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Hitman convicted thanks to fitness watch location data
An alleged hitman has learned hard lessons about the the value of GPS data on fitness watches. A Liverpool jury has found Mark Fellows guilty of the 2015 murder of mob boss Paul Massey in part thanks to location info from the accused's Garmin Forerunner. An expert inspecting the watch's info discovered that Fellows had recorded a 35-minute trip that took him to a field just outside Massey's home ahead of the murder. He appeared to be scouting the route he would take later to perform the hit, a claim supported by cell site and CCTV evidence showing Fellows driving his car past Massey's house numerous times in the week before the slaying.
Garmin adds LTE to its Vivoactive 3 Music watch
Garmin has made plenty of smartwatches in recent years, and today the company is introducing its first with LTE. It's an update to the existing, awkwardly-named Garmin Vivoactive 3 Music that can connect to Verizon's LTE network for a variety of features including text messaging, some safety-focused features and, naturally, music.
Garmin fitness watches can finally play music from Spotify
Garmin's initial music support for its fitness watches has been limited to Deezer and iHeartRadio, which is odd to say the least -- most people don't use those services, and you weren't about to ditch a subscription to something else just so you could replace the gym's soundtrack with your own. Thankfully, Garmin is aware of your plight -- it's rolling out support for offline Spotify music on its wristwear, starting with the Fenix 5 Plus series. Download the relevant app in the Connect IQ store and you can save songs, albums and playlists to the watch using WiFi, giving you the chance to catch up on your Release Radar while away from your phone.
Garmin adds Deezer to its music-playing fitness watches
To date, Garmin's music-capable fitness watches have had access to iHeartRadio and... that's about it. You're about to get some much-needed variety, though, as Deezer's music service has finally arrived on Garmin fitness wearables after months of promises. You can store more than 100 tunes on your wrist and sync playlists (including curated workout playlists) like you might with other services on smartwatches, but the ace up Garmin's sleeve may be Deezer's Flow feature. While the mix of favorites and recommendations isn't that special on your phone or PC, it gives you a fresh mix every day -- important when you'd rather not repeat your gym soundtrack.
Fitbit may give the Charge 3 a touchscreen but not GPS
A new leak has revealed info about the upcoming Fitbit Charge 3 — namely, that the fitness watch is finally getting a full touchscreen. But that's not the only feature it's inheriting from the pricier Fitbit Ionic and Versa — the Charge 3 will also be water resistant and come with Quick Reply, according to information shared with Android Authority.
Garmin's latest smartwatch can play music during your run
Yes, you can listen to music on a smartwatch without keeping your phone nearby, but that usually means settling for relatively simple fitness tracking. Garmin may have a solution that eliminates those compromises, however -- it just introduced the Forerunner 645 Music, a GPS running watch that (surprise) stores up to 500 songs for playback over Bluetooth earphones. You can track your runs (or bike rides, or swims) and the detailed stats to match while listening to tunes you've saved either from your computer or from streaming services like iHeartRadio.
Garmin Forerunner 10 is a GPS watch designed for outdoor fitness, we go hands-on
Having a svelte design is paramount to the success of any fitness accessory -- a desire to avoid hassle often prompts those of us who opt for purging calories without the convenience of a climate-controlled gym to leave smartphones, and even watches at home. That means nifty contraptions like Garmin's new Fenix all-in-one wearable don't make it to the jogging path, making a compact dedicated running watch a more desirable pick instead. That's the idea behind the Forerunner 10, which Garmin is pushing as a dead-simple GPS-equipped wristwatch for runners, joggers and walkers. Water resistant to 50 meters (for ocean-floor sprints?), the gadget tracks essentials like pace and calories burned, while also keeping tabs on your coordinates, letting you download stats like distance and speed through a USB adapter and Garmin Connect. We weren't able to go for a jog, sadly, though we did spend some time with the Forerunner 10 in an office setting. The watch seemed very straightforward, which you'll find to be quite helpful as you push to match a pre-set pace, without worrying about distractions. It comes in black, green or pink, and while the company suggests that you can wear the watch for non-exercise purposes as well, both colored designs seemed a bit too bright and flashy for regular use. The Forerunner 10 is rated for up to five hours of battery life in training mode, or five weeks in power-save mode (for regular time-keeping purposes), and is available to purchase for $130. You can check one out for yourself at Garmin's Chicago retail location, or you can take a peek in our hands-on photos just below.%Gallery-163499%
