iPhone wonders

It's crazy how fast technology is advancing these days. Power meter technology is moving along quickly. New devices, new computers with firmware updates happening very frequently, software to analyze it all....
It's funny to me how so many are taking advantage of this new technology and yet there are the guys who have been fast for years that are still basically doing what they were doing 10 or 20 years ago and doing fine without any of this new technology crap. I bet most of these guys are not even aware of what's out there or how it could benefit them.

I guess in some ways, the iPhone was like that for me. I was one of those guys that was probably the last person you knew to not have a cell phone. That all changed when I had my job at Nuvinci. I got a company smartphone. I believe it was a blackjack. Anyway, it was just one of those things that you don't appreciate until you have it. I've had a couple of other basic phones since then. Never been much of a big phone user, texter or whatever.

That all changed again when my awesome wife got me an iPhone last year. It actually has a ton of features that are great for riding bikes plus lots of other things. I'm not really into a lot of the cycling related apps that are available, but there a few that are ok I guess. I like going on big exploration rides and it's nice to be able to use the map feature and know how long a road is before it dead ends, as in, sometimes I'm headed in a certain direction and you go back and forth on a stretch of roads, maybe riding 10 miles to find an outlet, only later to you only needed to go 1 mile north in the first place. It just makes it easier to go farther in X amount of time.

The voice control is nice also. I don't like to make a habit of talking and riding at the same time, but it's definitely been a major time saver. Pretty easy to call home without getting my phone out of my pocket and I'm running late, all while drilling it. I've also got a voice to text app that I use sometimes for writing this blog. I get a ton of ideas when I'm riding, and it's easy to just say it before I forget it. I could go on and on, and the thing is, I just keep finding out more and more things from my tech buddies and just searching things out.

There's also that Rapha rendezvous app that may be cool. I guess the deal is you can meet up with the folks you're riding with at any point in a ride. It would show the location of everyone and show the direction of movement in real time. In theory, it seems like a good way for everyone to just ride and not have to stop, regroup, make calls and wait around etc. Maybe something to try. I'm still not a big phone talker or texter, but I'm all about making things more efficient.