Garmin Nuvifone delayed again

Though I know that the Garmin nuvifone actually exists--I have held it in my hand--I'm beginning to think it's like the proverbial carrot held over a poor horse's head. Every time we think we're getting closer, the GPS phone magically recedes farther into the distance.

Twice Mobile reported last week that Garmin President and COO Cliff Pemble announced yet another delay for the handset. During a first-quarter earnings conference call, Pemble said the phone should now go on sale in the second half of this year, which would make it a year late. Pemble said that building the phone is proving to be difficult. "Smartphones are complicated and bringing one to market that's built totally from the ground up on a custom Linux platform is not an easy task," he said.

We first heard about the nuvifone more than a year ago and we got our first glimpse of a prototype at the GSMA World Congress in February 2008. At the time, Garmin promised that the phone would be out at the end of last year, but last July the company delayed it until the first half of 2009. Then last February, we got our first hands-on with the nuvifone after Garmin announced a partnership with Asus to produce a series of nuvifone models.


As the first half of the year is ticking to a close, we were wondering if Garmin would make good on it's last word. Sadly, that's not the case, but we hope that it won't happen again.

Via CNET Crave

T-Mobile G2, T-Mobile G1 v2 details surface

While the Android 1.5 Cupcake update is on its way to T-Mobile G1 owners, the bigger question on some people's minds is when we're going to see a new Android device here in the US. The HTC Magic, which was first introduced at GSMA 2009, has launched in several European countries, and Canada will get its Android devices in June, so how far behind could we be?

Well, according to the Boy Genius Report, July will be the hot month. BGR posted what it says is Wal-Mart's roadmap of upcoming mobile phones and under the July column is the lovely HTC Sapphire (another internal name for the Magic) for T-Mobile. It's expected to go for US$179 with a two-year contract and interestingly, the Sapphire appears to have a better camera than the Magic: 5 megapixels versus 3.2 megapixels.

Also in Android news, TMOToday found a new iteration of the T-Mobile G1, called the T-Mobile G1 v2 (codename Bigfoot), which features a similar slide-out QWERTY keyboard as the G1 but in a much more attractive design. BGR later found the smartphone on the Wal-Mart document with a slated October release and US$148 price tag, which adds some credence to the story, but here's hoping that we get some official announcements soon.

Via CNET Crave

ViewSonic announces plans to make 3G smartphones

Dell aside, seems like computer peripherals maker ViewSonic also wants in on the 3G smartphone industry. If we sound a little cautious here, that's because the market which the California-based outfit is diving into is dominated by Apple, HTC, LG, Nokia and Research In Motion.

The company plans to introduce its smartphone first in China, followed by Europe and the US, which ViewSonic claims to be a "natural extension" of its 3- to 300-inch product lineup, from handhelds to LCD TVs and projectors. We welcome competition since that would theoretically drive innovation, but we are keeping our fingers crossed on this one.

Via Engadget and Business Wire

Google's plans for Android's YouTube

As part of a series of blog posts, Google has released more information this week about some of the goodies we can expect out of version 1.5 of the Android operating system, which has been going by the code name Cupcake, and which wireless carrier T-Mobile is expected to push out to U.S. customers at the end of next week. High on the list of upgrades is the ability to record videos and upload them to Google-owned YouTube.

Based on what we can ascertain from Google's introductory video, shooting a video on the Android 1.5 platform will be nearly as straightforward as taking a photo--except that after framing the picture, you'll need to turn the recorder on and off. After taking the video, you'll be able to share it via e-mail or MMS, or as a YouTube upload. You'll have the chance to type in a title and a caption, and set the viewing access as public or private before sending your recording on its way.
Read more »

X1 was "a kind of experiment"; PlayStation phone "could happen"

In an interview with the Financial Times, Sony Ericsson president Hideki Komiyama spoke candidly about his difficult task of turning the company around and said the Windows Mobile-based Xperia X1 was "a kind of experiment".

The mobile phone company has seen sales slip drastically over the past year. While the economic downturn played a part in this, it was also due to the manufacturer's inability to keep up with the growing importance of smartphones over regular mobile phones.

The discontinuation of its Symbian-based interface, UIQ, meant that the X1 was the only smartphone in its 2008 lineup that had a widely used OS. Unfortunately, a single high-end model was not enough to turn things around, and this was further exacerbated by the fact that there are many other popular Windows Mobile devices on the market from established brands such as HTC and Samsung.

Komiyama plans to rectify this by selling at least two new smartphones in 2009 based on other companies' operating systems. We have already seen the first of these, the touchscreen Series60 Idou, unveiled at the Mobile World Congress earlier this year.

Aside from talking about smartphones, he also admits that a PlayStation mobile phone "could happen", a reversal of the official denial that Sony Ericsson would issue each time such rumors arose.

Via Electronista

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