
Garmin Fenix 8 and Tactix 8 get new voice feature update, but only for select owners
According to a message shared in the Garmin forums, this new beta update is available for users of the Fenix 8 AMOLED, Fenix 8 Solar, Tactix 8 AMOLED, and Tactix 8 Solar models. This update comes after the beta version 15.26, which was rolled out in late April and introduced support for Voice Commands specific to Applied Ballistics and Flying Apps on the Tactix watches, alongside various bug fixes.
Recommended Videos
The voice assistant on these Garmin smartwatches can recognize a range of commands, such as 'Find my phone,' 'Turn on airplane mode,' and 'Increase brightness,' among others.
The release of Voice Command Files v1.12 includes 17 files, indicating support for multiple languages to cater to users around the globe.
However, it's worth noting that some users have experienced a surprising drop in their body battery levels after installing beta version 15.26 or the new Voice Command Files v1.12. As of now, Garmin hasn't addressed this issue, leaving users eager for a solution.
The Garmin Fenix 8 and Tactix 8 showcase Garmin's latest premium smartwatch advancements, each catering to unique user needs. The Fenix 8 is a versatile multisport GPS smartwatch for outdoor enthusiasts, featuring a comprehensive suite of fitness tracking, advanced navigation, and a built-in speaker and microphone for calls and voice assistance. It offers various sizes and display types, including AMOLED and solar-powered MIP options, emphasizing durability and long battery life for extended use. Conversely, the Tactix 8 prioritizes tactical functionality for military personnel and demanding environments.
While it shares many fitness features with the Fenix 8, the Tactix 8 includes specialized functions like night vision compatibility, a multi-color LED flashlight, and preloaded Applied Ballistics software for precise calculations, making it vital for mission-ready needs. Both series feature rugged designs, sapphire crystal lenses for durability, and comprehensive connectivity, tailored to their respective audiences.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Digital Trends
8 hours ago
- Digital Trends
This Garmin dash cam is one of our favorites, and it's on sale from Walmart
A dash cam is a growing necessity for the road these days, so if you haven't installed one in your car yet, we highly recommend taking advantage of Walmart's offer for the Garmin Mini 3. From its original price of $150, it's currently on sale for a more affordable $119. The $31 discount may disappear any minute though, so you should finalize your purchase as soon as possible if you want to enjoy the savings on this small but extremely helpful device. Why you should buy the Garmin Mini 3 dash cam The Garmin Mini 3 appears in our list of the best dash cams as our top pick for a compact dash cam. True to its name, it only measures 2 inches by 1.3 inches by 0.8 inches, so it's going to be virtually unnoticeable on your windshield. It doesn't skip the important features to maintain this small size though — it records footage at 1080p HD resolution with a wide field of view of 140 degrees, for crisp and clear video even in low-light environments. The dash cam also comes with the Garmin Clarity polarizer lens, which reduces glare so that it won't miss any important details. It's very easy to set up the Garmin Mini 3 in your car, and once it's up and running, you'll be able to use the Garmin Drive app to download the videos that it can store on the cloud. The dash cam also accepts voice commands to start recording and save videos, so there's no need to fiddle with the controls or the app when you find yourself in an incident. There are lots of dash cam deals in the market right now, but the $31 discount on the Garmin Mini 3 from Walmart stands out because this ultra-compact device is packed to the brim with features. You'll only have to pay $119 instead of $150, which is actually a steal considering the peace of mind that you'll enjoy with the Garmin Mini 3 dash cam. You need to hurry in completing your transaction though, as its price may be back to normal tomorrow.


