Crave

After its introduction almost two years ago and after numerous delays, Garmin and AT&T announced on Tuesday the upcoming availability of the Garmin Nuvifone G60.

The Nuvifone G60 will be sold in stores and online starting October 4 for $299 with a two-year contract and after a $100 mail-in rebate. For the price, you're getting a smartphone with full GPS capabilities, including preloaded maps of North America, millions of points of interest, and voice-guided directions.

Just like Garmin's standlone portable navigation devices, the G60 will also feature the company's "Where am I?" feature that shows you your coordinates and the nearest address, intersection, gas station, hospital, and so forth in case of an emergency. Customers will also be able to get Premium Connected Services, which include real-time traffic, fuel prices, weather, white pages, movie info, and local events for an additional $5.99 per month after a 30-day trial.

The smartphone also offers a full HTML browser and is 3G-capable. You can also get online with Wi-Fi and access AT&T's 20,000 hot spots around the country. There's also a 3-megapixel camera with geotagging capabilities and 2GB of user-available memory with a microSD expansion slot (up to 16GB). Physically, the Nuvifone G60 measures 4.4 inches tall by 2.3 inches wide by 0.57 inch thick and features a 3.5-inch WVGA resistive touch screen and 2.5mm headset jack.

As far as the smartphone part, the Linux-based G60 offers standard personal information management tools (Calendar, 5,000-entry address book, notes, alarm clock, etc.), document viewing, and support for Hotmail, Gmail, AOL mail, POP3 and IMAP e-mail accounts. For the full list of features and specs, you can check out Garmin's Web site.

Now, that it's official and we have a launch date, what do you guys think? Anyone interested in getting one? Or would you rather stick with a standalone GPS or use a location-based service like TeleNav with a GPS-enabled smartphone or cell phone? Let us know!

Sprint defies the slow economy by buying prepaid giant Virgin Mobile for $483 million, and its exec admits that it needs to "let go." We then chat about Android, the Palm Pre vs. iTunes debacle, the Garmin Nuvifone going to Asia, our weekly reviews, and more. And, of course, we answer a few of your questions, too. Be sure to check out our live video stream every Wednesday at 2 p.m. PST on live.cnet.com!

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Garmin-Asus Nuvifone finally shipping (in Asia)

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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?

(Credit: CNET Asia)

At CommunicAsia Tuesday, Garmin-Asus showed off its Nuvifone G60 and M20 devices. The former was first developed independently by Garmin and later rebadged with the new brand name after the two companies decided to collaborate on a line of navigation-focused smartphones.

The Linux-based G60 has been delayed for a while, but Tuesday Garmin-Asus announced that both devices will be commercially available in the second half of 2009. The company's regional director for Southeast Asia sales, Hektor Tung, said this will happen as early as August for some markets.

When asked about the potential of Garmin-Asus' current Linux platform for future devices, Tung revealed that this will be used only in the G60. Future smartphones will either come with Windows Mobile like the M20 or be based on the Google Android operating system. He added that the brand's first Android phone will be unveiled at the end of this year, earlier than the Q1 2010 time frame mentioned by various reports a few weeks back.

(Source: Crave Asia)

Though I know that the Garmin Nuvifone actually exists--I have held it in my hand--I'm beginning to think it's like the proverbial carrot held over a poor horse's head. Every time we think we're getting closer, the GPS phone magically recedes farther into the distance.

Twice Mobile reported last week that Garmin President and COO Cliff Pemble announced yet another delay for the handset. During a first-quarter earnings conference call, Pemble said the phone should now go on sale in the second half of this year, which would make it a year late. Pemble said that building the phone is proving to be difficult. "Smartphones are complicated and bringing one to market that's built totally from the ground up on a custom Linux platform is not an easy task," he said.

We first heard about the Nuvifone more than a year ago and we got our first glimpse of a prototype at the GSMA World Congress in February 2008. At the time, Garmin promised that the phone would be out at the end of last year, but last July the company delayed it until the first half of 2009. Then last February, we got our first hands-on with the Nuvifone after Garmin announced a partnership with Asus to produce a series of Nuvifone models.

