guys,,,i'm a little wary.

my experience with mobile google on my cell has been unimpressive. IT IS VERY OUTDATED, with info on places that have been close for 25 years. It doesn't even have the correct chase atm info in my neighborhood and I live in new york city!!!!

the point is this, i think the info stored on my nuvi350 is way better and more up to date. certainly, google may have more variety in it's searches, but for broad category info like food and atm's  etc etc, i think garmin provides better data.

so my question is this,,,,does the google search in the nuvifone replace the garmin search on my 350?

10% off your order..........code = phantom10 (lower case)

PhantomSkinz is the latest in Optically Clear Protection for Cell Phones and PDA’s.  Exclusively designed for your Garmin Nuvifone, PhantomSkinz will provide superior protection against “everyday” scratches, dings and debris. Our design team has years of experience and balances “maximum coverage” against “ease-of-installation” to give YOU the optimal combination. Simple and easy to follow instructions assure you that your Garmin Nuvifone will maintain that “like new” look.

PhantomSkinz are made from Durable “Self Healing” film technology that allows most dings and scratches to “heal” after a 24 hour period.  Warranty…PhantomSkinz offers a Lifetime Product Replacement Warranty!

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Found something on Forbes.com from earlier this week about a lawsuit Garmin was involved in around the phone, and at the end it says the release has moved to next year now.

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2008/09/05/ap5393863.html

I own two Garmin Rino 520 which use for navigation literally every week. The interaction is on the units are great and well thought out. Never has it frozen on me or anything un-expected.

I am looking forward to purchasing one of the nuvifones for myself when it comes out. I have wanted one ever since having such a great experience with their other products. It was upsetting when they announced the delay from 3Q 2008 till 2Q 2009. I hope Garmin does sell the nuvifone with a carrier which sim locks the phone. The task of unlocking the phone once it is purchased is a big headache and also puts software on the phone which can cause the phone to act in ways that was not intended.

Garmin should release the source code on this unit so that developers can produce applications for it and sell the software via the Garmin.com website. Involving developers in the deployment of software increases the mass appeal of the phone, gives the population at large a bigger stake to gain with this unit and allows the developers to be rewarded for their labour. Look at how the evolution of the iPhone has gone thus far and take a page out of their book.

This phone sounds great, but it can not take on the i phone until it comes out. all reports say the third quarter of this year, well we are in the third quarter and if it were out it would stop many people from going to the iphone and the instinct.  i am waiting for the nuviphone because i love garmin products. I update to newer ones all the time.  How can i be told when it is ready for purchase and the name of the carrier and the price of the phone and the price of the phone service.
thanks
wsob

IS THERE A WAY TO BE EMAILED WHEN THE NUVIPHONE IS READY FOR PURCHASE AND EVERYTIME INFO ABOUT THE NUVIPHONE IS LISTED SOMEWHERE. 

The Garmin nuvifone is actually the closest iPhone-clone I’ve seen announced stateside. It runs Garmin’s proprietary OS, has the same 3.5-inch LCD display as the iPhone, HSDPA (wahoo!), quad-band, WiFi, Bluetooth and GPS. Click over to read the rest of the press release.

Garmin nuvifone takes on the iPhone

Garmin(R) nuvifone(TM) Takes Personal Navigation and Communication to the Next Level
Garmin nuvifone takes on the iPhoneNEW YORK, Jan. 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Garmin International Inc., a unit of Garmin Ltd. (Nasdaq: GRMN) and the world’s leading GPS manufacturer, today announced its entrance into the mobile phone market with the nuvifone, an all-in-one, sleek and slim, touchscreen device that combines a premium phone, mobile web-browser, and cutting-edge personal navigator. The nuvifone is a work of art in features, design and functionality and is destined to transform how individuals connect, communicate and navigate their life.

“The nuvifone is an all-in-one device offering unmatched integration of utility and function in a single mobile device,” said Cliff Pemble, Garmin’s president and COO. “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.”

The nuvifone is an innovative mobile phone that has a wide range of advanced yet easy-to-use features. The all touchscreen device is the first of its kind to integrate premium 3.5G mobile phone capability with an internet browser, data connectivity, personal messaging, and personal navigation functions in one device. When powered on, the 3.5-inch touchscreen display reveals three primary icons — “Call,” “Search,” and “View Map” which allow the user to effortlessly master the nüvifone’s functions.

garmin nuvifone

The nuvifone is the ultimate multi-tasker. Calls are easily initiate by tapping the “Call” button and selecting a name from the contact list of by using the on-screen keypad. When the user is trying to juggle talking on their phone while entering their vehicle to start a trip, the nuvifone makes the transition simple. When the nuvifone is docked onto the vehicle mount, it automatically turns on the GPS, activates the navigation menu, and enables hands-free calling so that the user never misses a beat in the conversation and is able to begin routing to their destination with ease.

Customers familiar with Garmin’s industry leading nuvi(R) product line will feel right at home using the nuvifone’s personal navigation features. It includes preloaded maps of North America, Eastern and Western Europe, or both, and allows drivers to quickly find a specific street address, establishment’s name or search for a destination by category using the nuvifone’s built-in database with millions of points of interest. Turn-by-turn, voice-prompted directions guide the user to their destination. If they miss a turn along the route, nuvifone automatically recalculates a route and gets them back on track, speaking the names of the
streets along the way.

The nuvifone is Garmin’s first device to include Google local search capability, which harnesses the vast point of interest information available from the world wide web. Nuvifone users can search for locations like “coffee shops” and Google will sort the results based on the user’s current location and relevance. Information provided by Google includes a web-based rating so that users can select the most appropriate destination and route directly to it. In addition, the nuvifone includes a web browser incorporating premium features and touchscreen operation for an optimum mobile browsing experience. The nuvifone also includes personal messaging functions, including email, text, and instant messaging.

