Garmin-ASUS nuvifone M20 makes jump to Windows Mobile 6.5

Two years ago, the idea of a Garmin-developed smartphone running the latest Windows Mobile operating system was enough to generate spasms of anticipation across the internets. Oh how things have changed. Today the Garmin-ASUS team has announced a Windows Mobile 6.5 update for M20 owners currently stuck at 6.1. It’s also expanding the M20 theater of pain to Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, India, Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Czech, Turkey, and other markets by the end of 2009 — note the omission of North American and Western European countries. Fine by us, we’re perfectly happy to wait for the revamped Android handset running Google’s turn-by-turn Navigator… oh, wait.

Filed under: Cellphones, Software

Garmin-ASUS nuvifone M20 makes jump to Windows Mobile 6.5 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 Nov 2009 05:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Garmin-Asus nuvifone G60 unboxing and hands-on

There she is. 20 months and 1 day after its original introduction to the world, the Garmin-Asus nüvifone G60 is at long last in our (admittedly sweaty) palms. The highfalutin’ smartphone isn’t slated to hit AT&T shelves until this Sunday, but we were able to wrangle a retail unit early in order to bring you a sneak peek at what’s to come. Frankly, we’ve been looking forward to this day for a long (long!) time. We’ve got a soft spot in our hearts for the Garmin navigation UI, and we have to say, that very same look and feel has been beautifully migrated to the mobile space. Upon unwrapping the phone, we were struck by just how classy the whole thing looks. It’s plenty thin for being a GPS-turned-phone, light enough to not weigh you down and sturdy enough to somewhat justify the $299 (on contract) price. We did some brief browsing around, and everything felt satisfactorily snappy. The resistive touchscreen had some expected give, but by and large screen presses did exactly what we wanted ‘em to in our limited testing. We’re aiming to give this bad boy a serious critiquing over the next few days, but for now, feel free to peruse the absurdly detailed gallery below.

Filed under: Cellphones

Garmin-Asus nuvifone G60 unboxing and hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Oct 2009 12:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Garmin-Asus nuvifone G60 finally ready for AT&T: $300 on October 4?

Let’s just be brutally honest here: Garmin-Asus’ nuvifone G60 is basically the Duke Nukem of phones. We’ve been following it since before Garmin and ASUS formed their joint venture, since before we we had an inkling of what carriers might pick it up, and before other models running other platforms got thrown under the nuvifone branding umbrella. It’s been a heck of a ride — a ride that seemed exciting for the first year or so, but at this point, the phone’s stretched our patience to the breaking point and set expectations so unrealistically high that it seems virtually impossible that a US launch could quench our thirst for awesomeness. The world will never know with certainty what took so long — maybe it was met with a lukewarm response from carriers, maybe the formation of the joint venture set everything back a bunch of months — but whatever the case, it looks like we’ll finally be able to navigate the G60 right into our hands come October 4 on AT&T. With triband HSDPA, a 3.2 megapixel camera, Bluetooth, and microSD expansion, the phone really doesn’t scream “high end,” but AT&T must think that the promise of an authentic Garmin nav experience is enough to command a hefty premium because a two-year deal is going to run $299.99 with a required $30 data plan — and that’s after $100 mail-in rebate. Follow the break for a gander at AT&T’s G60 FAQs for salesfolk.

[Thanks, anonymous tipster]

Continue reading Garmin-Asus nuvifone G60 finally ready for AT&T: $300 on October 4?

Filed under: Cellphones, GPS, Handhelds

Garmin-Asus nuvifone G60 finally ready for AT&T: $300 on October 4? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Sep 2009 19:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Rumor: Garmin-ASUS nuvifone G60 to run $300?

Filed under: Cellphones, GPS

Rumor: Garmin-ASUS nuvifone G60 to run $300? originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 27 Sep 2009 03:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Garmin-ASUS nuvifone M20 and G60 shipping to Singapore in August

After a patently absurd amount of delays, it actually feels like the Garmin-ASUS nüvifone tandem is approaching a proper launch. Whether or not anyone actually cares anymore, however, remains to be seen. Across the sea over in Malaysia, one particularly lucky soul seems to have stumbled upon both the Linux-based nüvifone G60 and the WinMo-powered nüvifone M20, and he claims that both handsets will be shipping en masse to the region “within 30 days.” Best of all, that totally jibes with what we’ve heard directly from Garmin today, which has informed us that the smartphone will be in Singaporean stores in August, with a few other Asian nations seeing it in late July. Now, if only North Americans could look forward to the same…

Filed under: Cellphones

Garmin-ASUS nuvifone M20 and G60 shipping to Singapore in August originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Jul 2009 21:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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