Garmin

Earlier today I brought you an early hands-on with the Garmin Nuvifone. But where pictures may be worth a thousand words, videos are worth more. Here’s our video of the Garmin Nuvifone in action, so you can make your own judgements on the user-interface.

My fearless booth tour guide did the voiceover, and the background is loud, but you can still make out a bunch of the features as he lays them out for you.
The Nuvifone is due out in the fourth quarter of this year, but pricing and carrier information is not yet known.

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I just had a hands on with the Garmin Nuvifone here at the CommunicAsia conference in Singapore. While the phone didn’t yet have a GPS connection or internet access, because it’s still in a prototype stage, it’s definitely an impressive device.

Its smooth screen has a texture that reminded me a lot of old-school big screen TVs–I couldn’t tell if it was glass or plastic, but it was soft and non-reflective. It’s obvious that the device is very GPS-centric, with tons of icons for applications to help you find nearby points of interest.

The QWERTY keypad looked to be spacious enough for easy typing, and it has auto-word complete on it, so when I typed “happy” the word was already up on the screen by the time I got ot “ha.”

I did notice that the phone had a few kinks that needed to be worked out: some applications didn’t completely load and I was left looking at a blank screen. Two of the units on display were frozen, too, and I managed to freeze a third by attempting to launch the camera. Read on for another photo and more information.

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Yesterday I wrote a post about Garmin’s $99 offer that will give BlackBerry users unlimited access to its GPS software for the lifetime of the device. One commenter asked if BlackBerrys from carriers such as Verizon Wireless that have locked down GPS software could still take advantage of Garmin’s offer.

There’s a two-part answer: you can, but it’ll cost you. Of course, Garmin isn’t the villain here. The carriers are trying to push their own navigation solutions (e.g., VZ Navigator) by locking down the GPS capabilities of phones including some versions of the Curve and phones in the 8800 series.

Here’s the official response from Garmin:

“Customers with locked-down GPS can still use Garmin Mobile, however it will require them to have an independent Bluetooth/GPS receiver, such as the GPS 10x. They can also use a third-party GPS/Bluetooth receiver with our maps. If their BlackBerry has a locked GPS, it’ll be slightly more than $99.99 because they’d have to buy the one-time-purchase $99.99 maps and a GPS/Bluetooth receiver (the GPS 10x is $99.99).”

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Garmin today announced a new GPS plan for BlackBerry users called “Garmin Mobile for BlackBerry.” The software will allow customers with GPS-enabled BlackBerrys to use Garmin GPS software for a one-time $99.99 payment. If you don’t have a GPS-enabled BlackBerry, you can use an external device, such as the GPS 10x, a portable GPS sensor that will communicate location data to your BlackBerry via Bluetooth.

Garmin Mobile will provide BlackBerry users with voice-guided turn-by-turn directions, weather, traffic information, and gas prices. Users can also use the software to find points of interest during trips, including local restaurants or entertainment destinations such as bowling alleys and more. The software will also reroute you, should you miss an important turn while you’re driving, no thanks to the screaming kids in the back of your 1996 Chevy Astro.

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