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Tag: Garmin

  • Smartwatches Can Serve As Early Coronavirus Detection

    Smartwatches Can Serve As Early Coronavirus Detection

    Smartwatches can do much more than count steps, with research showing they can detect coronavirus infections days before diagnosis.

    One of the keys to combatting coronavirus is early detection and diagnosis. The faster someone is diagnosed, the faster they can be quarantined and the less likely they are to spread the virus to others. Adequate testing has long been a major problem, making it difficult to get the pandemic under control. Adding to the challenge is COVID-19’s long incubation period, as well as the fact that patients can transmit the disease before they are visibly symptomatic.

    According to CBS News, researchers at Mount Sinai Health System in New York and Stanford University in California have shown that wearable devices — such as the Apple Watch, Fitbit and Garmin — can detect coronavirus before symptoms appear and even before tests can detect it.

    The key is in detecting minute changes in a wearer’s heart rate, skin temperature and other physiological markers. In particular, heart rate variability is a key factor. Heart rate variability measures the time between heartbeats, and is impacted by the state of a person’s immune system.

    “We already knew that heart rate variability markers change as inflammation develops in the body, and Covid is an incredibly inflammatory event,” Rob Hirten, assistant professor of medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai told CBS MoneyWatch. “It allows us to predict that people are infected before they know it.”

    The findings could be another important step in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, and will likely lead to a jump in wearables demand.

  • Garmin the Latest Victim of Ransomware

    Garmin the Latest Victim of Ransomware

    GPS company Garmin is the latest high-profile organization to be the victim of a major ransomware attack.

    Garmin’s customers experienced widespread outages, with some having far-reaching consequences. For example, pilots that rely on flyGarmin lost the ability to download up-to-date aviation information, effectively grounding them unless they could use an alternative option.

    The company has said “it was the victim of a cyber attack that encrypted some of our systems on July 23, 2020. As a result, many of our online services were interrupted including website functions, customer support, customer facing applications, and company communications. We immediately began to assess the nature of the attack and started remediation. We have no indication that any customer data, including payment information from Garmin Pay™, was accessed, lost or stolen. Additionally, the functionality of Garmin products was not affected, other than the ability to access online services.”

    Beyond that, Garmin is not disclosing many additional details, including whether they paid the ransom or were able to begin decrypting their systems through other means. In fact, Garmin is only describing the incident as a “cyber attack” although, as the BBC points out, multiple outlets have confirmed it was indeed a ransomware attack.

    Garmin says its services should be up and running within a few days, although there may be some delays as the company catches up on the information backlog.

  • Garmin Targets The Wearables Market With Vivofit

    Garmin Targets The Wearables Market With Vivofit

    One of the big themes of this year’s CES is going to be the true emergence of wearable computing. Sure, we saw a few smart watches and fitness trackers last year, but it’s expected to explode this year. The first one out of the gate this year is Garmin with a new fitness tracker.

    Garmin, a company that’s usually associated with satellite navigation tech, announced that it will be showing its new fitness tracker – vivofit – at CES this year. The small band performs all the functions that you would normally associate with fitness trackers, but it does one have unique trait going for it – custom daily goals. In other words, the vivofit will give you a custom goal every morning and then alert you throughout the day on your progress towards completing said goal.

    “Garmin has been providing fitness monitoring devices for over a decade, and with vívofit we say hello to the fitness band that knows your potential,” said Dan Bartel, Garmin vice president of worldwide sales. “Being able to monitor the quality of rest after retiring for the night, being challenged by personalized daily goals and doing so without having to charge it every few days, makes vívofit a fitness band that should be on everyone’s wrist.”

    So, how will vivofit make you get up and move? Garmin says that the band knows when you’re sitting and will build up a small red bar on the device’s display after one hour of sitting. In theory, this will remind you to get up, stretch those legs and take a short walk every hour. If you don’t, the red bar will continue to grow longer until you get up and move to reset it.

    When you’re done with the day, you can even connect the vivofit to Garmin’s online fitness community called Garmin Connect. This will help you see a larger snapshot of your progress and see how you compare to other users on the site. It can even track your sleep patterns and let you know if you have periods of tumultuous sleep.

    The vivofit will be available in Q1 2014 in two varieties – the regular band and one that comes equipped with a heart rate monitor. The regular vivofit will retail for $129 while the heart rate monitor vivofit will retail for $169.

    Image via Garmin/Business Wire

  • Google Maps Street View Comes To iOS 6 (Thanks To Garmin)

    As you may know, Apple’s iOS has dropped Google Maps, and users who have upgraded to iOS 6 have no Google Maps access from Apple or Google right now. A Google Maps app directly from Google is expected, but for the time being, users are going to either have to get used to Apple Maps (which have been the subject of a great deal of complaints) or find an alternative.

    MapQuest announced a new iOS offering today, but Garmin has made some updates that users may find attractive. Among the new features is none other than Google Street View.

    You can check out the app in iTunes, where it runs down the new features as follows (via 9to5mac):

    – iOS 6 and iPhone 5 support

    – URBAN GUIDANCE considers public transportation options, such as subways, trams, busses and water taxis, when calculating pedestrian routes. You will be guided to a transit stop by foot and you’re able to look up detailed information on what line to take and where to get off. The feature is available through In App Purchase.

    – PANORAMA VIEW 3D provides true 3D elevation views obtained from NASA’s height and terrain data enable intuitive orientation and show users what lies ahead. Panorama View 3D is available through In App Purchase.

    – GOOGLE STREET VIEW provides users a street-level view of their destination before starting a route and shortly before arriving. Users can also look at a full-screen 360° view to get a better understanding of their destination’s surroundings. The feature is available in cities with Google Street View coverage.

    Unfortunately, the app will cost you $44.99, which is significantly more expensive than the free Google Maps app that Google will most likely launch at some point.