GPS Watch

A Useful Technogadget: the GPS Watch
By Jimmy MacLeod

Casio introduced the first GPS watch at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in 1999—before the turn of the century! Now GPS watches are available from quite a few manufacturers, and at very reasonable prices. You can purchase new GPS watches for under $100.

You may ask yourself why you might need or want a GPS watch? Here are four reasons to purchase a GPS watch:

Training. Most people who buy a GPS watch buy it for training. It tells you exactly how far you have traveled and how fast. Some GPS watches also include an altimeter so that you can track your vertical performance as well. You mark your location at the beginning of your training session, and the GPS notes your starting point and time. At any time during your training session, you can reacquire data. The GPS notes where you are and how much time has lapsed, and the little tiny computer in the watch calculates how far you have gone and how fast your are traveling.

Many GPS watches have other performance components built into them, too, such as heart rate monitors. It is truly amazing how much technology you can pack into a wrist watch!

Route planning. With a GPS watch, you can plan the route you want to hike, walk, climb or whatever by downloading routes from your computer into the watch. You can also use this function in reverse; recording a route so that you can come back to it.

This application has some fun uses. For instance, say you find a great fishing hole while out hiking. You can mark the exact location of the fish, and record the route that took you there.

Safety. Your GPS watch tells you exactly in the world you are. If you have an accident and get hurt, become ill or get lost, at least you know where you are. If you have a way to communicate with others, you can give rescue crews the information they need to get to you.

(Of course, if you used that route tracking capability, you won’t be lost because you can find your way back using your GPS watch.)

It tells time, too. Not just digital time. Absolutely accurate, continuously updated time according to the atomic clocks in the GPS satellites. Your GPS watch will never be off by even one second. Not even by a nanosecond.

Author Details:
Jimmy MacLeod, copywriter for various web sites writing articles about mobile phones and other electrical gadgets.

Article Source: Simply Top Articles

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