“Garmin’s GPSMAP 62 is a
great handheld GPS,” writes Sal Cangeloso of Geek.com in his very thorough review of “one of the most competitive packages out there.” Sal recently tested a loaner GPSMAP 62 and had great things to say about our newest outdoor handheld. For starters, he points out that the GPSMAP 62 series brings Garmin’s new software features and mapping options to the familiar form factor of the GPSMAP 60 series – “practically the standard by which all other handheld GPS devices are measured.”

Sal continues by detailing the specs and the various features of the three different models – the GPSMAP 62, the GPSMAP 62s and the GPSMAP 62st. (You can also see a comprehensive comparison by visiting the interactive minisite or looking at the three models at Garmin.com and using the compare feature.) “For this review,” Sal writes, “our loaner unit was the entry-level GPSMAP 62, a enthusiast device that’s great for hunters, mappers, geocachers, and hikers. It also has profiles for automotive and marine use, so it’s one GPS device
that can handle just about all your location-based activities.” He also talks about the interface, which is perfect for people who prefer using buttons to the touchscreen display of the Oregon series. “With some trial-and-error (and menu customizations) you’ll be able to do everything you want and probably some cool new stuff you didn’t even think about trying.”

Sal concludes by saying that the GPSMAP 62 series is “an easy pick if you want a great GPS device but you don’t feel like doing a ton of research. It’s still early on for the 62 series, especially if their lifecycle will be anything like that of the 60 series, but so far everything is looking good. I had a great experience with it and so far the general consensus in the online geo community seems to be really positive.”

After spending the week in Salt Lake City at the summer edition of Outdoor Retailer, my head is spinning for all the right reasons. In talking with dozens of journalists who cover topics ranging from running to paddleboarding, cycling to skiing, hiking to hunting, camping to kayaking, it’s clear that Garmin has products and mapping solutions for every outdoor activity with the versatility to seamlessly transition from one hobby to the next. 

When discussing outdoor recreation, I pointed to the various options available in GPS handhelds. Many people are huge fans of the intuitive touchscreen interface in our Oregon and Dakota families, while others prefer the easy-to-use buttons of the new GPSMAP 62 series (or the GPSMAP 78 series for those who need it to float). Hunters, hikers, kayakers and cachers alike all appreciated the preloaded topography in the GPSMAP 62st and Oregon 550t, and the Oregon 550t’s preloaded camera with automatic geotagging sparked ideas for many adventures. For hunters, our Astro dog-tracking system and new DC 40 collar helps them keep an eye on their dogs at all times – what they’re doing and where they’re going. All of these different customers can appreciate BirdsEye Satellite Imagery. Using this subscription service for high-resolution photo-based imagery, we were able to zoom in on the area around the convention center and even see individual parking spots, so it was easy to imagine the applications in the great outdoors.

As for fitness, the new Forerunner 110 continues to steal the show. With high-sensitivity GPS and a low-profile build (and a low price to match), the 110 is perfect for people wanting to know how far and how fast they’re going in real time. For those who want even more data at their fingertips, Forerunner 310XT remains a favorite. Waterproof and versatile, Forerunner 310XT features up to 20 hours of battery life, vibration alerts and the ability to track the distance and average speed of an open-water swim (thanks to a recent software update). And on the cycling side, Edge 500 is the sleek and affordable solution for tracking real-time speed, distance, elevation, heart rate and power (with ANT+ power meters).

In the end, all of these conversations made me very excited to get home, go for a run, head out for a ride and start planning a vacation to the mountains. But first I have to make it through a Friday…

Even though we’re sweating through the dog days of summer today, if you’re a hunter, you know the season is right around the corner (30 days by our count, but then, we get kind of giddy about these things).  As the days get shorter, savvy hunters start hitting the woods and fields for some pre-season scouting.  This year they’ve got a new weapon in their arsenal.

The Oregon 550t is Garmin’s top-of-the-line outdoor handheld, and it comes jam-packed with features.  Preloaded topo maps can give you the lay of the land, and loading eye-poppingly detailed BirdsEye Satellite Imagery can help hunters get a real-world perspective of their surroundings.

Even cooler is the onboard 3.2 megapixel waterproof digital camera that marks the precise location that each photo was taken.  So instead of having to manually label each waypoint to make sense of things, the picture you took does all the work for you.

Watch the video below to learn more about how the Oregon 550t can help you become more sucessful and enjoy your time outdoors this fall.

