Sportablet running on an Android tablet
Sportablet is an Android app that allows you to connect many Garmin devices to Android tablets. Primarily intended for fitness buffs, it gives access to stats, allows you to post to Garmin Connect or Facebook and more. While it’s not designed for Garmin handhelds, it does appear to work with many of their more recent introductions. There is also a smartphone version – the Uploader for Garmin.
Data transfer is one-way for the time being, but it looks like sending to the Garmin is on the development roadmap for a few units. According to the developer, it’s a pretty tough row to hoe though, and the Edge series is the most likely to see it first. Too bad it’s so hard to do; I know lots of geocachers who would love to be able to grab a pocket query on the fly and transfer it to their handheld. And wouldn’t it be nice to be able to download a track from Garmin Connect at the trailhead for backcountry navigation?
The developer has told me he is always interested in supporting new devices, so if yours doesn’t work consider getting in touch, especially if you’re willing to beta test.
About Rich Owings
I was just thinking, “Wow, it would be great if it could…” and then read “I know lots of geocachers who would love to be able to grab a pocket query on the fly and transfer it to their handheld.” Ah, thinking on the same track here! 🙂
Great minds think alike! FWIW, here’s more of what the dev told me…
“I can read from many devices (and then upload to Garmin Connect etc) but can’t write to the Garmin yet. Unlike in windows, where Garmin does all the heavy lifting by providing drivers and the plugin, in Android I have to support all the low-level protocols myself, and it’s not like they are really well-known / documented. Until the app is rock-solid on the reading direction, I don’t really want to write to the devices. Some Garmin are relatively easy to handle though (mostly the Edge family) so they would be the first to be supported on that side.”