GPS Devices Life

Garmin Forerunner® 301 Handheld GPS Receiver Product 0100037500 Key FeaturesDesignationOutdoorForm FactorHandheldMap capabilit...

Garmin Forerunner® 101 Handheld GPS Receiver Product 010-00329-00 Key FeaturesDesignationOutdoorForm FactorHandheldReceiver Ty...

SIMPLY INCREDIBLE !!

I know, you’ve heard about all those things that make your life better, promising that overnight you’ll make more money, look 20 years younger and will become Time’s person of the year if you call an 800 number, etc. Well, this isn’t that sort of thing, but it truly is incredible!

What it can do is take a middle aged couch potato, inspire them to get outdoors and exercise, which can make them look better, fit into those clothes you thought you never would and it will vastly improve your outlook on life. Before you think I’ve been smoking something funny, let me explain.

Garmin, the makers of the world’s best GPS devices (according to an independent laboratory…otherwise known as my wife and children), have created a marvel that outshines all pedometers, and other devices associated with exercise. (Essentially, I’m trying to say, I may not necessarily be an expert, but I’m impressed, which is the reason I’m writing this.)

First, let me digress, I think some folks write reviews so they can pull their reviews up and say “look at what I did”, or perhaps they’ve got some other motivation going. With me, if I’m impressed with something, I want to tell others. I’ve read so many reviews on various sites that make me wonder “should I really get one of these things…I wish I knew more…” I figure if I write as if you were a member of my family or a close friend, you’d understand the perspective of a non-expert.

I’m a 48 year old university professor who teaches broadcast television. We moved here to South Florida a few months ago from North Carolina, and besides being totally lost, trying to get settled with a couple of hurricanes blowing through, etc. it’s been an adventure. I also work as the director of production technology, so I am familiar with a fairly wide range of equipment, and I guess if I’m impressed with something, it has to be more than your garden-variety device.

I purchased my first Garmin about 10 years ago. I carried it all over the world, primarily using it on television productions. It faithfully kept our production team on track, from the beauty of Central America, to the battlefields of France. Since that time, I’ve purchased two Etrex units (the standard unit and their top of the line Vista) as well as two of their 60C’s which we have in each car to help us figure out how to get around in the West Palm Beach area. I also have a Garmin IQ3600 which I carry as my Palm Pilot, and now I have the Forerunner.

The aspect of having one of these things intrigued me for a number of months. I’ve been on the South Beach Diet for a little over a year and lost over 30 lbs, but lately I’ve been slipping. I currently weigh 180 lbs, and I want to get down to 165. For some reason, however, I’ve been unsuccessful to get the rest of the weight down and I knew I needed to do something.

A friend in his mid-thirties developed heart trouble and this was a wake up call. I realized that I needed to get some exercise. My wife and I have been getting up early and walking around the block. The problem is I never seem to know how far we’ve walked, and have to rely upon time or an established route…which can be boring. After a while the whole thing gets to be too routine, and I wanted essentially more freedom during the walk.

Without getting into the dynamics of how the Forerunner does this, let me say that you can strap the device on your arm, press a couple of buttons and walk anywhere. When you look at the display, it will tell you how far you’ve walked, how fast you’re walking (essentially telling you your pace, be it 17 minutes per mile, or 15 minutes per mile, etc. which is constantly updated). You can quickly see how many calories you’ve burned, you can see on an electronic map the route you’ve taken (and how to get back) as well as have the whole thing logged automatically!

If you think the whole thing is a bit too complicated, with a lot of buttons, switches and stuff, it does have some of this, but I’d be willing to bet that if you can operate a coffeemaker, you’ll do just fine with the Forerunner. The folks at Garmin have taken a lot of the guesswork out of how to make the thing work. Most of what it does is automatic, and if you can spend five minutes with their Quick Start Guide, or the manual, you’ll be ready to start walking right away.

There is a learning curve with this device, but you take this in bite sized pieces. Garmin made the thing fairly intuitive, which means they’ve already second-guessed what you may be thinking with specific screens or information.

One of the things I hate with pedometers is that they’re designed to factor in your specific pace or how far your feet spread between steps. This has always been a pain, somewhat like trying to figure out how to set the clock on a VCR, or recording your favorite program and get something more than static… The Garmin doesn’t bother with this, it uses satellites to figure out how far and how fast you’re walking. If you slow down, take shorter steps, etc. the Forerunner is constantly taking this into consideration. All you have to do is walk.

You can also use the Forerunner for running, or bicycling, and probably a whole range of other things. You set this in a simple “profile” where you put in your weight, what you’re doing (in my case “speed walking”) and that’s about it. The Forerunner does the rest.

When you get back from the walk / run / ride, you press another couple of buttons and the whole experience is automatically logged into the Forerunner’s memory. You can then go back and see how far, how long, how fast, how many calories you burned, etc. on any specific day, over the course of the week, etc. etc. It stores this information for two years or longer. In my case, I would normally use this information to inspire me to do better, but by the time I figured out how far and how long I walked, etc. it took a stopwatch, an established track, a log book, etc. and by the time I did this for a while I got bored and quit. (I even had to carry something to remember how many times I’d walked around the block…) You don’t have to do any of this with the Forerunner.

