Roughly a day has passed since Garmin released the Edge 1050, a direct successor to the Edge 1040 (curr. $579.99 on Amazon). While we did not cover this in our launch article, Garmin outlined in its announcement video that it would be bringing new features like GroupRide awards and road hazard alerts to its older cycling computers. Specifically, the company mentioned the Edge 540, Edge 840, Edge 1040 and the Edge Explore 2.

In short, the company claimed that it would be delivering a major software update to these devices at an unspecified date later this year. Surprisingly, this update is already available to try out as Public Beta 23.09 for all but the Edge Explore 2. As Garmin promised, the update adds a variety of new features, although some are restricted to the Edge 840.

Also, it is worth keeping in mind that Public Beta 23.09 does not introduce Edge 1050 features that require specialised hardware, such as audible notifications or Garmin Pay support. Nonetheless, the update makes over 20 changes to the Edge 540, Edge 840 and Edge 1040, the changelog for which we have reproduced below. Incidentally, DC Rainmaker has published a short video covering Public Beta 23.09 and his thoughts on it, which we have embedded below, too.

• Added a QR code to quick link to pair a Strava account with Garmin Connect.
• Added gear presets for SRAM 12 speed cassettes.
• Added GroupRide awards and climb competitions.
• Added revamped Course Creator.
• Added road hazards support. Get alerts for road hazards reported by fellow cyclists and contribute your own edits.
• Added search alias support to improve location searching.
• Added support for India basemap.
• Added surface type support including on the map, in-ride unpaved road alerts, and post-ride summary.
• Added Wi-Fi map download support.
• Added wind and stamina adjustments to Power Guide.
• Fixed friendly name for phone pairing.
• Fixed incident detection countdown timeout notification priority over any other notifications.
• Fixed infinite elevation calibration prompt following a manual calibration.
• Fixed mute toggle interactions on the notifications widget.
• Fixed pausing navigation.
• Fixed ride button failing to show after receiving and reviewing a Connected POI.
• Fixed USB connection detection when coming out of suspend mode.
• Improved phonetic and hand-writing keyboard input.
• Improved speed of city search.
• Removed tone from elevation calibration prompt.
• Updated grade algorithm to be much more responsive.