Garmin Swim watch tracks your water workouts, we hit the pool (hands-on)
Garmin is adding a new product to its line-up of fitness watches, and this one is dedicated to workouts of the aquatic variety. The $150 Garmin Swim tracks your distance swum, average pace, workout time and more, and it uploads those stats to the web to help monitor your progress. Though it's meant to be a part of your exercise routine, the Garmin Swim watch looks like your average plastic digi-timepiece. The watch has six buttons with functions for viewing the time of day, scrolling through the menu options, controlling the timer, viewing the menu and entering workout mode. The setup takes some getting used to, but the illustrative icons on the watch helped us get into the rhythm quickly. Getting started with the Swim simply entails entering the size of your pool, with options to measure in yards or meters. Once that info is uploaded, you press the swim button and are ready to get splashing. We spent a solid half-hour doing laps, and the Swim duly recognized and recorded that we varied our strokes. Stopping the timer each time we took a break created a new interval for our workout, with a rundown of the elapsed time, distance in meters, number of strokes, type of stroke, total laps, average speed and calories burned. That's a lot of data to pore over, and Garmin lets you wirelessly upload it all to the Garmin Connect site. To do this, you have to pair the watch with your computer using a USB ANT stick: once it works, it's an efficient, easy way to review your workout, but it took us a few tries before our laptop recognized the watch. Garmin says the watch's battery will last a full year, which is plenty of time to log some serious laps. For more about the Swim, check out the press info past the break. %Gallery-159003%
Garmin announces FR70 fitness watches to keep you on track
Looking to keep those New Year's resolutions past the first week of January in 2012? Garmin's out to help you stay the course with its FR70 fitness watches for both guy and gals. Using this trainer's timepiece, you'll be able to track your workout time, heart rate and calories burned right on your wrist. Powered by ANT+ technology, the FR70 can connect to compatible devices like treadmills, bikes, elliptical machines, your boyfriend's Segway, etc. For avid runners, pairing the watch with a wireless foot pod will clue you in on speed, distance and cadence during your training sessions. If biking is more your style, a pace sensor is available for you as well. Combine an FR70 with the Tanita BC-1000 system and you can track weight, water levels, body fat and a handful of other measurements that will be stored right on the device. Once all the data is collected, it can be sent to Garmin Connect whenever you return with range of your PC. The pair will be available in the UK, starting in November, for £129 / €139 ($197). If you need some reading while you're lacing up those Nikes, hit the PR button for the full skinny.
Polar RCX5 training computer feels your multi-sport pain
The French didn't only invent the guillotine. They also bequeathed us something even more painful (though that's hard to prove): "Les trois sports", aka the Triathlon. A swimming-cycling-running succession of pure hurt, which Polar's latest RCX5 training computer seeks to measure using an array of sensors -- much like its rivals the Garmin Forerunner 610 and Timex Ironman Global Trainer. You can buy the RCX5 now for $350 in a basic pack, which includes the watch plus the WearLink+ Hybrid, an amphibious chest-strapped heart rate monitor. Alternatively, you can pick up a pricier bundle containing an extra sensor of your choice. The Bike bundle ($390) includes Polar's CS W.I.N.D. speed sensor that installs on a fork and spoke. The Run bundle ($420) comes with a s3+ stride sensor that clips to your laces. Finally, the top-of-the-range Multi bundle ($480) replaces both those options with a G5 GPS sensor, which ought to work equally well for both both runners and cyclists thanks to our shiny friends out in orbit. Hit the PR after the break for further details or the extra coverage link for triathlete DC Rainmaker's seriously in-depth review.
Tanita's BC-1000 Body Composition Monitor wirelessly sends embarrassing weight details
Remember all those ANT+ wireless peripherals that were supposed to come flooding out after the introduction of Garmin's FR60 Fitness Watch? We suppose said flood has to start somewhere, and this is it. Tanita's BC-1000 Body Composition Monitor is hardly more than a sophisticated scale, designed to hold humans for just moments at a time while collecting measurements on muscle mass, overall physique, daily caloric intake, metabolic age, bone mass and visceral fat. From there, the unit can either send those details wireless to the aforesaid watch, or it can beam them to any PC with an appropriate dongle. The device is slated to ship this summer for $279.99 with a USB stick or $399.99 with an FR60 watch.
