What's that, you're still holding your breath waiting for the G60 release? Breathe, child, breathe, it's still going to be a little while before you can get your nav on with this celly. Obviously it didn't make the first half of the year as initially planned, but the Garmin-Asus partnership is now saying that the phone will still arrive at its retail destination before 2010, with some places seeing it in just two months time. Why the delays? Apparently its custom flavor of Linux is at least part of the problem, leading the corporate couple's marriage counselors to suggest a move to Android for all future, non-WinMo handsets -- devices that, contrary to earlier reports, will also launch before the end of the year. So, G60 in August, or potentially even hotter Android nav phone a few months later? Decisions, decisions.

Hey, remember the Nuvifone? Sure you do -- it's Garmin's entry into the wide world of smartphones. You know, the company's Linux-based, proprietary OS phone that's heavy on GPS integration? Well according to a recent report, plans to launch the device in the first half of 2009 have stalled, with the company stating that it will be pushing the window back towards something closer to Q3. President and COO Cliff Pemble expounded on the difficulties of building a smartphone from scratch during a conference call with analysts, noting "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." If you'll recall, the original announcement of the Nuvifone was way back in January of 2008, with a planned release in Q3 of that year -- placing this new launch a full 12 months out from the intended street date. We're all for competitors in this market, but it seems like maybe the folks at Garmin jumped the gun with all these dates they've been dropping on us -- missed launches don't exactly promote confidence.

[Via PMP Today]

Lazarus be praised! The last time we heard about ASUS' P565 was back in February, when we mourned its sad and supposed demise. Turns out that's not the case, as we've now got a hands-on with the GPS / PDA phone from Polish site ASUSPDA, who claims (at least via machine translation) that it's been on sale for several months. The plethora of product / unboxing / interface pics look mighty legit, and as for the impressions, the reviewer seems very quite fond of it. Compliments are given for its general performance and design, though he does note the Glide interface isn't as seamless as you'd expect with a 816MHz processor inside. If you're interested in finding out for yourself, it looks like you can order the GSM / WCDMA-enabled device from Qbit for around $566.

[Thanks, Jackob]

Read - Unboxing
Read - Product page

We've been waiting on pins and needles for confirmation, but it looks like an all-too-vague Reuters report actually is referring to the Garmin-Asus nüvifone G60. After a senior company official noted that a "Linux-based operating system" would be used in one of its two smartphones, we pinged Garmin directly to cut through the mystery and get down to the meat. What we were told was this: "The Garmin-Asus nüvifone G60 has a proprietary Linux-based OS, and we're still working towards delivering the nüvifone G60 in the first half of 2009 in limited markets, which haven't been named yet." Of course, the tandem is quickly running out in months in that window, so we're pretty jazzed to be all up on top of an imminent release. Now, if only we knew where those patience pills made off to...

[Via Boy Genius Report]

Last we checked, Mobile World Congress ended a few days ago, but evidently ASUS doesn't mind a bit. Out of nowhere, the company has just introduced its newest Windows Mobile 6.1 (boo...) smartphone, the P835. Without a doubt, the two standout features here are the 3.5-inch WVGA (800 x 480) touchscreen and support for HSUPA 7.2Mbps downloads. The handset comes loaded with Opera Mobile for web surfing, a trackball, the company's new and improved Glide user interface, a battery good for six to seven hours of talking, a 528MHz Qualcomm 7201A processor, 4GB of internal storage, a microSDHC card slot, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, USB 2.0 connectivity, aGPS and quad-band GSM compatibility. You'll also find a 5 megapixel AutoFocus camera and video recording, and beautifully enough, the phone can double as a WiFi access point to share its blazing fast connection over WiFi with up to ten devices. As ASUS always does, we're left high and dry when it comes to pricing and availability. Full release is after the break.

Even a solid year after its announcement, we still don't have an exact price or date for the nuvifone G60 -- but we do have a little bit better of an idea of what exactly we're going to be getting. We already knew that it'd feature a 3.5-inch (well, 3.55-inch, to be exact) display and HSDPA, and now we know that it'll feature the same Ciao! buddy-finding software found in its M20 stablemate. There'll be a 3 megapixel autofocus cam complete with geotagging, WiFi, preloaded maps for either North American or Eastern and Western Europe depending on your region, and dummy-resistant tools like "Where am I?" that should be familiar to current nuvi users. The interface looks promising -- and the specs are still reasonably competitive by 2009 standards -- but all will be revealed when the G60 gets put through its paces in a few days.

