Fitness trackers?

[ghuns]

My kid works for Garmin, so I'm rockin a hand-me-down Tactix 7.

It's honestly stupid how much shit this thing can do. It has a ballistics calculator that will sync with a portable weather station, just in case you need to make a 1000yard shot in high wind with your .300WinMag. A HAHO/HALO parachuting app, I mean, who doesn't need that? Maps of nearly every ski slope and golf course in North America, trail maps for hiking trails from national parks all the way down local county parks. Almost forgot the best part, a bad ass little flashlight.

The biggest thing for me was getting rid of most of that shit and setting up what Garmin calls 'glances' for the shit I want to see. Weather, steps, heart rate, sleep, calendar, notifications, oh, and the dog tracker. My dog has a Garmin collar that of course has GPS as well as the ability to shock his dumb ass when required, up to like a half mile away.

The activity tracking apps are pretty much limitless. Running, walking, biking, skiing, strength training, etc. We were recently on vacation in Florida with the kid and his GF. The kid fished off the beach most of the time, the wife likes to sit on the beach and read. Me and the kid's GF rented paddle boards one day and kayaks the next. And wouldn't ya know it, our watches had apps for that. Tracked our speed, distance, calories burned, etc.

The most impressive thing I've seen a Garmin watch do was when the kid's GF was gonna run her first half marathon. The night before I asked her what her goal time was. She said under 2 hours, but she had a more specific time in mind she didn't want to say out loud and jinx herself. She ran it in 1:49 and change. I asked her what the time was she'd not wanted to say out loud. She said 1:51. I asked how she came up with that oddly specific number. She said, it's what my watch said I'd run it in. Kinda freaky really that it could predict her time within less than two minutes. Especially considering her longest training run leading up to the half marathon was only 8 miles.
 
Like everything else, YouTube is a great place to look for more info on how to make your watch do what you want. They really are very customizable.

[neurosis]

Like everything else, YouTube is a great place to look for more info on how to make your watch do what you want. They really are very customizable.

I spent some time on youtube before getting my current watch. I'm not sure that I'm happy with it and may return it. I like the looks of the thing. Most fitness trackers look too feminine. Garmin has some watches that look and feel a little more rugged. 

I want something that is geared more towards health tracking without costing $1500. Some of the things they left out on the youtube videos were that there are only a few models that have advanced sleep tracking. With most, you have to set a sleep window and anything out side of that window doesn't show up in the sleep tracking. I also notice that it's (the Instinct Crossover) not very accurate at detecting night time wakeups.   

The Venue 3 does everything I want, but looks like it may not be made to hold up to abuse.

That thing you have is something like $1600 new. That sounds like a nice piece of equipment if you use all those features. 

[ghuns]

...That thing you have is something like $1600 new. That sounds like a nice piece of equipment if you use all those features. 

I know. It's ridiculous what these things cost.

The one I have is a pre-production model that was passed around at Garmin HQ for testing. It was 'technically' supposed to be destroyed when production began. The only bad thing about it is the software can't be updated. It's on version 6.05. Current rev is 13.22.

[mowens]

I've had a Galaxy watch for quite a while. My wife got it for me. It sat in a drawer for about a year, but now I wear it all the time. I have a line for it so I don't always have to have my phone, though it's kind of a pain to take phone calls with it. I know I don't use all the features on it but I like it because I can keep my phone on silent and still know when I get a phone call. And, I can reject all of those "scam likely" calls without having to dig my phone out.

[mkd]

Garmin's satellite phone capabilities are getting challenged with the advent of iPhone 14 an later. They can now make EMS calls via satellite. No word on when Musk's sat's will get in on the game.