Items tagged with garmin
If Garmin did not already have a giant target on its back, it sure does now, if a report that it paid a multi-million dollar ransom to hackers is true. Speaking on the condition of anonymity, sources cited as being familiar with the matter told Sky News that Garmin hired a company that specializes in ransomware negotiations to resolve a recent cyber intrusion. While nothing has been official confirmed, it was reported last week that a major outage affecting nearly every facet of Garmin's operations was the result of a ransomware strain called WastedLocker. "We are currently experiencing an outage that affects Garmin.com and Garmin Connect. This outage also affects our call centers, and we are...
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Garmin is having itself a no good, terrible day. and it could extend throughout the weekend. The cause of Garmin's woes is a ransomware attack, according to employees who have posted about the matter on social media, and it is affecting several of the company's services for its line of wearable products and aviation dealings. If you head over to Garmin's website, you will see a message at the top that alludes to the ransomware attack, though the company has not outright confirmed it as such. "We are currently experiencing an outage that affects Garmin.com and Garmin Connect. This outage also affects our call centers, and we are currently unable to receive any calls, emails, or online chats. We...
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Garmin is one of the companies that has its fingers in lots of pies from the consumer electronics market to general aviation. Gamin International has announced what it calls a "revolution in aviation" with the unveiling of the first Garmin Autoland system. In the event of an emergency, the Autoland system can control and land an aircraft without direct human intervention. Garmin Autoland can determine the most optimal airport and runway by taking into account factors like fuel, weather, terrain, obstacles, and aircraft performance statistics. Garmin notes that Autoland brings peace of mind to air travel and will soon be available on select general aviation aircraft with the Garmin G3000 integrated...
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Garmin has announced a revamp of its Forerunner lineup that brings multiple new devices to the mix that feature integrated music capability, full-color mapping, advanced training, and tracking features. The Forerunner family is designed with runners in mind; the new line includes the Forerunner 45, Forerunner 45S, Forerunner 245, Forerunner 245 Music, and Forerunner 945. The Forerunner 45 and 45S watches are for those who are training for their first race or starting a new exercise plan and aim for ease of use. They can monitor heart rate at the wrist and have integrated GPS to track pace, distance intervals, and more. The 45S has a 39mm case with the 45 offering a 42mm case. Battery life promises...
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Garmin on Monday announced the Vivoactive 3 Music with Verizon, its first smartwatch with both GPS and 4G LTE connectivity baked into it. As with other smartwatches with 4G LTE connectivity, users can leave their smartphones behind when going on a walk or jog, and still receive text messages on their wrist. The same goes for streaming music. "The Vívoactive 3 Music with 4G LTE connectivity gives you everything you need from your phone—safety features, text messaging, and the ability to download and listen to music—now on your watch, so customers can leave their phones behind with confidence," said Dan Bartel, Garmin vice president of global consumer sales. "Designed for customers...
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The wearables market is booming right now thanks to smartwatches like the Apple Watch Series 4 that debuted in September, and other wearables like the Fitbit Versa and Samsung Galaxy Watch. When the wearables segment was young, devices were aimed mostly at technology loving people and were seen almost exclusively as a gadget for tech fans. Wearables are now making their way into other markets as a tool for fitness and to help people monitor severe health conditions like heart arrhythmias. Apple has focused its Apple Watch Series 4 wearable not only at tech and gadget fans but also directly at people with health problems and the elderly who are at risk of falls; the fall detection feature was...
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Fitness wearables are normally smaller devices that have features for monitoring things like steps, heart rate, and other data. The problem for people who like to be active in harsh conditions is that most of those wearables aren’t meant to survive bumps and obstacles encountered when skiing, hiking or backpacking. Those activities expose wearables to lots of rain, snow, sleet, cold, sharp rocks, harsh blows, and foliage among other hazards. Garmin knows that normal wearables, like its recently announced Vivosmart 4, aren’t appropriate for many rugged activities and for this more rugged and demanding crowd it has announced the Instinct. Instinct is a strong and very durable GPS smartwatch...
