Well, I'll be damned. I never thought I'd see this day, but after numerous delays, Garmin-Asus is finally releasing its Nuvifone models, starting with select Asian markets.
The Garmin-Asus Nuvifone G60 will be the first out the door and will go on sale in Taiwan on July 27, and then in Singapore and Malaysia by the end of August. The Garmin-Asus Nuvifone M20 will also go on sale in August, shipping in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia.
As for us here in the States (and Europe), Garmin-Asus says the Nuvifone G60 is on schedule for delivery in the second half of the year. However, there was no mention of a North American release of the Windows Mobile-based Nuvifone M20. However, I have to wonder, does it even matter? Today's market is full of so many capable and proven smartphones and mobile GPS solutions; is anyone going to go for this?
Garmin-Asus Nuvifone M20
(Credit: Garmin)Garmin-Asus is wasting no time on creating some pre-Mobile World Congress buzz. Last week, the companies announced their strategic alliance to collaborate on an entire line of Nuvifone GPS-enabled smartphones and revealed that it would debut a new Nuvifone model at GSMA 2009. We thought we'd hear about it on the opening day of the show, but on Thursday, Garmin-Asus took the wraps off the Nuvifone M20 and revealed full specs for the Nuvifone G60 (aka the original Garmin Nuvifone.
The Nuvifone M20 will run Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional Edition with full e-mail support, document viewing, and Opera's HTML Web browser. The triband GSM (850/1800/1900)/dual-band 3.5G (HSDPA 850/1900) handset will also have integrated Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
Of course, navigation is a top priority and the Nuvifone M20 will come preloaded with maps and points of interest and will offer turn-by-turn voice-guided directions and automatic recalculation. To enter a destination, you can manually enter an address, search for a POI, or use an address from your phone's contact list.
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On Sale Now: $199.99 - $14,498.50
View the latest prices for Garmin Nuvifone G60 (AT&T)
There are pros and cons to video projectors. On the one hand, films can look stunning when blown up to the size of a wall. On the other hand, Deal or No Deal is unlikely to benefit from being expanded to such epic proportions. With high-definition content becoming more common though, there is an increasing amount of stuff just begging to be projected on to a huge screen.
(Credit:
Crave UK)
The Projectiondesign M20 promises high-end performance, but it doesn't come cheap at 3,500 pounds (about $6,935). The price seems particularly steep when you consider this is only a 720p projector. The good news is that the M20 is nice and quiet, registering at -24db. It also claims to produce 200 trillion color shades. Now, call us skeptical, but we couldn't name 20 actual colors. Even allowing for all the shades of pink in the spectrum, we aren't sure how 200 trillion shades are possible.
The connectivity is fairly basic, offering DVI, component, S-Video and composite inputs. There is no HDMI on this projector, so instead you'll have to get an HDMI-to-DVI adaptor if you want to hook up your PlayStation 3 or HD DVD player. In practice, this isn't likely to cause many problems because it still supports HDCP, so copy-protected content will still be playable.
The M20 also has a 7x color wheel, which might sound like the sort of thing you'd find on a hippie's Christmas list, but is in fact quite an important feature. All DLP projectors have a colour wheel, which rotates very quickly in order to produce the image you see projected. The problem with color wheels is they can produce an ugly rainbow effect, which can be very distracting. The M20 claims that the 7x color wheel cuts down on these artefacts and produces a much smoother image.
The projector itself is available in several colors, including British racing green, which we think is a particularly strange one to produce electrical equipment in. Clearly someone at Projectiondesign likes cars though, because you can also get it in Vanquish gray and Maranello blue.
(Source: Crave UK)
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