Personal communications

This was originally published at ZDNet's Between the Lines.

Garmin and Asus next week will show off two Nuvifones--smartphones with a GPS twist--but the larger question is whether pro-consumers will buy it.

Garmin-Asus is a co-branded partnership with Garmin and Asus parent Asustek Computer. The duo will show off the Nuvifone G60 and M20 at the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next week.

Here's a look at the G60:

The photos look intriguing, but I can't get past a few realities:

• The economy stinks; • The smartphone market is crowded; • The Nuvifone runs on Windows Mobile and … Read more

On Thursday, TeleNav announced that starting February 24, it will make its location-based service, TeleNav GPS Navigator, available to T-Mobile G1 owners, bringing real-time turn-by-turn navigation to the Google Android smartphone.

In addition to turn-by-turn driving directions, TeleNav GPS Navigator offers traffic alerts with one-click rerouting, business searches (with more than 10 million listings), gas prices, weather updates, and restaurant reviews.

Speech recognition is also supported, meaning that you'll be able to press a button on the G1, dictate an address or business, and TeleNav will then route to the destination. Alternatively, you can preplan trips through TeleNav's … Read more

Palm CEO Ed Colligan does not appear worried about the recent flap over Apple's multitouch patents.

Apple COO Tim Cook touched off a storm of speculation a few weeks ago when he declared Apple's willingness to go after anybody who tries to rip off the iPhone's intellectual property, and based on the context of the question posed to him, it appeared he was sending a warning shot across the bow of Palm's Pre smartphone. But Colligan downplayed the significance of the dispute Wednesday morning at the Thomas Wiesel Technology and Telecom Conference in San Francisco.

Companies … Read more

In just a couple of days, a few of us lucky CNET folk, including myself, Kent German, CNET News's Maggie Reardon, and CNET TV's Ariel Nunez, will be boarding a jet plane to head to Barcelona, Spain, for the 2009 GSMA Mobile World Congress (MWC) show.

This is where the cell phone industry converges every year to discuss and showcase the latest GSM technologies and developments, and over the years, it's become the place where handset manufacturers reveal their new models for the year.

Just take the 2008 show for example. GSMA is where we saw the … Read more

Come this summer, Apple is expected to dip its toe in the entry level market for its popular iPhone, according to a report by RBC Capital Markets analyst Mike Abramsky.

Apple is expected to debut a $99 iPhone, as well as an iPhone 3G with updated performance, sometime in June or July, according to Abramsky's research note on Tuesday.

Abramsky, in his report, states:

Checks reveal further entry-level iPhone details, including launches on existing carriers June/July with a data plan, entry-level pricing and a lower subsidy. Also expected is a 3G iPhone performance upgrade (performance, features, form factor).

An entry level iPhone could increase Apple's overall iPhone unit sales by 25 percent to 69 percent and bump up its slice of the smartphone market from an estimated 12 percent to 14 percent to 19 percent, the report notes.

But it could come at a price.

Apple could find itself cannibalizing its iPhones/iPod business. For example, Apple would need to sell three $99 iPhones to replace the gross profits of one 3G iPhone, Abramsky notes in his report. And it could also create a situation where Apple would need to lower its iPod pricing to sustain the momentum with its media player since the iPhone also offers such capability. … Read more

Seeking love and affection this Valentine's Day, but don't have the guts to tell your sweetheart? Using anonymous greeting cards because you're too socially inept to communicate face to face? If so, it's probably time to try a new tactic: stalking innocent commuters while they're stuck in traffic.

The newly launched MYPL8 service--also known as PL8M8--allows love-starved U.K. drivers to communicate via text. Once you spot someone you fancy, note their car's registration number and, when it's convenient, text their registration number and a brief message to the MYPL8 text number. … Read more

If you ever bother to read your cell phone's user manual from front to back, you'll see a whole section with neat safety warnings. One of them advises you not to make calls in a gas station since the phone's electrically energy could cause a gas explosion. Sounds like fun!

While I doubt that many people have heeded the warning, much less read it, Motorola is taking it seriously. Last week, Sprint Nextel announced the Motorola i356IS, which is a variation of its burly i356 candy bar phone.

The i356IS (the "IS" stands for "… Read more

On Monday mobile phone users, including those with Apple's iPhone, got a new way to sync and access information from the cloud. Called Google Sync, the new service lets you sync up both calendars and contacts from a specified Google account and will send changes over the air--both ways.

The service uses Microsoft Exchange's ActiveSync protocol to get the job done, and because of this can actively push changes as soon as they're made. Previously the only way to get this kind of near-instantaneous change was to sync up an existing Exchange account with Outlook using Google'… Read more

Microsoft appears poised to officially unveil a Web-based service that will let users store, share, and back up data from their mobile phones.

Provided, that is, that the phones run Microsoft's Windows Mobile 6 phone operating system. And the service will be available as only a limited beta to start with.

Details of Microsoft's impending My Phone service slipped out inadvertently when the Web site went live ahead of its scheduled debut. The site appears to have been spotted first by Engadget Mobile, which also referred to the service as SkyBox.

According to the Microsoft My Phone site, the service will let users back up and restore the phone's data, access contact and scheduling information, and share photos. Users will get 200MB of free storage, but beware--a synchronization attempt that exceeds the limit will cut off any files beyond the 200MB mark.… Read more