Garmin set to launch an Android media stick

Garmin is probably best known as a maker of GPS products, but the company has also branched out into fitness trackers, action cameras, and other products in recent years. Now it looks like Garmin is getting ready to launch a TV stick.

The Garmin Vivohub 2 showed up at the FCC website recently, and it’s described as an Android device that turns “your TV into a multifunction smart TV.”

The hardware isn’t exactly spectacular: we’ve seen dozens of TV sticks with similar features over the past few years. But it’s a little surprising that Garmin is getting into the smart TV space at all.

The Vivohub 2 features a 1 GHz Amlogic AML8726 dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor with ARM Mali-400 graphics. It has 1GB of RAM, 802.11b/g/n WiFi and Bluetooth.

Note that the Garmin Vivohub 2 is not running Google’s TV-centric Android TV software. Instead it’s running the same type of Android software you’d normally find on a phone or tablet. That means it’ll be easier to navigate with a keyboard and mouse than with a remote control. You can use a Bluetooth keyboard or connect one to the USB port on the TV stick.

According to screenshots from the user manual, the Vivohub 2 will ship with Android 4.2 Jelly Bean software, which seems a bit dated. But it should be able to play local music and video files from an SD card, USB storage device, or shared network drive as well as internet media from YouTube, Netflix, and other sites.

Update: While the user manual on the FCC website talks about media capabilities, it looks like Garmin is positioning this as a device for syncrhonizing and monitoring data from its Vivofit activity trackers.

At least that’s what the product page at the Garmin website says.

thanks Dave!