The new Garmin Connect
Garmin has updated their free Garmin Connect website to appeal even more to fitness buffs, although they do say it is now compatible with Garmin Approach golf devices as well (and the new vivofit fitness tracker too).
The widget style dashboard is customizable and various navigation improvements have been made. The changes will be rolled out in stages in Q1 2014, and the Garmin Connect app will be updated as well.
A few snippets from the news release:
The updated fitness features include enhanced reports to track performance over time and free training plans that can be sent straight to compatible Garmin devices. With the all-new segments and leaderboards feature, users can run or ride against past efforts or against others to see how they stack up against the competition…
The new look and feel of Garmin Connect will make it even easier for users to upload their workouts, track their progress over time, and meet their fitness goals…
There is an updated reporting function to analyze progress such as total distance or average lap pace over time…
With the new Garmin Connect, the free fitness community becomes even more social, allowing users to connect with friends, pros and even foes for some friendly competition with the new segments and leaderboards feature. Users can search for segments created by other users, and virtual leaderboards allow users to rank themselves against other athletes who have completed that segment.
Regarding the golf functionality:
With this update, compatible Garmin golf devices will now be supported on Garmin Connect. Owners with Approach series golf devices will now be able to upload, analyze and share their scorecards, as well as other data like fairways hit, greens in regulation, shot distance and number of putts. Users can keep track of whom they’ve played against, and who won each round. Like with other fitness devices, it’s now easy for golfers to track their progress over time. Users can even analyze course data, and see hole-by-hole details to understand their own trends and tendencies to improve their game.
And the vivofit gets its share of the love too…
Owners of the new fitness band, vívofit, can track all of their fitness goals with the new Garmin Connect. On the daily summary page, they can see all of their progress in one spot: total steps, progress towards their daily goal, a breakdown of the time they spent active compared to time spent sedentary, and more. The new Garmin Connect will even help track users’ weight, calories and sleep, making it easier to find and keep healthy habits. Unique to vívofit and the new Garmin Connect is a global challenge based on steps per week, language and time zone that users can participate in. This creates friendly competition, and lets users see how they stack up against other vívofit users that are like them.
UPDATE: Here is a promo video…
http://youtu.be/T-eWSx0LrhI
About Rich Owings
The widget style dashboard is customizable and various navigation improvements have been made.