Hasta La Gadget!

TomTom’s Car Kit for iPhone has returned to the UK Apple Store, according to Engadget, with a shipping time of 1-2 weeks. That means it’s probably going to hit the U.S. very soon.

Should you be excited? I wouldn’t be. There was plenty of back and forth over just what TomTom was including in the package. Unfortunately, it turns out not much, as a disclaimer now spells out quite clearly on the UK store site:

The TomTom app for iPhone is not included with the TomTom Car Kit. The Car Kit dock is compatible with all iPhone models, but the TomTom app only works with iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G.

In other words, it’s a mount and a speaker for $120. Add $100 for the TomTom iPhone app, and you could buy yourself a better-performing, Editors’ Choice-winning, 3.5-inch TomTom One 140-S with almost a hundred bucks left over.

There she is. 20 months and 1 day after its original introduction to the world, the Garmin-Asus nüvifone G60 is at long last in our (admittedly sweaty) palms. The highfalutin’ smartphone isn’t slated to hit AT&T shelves until this Sunday, but we were able to wrangle a retail unit early in order to bring you a sneak peek at what’s to come. Frankly, we’ve been looking forward to this day for a long (long!) time. We’ve got a soft spot in our hearts for the Garmin navigation UI, and we have to say, that very same look and feel has been beautifully migrated to the mobile space. Upon unwrapping the phone, we were struck by just how classy the whole thing looks. It’s plenty thin for being a GPS-turned-phone, light enough to not weigh you down and sturdy enough to somewhat justify the $299 (on contract) price. We did some brief browsing around, and everything felt satisfactorily snappy. The resistive touchscreen had some expected give, but by and large screen presses did exactly what we wanted ’em to in our limited testing. We’re aiming to give this bad boy a serious critiquing over the next few days, but for now, feel free to peruse the absurdly detailed gallery below.

Filed under: Cellphones

Garmin-Asus nuvifone G60 unboxing and hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Oct 2009 12:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well, that didn’t take too long or anything. After almost two years of delays, Garmin and AT&T have announced that the nuvifone G60 will be available in AT&T stores and online at www.wireless.att.com beginning October 4th for $299 with a two-year contract and after a $100 mail-in rebate.

That sounds expensive, considering the iPhone 3GS in the glass case next to the nuvifone G60 will be cheaper. But check this: the nuvifone G60 integrates an actual Garmin GPS navigator with a 3.6-inch touch screen and a full-blown voice, data, and mobile Web-capable device. It comes loaded with millions of points of interest (POI) as well as maps for U.S. and Canada. In another first, the company is also bundling a dashboard and windshield mount in the box.

The nuvifone G60 includes text-to-speech capability for speaking street names, and offers one-step navigation to address book contacts. It also includes what the company calls “a real GPS receiver with Garmin’s HotFix technology and assisted GPS,” which should hopefully mean that it locks down even in the middle of nowhere. Be assured that I will test that.

Other cell phone-like features include a 3-megapixel auto-focus camera, an HTML-capable Web browser, 3G and Wi-Fi radios, and a touch-screen virtual QWERTY keyboard. Nuvifone Premium Connected Services add real-time traffic, white pages, weather, movie, local events, and fuel price comparisons for $5.99/month on top of that. Stay tuned.

TomTom has already delivered its LIVE services to an array of its higher-end personal navigation devices, but now the company is pushing the Google love onto less expensive siblings. Er, one less expensive sibling. The mid-range XL 340S LIVE has just been launched, complete with Google-powered Local Search, real-time traffic information, real-time fuel prices, local weather and the company’s own IQ Routes, which gets you from one point to another via the most efficient route possible. Essentially, this is simply a 4.3-inch (320 x 240 resolution) XL 340S with connected services, and as with Garmin’s latest, said services are being provided courtesy of AT&T. Unfortunately, the $299.99 asking price only includes three months of LIVE; after that, you’ll be shelling out $9.95 per month and hating every minute of it.

Filed under: GPS

TomTom pushes Google services to mid-range XL 340S LIVE originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Sep 2009 10:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Starting in November, use of your cellphone’s GPS navigation capabilities will be illegal for drivers on New Zealand roadways — dedicated SatNav devices without voice capability are still ok. In fact, use of your modern cellphone as an in-vehicle MP3 player, compass, etc. will all be illegal under Road User Amendment Rule 2009. Here’s how it reads currently:

“A driver must not, while driving a vehicle, create, send, or read a text message on a mobile phone or make, receive, or terminate a telephone call on a mobile phone or use a mobile phone in any other way.“

A law this broad would also make your car’s integrated cellphone entertainment system illegal. There are exceptions of course, one of which allows drivers to use a mobile phone to make, receive, or terminate a telephone call if the phone is mounted in the vehicle and the driver “manipulates the phone infrequently and briefly,” even though studies have already concluded that hands-free solutions are still distracting and thus, dangerous. Yeah, the whole thing sounds arbitrary, over-reaching, and completely unenforceable to us as well.

Update: Put down the pitchforks and torches, it looks like the law is already en route for amendment to allow cellphone “satellite navigation or music functions.”

[Via Stuff, image courtesy of joannapapa5100]

Filed under: Transportation

New Zealand making drivers with cellphone navigation criminals, hugs ok for now (updated) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Sep 2009 05:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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