Disqus
You’ve probably already heard that Garmin and Asus have formed a partnership to jointly develop location-aware smartphones. Today we have two news to report from the new company. Let’s roll, shall we?
First, we got the official specs of the G60, aka the original nüvifone. The Garmin-Asus’ smartphone will come with a quad-band GSM radio, HSDPA support, 3 megapixel camera, 3.55-inch 272×480 pixels touchscreen, “advanced mobile HTML web browser,” Wi-FI, and of course a built-in GPS receiver. Naturally, navigation is at the heart of the nüvifone G60, hence the device will come with preloaded maps of North America or Eastern and Western Europe, with millions of points of interest (POIs). In addition, the nüvifone also boasts Ciao!, an LBS app that helps users stay up to date on their friends’ whereabouts and status by linking numerous location-centric social networks.
Then, we learned about a new colorful phone called nüvifone M20 – an all-in-one device powered by Windows Mobile 6.1. Specs wise, there’s a Qualcomm 7200A 528MHz CPU, 2.8-inch VGA (640×480 pixels) touchscreen, 3 megapixel camera, 4Gb or 8Gb of built-in storage, WiFi, HSDPA, accelerometer, GPS. Again, Garmin’s navigation and maps come pre-loaded with the device and so does Ciao! LBS app.
Pricing and availability is unknown at this stage, but they’ve promised to release those details during the first half of 2009. In the meantime, if you happen to attend Mobile World Congress, Garmin-Asus should have both phones at display at their booth #7C37 in Hall 7.
About The Author
Dusan Belic
Dusan has been using smartphones since their introduction and is now following the latest trends in the industry. The "convergence" is what he's most excited about, and writing about it is the next logical thing to do. He thinks that using a smartphone is what everyone who cares about their time should do. In addition to his interests in mobile phones, Dusan also loves to experiment with the latest web and mobile 2.0 services. The idea of accessing and managing your information from any device no matter where you are simply amazes him. Whether it's an online to-do list, note taking service or a video sharing social network, he's there to try it out. He admits though, he's still searching for the ultimate web-based organizational tool, which "sings" perfectly with the mobile PIM application. Dusan used to run SymbianWatch.com which later became part of IntoMobile. He lives in Serbia, South-East Europe, from where he edits the site on a daily basis.
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