As the first half of the year is ticking to a close, we were wondering if Garmin would make good on it's last word. Sadly, that's not the case, but we hope that it won't happen again.

Garmin-Asus Nuvifone G60, M20 hands-on photos

Editor's note: This blog initially misspelled the name of Garmin's president and COO. The actual spelling is Cliff Pemble.

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.

... Read more

(Credit: Garmin)

On Wednesday, Garmin and Asus announced a strategic alliance to develop and distribute co-branded GPS-enabled smartphones to be known as the Garmin-Asus Nuvifone series. This includes the original Garmin Nuvifone, which was introduced over a year ago, and will now be rebranded as the Garmin-Asus Nuvifone G60.

The partnership isn't a strange one, considering that Asus has been working on the original Nuvifone for over a year as the ODM (original device manufacturer). Both companies still plan to ship the Nuvifone G60 in the first half of 2009. In addition, Garmin-Asus said it will offer several Nuvifone models this year--all of which will continue to focus on GPS and navigation features, though it was not clear whether they would all run the Google Android operating system.

In fact, Garmin-Asus plans to introduce its next device at the Mobile World Congress, which runs February 16-19 in Barcelona. Both Kent German and I will be there, so we'll definitely keep you updated with the news, photos, and video. I'm also hoping to press the company for a more definite release date for the Nuvifone G60. I mean, come on already!

Official screenshot of Garmin Nuvifone's home screen.

(Credit: Garmin)

We are starting to see more and more signs that the Garmin Nuvifone is real and not just a figment of our imagination. Announced almost a year ago, the first smartphone for the GPS manufacturer just recently received FCC approval and now Garmin has released a media gallery of Nuvifone interface screenshots, including those for the navigation app, Google Local, the Web browser, calendar, and e-mail.

The user interface looks snazzy and pretty intuitive, but of course, it's hard to say without playing with the actual device. We're hoping that we'll get to see the Nuvifone in action at CES 2009 (and not under a glass case), but in the meantime, you can check out the full gallery of screen shots on Garmin's Web site.

The company also released a clarification in response to an article published by DigiTimes on December 22, which you can read more about in CNET News Managing Editor Jon Skillings's story. The DigiTimes report made reference to the Nuvifone and the fact that Garmin plans to release Google Android handsets, but to be clear, the Nuvifone will not run Google's Android operating system. Instead, the Nuvifone is based on a modified version of Linux.

However, a company spokesperson did confirm that Garmin, which joined the Open Handset Alliance in early December, is working on a Android device, stating, "We do have an Android-based phone under development; however, we are not releasing any additional information about that product at this time." The Garmin Nuvifone is slated to be released in the first half of 2009. Stay tuned for more.

(Source: GPS Tracklog via Boy Genius Report)

A couple weeks after Garmin signed up as a member of Google's Open Handset Alliance comes word that the company has plans for an Android phone next year.

(Credit: Open Handset Alliance)

Details, however, are scant. Here's the extent of the report from DigiTimes, citing Tony An, Asia-Pacific marketing director for the maker of GPS devices: "Garmin also plans to launch self-developed Android handsets in the second half of 2009, with production to be outsourced."

That quotation says "also" because the preceding sentence made reference to the long-drawn-out arrival of Garmin's Nuvifone, its first GPS-enabled handset, which has only just received FCC approval. The Nuvifone, Digitimes reports, is due in the second quarter of 2009--in Taiwan.

A representative for Garmin could not immediately provide comment on the report.

The brief DigiTimes item also says Garmin is bucking economic trends for 2008. Strong sales since Black Friday, it says, citing An, should boost the company's total sales of personal navigation devices by 50 percent for the year.

On eBay's Shopping.com on Black Friday, a GPS device sold every 9 minutes, compared with 11 minutes for an MP3 player, and on eBay itself, the most popular GPS device that day was the Garmin Nuvi.

Other recent reports have Android phones in the works at Samsung, at Huawei, and at Kogan Technologies.