Motionlingo: Is a GPS System Required for Outdoor Sports?

Andrea Wood | August 03, 2006, 10:46 AM

I was recently wowed by the growth of Garmin's GPS systems: sales of automotive units rose 153% in a year, while sales of fitness/outdoors devices rose about 25% in the first half of 2006. Over the past few years, I’ve tried a number of GPS systems. They come in handy from time to time, but I’ve never felt that I’ve absolutely needed a GPS device. That being said, I’ve been testing the Adeo motionlingo for the past few weeks. It sure is nifty.

The motionlingo is billed as a ‘personal fitness companion’ – a GPS device that plugs into a portable media player to provide audio queues and updates while exercising. It’s pretty impressive, and non-intrusive if I’m already carrying a music player. I simply stick the two devices in my running belt, and off I go. As an active sportsperson, it’s been a fun little device to work with. It took some time to get up and running when I first had it out of the box, but it was eventually able to adapt to the new environment. I live in an urban area with pretty dense tree cover, so triangulating with three satellites is sometimes difficult. When I took the motionlingo through some flat, open farmland and to a remote and rocky area of the Canadian shield, I had a good clear signal the entire time.

When the device is working, it’s great to have audio cues announce distance, speed, pace, calories burned, and more. A recorded voice provides frequent updates depending the program I set, lowering and raising the volume of my music ever so slightly to provide the updates. When I return home, I can synch the motionlingo with my PC, use the provided software to track my performance and peg my mileage on a Google map. It took some getting use to the software interface, but certainly wasn’t a challenge that would prevent me from using the system.

The buttons on the motionlingo bugged me, though. They are scattered on all sides, and a bit difficult to get used to. While I am somewhat coordinated, with the ability to run and fiddle with a device, I repeatedly had to stop and look at the device to figure out which button to push to change the program or get an update. It was a bit of a pain, and something I couldn’t really practice when you are sitting at home. This is Adeo’s first stab at an audio GPS device, so I speculate the next production run will resolve this layout issue.

The motionlingo sells for $149 US, and is a pretty cool device for those active folks who don’t want to check a wrist-worn device to analyze performance. So while I may not need GPS when I’m outdoors, it’s a novelty that can enhance the sporting experience.