nuvifone G60

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 ASUS have announced that they will be coming out with co-branded GPS-enabled mobile phones in 2009 – the Garmin-Asus nüvifone series. All Garmin-Asus nüvifone devices will be LBS-centric devices that connect, communicate and navigate. The first device, the touch screen Garmin-Asus nüvifone G60, is expected to be available in the first half of 2009.

LBS functionality in the nüvifone G60 gives you turn-by-turn, voice-prompted navigation features like those found on Garmin portable navigation devices. The nüvifone devices will have preloaded maps and millions of points of interest – search by street address, business name or for a destination by category. The nüvifone G60 also includes quick access to online points of interest through internet enabled local search. It also includes a social networking application, Ciao!, that allows you to connect to numerous compatible social networks on one device.

More information will be announced at the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona, Spain, February 16-19, 2009.