The Garmin Nüvifone is a line of

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

-enabled

mobile phone A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link whil ...

and

personal navigation device A Personal Navigation Assistant (PNA) also known as Personal Navigation Device or Portable Navigation Device (PND) is a portable electronics, electronic product which combines a positioning capability (such as GPS) and navigation functions. Some ...

s manufactured by a partnership between

Garmin Garmin Ltd. (shortened to Garmin, stylized as GARMIN, and formerly known as ProNav) is an American, Swiss-domiciled multinational technology company founded in 1989 by Gary Burrell and Min Kao in Lenexa, Kansas, United States, with headquart ...

and Asus. It makes use of a

touchscreen A touchscreen or touch screen is the assembly of both an input ('touch panel') and output ('display') device. The touch panel is normally layered on the top of an electronic visual display of an information processing system. The display is often ...

with

virtual keyboard A virtual keyboard is a software component that allows the Input device, input of characters without the need for physical keys. The interaction with the virtual Computer keyboard, keyboard happens mostly via a touchscreen interface, but can also ...

s and

buttons A button is a fastener that joins two pieces of fabric together by slipping through a loop or by sliding through a buttonhole. In modern clothing and fashion design, buttons are commonly made of plastic but also may be made of metal, wood, ...

Description

Nüvifone is a 3G hybrid handset that can be docked into a vehicle mount. Once snapped onto the vehicle mount, it can automatically enable the embedded GPS navigation and simultaneously enable hands-free calls. It is featured with a

geotagging Geotagging, or GeoTagging, is the process of adding geographical identification metadata to various media such as a geotagged photograph or video, websites, SMS messages, QR Codes or RSS feeds and is a form of geospatial metadata. This data u ...

built-in camera that can help recipients of the geocoded photograph trace to where the photos were taken.

History

The Nüvifone product was announced on January 30, 2008 and only a prototype (presumably not fully functional) was available at the time. According to the first press release by Garmin, it was expected to be made available to market in the third quarter of 2008. A later speculation pointed to the second half of 2009. In February 2009 it was announced that the Nüvifone would be launched as the Garmin-Asus Nüvifone G60, as part of a series of forthcoming Garmin-Asus Nüvifone devices. In the United States

AT&T AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile tel ...

was the exclusive carrier for this model Nüvifone. At the same time, the Garmin-Asus Nüvifone M20 was announced for the

Windows Mobile Windows Mobile is a discontinued family of mobile operating systems developed by Microsoft for smartphones and personal digital assistants. Its origin dated back to Windows CE in 1996, though Windows Mobile itself first appeared in 2000 as Pock ...

operating system. This has a 640x480 pixel VGA touchscreen, running Windows Mobile 6.1, offering triband

GSM The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) is a standard developed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to describe the protocols for second-generation ( 2G) digital cellular networks used by mobile devices such as ...

/ EGPRS + HSPA and

WiFi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio waves ...

connectivity, plus an accelerometer, a 3MP camera, 256MB of RAM, 256MB of ROM and 4GB (8GB in some territories) of storage. The processor is a

Qualcomm Qualcomm () is an American multinational corporation headquartered in San Diego, California, and incorporated in Delaware. It creates semiconductors, software, and services related to wireless technology. It owns patents critical to the 5G, 4 ...

7200A chip operating at 528 MHz. The device contained Ciao! — Garmin's location-based social networking application. The A10 and A50 Garmin-Asus Nüvifones were built on the Android platform, allowing users the purchase of connected service like traffic information and other accessories, plus the choice of installing thousands of free additional applications from Google Market. In Australia, the A50 Nüvifone was made available exclusively through the

Optus Singtel Optus Pty Limited (commonly referred to as Optus) is an Australian Telecommunications in Australia, telecommunications company headquartered in Macquarie Park, New South Wales, Australia. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Singapore, Si ...

carrier, coming onto the Australian market in August 2010. It came complete with an in-car cradle for using it as a GPS and supporting Garmin's "PhotoReal" junction view. In 2010, Garmin announced it would stop making nüvifones altogether.Garmin to stop offering cell phones

List of Garmin cell phones

References

External links

Pocket Picks photo gallery from MWC 08

Pocket Picks photo gallery from MWC 09
{{DEFAULTSORT:Garmin Nuvifone Smartphones Garmin mobile phones

Description

History

List of Garmin cell phones

See also

References

External links