Have had the Forerunner 2 weeks and so far have had great luck using it on the north side of San Antonio.Initally required a hard reset before acquiring GPS signal (hold mode button while pushing the power button). Since then have had no trouble acquiring signal averaging 45 secs each time. Stepping into the garage or onto the porch will yield a weak signal message but this goes away quickly when I step back out under the sky.
Accuracy is good compared to known routes measured by odometer. I have also found that it correlates well with the mile markers on the highway and that pace correlated with my speedometer. I tried its accuracy by walking back and forth over a 21 foot path 10 times and checking the total distance. There was some rather large variation with each lap but the total path measurement was accurate. Best result was with maximal smoothing (1% error) vs minimal smoothing (5% error). Not an adequate test but a good quicky measure that pleased me.
No log book software and I am not expecting much - but maybe. If the software is good this will be a homerun product I think. In the meantime download Topofusion and hook-up your Forerunner it will display your route over an aerial map and color code the path to indicate the elevation changes. It will also calculate the total distance, time of travel and total change in elevation over the route.
Heart monitor people might want to try Endless Pursuit's website. They don't offer stand alone software but rather a subscription online service you can upload GPS and heart rate data to. They will then combine it and provide you with all sorts of analysis. Haven't used it as I do not yet own a HR monitor.
Have used the auto lap and virtual partner and found them both useful. The display is indeed easy to read. My one gripe is the message display. I would prefer just a beep to notify me of each lap or milestone. As it is, to have an audible beep also requires display of a message box that persists too long (unless you hit a button)obscuring the data on your screen. You can have messages without beeps but not the other way. And yes the beep is a little too quiet to hear everytime. ONe other gripe: Don't really like the strap, almost too small for my wrist but too large with the extension. May have to look for a watch band.
Overall a pretty nifty product. Simple easy to use. I would tell Garmin to Keep it that way and not add a heart rate monitor - probably would mess up the box which is on the border of being too large already. Instead add the functionality to the software to import and combine data from heartrate monitors.