For the ultimate in safety, the “Where am I?” feature lets users touch the screen at any time to display the exact latitude and longitude coordinates, the nearest address and intersection, and the closest hospitals, police stations and gas stations. The nuvifone also helps drivers find their car in an unfamiliar spot or crowded parking lot by automatically marking the position in which it was last removed from the vehicle mount.

In addition to navigation, the nuvifone includes access to Garmin Online(TM), an online service offering constantly-updating information such as real-time traffic, fuel prices, stock prices, sport scores, news reports, local events and weather forecasts.

The nuvifone also includes numerous mobile entertainment applications. The built-in camera allows individuals to take a picture that will automatically be tagged with the exact latitude and longitude reference of where the image was taken. The user may then save the image so they can navigate back to the location, or email the image to a recipient who can navigate directly to the location. The nuvifone also provides direct access to millions of geo-located landmark and sightseeing photographs available through Google’s Panoramio picture sharing site. The Panoramio photo search feature enhances the enjoyment and adventure of sightseeing in an otherwise unfamiliar location. Other multimedia functions of the nuvifone include a built-in video camera, MP3 and MPEG4/AAC.

Whether you love it or hate it, there’s no denying that Apple’s iPhone has yet to be trumped as the ultimate cell phone, even though more than half a year has gone by since it launched in June 2007. While an array of similar-looking competitors have cropped up, none have perfectly nailed the iPhone’s style or capabilities, and its reputation has gone unscathed. But plenty of companies are still looking to undertake the challenge, and the latest models to appear show even more promise, thanks to all the additional time in the R&D incubators.

Garmin recently came out of left field with its own attempt to take on Apple, which it has dubbed the Nuvifone. Having never actually produced a mobile phone before, few expected that Garmin would enter the market at all, much less try to tackle the king of the hill with their first entry. But the company will attempt to do just that with the Nuvifone, a touch-screen multitasker with stats that equal, and in some cases improve upon, those of the iPhone.

Much like the competitor that clearly inspired it, the Nuvifone features a slim rectangular profile with a touch screen covering almost its entire face. Only a top speaker and bottom microphone share the front, while on the right-hand side, the Nuvifone gets a hard up and down scroll button to round out its otherwise Spartan exterior.

 

GPS Screenshot
Image Courtesy of Garmin

 

Not surprisingly, a GPS receiver forms the core of many of the Nuvifone’s features. Besides providing basic in-car navigation functionality as Garmin’s other GPS units do, the GPS receiver also ties into the Nuvifone’s functionality in other ways. For instance, pictures taken with the built-in camera are automatically geo-tagged with GPS coordinates to capture the location they were taken in. Users can even mark the location of say, a car in a parking lot, then use the phone to navigate back to it, or press “Where am I?” to instantly display coordinates, plus the nearest address and intersection, and the closest hospitals, police stations and gas stations.

Of course, the phone also provides wireless Internet access – and it will be far faster than the iPhone’s. The Nuvifone sports 3.5G HSDPA Internet access, a standard which supports theoretical download speeds of up to 14.4 megabits per second on capable providers. By contrast, the iPhone’s EDGE access has a theoretical limit of only 236 kilobits per second. While neither are likely to actually hit these speeds in real-life scenarios, the vast disparity between them illustrates the enormous gap between technologies.

 

Garmin browser screenshot
Image Courtesy of Garmin

 

To make use of this pumped-up Internet access, the Nuvifone gets a browser and e-mail client, plus Garmin’s own online portal, which offers real-time traffic, fuel prices, stock prices, sport scores, news reports, local events, weather forecasts, and other data. Google Local has also been integrated, allowing users to look up locations on the Web, then have them plotted on Garmin’s own mapping software for finding them from the road. (An automotive dock will be available at launch, to make navigating while driving a practical affair.)

The Nuvifone also gets an ultra-simplistic interface, which is somewhat reminiscent of the iPhone’s. Enormous icons have been designed for easy navigation, even while driving, and the phone’s start-up screen features three initial options: call, search, and view map, with a handful of others on a smaller menu cast off to the side.

Right now, available information about the Nuvifone’s is still incomplete, and arguably the most important factor – price – hasn’t yet been entered into the equation. More details should be forthcoming before the phone’s anticipated launch in the third quarter of 2008. But from what we already know, the Nuvifone appears to hold plenty of promise. For those who dismissed the iPhone because of its sluggish Internet access or lack of practical value, the addition of 3.5G HSDPA and robust GPS navigation may make the Nuvifone a worthy competitor, and a possible

Today in a surprise announcement in New York City, Garmin whipped out the nuvifone, a full-fledged GSM HSDPA smartphone built on its own operating system with GPS navigation at its core—but e-mail and web browsing close to its heart, and a camera built in too. No pricing or carrier announcement has been made yet, though its likeliest compatible network is AT&T given the technology. (When T-Mobile launches HSDPA, it too will be suitable, and possibly more attractive than AT&T.)

Features include:
• Google local search
• Garmin Online services - traffic, weather, fuel prices, hotel discounts, etc.
• nuvi-like navigation on the road or in pedestrian mode
• Email, text, IM functions
• Camera, video camera, MP3 and MPEG4/AAC

Garmin is promising to deliver it in the 3rd quarter, and says that while the PND market isn't dying, the cellphone is clearly a ripe opportunity. Only one problem, as quipster and NPD analyst Ross Rubin pointed out: "Hello and Welcome to nuvifone!" Damn, now I'll never get that voice out of my head. Have a look at all those pictures and the official press release below.