Garmin Forerunner 645 Music: Garmin announces first GPS smartwatch with music playback

Garmin finally adds a device capable of music playback to its smartwatch lineup, but what makes the Forerunner 645 Music so special?

Shockingly, Garmin has steered clear of a smartwatch with music playback capabilities. It’s certainly a strange revelation, given the firm is one of the big players in the fitness wearables market, and it seems like an obvious – and straightforward – step to success.

And crucially, its competition already boasts such a much-needed feature. Apple, Samsung, Fitbit, Polar and TomTom have all let loose devices with music storage, so it’s high time Garmin threw its metaphorical hat into the ring. It’s a good job then, that the firm’s appropriately titled Forerunner 645 Music, announced at CES 2018, does just that.

Garmin Forerunner 645 Music: Specs and first impressions

Let’s get to that music functionality first. I certainly wouldn’t get too excited, because the feature is somewhat limited, as you can only transfer up to 500 songs directly from your PC, or store offline playlists with Deezer+. Sadly, there’s no Spotify or Apple Music integration at launch. Still, this is a feature the more limited Deezer+ subscriber base can take advantage of, at the very least.
Elsewhere, Garmin’s latest fitness wearable supports contactless payments via Garmin pay, so you can grab a quick coffee on the way to the gym, without having to take your cards with you. But, Garmin pay is yet to support UK banks or credit cards.

Fitness feature-wise, the Forerunner 645 comes with what Garmin calls “connected features” essentially, you can send texts and have the ability to invite your friends to follow you while you run, with a service called LiveTrack. You can also view social media updates and emails, although there is no cellular option, so you’ll have to be in range of your phone.
Still, that’s not to stop the Forerunner 645 being a thumping good runners’ watch. Built-in GLONASS and GPS allows you track how far, fast and where you’ve run and the watch also accommodates swimming, cycling and walking tracking.

 You also have the option to view completed courses, or even re-race a previous activity. Additionally, when used in tandem with Garmin’s Running Dynamics Pod (£60) you can track extra metrics such as stride length, cadence and ground contact time.

Garmin Forerunner 645 music: Early verdict

Garmin may be a few years’ late to the party, but a sorely-needed music playback function in its latest Forerunner 645 fitness watch is a welcome and useful addition. It may be a tad limited, but it’s certainly a step in the right direction.
And as for fitness features, Garmin's efforts – just like with GoPro and action cameras – are the definitive fitness wearable and thus, there’s little doubt that the Forerunner 645 won’t underperform. In fact, I can safely say this is shaping up to be the fitness wearable to beat in 2018.
Let’s see how Garmin’s Forerunner 645 Music performs in my review in the near future.

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Lego Teams Up With Chinese Internet Giant Tencent

Danish toymaker Lego is teaming up with Chinese Internet giant Tencent Holdings to jointly develop online games and potentially a social network aimed at Chinese children.

Privately-owned Lego has seen a slowdown in sales growth in recent years, but the Chinese market has been a bright spot with sales growing 25-30 percent in 2016.
It is competing with Barbie maker Mattel and Hasbro, the firm behind My Little Pony, for a slice of the $31 billion toys and games market in China.

Lego said on Monday the partnership with Tencent, China's biggest social network and gaming company, aimed to create a safe online environment covering content, platforms, and experiences tailored for Chinese children.

"We've seen more and more Chinese children engage with the world digitally, and the partnership will bring them safe and imaginative digital LEGO content that also supports their needs of learning, development and entertainment," Jacob Kragh, head of LEGO in China, said in a statement.
The partnership includes developing a Lego video zone for children on the Tencent video platform, as well as developing and operating Lego branded licensed games, the toymaker said.

It also includes LEGO BOOST - a building and coding set that lets children turn their brick creations into moving objects - and will explore developing a joint social network for children in China.
Tencent is Asia's most valuable company with a market capitalisation of $537 billion.

Last year, Mattel struck deals with Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and online content developer BabyTree to sell interactive learning products based on its Fisher-Price toys.
Lego has about a 3 percent market share in China, followed by Mattel and Hasbro with around 2 percent and 1 percent, respectively, according to Euromonitor International.

In November 2016, Lego opened a factory in Jiaxing, China, which it expects to produce 70-80 percent of all Lego products sold in Asia.

© Thomson Reuters 2018

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HTC 10 Android 8.0 Oreo Update Suspended: Reports

HTC has suspended the rollout of the anticipated Android 8.0 Oreo update for the HTC 10. The update, which was released last week, is no longer live through the original RUU package. It has also been reported that the users haven't received any push notification for an over-the-air (OTA) release. The Taiwanese manufacturer had originally promised the arrival of the latest Android update for three of its flagship models including the 2016 top-end HTC 10 but so far delivered the update for the HTC U11.

The original download link to the RUU package was pulled at the time of filing this story, and the link was generating a 404 error. Similarly, as reported by users on XDA Developer Forums, the update hasn't been available as an OTA rollout. Some of the early users who were able to install the RUU package appear to have opted for the paid Sunshine S-OFF that may cause some serious issues with the handset. There are also some user reports about battery issues after installing the latest update.

Launched in April 2016, the HTC 10 was originally running Android 6.0 Marshmallow. It received an update to Android 7.0 Nougat in February last year. The smartphone features a 5.2-inch Quad HD (1440x2560 pixels) Super LCD 5 display and is powered by a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor clocked at 2.2GHz. It had arrived in the market with two configurations - one featuring 4GB RAM and 32GB onboard storage and the other one with 4GB RAM and 64GB internal storage. Both the versions have expandable storage support via microSD card (up to 2TB). The Indian variant of the HTC 10 was debuted with an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 processor clocked at up to 1.8GHz and comes in 3GB of RAM and 32GB onboard storage.

In August last year, HTC announced the release of the Android Oreo update for the HTC 10 as well as the HTC U11 and HTC U Ultra. Between these three models, the HTC U11 received the update in last November.

HTC is not the only smartphone maker that has silently pulled the Android Oreo rollout. Recently, Xiaomi also suspended the Android 8.0 Oreo update rollout for the Mi A1. The smartphone based on Google's Android One project had started receiving an update to Android 8.0 Oreo in late December via an over-the-air (OTA) rollout. But the company reportedly pulled the OTA update after some issues emerged publicly.

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