When you think of Garmin, the first thought that comes to mind is of course GPS devices (or personal navigation devices) right? Well guess what folks – the company has officially entered the mobile phone industry with the announcement of the new Garmin nüvifone. Not only is the company entering the phone market, they’re entering it in a big way with the nüvifone as it features items such as  mobile web browser, personal navigator (but of course!), mobile phone features, and a touch screen display. Garmin calls the nüvifone an “all-in-one device” and the “first of its kind to integrate premium 3.5G mobile phone capability”.

The 3.5 inch touchscreen display has three primary icons – “Call”, “Search”, and “View Map”. You can easily transition from hand-held phone calls to hands-free calls – especially when you’re about to get on the road in your car. Features of the nüvifone include the following:

• Comes preloaded with maps of North America, or Eastern and Western Europe (or both)
• Allows drivers to find specific street addresses, establishment names, or search for destination by category
• Turn-by-turn voice prompted directions guide
• Includes Google Local Search
• Supports email, text, and instant messaging
• Use touch screen anytime to display exact latitude and longitude coordinates, nearest address and intersection, and closest important points of interest
• Includes access to Garmin Online – offering updated info on real time traffic, fuel prices, stock prices, sport scores, news reports, local events, and weather forecasts
• Built in camera
• Access to Google’s Panoramio picture sharing site
• Support for MP3 and MPEG4 playback

The Garmin nüvifone is slated for Q3 of this year.

Here are various snapshots of the phone.

Here is a snapshot of the home screen.

[Check it out]

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