Suunto Adds Active Mapping To Their Ambit Smart Watch

Biggs is the East Coast Editor of TechCrunch. Biggs has written for the New York Times, InSync, USA Weekend, Popular Mechanics, Popular Science, Money and a number of other outlets on technology and wristwatches. He is the former editor-in-chief of Gizmodo.com and lives in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. You can Tweet him here and G+ him here. Email him directly at... ? Learn More

In a real first for a GPS watch, Suunto has added a mapping feature to their Ambit smartwatch via a free update. The watch previously supported GPS tracking, waypoints, and training functions but this upgrade adds a live map to the mix, allowing hikers and runners to pinpoint their location on a trail or course.

From the Suunto website:

With this update, users will be able to download routes online or input their own waypoints. Out on the trails, users will be able to see their route in real time, including their start point, position and the route ahead.

Another upcoming update will add Suunto foot pod and ANT+ accessory compatibility along with improved training instruments like interval timers. It will also support “community-crafted” features uploaded by users to Suunto’s support site.

This is a real first for these sorts of watches. First, this update is wildly compelling and that it comes free, after the watch has been on the market for a few months. The watch itself is pretty cool, as evidenced by this in-depth review and it’s fascinating that it can be upgraded via software to unlock new features.

The community features are also compelling in that they allow groups of people – runners, bikers, onanists – to upload various readout settings and programs. All of this, of course, inside a package the size of a silver dollar. The watch itself is $500 and these updates will be free at Movescount.com in September.

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Pepper Rises: Active Networks Relaunches Plancast With A New Design

Biggs is the East Coast Editor of TechCrunch. Biggs has written for the New York Times, InSync, USA Weekend, Popular Mechanics, Popular Science, Money and a number of other outlets on technology and wristwatches. He is the former editor-in-chief of Gizmodo.com and lives in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. You can Tweet him here and G+ him here. Email him directly at... ? Learn More

Plancast, a TC alumni startup that limped along in the deadpool for a few years, has just relaunched under new ownership. ActiveNetwork paid an undisclosed sum last spring and spent the summer updating the site. Co-founders Jay Marcyes and Mark Hendrickson are no longer maintaining the service.

“We made a fraction of facebook’s current market cap,” said founder and former TC writer Mark Hendrickson. Hendrickson wrote an excellent post-mortem on the entire Plancast process, from beginning to end, and for a while it looked like the company could compete with Eventbrite and similar event services. Slow uptake and a small user base nixed those plans and they ended up nearly scrapping the service, leaving it to run on a few servers while they awaited a buyer. He later joined Lift in March.

Active Networks has improved the front page, adding more event discovery as well as a more streamlined approach to creating events. We have been assured that Pepper the Plancast Penguin, an important figure in Valley lore and legend, will remain as the mascot for the site.

Apparently the companies were in talks a few months after Plancast went on sale. “There was only a few months between when we stopped working on it full time and transferred,” said Hendrickson. As a big fan of the service, I’m glad to see that everything got sorted out quickly.

via @accidentalinfo

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