New Joule Units
DC Rainmaker is saying Cycleops coming out with new Joule with and without GPS. Pricing very competitive. Don't see a reason for people with power not to get one, contingent upon it working well and all.
Non-GPS is $169
GPS is $269
Here is a pic of them:
Looks like new pricing on Powertap hubs as well in the pipeline.
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Hopefully this forces Garmin to get TSS/IF/NP on their devices either prior to or at the same time as the relesae of the vector pedal (supposedly later this year).
Multiple devices with GPS and full power meter support at under $300 is a great thing.
@Mancona, agreed. Hopefully Garmin will react to this with a firmware update. And multiple devices with both is great.
Kind of feel badly for the people who spent close to $400 for their old Joule's if this is correct.
The only reason I don't have a Joule is because it doesn't have GPS. The only reason I'll keep my Garmin Edge 500 over the new GPS Joule is if 1) Garmin comes out with a firmware upgrade that gives us TSS/IF/NP or 2) the Joule's GPS function completely sucks. No one is going to do a better GPS job than Garmin but as long as it's close.
These new units probably won't change my decision, in fact it sort of solidifies it. There is a lot of room for improvement in the existing Joule firmware that CycleOps was in my opinion extremely slow to respond to, if they ever responded at all. This makes sense in that they were concentrating all of their efforts on the development of the new units at the expense of their existing userbase. It irks me just enough that I think they're out one more customer, *but* I'm extremely glad they are coming out with these new units because I do hope it pushes Garmin to include TSS/IF/NP.
@Bill, well according to this the battery life wil be 300-400 hours.
www.dcrainmaker.com/2011/06/first-l...e-and.html
@Trevor, yes I agree and hope Garmin will step it up and add the metrics. I just hope they do it as a firmware release and not on a new unit. Because that would suck. And it does seem like they are rubbing it in the noses of their current customers but cutting prices so much.
The display is one of the key differentiating features between the new Joule, the previous one, and the new GPS equipped Joule and it is what affects the battery life so much. The new Joule (non-GPS) uses a LED based seven segment display as visible in the preview shot.
This display will not have the same look and feel as the previous Joule display as seven segment displays are just a cheaper and chunkier display technology. On the new Joule, you won't be able to re-size fields, customize the number of viewable fields, or potentially even move fields around. That's just not how 7-segments work, the new joule will be just like a standard Cateye or other more basic cycling computer, but with a bigger screen with ANT+ and I have to imagine TSS/NP/IF in there too. That is also why that model uses a coin-style battery and with 3-400 hours of battery life, seven segment displays don't require nearly as much power, nor are they as complex to drive so the internals of the new Joule will be cheaper/simpler than it's predecessor.
The new GPS-Joule on the other hand is a proper LCD display like the current model and the Edge 500. That mean's you get a ton more freedom in what you can display and can customize the number, size and content of fields if the software allows it. This of course requires more power and is a more advanced unit all around, hence the rechargeable battery that hopefully will be more on par with the Garmin's, but still I would expect something in the <10 hour range, and of course a higher cost.
FWIW, in the past Garmin has been pretty good about going back and updating past devices and back porting new features. For example the addition of 3sec, 30sec power and other features to the 310XT after they first put the on the edge 705, 500 and 800. The latest 310XT firmware is great and added a bunch of other small but nice features in and thats a two year old device now.