Today brought great news to hikers, campers, hunters, geocachers and anyone else who loves outdoor activities. Garmin Connect is proud to welcome the Garmin outdoor product line to the site. With today’s updates, Garmin Connect now supports uploads from Garmin outdoor devices, including Garmin mass storage devices such as zūmo and nüvi. This is exciting news, as it means we offer support for all of Garmin’s fitness and outdoor devices. Now more than ever, Garmin Connect is your easy to use, go-to site for all of your activity logging and training needs.

For those of you with a Garmin outdoor handheld device you can expect many new features, and improvements on your favorite features:

Easy uploads for new generation Garmin devices

Manual uploads for .gpx files

Activity log in table view

Activity log in the new Calendar view

Detailed analysis of activities

Relive activities in the improved Player

View activities on maps including our new embedded Google Earth view

Export to Google Earth

Share activities on Facebook and Twitter

Export activity files in .gpx and .tcx format to use on third-party applications

Explore other routes from Garmin customers – 15 million plus activities and counting

Over 38,000 new activities uploaded everyday

Send any track found at Garmin Connect in Explore to your Garmin Outdoor device for navigation

We are confident that Garmin outdoor customers will enjoy Garmin Connect, and that the site will continue to meet your fitness and adventure needs.

Piper Aircraft is now offering their customers more glass than ever before. The Piper Mirage and Matrix are the newest planes to be certified with the G1000. The Mirage and Matrix will come with the most advanced G1000 technologies that includes features like the GFC 700 autopilot, Synthetic Vision Technology (SVT), SafeTaxi for over 950 airports and FliteCharts, just to name a few. The two features we think pilots will appreciate the most are the GFC 700 and SVT because they bring an entirely new level of integration and situational awareness to the cockpit. Watch to learn more about the advantages of SVT.

‘Tis the season to give. And what’s the one thing everyone wants? If you guessed “time” then you’re on the same page as this blogger. We don’t have a GPS device that can turn back the clock, but we do have several that will help you save minutes by routing you around traffic. NPR recently reviewed a nüvi 1390T with lifetime free traffic and compared it to a smartphone navigation app. According to them, “Friday night
I was driving home from the airport. Before I even realized there was a
traffic jam ahead, Garmin adjusted the route and suggested I stay to
the left and take a different freeway. A minute later I saw that my
normal route was totally backed up. This was an impressive time saver,
and completely automatic. It excels compared to Google Nav…”

When you’re looking at our automotive product line, make sure you consider products with a “T” (that stands for traffic), such as the nüvi 1260T, 1350T or 1490T. Each of these nüvis come with free, lifetime traffic with no monthly fees or maintenance costs. Traffic coverage is available in most major cities and this coverage map will show you if your stomping grounds are covered.

What happens to the toys when the shopkeeper leaves for the day? Now we know. One of Garmin’s two new holiday commercials follows an outgoing Nutcracker set on going out. After a long day manning his post at the store, this lovable character with a huge head and even bigger personality uses his nüvi to navigate nightlife. But before this model of mobility could venture out into the world, he had to take shape in Santa’s workshop – which for a few weeks outsourced some work to Garmin headquarters. In addition to creating the look and feel of all of Garmin’s amazing GPS products, our design engineers were responsible for crafting the statues currently standing guard in Chicago at Garmin’s only retail outlet on Michigan Ave. The Nutcrackers at the Garmin Store represent our various product lines – fitness, marine, aviation, outdoors, mobile and automotive – and they serve as reminders that there’s a Garmin for everyone on your gift list. Our second holiday ad also displays the diversity in Garmin’s product line, tracking the adventures of a knight to remember, a multi-sport leprechaun, a camera-friendly Yeti, a swingin Scot and a squirrel. Enjoy, and be sure to stop back often for gift ideas and interviews with this colorful cast.