or Android smart phone in pricing, and the GPS is pretty capable.
I do wish they'd turn on full multitasking. That said, I think most GPS apps can hand off to the phone app and back pretty well.
It's six of one, half dozen of another. On my old Symbian smart phone, I'd forget to close an app and I'd have a bunch of apps running in the background. Then, I'd wonder why my battery was draining so fast.
Timothy R. Butler posted the following comment:
––I guess it could work for that, but I'd tend to side with you in favor of a ruggedized, dedicated GPS. Garmin makes good stuff.
The value of the iPhone GPS, it seems to me (or any phone GPS for that matter) is more for things like turn–by–turn driving instructions. And that's where the value is more apparent. For about $80 I can get Navigon's GPS software to run on up to 5 household iPhone 3G(S)es. For a one time $20 fee per phone, I can have live traffic updates on each phone that needs it.
That puts me at, say $99 for a 3G plus $100... e.g. $200 for a full featured GPS unit and smart phone. This compares favorably for post–paid users, since the average cell phone plus data plan is going to start at around $60/month, regardless of the phone. On top of that, many phones are going to have the GPS partially disabled so you have to use the carrier's $10/month GPS service...
But, I digress. For off road usage, I think I'd favor something a little different...
on Wed, 23 Sep 2009 20:55:44 -0700