Tom's Guide
10 hours ago
- Tom's Guide
If you're using your Apple Watch to track sleep, here's 3 features you should be using
As a health and fitness editor, I'm constantly telling readers how important sleep is when it comes to our overall well-being. As a new mom, I'll tell anyone who'll listen about how little sleep I'm getting. But despite the constant sleep disturbances a toddler brings, I still track my sleep religiously. It fascinates me, and to me, it's as important as tracking my calorie burn or movement each day. However, it's only recently that I realized that through the fog of maternity leave, I'd missed some key updates to the sleep features on my Apple Watch 10, and that I wasn't quite using my watch to its full potential. If you're using one of the best Apple Watches to track your shut-eye each night, make sure you're using these three features before letting your head hit the pillow: Whether you're someone who reads before bed, listens to podcast or a music, or just sits doom-scrolling till it's time to brush your teeth, setting up a sleep schedule in the Health app can make a difference. Think of it as the adult equivalent of being tucked into your little sleep sack and read a bedtime story. While your Apple Watch can't read you the Gruffalo (yet), it can give you wind down reminders as your bedtime approaches. Plus, you can set a different bedtime schedule for the weekend if, unlike me, you have a life. The Apple Watch will also switch automatically into Sleep mode when your bedtime approaches, turning off any notifications across all your Apple devices. It's also great if you're someone who forgets to turn on this mode before bed, as your Apple Watch needs to be in Sleep focus to track your sleep. If you've set a sleep schedule, you'll also get a little morning report from Apple, which is one of my favorite features on the best Garmin watches. Your watch will say Good Morning as you wake up, turn off any alarms you've set if you've woken (or been woken) before it went off, and show you the weather forecast for the day. The Vitals app allows you to spot changes in your health before they occur. The Vitals app knew I was coming down with a nasty bout of mastitis before I felt any different physically — it spotted my heart rate and temperature were raised, and it alerted me that I had two health outliers. Of course, it didn't stop me getting sick, but it encouraged me to take it easy, and not head out for a morning run thinking I'd just not slept well. When using the Vitals app, you'll immediately see a breakdown of your health metrics in your Apple Watch stack each morning, including a summary of your sleep stages from the previous night. As well as your sleep duration, you can see your nightly heart rate, respiratory rate and wrist temperature, and get notified if these metrics are outside your typical range. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. When you've worn your Apple Watch to sleep, you'll see a graph of your sleep, showing how much time you've spent in REM, Core, and Deep sleep stages, as well as how much time you've spent awake overnight. Each sleep stage is important — REM is where you experience dreaming, during the Core phase, muscle activity decreases and your body temperature drops, and Deep sleep has a restorative effect on the body. How long you spend in each stage will be personal to you, but learning more about your sleep patterns can help you make small tweaks to ensure you're getting the best sleep possible. Deep sleep, for example, can be affected by screen time, stress, caffeine and alcohol. Ok, so this isn't really on the Apple Watch, but it's an update I'd missed but have since become hooked on. If, like me, you need some sort of white noise to drift off, you can now add Ambient Music to the Control Center of your iPhone. To do this, open Control Center, and tap the add button in the top left corner. Click Add a Control at the bottom of the screen and scroll down to the Ambient Music section. From here, you can choose four different categories of music — Sleep, Chill, Productivity, and Wellbeing. There are different playlists to choose from, but it's a nice way to unwind as you get into bed. I'd also be remiss to not mention Apple Fitness Plus here, and the Sleep Meditations on the platform. Similar to that bedtime story I mentioned earlier, if I have been working late into the evening, these inject 10 minutes of deep breathing and calm into my bedtime routine. I'm not one for meditation, but I'm really working on it, and this helps. Follow Tom's Guide on Google News to get our up-to-date news, how-tos, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button.


