More MTB-relevant news from this year’s Consumer Electronics Show 2015 in Las Vegas – Garmin have unveiled a sport-orientated smartwatch, the Vivoactive.
The Vivoactive has built-in sports and activity apps, has a built-in GPS and accelerometer, and it’ll link up to a heart rate monitor or cadence sensor and Garmin’s own Virb video camera. The apps include ones for such activities as cycling, running, swimming and walking, and one for the (rather more sedate) golf.
Prices start at £199 or £239 for one with a heart-rate monitor attached.
Here’s the full release (and, like the Sony camera one, it’s rather substantial…):
Schaffhausen./January 5, 2015/Business Wire — Garmin International Inc., a unit of Garmin Ltd. (NASDAQ: GRMN), today announced vívoactive – a lightweight and ultra-thin GPS smartwatch with built-in sports and activity tracking apps. Helping users develop and maintain a healthy lifestyle, vívoactive captures more of their activities with GPS-enabled running, cycling, golfing, swimming and activity tracking apps. vívoactive is comfortable for all day wear and smart notifications keep users connected with pressing work matters, family and friends. With the new Connect IQ store, users can easily customise vívoactive with free watch face designs, widgets and additional apps. Vívoactive features a sunlight-readable, high-resolution colour touchscreen and can be accessorized with interchangeable bands to complement any outfit or occasion.
vívoactive is being showcased with the wide-ranging line of purpose-built Garmin wearables in the Garmin booth (South Hall 4 #35811) at this year’s CES.
“vívoactive combines signature Garmin fitness technology, such as built-in GPS, long battery life and a sunlight-readable display, in an ultra-thin smartwatch that lets users stay connected and achieve more,” said Dan Bartel, Garmin vice president of worldwide sales. “Designed to be worn all day, vívoactive can be personalized in many ways – from interchangeable bands to watch faces, apps and widgets – making it versatile, stylish and functional for your life. ”
Play Harder
Whether hitting the pavement or the links, users can track stats even when out of range from a smartphone with vívoactive’s built-in GPS-enabled sports apps. Vívoactive also connects to a whole range of sensors and devices. Capture even more data by pairing vívoactive with a heart rate monitor1 or bike speed sensor, or use it as a remote for a Garmin VIRB® Elite action camera2.
The running app displays pace, time and distance using GPS and vívoactive’s built-in accelerometer tracks speed and distance when GPS is unavailable, such as when running indoors. Additional app features include Auto Lap®, Auto Pause®, and vibration alerts for heart rate, pace and run/walk intervals. The cycling app measures time, distance, speed and calories for training rides or a daily commute.
Golfers can download course maps from more than 38,000 courses worldwide, which stay up-to-date automatically, to vívoactive’s golf app. Using GPS vívoactive can measure layup and dogleg distances, as well as distances to the front, middle and back of the green, to improve usability over the entire hole. During a round, golfers can also keep individual stroke play scorecards and measure shot distance on favourite and new courses.
Water-resistant to 50 meters3, vívoactive uses sensor-based technology for its swimming app to compute the number of lengths, total and interval distances, paces by length, by interval, and for the full session, as well as calories burned. The app also counts the number of strokes and uses this to determine the SWOLF score, a measure of swimming efficiency.
Between workouts the activity tracking app monitors progress by tracking steps, calories and distance, setting a personalized daily step goal and sending a gentle reminder when users have been inactive too long by displaying a red move bar. Research shows prolonged periods of inactivity, such as sitting at a desk, decreases the body’s production of fat-burning enzymes. Walking for a few minutes will reset the move bar and can help reduce health risks associated with a sedentary lifestyle.
Work Smarter
Ultra-thin and lightweight, vívoactive is comfortable for all day wear and features up to three weeks battery life in watch/activity tracking mode or up to 10 hours using GPS4. With a gentle vibration it alerts users of incoming smart notifications from a compatible Bluetooth®-enabled device4, keeping them connected with pressing work matters, family and friends. Its sunlight-readable, high-resolution colour touchscreen displays all the same notifications as a smartphone including caller ID and missed call information for incoming calls, sender information and message for text messages, email messages with sender and subject, calendar reminders, and notifications from social media and other mobile apps. Vívoactive also lets users play, pause or skip a song on their smartphone’s music player, and can send an audible alert to help users locate their smartphone.
Live Better
Throughout the day vívoactive automatically syncs with paired mobile devices5 through the Garmin Connect™ Mobile app, so users can see a complete picture of their daily activities. In Garmin Connect, a free online fitness/golf community, users can track workouts, sleep patterns and trends, join online challenges and earn virtual badges for extra motivation. For detailed calorie tracking, users can link their Garmin Connect account with MyFitnessPal® to compare calories burned to consumed and see their net count for the remainder of the day based on goals set in MyFitnessPal.
Users can personalise vívoactive to represent their interests and style with colourful interchangeable watchbands6 and free downloads from the Connect IQ store. Coordinate with casual or active wear by swapping vívoactive’s bands with colourful accessory bands, or dress it up with leather bands. Available in slate, red, blue, berry, purple, and black or white leather, vívoactive can be styled to complement any outfit and occasion.
With Connect IQ, the first-ever open platform for third-party developers to create apps for Garmin products7, users can customize vívoactive’s watch face, add data fields and get additional apps and widgets that provide information at a glance. Garmin is working with several app developers to bring a range of vívoactive apps to the Connect IQ store. Tempo, for example, is creating a smart calendar app that will let users see their upcoming events, and send an email from their watch if they are running late. LifeLine Response is creating an app that allows users to alert LifeLine to send their exact GPS location to the nearest first responders in the case of an emergency. Accuweather is building an app to give users allergy information at a glance. iSKI is creating an app to provide critical snow information at a glance. Octane is building a Connect IQ app to bridge the gap between outdoor and indoor workouts on the Octane ZeroRunner, so users don’t lose valuable data and can easily transition their training regimen. Moxy, an external muscle oxygen sensor, is creating an app that monitors the oxygenation of critical muscles during a workout, so users can have more insight on what is happening within their muscles.
vívoactive will be available in black or white. It will begin shipping in Q2 and will have a suggested retail price of £199.99 and £229.99 (heart rate monitor bundle).
vívoactive is the latest from Garmin’s expanding fitness segment, which focuses on developing technologies and innovations to enhance users’ lives and promotes healthy and active lifestyles. Whether it’s running, cycling, or other athletic pursuits, Garmin fitness devices are essential tools for athletes both amateur and elite. For more information visit Garmin’s website at www.garmin.com, our virtual pressroom at http://garmin.blogs.com/ukpr/ or our blog site http://garmin.blogs.com/uk/ You can also follow us at facebook.com/garminuk and twitter.com/garminuk
1 Included with some models, sold separately on others.
2 Speed sensor and VIRB sold separately.
3 For more information, see Garmin.com/waterrating.
4 Battery life varies based on usage and smartphone model.
5 See www.garmin.com/ble for a list of compatible phones.
6 Accessory bands sold separately.
7 Products currently compatible with the Connect IQ platform include vívoactive, fēnix® 3, Epix, Forerunner 920XT
