As already touched upon here at Machine Culture spring 2006 will bring new gadgets to support physical activities such as running, mountain biking etc.

The hype about the forthcoming and promising looking “Project Fusion” between Adidas and Polar continues, as the companies have released "Phase 2" of their marketing campaign, this time in the shape of a new ("futuristic"?) television commercial: We follow a person running through a city (Brussels?) at night time with the new Polar RS800 running computer, a heart rate monitor integrated in his clothes and a foot pod (the new Polar “S3 Stride Sensor”) measuring speed and distance integrated in the shoes. As for facts about the product, “Phase 2” of the marketing campaign unveil that the forthcoming RS800 will be able to synchronize with Polar Precision Performance software (PPP). This is good news, since it implies that Polar intend to maintain PPP in parallel to the much more limited web based “Polar Running Coach”.

A month ago the GPS manufacturer Garmin officially announced their upcoming Forerunner model 205 and 305. Among other things the new models are promised to feature a new and more sensitive GPS receiver which "improves tracking under trees and near tall buildings" - which has been a problem with the current models, and made foot pod based running computers from Polar or Suunto the choice for various runners. The new models also feature an improved (softer) chest strap, and the new devices will of course be supported by the impressive looking Motion Based web application which Garmin acquired in October last year.

It is going to be interesting to see how Polar and Suunto will respond in the battle of the ultimate gadget for running etc, both in respect to the hardware and software for logging and analyzing exercises. Here at Machine Culture we are looking forward getting our hand on these new products while training for our next half marathon this summer.