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Garmin has announced a new wearable that has some very cool tracking capabilities called the vivosmart 4. The device is very slim, and the coolest feature of the wearable is that it has a wrist-based pulse oximeter. A pulse oximeter is a medical device that can track oxygen saturation or the amount of oxygen that is in your blood. Oxygen saturation is a key indicator of many health-related issues, especially at night. Low levels of blood oxygen during sleep is a key indicator of potentially serious sleep problems like sleep apnea. The vivosmart 4 can monitor oxygen levels at night allowing users to monitor health conditions and energy levels. Along with the pulse ox integrated into the wearable,...
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Sometimes it seems like Amazon is trying to take over the world, and a big part of that plan involves Alexa, the company's digital assistant found in its Echo smart speaker products. Alexa is also found in some third-party gear, the newest of which is a hands-free, turn-by-turn navigation product from Garmin called "Garmin Speak with Amazon Alexa" (just Garmin Speak from here on out). "Our vision is that the Alexa service will be everywhere our customers want it, including inside the car," said Ned Curic, vice president of automotive at Amazon Alexa. "Alexa on the Garmin Speak can help customers with many things, like controlling their smart home from the road, getting news or traffic, listening...
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We can't deny that the wearable fitness tracker market is already congested. It probably jumped the shark after Razer -- a company known primarily for PC gaming accessories and bleeding edge notebooks -- joined the likes of Garmin, Apple, and Fitbit with the Razer Nabu Smartband. But after checking out the feature set and radically different design of the just-announced Moov Now, we think you'll agree there's room for one more. Especially at the absurdly affordable price of $59.99 if you pre-order it before it launches this fall. At its core, Moov Now is an activity tracker for athletes or those of us wanting to get in shape and shed a few pounds. It counts reps for you. It has a 9-axis...
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Garmin isn't ready to concede the action camera market to GoPro, hence the announcement of two new next generation models, the VIRB X and VIRB XE. Both of Garmin's new HD cameras are compact and capable of shooting wide-angle footage, and both bring an an all-new form factor with additional mounting options to the table. Like GoPro's Hero line, the VIRB X and VIRB XE are designed for action shots, whether it's taking tight corners on a motorcycle or snowboarding down a challenging mountain at breakneck speeds. Regardless of the activity, the cameras will capture your footage in a range of harsh environments -- both are waterproof to 50 meters without needing an external case. "With the updated...
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Speaking of smartwatches, there are already plenty of them out there (albeit not necessarily Android-based devices that answer your phone calls), and Garmin has a couple of new ones for athletes. The Forerunner 620 offers a host of features, including those that offer granular data about your runs, pace, heart rate, estimated volume of oxygen you’re using per minute, and more. The 620 connects to your smartphone via Bluetooth, and using the Garmin Connect Mobile app, it will track where you are on your run and let those in your community know where you are. (Note: Privacy mavens may shudder at such a feature, but it’s a safety measure; if something were to happen to you on a long...
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Adventurers, take note: There’s another option for a mounted or handheld HD video camera, and this one’s from Garmin. The company announced the Garmin VIRB and VIRB Elite, a pair of cameras that are waterproof, rugged, and can shoot in 1080p HD. The cameras boast a 16MP CMOS image processor, 1.4-inch Chroma color display, a 3-hour 2000mAh rechargeable lithium-ion battery, and the ability to capture photo bursts and time lapse shots in addition to video. You can control them with another Garmin device thanks to ANT+ wireless connectivity, and both cameras come with free VIRB Edit desktop software. The VIRB Elite adds a GPS accelerometer and altimeter as well as WiFi connectivity for...
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We're still at least a few years away from flying cars and teleportation devices becoming commonplace, but in the meantime, Garmin's ensuring the future is always within arm's reach by announcing HUD, the company's first portable head-up display for smartphone navigation apps. With HUD, a device about the size of a typical GPS unit sits on your dashboard and projects navigation information onto a transparent film that you apply to your windshield. HUD is able to provide comprehensive road guidance at a glance and right within the driver's line of sight, which in theory should make for safer drivers compared to looking over to the side at a traditional GPS or down at a smartphone. Speaking of...
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Garmin may not be the be-all, end-all leader in the consumer PND market any longer -- particularly now that most smartphones are more than capable of navigating motorists -- but it's still cranking out some clever gear. The company has just introduced an updated Astro GPS Dog Collar, the DC 50. Just so we're clear: yes, this is a high-tech dog collar, and yes, it really exists. The DC 50's main housing sits below the dog's neck while a low-profile, high-sensitivity GPS antenna is now positioned atop the dog's neck, providing a clearer view of satellites. In addition to tracking GPS satellites, the DC 50 can also utilize the GLONASS system. When using GLONASS satellites, acquisition time is (on...
