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‘Garmin’ Stories

Garmin-ASUS nuvifone M20: GPS-obsessed WM6.1 smartphone

By Chris Davies on Thursday, Feb 12th 2009 No Comments

As promised, the first new devices out of the Garmin-ASUS partnership are beginning to show their hand. First up is the Garmin-ASUS nuvifone M20, a 2.8-inch touchscreen Windows Mobile 6.1 Pro device with dualband HSDPA, triband GSM and WiFi b/g. In keeping with the pairing’s obsession with location-based services (LBS), GPS and navigation get top billing: it comes preloaded with maps and points of interest (POIs) – hotels, restaurants, stores, fuel stations and more – for North America, Eastern and Western Europe, together with turn-by-turn voice prompts and auto route-recalculation.

garmin asus nuvifone m20

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Patent investigators name Apple as next target; Garmin prior art found

By Chris Davies on Monday, Feb 9th 2009 No Comments

garmin patent dispute Apple’s recent patent award for multitouch and gesture-based interfaces used in its iPhone and iPod touch ranges has flung patent law and prior art contests back into the headlines; now there’s word that a so-called global community working to “legitimize the validity of patents”, Article One Partners, have given a $50,000 prize fund to two researchers that turned up evidence potentially letting Garmin off the hook in a patent dispute of their own. Article One have now launched seven more patent studies, each with cash jackpots, one of which addresses Apple’s touchscreen IP.

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SlashGear Week in Review – Week 6 2009

By Chris Davies on Sunday, Feb 8th 2009 No Comments

toshiba tg01 live 19 sg 194x230 custom Toshiba helped us kick off the week with the announcement of their new TG01 Windows Mobile smartphone: on paper it sounds perfect, with a high-res touchscreen, super-skinny body and all the wireless connectivity you could feasibly ask for, as well as being the first device to deliver NVIDIA’s 1GHz Snapdragon chipset. Check out our hands-on photos and video demos, as well as Toshiba’s own GUI demo, and then try and explain to me why I still can’t get as excited about the TG01 as I think I ought to be.

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Garmin & ASUS join forces for GPS phones: nuvifone G60 coming 1H09

By Chris Davies on Wednesday, Feb 4th 2009 No Comments

Garmin and ASUS have announced a partnership deal to produce a co-branded range of GPS-enabled cellphones, of which the first will be the nuvifone we’ve been waiting for since the beginning of the year. Now renamed the nuvifone G60, the touchscreen handset will be the first in a new range, the Garmin-ASUS nuvifone series, each with significant focus on location-based services.

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Garmin FR60 Fitness Watch with ANT+ wireless sync

By Chris Davies on Friday, Jan 30th 2009 No Comments

Garmin have announced their latest GPS-enabled exercise trainer, the FR60 Fitness Watch. Thanks to the ANT+ wireless fitness equipment standard, the FR60 can track time, calories burned, heart rate and other data from linked fitness equipment, then – with the supplied ANT+ USB stick – wirelessly transfer that information to your PC when it comes into range.

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Kenwood eXcelon DNX9140 touchscreen navigator with Parrot Bluetooth

By Chris Davies on Thursday, Jan 15th 2009 No Comments

Kenwood have announced [via] a set of new in-dash touchscreen navigation and media players, all but one of which include Parrot Bluetooth functionality for using the system as a hands-free kit. The range kicks off with the eXcelon DNX9140, Kenwood’s new flagship, with a DVD player, 6.95-inch WVGA display, integrated Garmin navigation, and voice control. It’s also capable of 5.1 surround sound, via an onboard decoder, and can link to and control your iPod, iPhone or mass storage device.

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Garmin eTrex Legend H & Vista H navigators, plus new BaseCamp app

By Chris Davies on Thursday, Jan 15th 2009 No Comments

Garmin have announced two new portable navigation devices intended for hikers and climbers. The eTrex Vista H and eTrex Legend H both feature a fast satellite receiver, capable of establishing a positioning lock even when under tree cover or in canyons, together with a fast USB interface for transferring waypoints and topological maps. They also each have 24MB of internal storage.

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Garmin releases gallery of nüvifone screenshots

By Staff Editor on Friday, Jan 2nd 2009 No Comments

Garmin has been nothing but a tease when posting all of these Nuvifone gallery pictures. Though these photos are not actual pictures of the handset, they give you a bit clearer picture of what it will be like in hand. The most exciting pictures we came across are the screenshots of various features.

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SlashGear Week in Review – Week 52 2008

By Chris Davies on Sunday, Dec 28th 2008 1 Comment

sony vaio netbook It’s the final Week in Review of 2008, and unsurprisingly it’s been a relatively quiet week what with the holiday festivities taking priority. Hopefully you’ve not spent your entire shopping budget on gifts, however, as there are still quite a few interesting gadgets on the horizon. Notebooks small and large again seized the headlines, with various Sony websites dripping out news regarding the company’s upcoming VAIO netbook. First a January 9th announcement was promised, then the netbook form-factor confirmed, and finally we’ve got spec details. At the other end of the scale, more details of Lenovo’s ThinkPad W700ds appeared, while the mobile workstation itself showed up in photos and on video.

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Garmin dispute sales predictions, pointedly ignore Android device rumors

By Chris Davies on Tuesday, Dec 23rd 2008 No Comments

Garmin have responded to the same Digitimes report yesterday that suggested the company was planning a new range of Android-based devices in the second half of 2009. The primary point of disagreement is in Digitimes’ “sales figures and product rollout schedules”; quoting Garmin’s Asia Pacific marketing director Tony An, the publication claimed that 2008 total sales would amount to 18 million units. Now Garmin appear to be distancing themselves from those predictions, perhaps paving the way for lower performance figures.

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