After a prolonged development cycle, the Garmin nüvifone G60 handset will FINALLY see the light of day here in the U.S. thanks to AT&T. The companies announced today that the Garmin nüvifone G60 will be available to AT&T customers starting on October 4th.

In case you forgot about the G60 (and really.. who hasn’t now?), here are the features/specs:

• Linux OS
• Same core features as a high-end Garmin nüvi GPS device
• Comes preloaded with maps and millions of points of interest for North America
• Comes with dashboard and windshield mount
• Turn by turn voice promoted directions
• Automatically recalculates routes
• Built-in GPS receiver with Garmin HotFix technology and assisted GPS
• “Where Am I?” feature provides users their exact latitude and longitude coordinates, nearest address, intersection, hospital, police station, and gas station with one touch of the screen. nüvifone will also automatically mark the position in which it was last removed from the windshield mount
• Full HTML browser
• 3G and Wi-Fi connectivity
• Location Link – parses addresses on the web with latitude and longitude information
• Touch-screen virtual keyboard with predictive text
• 3.0 megapixel camera with auto-focus
• Geotagging images with latitude and longitude information
• Free access to AT&T Yellow Pages, flight status, and converter
• Premium Connected Services gives customers access to real time traffic information, fuel prices, White Pages, weather etc

The Garmin nüvifone G60 will be available at AT&T retail stores or online at www.wireless.att.com starting on October 4th for a price of $299 (after a new two year agreement and after a $100 dollar mail-in rebate). nüvifone Premium Connected Services will cost ya $5.99 a month after a 30 day trial.

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Technorati Tags: AT&T, Garmin nüvifone G60

Well it’s about time!

Garmin-Asus announces today that their nüvifone G60 and M20 handsets will finally go on sale in different parts of Asia shortly. The G60 will be available in Taiwan starting on July 27th, and then in Singapore and Malaysia by the end of August. The M20 will go on sale in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia in August.

Don’t worry if you don’t exactly remember these handsets – they were delayed to the second half of 2009 back in May after having been announced earlier this year. Here’s a quick rundown on the specs for both models:

nüvifone  G60:

• Quad-band GSM / GPRS / Edge 850/900/1800/1900
• 850/1900/2100 HSDPA 3.6 Mbps
• 802.11 b/g WLAN, Bluetooth, HFP, HSP, AVRCP, A2DP mini-USB 2.0
• Linux OS
• 3MP camera with auto-focus and geo-tagging
• Measures 112 x 58.1 x 14.6 mm
• 3.55″, 65K, anti-glare resistive touchscreen
• POP3 / IMAP4 / SMTP email
• HTML browser based on Webkit platform
• SMS
• 4 hour battery life

nüvifone M20:

• Tri-band GSM / GPRS / Edge 900/1800/1900
• 900/2100 HSPA 7.2 Mbps
• 802.11 b/g WLAN, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, HFP, HSP, A2DP, AVRCP, mini USB 2.0
• Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional (Upgradeable to WM 6.5)
• Measures 95.3 x 52.5 x 12.8 mm
• 2.8″, 65K, TFT with touch lens
• Push / Enterprise / POP3 / IMAP4 / SMTP email
• OPERA browser, HTML, WAP 1.2.1/2.0
• SMS / MMS / IM
• 3G: Up to 3.5 hours / 2G: Up to 2.8 hours

Other things you need to know about the G60:

• The distribution strategy will differ by country in the Asia-Pacific market. In Asia, the phone will be available through carriers and retail channels
• The G60 will be available in Europe and in the U.S. later on this year – no word on pricing as of yet

As for the M20:

• As with the G60, the M20 will also have a distribution strategy which will differ per Asia country. It will only be available through carriers and retail channels in Asia.
• The M20 will be available in Europe later this year – no word about the U.S. Also no word on pricing.

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Technorati Tags: Garmin-Asus, nüvifone G60, nüvifone M20

Hey ViewSonic – are you sure you want to enter the smartphone space? I mean.. just take a look at Garmin & ASUS. The two companies had announced a joint partnership earlier this year (called Garmin-ASUS) with the intent of introducing two smartphone devices during the first half of this year – the nuvifone G60 Linux-based handset and the nuvifone M20 Windows Mobile-based handset. Well, it’s nearing the middle of May and still no sign of these handsets.. and it appears, the wait will be even longer than expected.

Garmin President and COO Cliff Pemble announced to investors last week that the G60 would be delayed until the second half of this year. Now given that the M20 was to follow the G60, there’s no word on how this delay will ultimately effect the rollout of the M20.