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Who says GPS units need to stay married to the road? With Nokia Drive and Google Maps Navigation, it's clear that guidance is shifting into offline and mass transit, even on mobile, and Garmin thinks it can go even more places. The new Garmin Swim is a simply titled GPS watch, which is described as the company's "first training watch designed specifically for swimmers that lets users track stroke type, stroke count, distance, pace, lengths and more." Unlike some of the prior GPS watches, this one actually looks fairly unobtrusive and sleek, despite being waterproof. It's built to be used right out of the box -- great for user experience -- and it's designed to have minimal impact on speed and...
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We hate to admit it, but we're having a hard time remembering the last time Garmin spat out a new range of navigators, but it's not surprising. While these things were once hot commodities in the consumer realm, many drivers have reverted to using in-dash GPS systems or their smartphone to get from Point A to Point B. Nevertheless, there's still lingering demand from folks who'd like to upgrade their standard, standalone GPS unit, and that's what the 2012 line of nüvis are about. This new range contains advanced Guidance 2.0 and 3.0 navigation engines for a faster, more intuitive user interface and enhanced features that result in Garmin’s most capable navigators yet. The nüvi...
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The mapping/navigation situation on iOS isn't exactly in the best of shape. The Maps app on iPhone doesn't provide turn by turn navigation, so users have to turn to a third-party service to do so, whic is hardly elegant. Now, Garmin -- one of the first companies to announce turn by turn supoprt on iOS -- has just announced the StreetPilot onboard navigation app for iPhone, which provides onboard mapping and routing. That means a hefty download, but the maps are local, so users can navigate without having to constantly ping a 3G tower. Garmin StreetPilot Onboard puts the vast preloaded database and intuitive interface of a Garmin nüvi into the iPhones consumers use everyday – without...
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Is the GPS world big enough for both Garmin and Navigon? Apparently not. It's official: Garmin has just completed their historical acquisition of Navigon, bringing together two of the biggest names in satnav history. Cliff Pemble, chairman and COO of Garmin, had this to say: "We are pleased to have the Navigon team join the Garmin family. We are looking forward to expanding our ability to serve our collective customers going forward." The other half, Egon Minar, Navigon’s board member, had this to say: "We are excited to be a part of Garmin and we look forward to turning our efforts toward integration and the opportunities ahead. Navigon has an innovative new product lineup that we’re...
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This world just isn't big enough for the both of 'em. At least that's the impression we get, as Garmin has just announced the signing of a deal that will have them acquiring yet another navigation mainstay, Navigon. Actually, it's a subsidiary of Garmin that will do the acquiring, but it's still major news in the soft navigation market. Cliff Pemble, Garmin’s president and COO, obviously only had positive things to say about this whole ordeal: "This acquisition is a great complement to Garmin’s existing automotive and mobile business. Navigon has invested significantly in the European automotive OEM business, and we feel that we can rapidly expand our automotive OEM footprint...
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GPS systems aren't nearly as popular as they once were, and we've got GPS-enabled smartphones to thank for that. But for the folks who venture into the great outdoors, there's still a very real need for dedicated outdoor navigation systems where cellphone signals simply don't exist. Garmin's a big player in both markets, and this week they're introducing a redesigned and upgraded eTrex handheld GPS. This entry level option has been given enhanced ergonomics, an improved interface, paperless geocaching and in certain models, a 65k color screen with expanded mapping capabilities. The new eTrex series supports geocaching GPX files for downloading geocache locations and details straight to the unit...
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Going somewhere? Going somewhere where you'll need a rugged navigation system to get you there? Garmin's new Montana handheld offers just that, and the company's calling it the most advanced of its kind. It offers a rugged exterior, with multiple mounting and battery options, dual-orientation and screen layout options and support for a wide range of Garmin cartography. It has a barometric altimeter for elevation profiling and ability to profile the route ahead using included worldwide elevation model, and the included 3-axis compass gives it a heading while standing still or not held level. There's a 4" touch panel, a 5MP camera, sunlight-readable display, and tons of extra features that are...
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