Tom's Guide
a day ago
- Tom's Guide
I biked 11 miles with the Apple Watch 10 vs Garmin Forerunner 570 — here's the winner
I biked 11 miles wearing the Garmin Forerunner 570 on one wrist and the Apple Watch Series 10 on the other to find out which of these modern, powerhouse smartwatch models is the more capable fitness tracker. This is the second time these two have gone head-to-head in a Tom's Guide tracking accuracy challenge. In their previous showdown, where I walked 5,500 steps with the Apple Watch 10 vs Garmin Forerunner 570, the Garmin came out on top, but only by the thinnest of margins. Will the results be the same when I swap out walking for cycling? There's only one way to find out. The Garmin Forerunner 570 is a sporty, long-lasting smartwatch built for passionate runners. It comes packed with all sorts of fancy features to help you train for marathons and other racing events, improve your running form, maximize your recovery, and more. A bright AMOLED screen and comfy design make it a pleasure to have on the wrist. The Apple Watch Series 10 is one of the most well-rounded smartwatches you can buy today, with a sleek and comfortable case design, a bright and immersive screen, useful safety and wellness monitoring tools, features to help you keep tabs on your physical fitness and sleep, and access to an enormous library of apps. But first, how do these two smartwatches stack up? While the Apple Watch Series 10 debuted last fall, with a starting price of $399, the Garmin Forerunner 570 launched earlier this summer for $549. With better battery life than the Apple Watch, more fitness training and recovery tools, and a sporty aesthetic, the Forerunner 570 is designed to be a runner's best friend. The Apple Watch 10, meanwhile, is built to be the ultimate do-it-all smartwatch, offering a mix of useful fitness and wellness-tracking tools and plenty of useful smart apps. Both boast sizable AMOLED screens, but the Series 10 has a higher maximum brightness, making it easier to read in direct sunlight. Under the hood, you'll find comparably holistic tech, including optical heart rate sensors, pulse oximeters (though access to this is turned off on the Apple Watch 10 for U.S. customers), GPS for location tracking without a phone, altimeters for elevation tracking, and thermometers for body temp insights. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. However, one potential advantage you get with the Garmin when it comes to keeping tabs on outdoor workouts is a comparably more capable multi-band GPS antenna; the Series 10 only has a single-band antenna. The advantage of more bands is better connectivity and, as a result, potentially more precise tracking, particularly in locations with obstructed skies. My bike ride took me around Seattle, Washington's Lake Union, which is located right smack in the middle of the city, with tall buildings, bridges, and more blocking the heavens. It also took me through a heavily wooded area. Did Garmin's fancier GPS result in better data? Scroll down to see the results of my 11-mile bike ride with the Apple Watch 10 vs Garmin Forerunner 570. As always, I ran Strava on an iPhone mounted to my handlebars as a control for this test. To avoid either device piggybacking location, elevation or speed data from the iPhone, I made sure to unpair both smartwatches before setting off. Apple Watch Series 10 Garmin Forerunner 570 Strava Distance 11.03 miles 11.09 miles 11.14 miles Elevation gain 647 feet 741 feet 663 feet Average speed (moving) 10.7 mph 11.7 mph 11.7 mph Max speed 20.7 mph 25.8 mph 25.8 mph Average heart rate 163 bpm 163 bpm n/a Max heart rate 178 bpm 179 bpm n/a Calories burned 615 calories 710 calories n/a Battery drain 16% 6% n/a All three tracking methods recorded similar total distances of just over 11 miles, with the Garmin being slightly closer to Strava's tally than the Apple Watch. Elevation data is an entirely different story. While the Series 10 was in the same general ballpark as Strava, Garmin seemingly way overcounted my climb for the ride. In fact, I shouldn't say seemingly. The Forerunner 570 did over-calculate my elevation gain. I know this because I take a similar ride frequently, almost always while running Strava or wearing a smartwatch. For example, in my last bike test with the Apple Watch 10 vs. Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 along nearly the same route (just without a little more flat-ground distance added), my elevation gain was 665 feet (according to Strava). The Garmin watch redeemed itself slightly with average moving pace data and max speed data that perfectly mirror Strava. The Apple Watch wasn't too far off with average speed data, but it calculated a noticeably slower max speed. This is similar to my results for the previous Apple Watch 10 bike test noted above. Both the Series 10 and Forerunner 570 clocked the same average heart rate and nearly the same max, though the Garmin measured slightly more total calories burned over the course of my one-hour-and-change bike ride. Finally, the Apple Watch Series 10 burned considerably more battery tracking my trek than the Garmin. Then again, the latest Apple Watch averaged between 18 and 24 hours per charge (when using GPS) and the Garmin watch averages three to four days per charge (again, without GPS). If we're splitting hairs, the Garmin Forerunner 570 technically beats the Apple Watch Series 10 distance-wise, but the margin is less than one-tenth of a mile, hardly a decisive amount. With that in mind, and because of the Forerunner's vastly inflated elevation gain data — likely an anomaly as Garmin tends to be very good in this department — I'm officially crowning the Apple Watch Series 10 the winner of this head-to-head. Ultimately, I'd strongly recommend either of these snazzy-looking, capable, and overwhelmingly reliable wearables to help keep tabs on your physical fitness journey. (Keeping in mind that even the best smartwatches in the world occasionally have a data hiccup.) The real question is, do you prefer a hardcore sports training watch or something more well-rounded with smart features? Which smartwatches or fitness trackers should I test head-to-head next, and should I walk, bike, run, hike, or some other form of workout comparison? Let me know in the comments below.