Now of course there could be any number of reasons for this delay but it is a word of warning to other companies out there contemplating the entry into this space. Yes, there’s money to be made but given the current state of the global economy and the stiff competition out there, one has to wonder if it’s wise for a new player to enter this space.

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Technorati Tags: Garmin-Asus nüvifone G60

In addition to the newly announced nüvifone M20, Garmin-Asus provided additional details to their previously announced nüvifone G60 handset. Unlike the M20 which is a Windows Mobile 6.1 OS based handset, the G60 runs a Linux OS and is “designed for the active on-the-go user who wants an easy-to-use device” to answer simple questions such as “where am I?”, “where am I going?”, or “how do I get home?”

Here’s the rundown of features and specs for the nüvifone G60:

• Quad-band GSM / GPRS / Edge 850/900/1800/1900
• 850/1900/2100 HSDPA 3.6 Mbps
• Linux OS
• Three primary icons on the display – Call, Search, and View Map
• Secondary icons appear on the side of the home screen and can be customized by user preferences
• Built-in accelerometer
• Location Based Services support with location information added to apps such as email, SMS, photo sharing, social networking etc
• Operates like a Garmin nüvi device with preloaded maps of North America or Eastern and Western Europe and millions of POI
• Connected Services support
• Ciao! social networking app
• Supports POP3 and IMAP4 email such as Yahoo, Hotmail, and Gmail.
• Soft keyboard
• 3.0 megapixel camera with auto-focus – automatically geotags images
• Allows individuals to place calls and identify their exact GPS location while making phone calls
• 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi
• 3.55 inch 65K color support, anti-glare resistive touch-screen with 272 x 480 resolution
• 4GB on board memory, 128MB RAM
• microSD slot with SDHC support
• MP3 playback support
• Document viewing support for Word, Excel, Powerpoint, PDF, and JPG
• Measures 112 x 58.1 x 14.6 mm and weighs 137 grams

Still no word on pricing or an exact availability date other than the first half of this year.

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Technorati Tags: Garmin-Asus nüvifone G60, Linux Smartphone, Garmin device

Nearly two weeks after formally announcing their new alliance, Garmin-Asus have announced their latest smartphone product offering – the new nüvifone M20 – “an all-in-one, mobile web-browser, and premium navigation system with a Windows Mobile operating system.” The company will unveil the new M20 at the upcoming Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

The nüvifone M20 is a dual-band 3.5G/tri-band GSM Windows Mobile 6.1 smartphone with Wi-Fi connectivity, web browser, push email support, document viewing capabilities, multimedia support, Bluetooth wireless, and Garmin satellite navigation.

Other features and specs include the following:

• Full QWERTY soft keyboard
• HSDPA wireless support
• 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi
• Location Based Services with navigation functions linked to frequently used applications such as calendar, contacts, email, Internet apps, etc
• Comes pre-loaded with maps and points of interest (POI) for North America, Eastern and Western Europe, and other regions
• Provides turn by turn voice prompted directions and automatically recalculates if a turn is missed
• Connected Services support – suite of online apps and data from Garmin-Asus which adds “location intelligence” to navigation, phone, and browser functions. Expandable list of apps includes content like real-time traffic, white pages, weather, flight status, local events, and movie times
• Support for Ciao! – a social networking service that keeps users up to date with their friends whereabouts and status
• 2.8 inch TFT VGA (640 x 480) touch lens display with 65K colors
• Built-in microphone and speakers
• Built-in 4GB/8GB My Storage
• ActiveSync for Outlook, Microsoft Office, and multimedia synchronization
• 3.0 megapixel camera with automatic geotagging capabilities
• Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR
• Supports MP3, AAC, AAC+, WMA, WAV, and AMR-NB
• Video playback support for MPEG4/H.264/H.263/WMV @ 30fps VGA
• Video recording in MPEG4/H.263 @ 15fps QVGA; Streaming Audio/Video
• Opera browser
• Qualcomm 7200A 528MHz processor
• 920 mAh Lithium replaceable battery
• 3 hour talk time with 3G enabled; 2.8 hours with 2G enabled
• Built-in accelerometer
• Measures 95.3 x 52.5 x 12.8 mm
• Weighs 99 grams with the battery

The Garmin-Asus M20 will be available during the first half of this year.Stay tuned for an exact availability date and pricing.

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Technorati Tags: Garmin-Asus nüvifone M20 smartphone, Windows Mobile Smartphones