Details of Garmin's next quarterly software update have emerged, and there's an impressive array of new features set to land on your wrist over the next few months – along with the usual bevy of tweaks and bug fixes.
Although it releases smaller patches on an ad-hoc basis (particularly big fixes when problems are identified), Garmin releases just four major software updates for each of its watch families per year. This latest update will bring a healthy dose of new features to the Garmin Fenix 7, Epix, Enduro 2, and Marq 2.
As reported by DC Rainmaker, the Morning Report is a particular focus of attention. This is the page that welcomes you when you wake, presenting you with stats on you sleep and a Readiness Score that indicates how well you recovered from the precious day's exertions. It also gives you a little weather report, plus an overview of calendar events coming up.
Following the next update, it will also offer a race day card, which will help get you ready to face the next event in your diary. It sounds like an extension of Garmin's race widget – a pretty new tool that helps you prepare by providing you with a training plan based on your goals, which will help you manage your training load.
The race widget itself is getting a new PacePro strategy page, which should help you manage your pace based on the gradient of the terrain, adapting your speed accordingly.
Cyclists are getting a new stamina data field, which will show how much energy they have remaining for the rest of their ride, and help them manage their effort to avoid either bonking or slacking off.
Once you've completed a workout, you'll see a new workout execution card, which sounds interesting, but I don't yet know what that will look like, or what data it will be based on.
Water-skiing and jet lag
There's lots on the cards for watersports enthusiasts too, including an update to the Sail Race activity tracking mode, a new sail expedition app, and profiles for several new wake activities: wakesurf wakeboard, water-ski, and tube).
Garmin's jet lag advisor is also coming to these watches. Enter details of where you're flying from and to, at what time, and this widget will let you know what time it'll feel like, and whether you should expect to experience noticeable jet lag as a result.
There's support for Garmin's updated Connect IQ system, which should give you more control over installing apps on your watch. For more details of the update in full, take a look at Garmin's forums, where the full patch notes are listed.
If you want to get in on the action early, you can install the alpha software now through Garmin's forums. Alternatively, you can join the public beta program and wait for a slightly more polished version (see why you should, and shouldn't join Garmin's public beta program for the pros and cons), or sit tight and wait for the final release when as many bugs as possible have been ironed out.
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