The handset will be first available in Taiwan, starting July 27. By the end of August, the G60 will be launched in Singapore and Malaysia too.

Also in August, Garmin-Asus plans to release the Windows Mobile Nuvifone M20. The smartphone should go on sale in the following countries: Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Thailand.

Navigate Wherever, Whenever

The nüvifone G60 and M20 come with preloaded maps of North America, Eastern and Western Europe, or specific Asia-Pacific regions. Since the maps reside on the nüvifone, customers will receive turn-by-turn voice-prompted directions to millions of destinations without accessing their carrier's data plan. The nüvifone G60 and M20 utilize a real GPS receiver with hotfix, in addition to A-GPS (assisted GPS), so that customers always have directions at their fingertips, regardless of if they are in their provider's coverage area.

Just as with Garmin's acclaimed nüvi® product line, the nüvifone series has millions of preloaded points of interest (POIs) including hotels, restaurants and street addresses. The POIs can be easily accessed for turn-by-turn voice prompted directions. If a turn is missed along the route, the nüvifone G60 and M20 will automatically recalculate a route and get the user back on track. The nüvifone also offers a "Where am I?" feature so that users will know their exact latitude and longitude coordinates, nearest address, intersection, hospital, police station and gas station with one touch of the screen. And to help them find their car in an unfamiliar spot or crowded parking lot, the nüvifone automatically marks the position in which it was last removed from the windshield mount. The nüvifone comes with a unique suction cup mount cradle that fastens to the windshield and will also charge the device while it is being used.

Connect and Communicate

Although navigation is a key component of the nüvifone series, the devices do more than "just navigate." Both the nüvifone G60 and M20 incorporate top-of-the-line phone capabilities with premium features such as 3.5G data connectivity, SMS text messaging, email, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and more.

The nüvifone G60 and M20 have a full HTML browser that customers can easily zoom in or pan with their finger, and pages may be viewed in either portrait or landscape. Users can surf the web on their phone via Wi-Fi or 3G networks, and the pages are presented similar to a PC browser.

Everything You Need

Customers will also enjoy the benefit of location-based services seamlessly integrated with nüvifone's intuitive user interface and turn-by-turn navigation. Users can supplement the preloaded POI data with Internet enabled local searches and automatically navigate around traffic congestion while seeing the estimated traffic delay along their route. Other services include weather, gas prices, flight status, local events, movie times, Ciao!^TMand more (content pricing and availability may vary by country).

The nüvifone G60 and M20 include a built-in camera with auto-focus. The camera automatically geotags images with an 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 geo-tagged image to others. The nüvifone also provides direct access to millions of geo-located landmark and sightseeing photographs available through select picture sharing site, which are searchable and are sorted by the distance from the current location.

Via: Garmin

Garmin reported in their shareholders meeting today that...

...the nuvifone will be released on the open market in Asia this month or early July and said it is "getting very close" to a carrier launch of some models in the U.S.

The delays have been endless, but I hope they are really that close. One reason...I need a new phone!

Yeah if Garmin thought working with carriers was easy, the company was definitely in for a rude awakening. The June/July time frame does jibe with what Reuters reported back in April so it's looking like this little guy may actually see the light of day. We shall see.

via:BGR