While visiting Mac World I stopped by the Garmin booth to see what new items they had. I found three very interesting new products.

Forerunner® 405 1st Quarter, 2008 Part Number: 010-00658-10 Suggested Retail Price: $ 318.74 USD

This unit is much smaller than previous Forerunner units and was finally down to the size you would expect for a runner’s watch. It had a most unique user interface. Instead of pushing buttons to move through the menu options, you just run your finger around the watch front, and tap it when you find what you want.

There is no mapping function but it does support heart rate, and has optional bike speed and cadence, and supports a footpod. It automatically transfers your data to a computer.

Edge® 605 1st Quarter, 2008 Part Number: 010-00555-00 Suggested Retail Price: $ 430.75 USD

This unit appears to be a much improved unit over the previous Edge 205, which it appears to be replacing. It now includes a true GPS mapping function in a package no larger that what I recall the 305 to be. Included is only the base map so that means buying mapping software to get other than major highways. It has support for a MicroSD card so you can add your own maps. This unit does not support a bike speed/cadence sensor heart rate and does not include a barometric altimeter, so you may want to opt for the Edge 705.

Edge® 705 1st Quarter, 2008 Part Number: 010-00555-20 Suggested Retail Price: $ 541.65 USD

This unit appears to be a much improved unit over the previous Edge 305, which it appears to be replacing. It now includes a true GPS mapping function. It adds support for heart rate and cadence and will also support Power with third party ANT+Sport-enabled power meters. You can also send your course wirelessly to another Edge 705. The battery life is suppose to be 15 hours, an improvement over the Edge 305, but still a bit on the short side. Even though the price of the 705 is more than $100 more than the Edge 605, I would recommend it because of the added features the serious cyclists would want and if you are not a serious cyclists why would you bother in the first place with one of these expensive units.

I asked about Mac computer support. All of the above units currently will only work with Windows, but Mac support will be coming later in 2008 (as Garmin has been saying).