A good friend of mine who besides beeing a great paddler also is a tech-geek has come up with an invention that could help boost your training. The goal is to give you live data without having to check you watch
Check out the trial site ( you have to type a code as a visitor to prove you are not a computer )
Let me know what you think https://a-paper.squarespace.com/
Ok had a look. Doesn't really show you what it is - maybe specific photos of the device would help? Is it blue tooth connected? Why just Suunto, when most use garmin? Is this a ground level Suunto plug (indirect social media strategy) or late April fools?
I personally find a $30 pair of blue tooth head phones, linked up to my iPhone GPS training app works great. I get speed, interval time remaining, total distance - what ever I want to hear at whatever intervals I need to hear them whilst paddling.
With the iwatch coming out, I imagine it's only a matter of time for someone to create an app for stroke rate - given there is an accellerometer in the watch and my technical wishes will be compete.
If it connects via bluetooth I assume that it could connect to anything that has bluetooth?
So as Goochi mentioned if you run a bluetooth compatible training app on an iPhone/Android phone then you should be able to display the same info on your device as long as you make your device compatible with these apps/phones. This would give you a much bigger market because there are a lot more Phone/Android phone users than there are Suunto Ambit 3 owners.
I like the idea of the product but I use a Suunto Ambit 2 so no good for me; however if you made it both bluetooth and ANT/ANT2 compatible you could connect to both phones and sports watches (not just Suunto).
Just saying.
Hey all.
im the guy behind a-paper. First of all - im not trying to make a big business out of this. I am firstly solving a personal problem, and since im a Ambit3 user I developed the A-paper for this watch.
When making a product like this it requires an API from the manufacturer. This is basically the translation of their bluetooth signal. Garmin wants 5000$ for their APi which in my opinion is stupid! Im just trying to make their product better. Looks like Suunto is willing to give me their API for free. Still waiting for final answer.
i have done similar products within the diabetes industry, so making this product is not a big investment for me. I am just curios if other athletes would like to have the "hack" - thats why i made the site.
so there is no big cooperate buiz behind the product. Only a surfing-tech-student that likes to fix things!
As I understand it your making a repeater for the info thats contained in the watch. Interesting, I have made similar displaying flight info in biz jets for passengers, hardwired though.
I use a speedpuck on the front of my board and tom tom multisport on the wrist. I find the only instant info I want is speed, everything else, like for average speed or distance travelled the wrist mount is fine.
Your challenges will be making the device robust and waterproof but it definitely has potential especially with touch screens being so cheap now, just got to make all the boxes talk to each other
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cheers
DK
Just want to say I am not bagging the product, I actually think it is quite a good idea and something that I would consider purchasing if I had a compatible Suunto device. J
Just saying your target market will be quite small (i.e. paddlers with a Suunto Ambit 3) but if that is the market you are chasing then go for it. Keen to see the final product.