Another thing going for the Forerunner is that it has a “Training Assistant”, which is like an imaginary training partner walking, or running, etc. next to you. The unit will essentially take a pace you specify and have the virtual partner start running, walking or bicycling with you. An alarm and display will let you know if you’re going too slow or too fast, etc. I’ve not really tried this as yet, but it looks fairly easy to work with. Right now my walking partners are our children.

A Few “Problems”

The Forerunner is not without its “problems”. First, the folks at Garmin should have someone write a companion manual the one that normally comes with it. They seem to have written the manual from the perspective of what each feature does, but not as a comprehensive approach. In other words, I wish someone would write the manual like this.

“Welcome to the wonderful world of the Garmin Forerunner! This device will open new vistas to you, enabling you do maximize your workouts, making you more effective and you’ll look back upon your progress with satisfaction!

First thing you need to do is remove the unit from the packaging, remove the plastic cover from the Forerunner’s display and install two AAA batteries. Next you’ll want to turn on the unit by pressing the power button, and you’ll immediately be greeted with a stopwatch screen with an inserted screen showing a graph for the GPS signal.

In order to start using the Forerunner, you need to press the mode button and get to the screen with the words “history, training assistant, etc.” and you’ll want to establish a profile. To do this go to the profile screen by pressing, etc. etc. “ (I think you get the idea.)

Garmin would have done much better by doing something like this instead of simply trying to explain what each feature does. The problem is you have to connect the dots and figure out how to make the whole thing work for your application. (If someone at Garmin is reading this, I’d be willing to write it…)

I still can’t figure out how a “lap” works with my walking, or how to work with the lap function. I read the material on it, but I still can’t figure out how to use the lap function, either manually or automatic, with my walking (or what I’ll now refer to as my “workouts”). The lap function is evidently a big deal as there is a button specifically for it (which is also the reset button), but I don’t know how to use it. I guess this is part of the learning curve. If the manual was written differently (not necessarily better), or I had more patience, I might be able to figure this out.

The other thing is that the unit is bulky. If I were to design it, I would have made the device so that it doesn’t run parallel with your arm but perpendicular to it. In other words, I’d keep the display size the same, but have the patch antenna to be positioned off to the side and design the entire unit in a curved configuration. I realize this would prevent readily-available AAA batteries from being used, but perhaps such a design could be incorporated in a rechargeable unit (which they have in the 201 version).

Another thing they could improve upon is a larger description of what the buttons are used for. The words “mode, reset, enter, lap and start / stop” are smaller than the 12 point type that I’m typing here in word. These words are hard to read without my glasses and I have to guess what they do, or walk with my glasses on. Also, if I’m walking / running at night (which I often do) I can’t read what these buttons at all.

Honestly, I think I would have configured the whole arrangement like a pager, with the ability to slip the unit out of a “holster” like the Motorola pagers can. The pager is held in a plastic holder which is attached to your pants, etc. and you can quickly remove the unit from the holster without wrestling with the belt clip (which can be difficult). To keep from dropping the unit, it could have a small cord attached to it, or even a retractor which is attached to the holster (somewhat like the swipe card we use on campus to gain access to our production studios). If it was like a pager, I would probably keep it on me all day long, and I could figure out how far I walk each day on campus, as well as my normal walking routine.

Another thing to consider is that you can go with a unit that is just a bit thinner in size (their model 201) which uses lithium-ion batteries. The jury is out on how long these batteries last, as some folks will say 3 years, while some engineers I know say that by the time you need to replace the batteries, the device will have exceeded their usefulness and you’ll have replaced it anyway. I don’t know about this, but my motivation for getting the unit with disposable batteries is that when I travel, I have to carry all sorts of chargers, cords and stuff. I normally carry television and production gear with me when I travel, and keeping up with another charger is a pain. I like the idea of just getting some AAA’s anywhere and I’m good to go.

The unit is reportedly “water resistant” (possibly not the exact term) but essentially they say it can be immersed in up to one meter in water for 30 minutes. But, you must dry the whole thing out, including the battery compartment, following the immersion. If I made the device, I would have designed it so that the whole thing could be submerged for at least 100 feet. Although I would never use if for diving, I have flashlights not designed for diving and they have been tested to 100 feet or more. Consider the matter that this device is designed for outdoor use (as a GPS doesn’t typically work indoors, unless you get the signal through windows, skylights, etc.) and as an outdoor device it could be used on boats, canoes, and possibly for swimming. I would think that if Garmin designed the unit to be pressure tested for the entire body, and just having the battery contacts being outside of the pressurized envelope, the unit could be submerged without any problems, especially if being used in and around water. The battery compartment could consist of a o-ring sealed screwed down access door, which would enable the battery compartment to be sealed from exterior moisture or immersion. (But, knowing Garmin, they’ve probably thought about this…I can’t say enough about how great this company is, which is the reason I’ve purchased six of their units over the years. Would I buy a GPS product from another company…No. I purchased others and sent them back. From my experience, Garmins work much better than the others.)

The Bottom Line

If you’re serious about living a longer, healthier life, losing weight and feeling better about yourself, get one of these things. I paid $85.00 for it, with free shipping, from Amazon, and it arrived in about 3 days. It’s worth every penny!

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