Movescount.com - new on-line log for Suunto owners

Early in 2010 I have been invited by Suunto to take part in the testing of new service they have been working on and just few days ago unveiled to public. It is the Movescount.com service that lets owners of Suunto Tx line or X10 line log their activities. The service is free for all users and you can use it even without owning Suunto watch. But frankly there may be other optons that are better in such situation - like TrainingPeaks free account or other free services.

This new service is a really good news for Suunto owners on both PC and Mac as Suunto now released software to download data from the watch to their web service on both Windows and Mac OS X. That is probably the biggest news for users that are waiting for Mac version of Suunto Training Manager or Suunto Trek Manager.

Suunto really emphasizes the social aspect of the site and lets you link pictures from Flickr and videos from YouTube to your 'moves'. You can then share your moves page with friends on Facebook, MySpace, Google, mail, Twitter and other social networks.

If you own Suunto unit and want to migrate from their PC based software on-line this is the way to go. Especially if you are Mac user and were running the software in virtual machine. I like the fact that Suunto lets you load our old logs from STrM to the web to get started. Very nice - I wish Polar did this for the PPT5 (ideally both ways). In any case if you do not use on-line log, own Suunto and want new on-line log check it out.

Garmin, Suunto, Polar and Timex new gadgets and updates

Looks like GPS is becoming more pervasive in fitness watches - Garmin today announced new running watch Garmin Forerunner 110 that will bring GPS to what seems like more basic watch than FR205, FR305, FR405 and FR310xt. Main theme seems to be simplicity with high level of accuracy. They will be showing the units at the major marathons in Boston, Paris and London so the watch seems to be geared to runners, walkers and joggers. For triathletes it seems that the 310xt remains the flagship.

Triathletes are probably looking forwards to the release of the new Timex unit that is the first version of Timex watch with built in GPS. They already have experience with GPS technology, but never had it integrated in the watch. We will see how well this will be done. From available information the unit will be ANT+ compatible so if you have ANT+ compatible power meter or HR belt the watch should be able to communicate with them.

Polar is releasing new sleek cycling computer CS500 that is based on their proprietary W.I.N.D. technology used in CS600 and RS800/RS800cx lines of products. The design looks very clever for cycling - I hate switching displays on CS600 especially when I wear my gloves and I'm in traffic. The rocker design seems to make it all very easy. Not sure though if I upgrade. The announcement on Polar site does not list power meter as one of the compatible accessories which is a shame. I hope it will work with it since I'm getting another Polar power unit I found few days ago so I can put it on my new road bike.

And last news is from Suunto that is releasing new designs of T6 line with release of three new color schemes and different packaging under the T6d name. According to their announcement the new units will ship in few weeks and will include the dual belt, but otherwise seem to be exactly the same as T6c. The new designs are Black Flame - black yellow (pictured), Black Smoke (Black and gray) and Black Fusion (Fusion with black housing - as opposed to the greenish one that currently ships). So unless you die to spend over 400 bucks for different design of the watch there is really not much new in terms of technology or functionality. Still the units look very good.