GPS are slowly becoming ubiquitous in our cars, but the last place you expect to see a GPS unit is on the slopes when you go skiing. That was until Navman decided to go all sporty on us. The Navan R300 Ski is a GPS unit for the slopes. Apart for the new active range of units the company is aiming to provide sports fans detailed statistics, Why, I hear you ask? Why not?

Breaking away from the walking or running units, the ski unit offers all you could want from a tracking device on the slopes; current, maximum, average speed, and distance, Downhill distance skied only (lift time suppressed) and Current altitude and cumulative altitude difference. Wearing the device is similar to the other models in the range. You simply strap the red triangle shaped unit around your left arm and after around 60 seconds you are logged on to 25 satellites 20,000 miles above you.

As the name implies it is a Ski tool aimed at the skier in training for something - racing, cross country or more for the gadget obsessed merely to give you something to talk about in the bar that evening.

For us the most shocking of the stats the unit produced was the actual time skied result. Here the unit measures the actual time you spent going downhill, rather than having lunch or being on a ski lift. In our tough tests on the slopes in Lake Tahoe we put in what we thought was a good day’s skiing; 9.30am to 3.30pm with an 45 min lunch break, however the R300 was there to tell us differently, our total ski time was only 1.5 hours - frightening.

Tags: Sports Fitness Skiing And Snowboarding Sports Fitness equipment Navman GPS

Navman A300 sport.tool originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Thu, 17 Mar 2005 07:22:19 +0000

This is bit like waiting for a bus - nothing for ages and then three dive computers in a row. The designers at Uwatec have been working overtime to bring out all-conquering models - and in part, it seems they have done it again.

A technical diver’s dream, the Scubapro Smart Tec has the ability to do just about anything for the advance diver. The main feature and strength of this unit is its ability to switch Nitrox Gas percentages during the dives - this allows a real decompression model for the whole dive to be seen - vital when planning decompression staged diving using Nitrox up to 40%

In addition, you can opt for transmission via a wireless connection to not one but three tanks (be warned however, as extra transmitters cost an additional £300 each and you'll want three of course) - heaven! Or put another way and probably one that is more useful, an instructor could monitor up to three of his/her students’ air whilst teaching - not a bad thing when diving to 25 metres plus.

Proving that this really is a watch for the hardcore divers amongst the diving community the other major benefit is the unit’s ability to offer Micro Bubble deco stop programming. For those thinking I’ve just thrown in some gibberish to confuse you, it allows you to track the tiny silent bubbles that are the main cause of Decompression sickness. As they get lodged in nerves etc and are harder to detect and for the body to remove - Scubapro deco gurus believe that if we plan our dives with more staged stops - 15m, 12m, 9m, and 5m these bubbles are wasted out faster - so making it safer - this linked with the ability to switch your Nitrox mixes at the various stages means that all the bases are covered.

Tags: Sports Fitness Diving Sports Fitness equipment ScubaPro

Scubapro Aladin Smart Tec originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Wed, 29 Dec 2004 13:06:04 +0000

The latest dive computer from Scubapro/Uwatec hit the stores this week. The name is perhaps not the best marketing tool in the book - but it does work on a deep level (no pun intended) - the true aim of any dive computer is to ensure max time under the water.

So what makes this model different to the others in the Uwatec range - well it is Uwatec’s first true Dive Watch style computer.

To appeal to all the ‘must have’ out there, the face is surrounded with a Titanium alloy bezel and has all the main functions accessible within 2/3 clicks of the mode buttons. This is a huge improvement on the silly wet contacts that were always found on Uwatec computers. Scubapro/Uwatec are obviously targeting the Suunto Stinger but have positioned the look and price between that of the Suunto Mosquito and the Stinger.

The functions are all present as expected - Nitrox, Planning, downloadable but nothing that the others on the market don’t already have.

Tags: Sports Fitness Diving Sports Fitness equipment ScubaPro

Scubapro Xtender dive computer originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Wed, 15 Dec 2004 07:51:47 +0000

Suunto dominates the Scuba diving watch market, however it seems that its reign may be over with the new diving watch from Scubapro/Uwatec. But will the Scubapro Prime be able to challenge the market leader? We go underwater to find out.

According to Uwatec, the 21st century has arrived. Finally designers have accepted that people want to be able to push buttons - and not have the need to lick your fingers to use the computer out of the water.

Big improvements on the watch, aside from the buttons, include a major overhaul in looks - it is now round and stylish. The fact it is full downloadable and comes with the software included is also a bonus. To transfer the date to the PC the watch uses infrared transmission, the thoughts being that Laptops and PDAs will soon become apart of your diving kit alongside your fins. A touch for non techno-savvy downloaders is that if you do not have infra red there is a USB adapter - So all bases are covered.

The list of improvements over the old versions continues with Temperature display, full watch functions and backlight - it sound like common sense to include these, but these have been seriously lacking from Uwatec entry dive computers.

Tags: Sports Fitness Diving Sports Fitness equipment ScubaPro

Scubapro Prime dive computer originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Wed, 08 Dec 2004 16:42:44 +0000