If you waited on the iPhone because you knew that Garmin was coming out with a new device that would offer some real competition to it you’re going to have to wait a little bit longer.
Garmin had originally scheduled the buttonless, touchscreen nüvifone to come out about this time but has delayed the release due to cellular network preparations taking a little bit longer than expected. Garmin has pushed the nüvifone release to sometime in the first half of 2009.
Cliff Pemble, Garmin’s president and COO says that, “The nüvifone is an all-in-one device offering unmatched integration of utility and function in a single mobile device, this is the breakthrough product that cell phone and GPS users around the world have been longing for - a single device that does it all.”
He’s totally right on that one! But I think what we’re all looking for as well as network choice and the ability to use the device the way that we want to unfettered by the need to use a certain provider on a certain type of network - One of the great downfalls of the Apple iPhone.
The nüvifone obviously has mobile phone capability with an internet browser, data connectivity, personal messaging, and personal navigation functions in one device. What really sets it ahead of the iPhone in terms of GPS Navigation is that Garmin includes their own turn by turn voice prompted navigational software while the iPhone still has to rely on a speachless Google Maps GPS interface which you also have to use a data connection for.
Since the nüvifone is a real mobile device it has an intelligently design docking mode - when the nüvifone is docked onto the vehicle mount, it automatically turns on the GPS, activates the navigation menu, and enables hands-free calling. When you take the nüvifone off of the vehicle mount it automatically marks the location of your vehicle - so you’ll be able to get back to it no matter how big the parking lot.
The nüvifone includes a built in camera that has geotagging capabilities - this means that the image has the latitude and longitude information stored inside the picture so programs can read the information and map it in a geographic location. Of course the NuviFone also features a built-in video camera, MP3 and MPEG4/AAC capability.
So let’s hope that this one won’t be locked onto any specific network and we’ll all be able to use the device as if it were our own.
Additional information about nüvifone is available at www.garmin.com/nuvifone.
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