Garmin

AT&T and Garmin announced this week that the Garmin nüvifone G60 will be available beginning Sunday, October 4.

The nüvifone G60 integrates a GPS navigator with voice, data and mobile web. The device comes preloaded with maps and millions of points of interest for North America and can be mounted in the car with the included dashboard and windshield mount. You can receive turn-by-turn voice-prompted directions and the device has a "Where am I?" feature so you'll know your exact latitude and longitude coordinates, nearest address, intersection, hospital, police station and gas station. Another handy feature is if you can't find your car, nüvifone will automatically mark the position in which it was last removed from the windshield mount.

A full HTML browser can be accessed via AT&T's 3G network, or AT&T's 20,000 Wi-Fi hotspots. The touch-screen virtual keyboard includes predictive text, and is customizable to QWERTY or A to Z. Read more

Garmin and AT&T just announced that AT&T will be the wireless network provider for the nuvi 1690, a portable navigation device (PND) with built-in wireless planned for release later this year.

The nuvi 1690 will come with Garmin's nuLink!, a service that will give customers mobile access to Google Local search and up-to-date local information, including traffic, weather, fuel prices, movie listings, flight status, local events, and white page telephone listings. The service also features Ciao!, Garmin's location-based social networking system.

The nuvi 1690 will come with two years of free Garmin nuLink! service, and will have maps of North America preloaded. It is expected to be available in the fourth quarter of 2009 for $499.99. After the first two years of service, the price of the Garmin nuLink! service is $5.00/month. Read more

Garmin just announced two new touchscreen handheld GPS devices – the Oregon 550 and Oregon 550t. These are not your average GPS units. Weighing only 6.8 ounces, they are waterproof, feature a 3-axis compass and include a built-in 3.2 megapixel autofocus digital camera that automatically geotags images.

Along with automatically geotagging each photo with the location of where it was taken, the digital camera in the Oregon 550 features a 4x digital zoom and allows you to take and view pictures in landscape or portrait mode. It also includes 850 MB of internal memory. Need even more memory? The 550 has a microSD card slot for more storage of photos and mapping. Your pictures can also be stored and shared online. Simply connect the device via USB, go to my.Garmin.com, then upload and store the photos on Picasa for all your friends to see. Read more

Garmin today announced a new GPS in their nüvi line – the 1490T. This 5-inch, touchscreen GPS is 25-percent thinner than other nüvi models. In what Garmin calls a "premium automotive GPS device", the nüvi 1490T features free lifetime traffic alerts, lane assist with junction view (for those complicated intersections), automatic time zone transition and a speed limit indicator.

The 1490T makes route planning easy, as it saves up to 10 routes. And to help travelers save money, it comes with ecoRoute, which suggests the most fuel-efficient route. "Shorter distance" and "Faster time" routes are available as well. Bluetooth is also included for receiving and placing phone calls (over 200 Bluetooth enabled phones are supported).

The Garmin nüvi 1490T will be available in July 2009 for $499.99.

Now that cell phones have become many people's primary timepiece, watches survive only by either complementing an outfit or doing more than just telling time. The Garmin 405CX is the latter.

The 405CX is built for the serious exerciser; it has the ability to measure your heart rate, calories burned, GPS location, and, best of all, it will send all of this information to your computer, relieving you of the chore of logging your progress after an exhausting day. This watch enables you to discern how many calories you're burning whether you're running on a treadmill or around the lake, and you'll never have to guess just how far you walked to get to lunch that one day. If you decide to take a detour through the forest and get lost, the GPS system can help guide your or enable you to send your location to any rescuers.

So if you're a gym rat who would prefer fresh air and a tan, the 405CX might be the perfect solution. With a stylish look and multiple wristbands to choose from, you won't look like Professor Frink from the Simpsons, but you'll sure enjoy that kind of brainpower that went into the watch's creation.

Available immediately for under 400 dollars, if the Garmin 405CX fits your niche, it will do so superbly.

With spring approaching there must be time to golf. Garmin has done a great job of bringing their devices to the outdoor recreation and fitness world. This Approach G5 device will make you want to golf if you don’t, and for the golfers out there this device is a must own. The Approach G5 from Garmin is a waterproof handheld 3” touch screen GPS device with preloaded information. The best part about this device is there are NO annual fees for service. The device is ready to go out of the box.

The preloaded U.S. course maps includes thousands of courses outlining fairways, hazards and greens and allows you to easily measure shot distance. There is a digital scorecard for up to four players and the 15-hour battery life will ensure that you can play 36 holes with this wonderful piece of technology.

The Approach G5 conforms to all USGA/R&A rules and has an MSRP of $499. Your golfing buddies may accuse you of playing with your cell phone until you turn in your scorecard.