If you’re looking for a summer activity that blends exercise and exploration while emphasizing teamwork and technology, it’s hard to go wrong with geocaching. If you’re familiar with geocaching, you know that there are more than a million caches hidden around the world, and there’s no price to participate. Once you have a Garmin GPS handheld and have downloaded cache locations from My.Garmin.com, you’re ready for your high-tech treasure hunt. If you haven’t gone geocaching before, we’ve made it easy to get started at Garmin.com/geocaching.

On Saturday, July 3, geocachers from all around will gather in Carnation, Washington at Remlinger Farms for GeoWoodstock VIII. And Garmin will be there with some coveted coins. We made a big splash earlier this month when we announced the GPSMAP 62 series, perfect for geocaching, hiking and hunting. We followed up that big announcement with news of a limited-edition geocoin. To show our support of GeoWoodstock, we’re sending a coffer of coins with my good friend Orville, who will be handing them out at the Garmin booth while supplies last. The only catch? You need to tell Orville our secret catchphrase: “I’m going paperless with Garmin.” This doesn’t mean you’re filing your taxes online or eliminating bank statements from your life. It means that you’re ready to enjoy the ease and efficiency of paperless geocaching, where the hints, terrain, description, map and recent attempts are displayed on the screen of your Garmin handheld – all the while eliminating pages of printouts for each cache. So watch the video below, check out our next-generation Garmin handhelds and find Orville at the Garmin booth and tell him Jake sent you. But most important, tell him “I’m going paperless with Garmin.”

Whenever we talk about our Garmin tutorial videos, everyone here mentions that we’re lucky to have “cheap talent” … meaning me. Then they point out that even that description is a bit of an exaggeration. Both the “cheap” (it’s actually “free”) and the “talent” parts. Fortunately, I know how to surround myself with good people. From the writers (Peg and Carl know how to knock out some scripts) to the video team (Beau and Owen do amazing work while having far too much fun) to the folks using the products while I ramble on in the background. The vast majority of the time, these actors are none other than our Garmin colleagues from engineering, product support, industrial design, human resources, the warehouse or sales. Yet another huge benefit to vertical integration and all of us being housed under one roof. And more times than not, they’re good friends of mine, willing to spend early mornings, late nights and long weekends hiking, running or cycling on camera … all for some pizza, laughs and assurances that I owe them a favor.

But the real star of the show is always the product itself. From our first tutorial series with the revolutionary Forerunner 405 and then the feature-packed Edge 705 and simplified Forerunner 110, our lean team of fitness engineers never ceases to amaze me. And not to be outdone, the outdoor recreation group keeps topping themselves with products such as the Oregon and Dakota families that are tough as nails, yet easy to learn. So I was excited last week to head out into the woods with the video team and my buddy Josh, an aviation engineer,  to showcase our newest outdoor handheld, the GPSMAP 62st. Under thick tree cover and along dramatic hillsides, we filmed a handful of tutorials with topics ranging from a general overview to specific features such as paperless geocaching, wireless data transfer and the vast variety of mapping capabilities. We’ll be adding them to our online learning center, where you can find helpful videos for these devices and more, including aviation and marine products. And you can always follow us on Twitter and check out our GarminBlog YouTube channel to see our ads, unboxing videos and other behind-the-scenes fun featuring the best “cheap talent” that pizza can buy. 

WIRED magazine and Runner’s World agree. It’s easy to love the easy-to-use Forerunner 110. In their July issues, these media heavy-hitters each test and tout the 110 as a “simpler approach” to GPS in running. Calling it “a GPS watch that nails the basics,” Runner’s World discusses how intuitively the 110 “displays distance, time and pace, popping up with a mile split now and then.”

Rating it a 9 out of 10 – which translates to “Nearly flawless; buy it now” – WIRED’s tester piles on even more praise:

“The newest Forerunner is small enough to fit under the cuff of a dress shirt and yet it still talks to satellites. It’s also a great example of a company listening to its customers: Garmin users have been clamoring for a less expensive watch that records where they go and how fast they get there. The 110 does just that.” They go on to note that this “small, affordable, accurate” 110 also works with Garmin Connect, “where you can save and track all your workouts.” 

Garmin’s all-in-one Oregon 550t outdoor handheld is also featured in WIRED’s Summer Gear roundup for off-road trips because it “lets you take a geotagged photo that you can click on later to find your way back.” And joining in the product parade, Bicycling magazine showcases the new neutral Edge 500 in their Women’s Cycling roundup, saying “Members of the Garmin-Transitions team asked for a simple unit that was lightweight, small and easy to use, yet with a big display. Enter the Edge 500, which tracks speed, distance, time, GPS position, elevation, heart rate, cadence and calories burned, and plays nicely with ANT+ power meters.” You can learn more about these products through our video tutorials and interactive minisites for Forerunner 110 and Oregon 550t.