Garmin has a new watch/trainer/GPS device. The Garmin Forerunner 405 is the top of the line in the training GPS arena. It is a GPS watch and much more

Features

The Forerunner 405 monitors your time, distance, pace calories, and route continuously. Every workout is stored for analysis. The Garmin Training Center software will help analyze your workout. The watch is wireless and will download the data to your PC. It allows sharing wirelessly as well. It is available with or without a heart rate monitor. The serious trainer will demand the heart rate monitor feature. The signal strength is strong for any off road training. If you attach a foot pod or bike sensor it will track speed and distance cadence.

Garmin Watch Specs

• Weight 2.11 oz
• Battery rechargeable lithium-on
• Battery Life 2 weeks in power save and 8 hours in training

Maps

• Basemap No
• Waypoints 100

Other Features of Garmin Forerunner Watch

• Heart rate monitor: yes (some versions)
• Bike speed/cadence sensor: yes (optional)
• Foot pod: yes (optional)
• Automatic sync (automatically transfers data to your computer): yes
• Garmin Connect™ compatible: yes
• Garmin Training Center® software compatible: yes
• Virtual Partner® (train against a digital person): yes
• Courses (compete against previous workouts): yes
• Auto Pause® (pauses and resumes timer based on speed): yes
• Auto Lap® (automatically starts a new lap): yes
• Auto Scroll (cycles through data pages during workout): yes
• Multi-sport (changes sport mode with a press of a button): no
• Advanced workouts (create custom, goal-oriented workouts): yes
• Simple workouts (input time, distance and calorie goals): yes
• Pace alert (triggers alarm if you vary from preset pace): yes (for advanced workouts only)
• Time/distance alert (triggers alarm when you reach goal): yes (for advanced workouts only)
• Interval training (set up exercise and rest intervals): yes
• Customizable screen(s): yes
• Barometric altimeter: no
• Unit-to-unit transfer (shares data wirelessly with similar units): yes
• Sport watch: yes

Screenshot of the Garmin Training Center Software

GPS ,Global Positioning System, is a navigation system that utilizes 24 orbiting satellites to fix your position on earth. It is accurate to within in 50 feet for the customer units. GPS units vary in size and can be large commercial, auto , or handheld.
They are very lightweight and meant to be carried easily. The screens are smaller and come in color or monochrome.They resemble a walkie talkie in size and structure. The battery life can vary between 15 to 35 hours. Most are loaded with North American maps. The real power is in the loaded maps. Handheld GPS units rely on waypoints for navigation. A waypoint is just a map marker. The loaded maps can be very detailed.

Some points to consider before you purchase a handheld GPS unit

1. Make sure it has at least a 12 channel parallel receiver system
2. Check the comfort in size and weight for your practical use
3. Maximum waypoint inputs preferably over 500
4. At least 20 route memory capacity
5. Waterproof is worth the extra charge
6. Screen size and mapping features

When looking to buy a handheld GPS unit, do you know where to begin? Since they can be somewhat pricey for a device most persons don't use every day, you want to choose wisely. GPS units are communicating with several satellites which are orbiting the earth, and you want this transmission to be fast and accurate.

Secondly, you are probably going to be using your handheld GPS unit outdoors, so you will want it to be water resistant. And the third item to consider, since the information is displayed on a screen, would be that you want the screen to have an efficient visibility for viewing in the glaring sunlight, as well as viewing at night, even with night time's obvious lack of lighting.

When looking at GPS handheld units to determine the quality and speed potential of the connection to satellites, look to see how long it takes for the maps to display. You can also research reviews. The personal experience of users will tip you off, or tell if the description on the box matches reality. Make sure you check the package information or in the booklet that comes with the unit for waterproof or water resistant features. Most of the units on the market are waterproof.

Questions To Consider

How large of a screen does the unit have? You need to be happy with the size of the screen for your unit. You may be fascinated with the tiny screen and how all those pixels can be so accurate in such a small place, or maybe a smaller unit works as well for a smaller price.

What if the unit you are looking at has a prestigious brand name label, yet a small screen display? Even though these can only vary so much in the size of the screen (none will be huge), even a quarter of an inch might make a difference in your comfort.

The next factor about the screen of a GPS unit, are that the screen lights up, which means the night viewing should be easy enough, but for the daylight hours you probably want to be certain the GPS boast of high color, this will help ascertain you great visibility. Checking the screen view, the waterproofness and the speed of receiving or displaying the satellite signals, will guide you into determining a good and sensible purchase.

One way to use a handheld GPS device is the way that I use one. I am a FedEx driver and use one to help locate addresses. It is especially useful when I am learning a new route, it keeps me from constantly reading directions or looking at my outdated atlas and maps. When using one on a new route it saves me a minimum of an hour a day. Even on routes I know well, it easily saves me half that for those streets I don’t know well.

The beauty of using a handheld GPS unit for this is that when I get home I can take it out of the van and use it for other things if needed. Of course it would be good for anyone who needs to find lots of addresses. Pizza guy, Car Repo guy, newspaper guy all can use a good handheld GPS.

Another thing they are good for, is research into historical stuff. I know some historians use one to try to find the exact location of things. Plus they use them to mark locations of archeological finds. A handheld GPS device is very important when you are carrying lots of heavy gear in the woods. Being small and portable it does not take up much space or add a great deal of weight to your load.

Another great use for a handheld GPS is for people who use metal detectors, whether hunting for gold or lost coins or whatever. Say you find an old home site and get a coin or two. Mark that location down in the GPS, and wait until the next big rainstorm. Go back to that place and run you metal detector again. Possible the rain has disturbed the ground and brought more treasure to within range of your metal detector. The same would apply to where you may have found some specs of gold if you are a miner. Having several GPS saved locations in the same general area can allow you to revisit places where you already had some success. This saves you that very precious commodity, TIME