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Old 01-20-11 | 12:02 AM
  #11  
Art_Vandelay
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Joined: Aug 2010
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Originally Posted by wandt
Any updates?
Yep. Got the Fisica Sensor Case and my speed/cadence sensor in the mail. Even thought it was listed as a pre-order, they shipped it the next day. I believe they're now officially for sale - I must have caught the tail end of the pre-order period. I bought the "bike pack" for $150.

The case and mount seem solid. The mount that goes on the bike is pretty simple, and attaches snugly with two zip ties. It has a rubber backing to keep it from slipping. I put it on my stem and it hasn't slipped or moved on me yet (although I've only had a chance to take it out for one ride so far).

The case itself seems like a good product. They ship it with two rubber inserts, one for the 3G/3GS and one for the iPhone 4. This also means that it's somewhat future-proof, because they could just sell new inserts for the iPhone 5 (unless Apple makes it bigger, which I very much doubt will happen).

The front of the case attaches very firmly with six plastic snap-locks. One drawback here is that since these have molded plastic hinges, I'm not sure what their lifetime will be - possible they could break off after lots of use. Hopefully Wahoo will offer the front face of the case as a spare part.

The waterproofing seal is made between the rubber insert, which has a lip around the edge to make a tight seal with the front face. I haven't actually tested the waterproofing but it looks and feels like a good design. There was a video online of a guy running it under his bathtub faucet.

I'm not too sure about the clear plastic material the screen cover is made of. I think somewhere it said its made of Lexan. It seems to me that it's going to scratch up pretty fast, so I'm not sure how long it will last before it looks like hell. I suppose you could put a screen protector on the outside of it, but that might make the touchscreen even less responsive. The phone does work pretty well through the "built-in" film; it pretty much feels like a thick screen protector so it's not as responsive as the naked phone, but hopefully you're not going to be playing hardcore video games while on the bike anyways.

The case worked perfectly out of the box, and linking the sensor up with the apps that support it is painless. I don't see any issues here. Also, I'm using it on my tandem with the iPhone on the captain's handlebars and the sensor on the rear chainstay, so the range is at least 1-1.5m. There is a Fisica utility app that will give you signal strength, although I haven't checked that.

I've been waiting a long time for an iPhone bike mount that doesn't make me afraid my phone is going to fly off and go skidding across the road. I do think this case is pretty solid in that regard.

Cons:
- The case is pretty chunky

- The current apps don't support landscape mode. I wanted to mount it in landscape on my stem (they have product pics showing this) but it turns out that about the only app that does landscape is this crummy "NC-17" app that doesn't log any data. If I just wanted a bike computer display I'd buy a Cateye. Since the case is pretty chunky, I didn't want to mount it in portrait orientation on my bars beside the stem, but I guess I'll try that.

- Apps aren't great yet. The Fisica Fitness app (from Wahoo) has a cluttered display on-bike, and while it logs data, there's not a good interface to a web or desktop based viewer. You just get the raw data. Good for data geeks, not so good for the other 99.9% of users. iMapMyRide is another option, but the UI seems crummy for on-bike use, I really hate their website will all of the incredibly intrusive ads, and I'm not too keen on paying their monthly fee. There's an app called REK that looks slick but it just came out so it has no reviews, it's $12.99 for the app and the developer website is all in Japanese. I'll wait on that one.

On the plus side for apps, it sounds (and looks, based on the # of supporting apps) like Wahoo is making their API open to any interested developer. Since the hardware just came out, I think the app support will catch up fast. In fact, I think the list of apps that support the Fisica has just about doubled since I ordered my hardware.

- You still have to take your iPhone in and out of the case every time you want to use it. It's not a deal breaker, but it is a little bit of a pain in the ass since you have to take off your normal iPhone case (I use an apple bumper), take apart the fisica case, put in the iphone, snap together the fisica case, mount it on the bike, and put away the other case somewhere where the dog won't eat it.
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