We'd been secretly holding out hope that Garmin-Asus would pull an Android piece out of its pocket in time for MWC next week, but it's looking pretty unlikely with the announcement of the M20. The second model in the nuvifone series following the G60, the new piece runs Windows Mobile 6.1 and features a 2.8-inch VGA touchscreen, quadband EDGE / triband HSDPA up to 7.2Mbps, WiFi, Bluetooth, and -- naturally -- Garmin-provided satellite navigation. You'll also find support for real-time traffic, weather, movie times, and other tidbits of information you're probably interested in when you're navigating, either 4 or 8GB of onboard storage, and a service Garmin is calling Ciao! -- basically a friend-finder along the lines of Google's Latitude. Look for pricing and availability to be announced in the first half of the year.

We knew the nuvifone was an ASUS-sourced piece, but who knew the partnership was going to run so deep? Garmin and ASUS have joined hands to create the Garmin-Asus strategic alliance with the goal of designing and producing a whole line of co-branded handsets. The first model will be what we've come to know so well over the past year simply as "the nuvifone," but it'll be branded as the nuvifone G60 by the time it actually comes to market in the first half of the year. Several Garmin-Asus phones are expected in 2009, and it sounds like the second model in the series will be announced at MWC later this month. Now, wouldn't it just be great if we had a G60 here that we could use to navigate to Barcelona?

There's not a lot of meat here, but we like where it's headed: ASUS CEO Johnny Shih talked up the company's "two-pronged" approach to mobile devices last night, which apparently includes a unit that can be "put in the pocket, play MP3s, offer GPS services, works like a PDA and offers Mobile TV altogether" -- with the other prong being the Eee PC, we would guess. When asked about plans to use Android, now that the company is a minted member of the Open Handset Alliance, Shih said that they're looking into using the OS on the already-hacked Eee PC or the Eee Phone (hopefully both!), and that they're big iPhone fans -- we'll just let our imaginations run with that one.

[Thanks, Neerhaj]

Every once in a while we're reminded that Garmin's Nuvifone -- announced nearly a year ago -- still exists, and this time around it's none other than the FCC doing the reminding. The curiously-named "Calf" from ASUS turns out to be the Nuvifone once you click through to the label diagrams, and test documentation reveals that 3G is being tested on both Bands II and V -- that's North America-friendly 1900 and 850MHz, for those who aren't up to snuff on their spectrum terminology. With gub'mint certification under its belt, maybe we can push that 1H 2009 release window to 1Q, eh, Garmin?

[Thanks, cl347bv]

The Open Handset Alliance just made a major score with 14 more members: AKM Semiconductor Inc., ARM, ASUSTek Computer Inc. (previously rumored), Atheros Communications, Borqs, Ericsson, Garmin International Inc., Huawei Technologies, Omron Software Co. Ltd, Softbank Mobile Corporation, Sony Ericsson, Teleca AB, Toshiba Corporation and Vodafone. That's not quite everyone that matters, but pretty darn close. Were we to climb not-very-far onto the limb of conjecture, we might posit that Garmin might be looking at Andoid for its much-delayed nuviföne, or some sort of followup, while the emergence of an ASUS "Eee Phone" or a XPERIA X1 running Android (Sony Ericsson may very well be the biggest win here, consumer-wise) would be welcome moves from those manufacturers. We'd say at this point the holdouts are starting to stick out more than the actually OHA members, which spells good things for the industry no matter what specific hardware is the fruit of this relationship... but seriously guys, build us some more Android phones.

Oftentimes, it's difficult to remember that ASUS is in the handset game at all, and don't think for a second that ASUS isn't well aware of that fact. According to undisclosed sources, said outfit is looking to ramp up its reputation and seriously take on the likes of HTC next year by pumping out no fewer than ten handsets, almost all of which will boast 3G and a touch user interface. There's no definitive word on what operating system(s) will be relied upon, but we'd say it'd do ASUS good to get an Android-based mobile out in the States if it wants to seriously roll with High Tech Computer. Oh, and three cheers for competition.