Isaiah's Tech

After many delays it looks like AT&T will be releasing Garmin-Asus' Nuvifone G60 and Nuvifone M20 handsets. These rumours actually line-up with what we've been hearing before, so it should be no surprise. The Nuvifone M20 did just hit Taiwan two days ago, so it's not like it's been around forever. As of right now, we don't have an exact release date for either handset, but we're going to go with Q4.

[Engadget Mobile]

We knew that the Garmin-Asus Nuvifone M20 was hitting Taiwan in August, but we didn't have an exact release date. Well, now we do. It'll be hitting Taiwan on August 19th - and will also be spreading to the Asia-Pacific market "over the next few months, as well as Europe in the second half of 2009." In case you forgot the Nuvifone M20 has: a 2.8-inch resistive touchscreen display, a 3MP AF camera, dual-band HSDPA support, WiFi b/g, Bluetooth, and GPS support. However, this WinMo handset's price is still unknown. It's launching in two days so just be patient - if you want it that badly.

Update on August 19th: I didn't feel like writing another blog post about it, but this handset is now available as expected.

[Slash Gear]

Garmin-Asus has just announced that they will start selling their Nuvifone G60 in two days, July 27th, in Taiwan. Afterwards, it will hit Singapore and Malaysia next month, alongside the Nuvifone M20. The Nuvifone G60 will also hit the US sometime in the second half of this year; unfortunately, the Nuvifone M20 will not hit the US, but it will hit Europe in the second half of this year as well. The Nuvifone G60 has been delayed many, many times and I'd figure that some people out there have already lost interest.

It's been a while since I mentioned anything about either of these handsets, so I'll briefly go through the specs for you. The Nuvifone G60 has quad-band GSM / tri-band HSDPA support, a 3.55-inch resistive touchscreen display, a 3MP AF camera, WiFi b/g, Bluetooth, and GPS. This handset runs on a customized Linux build and has 4 hours of talk-time.

The Nuvifone M20 is a smaller version of the G60. It has: a 2.8-inch resistive touchscreen display, a 3MP AF camera, dual-band HSDPA support, WiFi b/g, Bluetooth, and GPS. Unlike the G60, this handset runs on WinMo 6.1.

The price for both of these handsets is still unknown, but it will be available in just two days.

[Slash Gear]

The Garmin-Asus Nuvifone G60 has been delayed for a while now, but apparently it is finally going to get launched next month (August) in Singapore. The Nuvifone M20 is also launching next month, but I wonder who cares at this point. I'm sure some people do, so the launch is scheduled to be "within 30 days." Mark it on your calendars... if you really feel like.

[Engadget]

Garmin-Asus' first entry into the smartphone world hasn't been too pleasant so far. Engadget points out that the Nuvifone G60 was announced in January 2008 and was expected to be released in Q3 of that year. Last month, we heard that Garmin-Asus pushed the release date back to June, but now they have just announced further delays. They are now expecting to release this smartphone in Q3 of this year. That comes out to a grand total of 12 months of delay for the Nuvifone G60 aka the GPS with phone capabilities. If the smartphone ever gets released, it will run on a customized Linux OS and will be "heavy on GPS integration." By the way, this probably means that the Nuvifone M20 will also be delayed.

[Engadget]

That's the latest rumour on the street. Instead of including GPS into cell phones, this will be a GPS with phone capabilities. Confusing? Not really, once you wrap your head around it. The Nuviphone G60 that was shown off at MWC could be available as soon as this June. The handset's specs are still fairly unknown, but the Nuviphone M20 should be available shortly after the G60 gets released.

[Tech Radar]

The phone that blows. Actually, the phone you blow. Apparently, by blowing into the phone by Pantech you will be able to play their 'girl games' that include blowing a flower and watching the pretty petals float away. Lame-o. This so-called "Wind Recognition" will allow you to navigate through your phone's photos and videos by blowing into the device. "During a call, you can blow into the mic to send your companion an emoticon." I think that's kind of disturbing since i hate when people blow into the phone, so if i'm on the other end of that call, it better be one badass (first ever swear word in this whole blog!) emoticon. What a joke.

A new rumour has leaked that if you purchase Windows Vista, Ultimate, Business or Home Premium (or a PC with it pre-installed) anywhere from July 1, 2009 - December 31, 2010. You will get a copy of Windows 7 for free, as an upgrade. This wide date range could change, so don't be too surprised if that end-date of December 31, 2010 changes. If this is confirmed by Microsoft, i'll blog about it, so don't worry. Just hold off on gettng your Vista copy. Microsoft, of course, has denied that they've announced something like this. But, i don't doubt it happening.

These are the two new Acer models; the DX650 and the X960, left and right, respectively. Both these phones have "GPS, HSDPA, WiFi, Bluetooth, miniUSB, and [a] microSD card slot." They also have the same 533MHz Samsung CPU stored inside of them. Let's talk about the differences between the two now. You may notice that the DX650 (left) has two images, that's because it has 2 sides to the phone. One side has the 2.8-inch touchscreen display and the other side has a 1.27-inch OLED display. The DX650 also has a 2MP camera. This phone is pretty thick when you take a look at its side view. You can always check out more pictures at the extra links below. The X960 has the same 2.8-inch touchscreen display that the DX650 has, but it has a higher resolution which is at 640 x 480. The X960 has a 3.2MP camera, so it's an improvement over the DX650. Both phones are thick and running WinMo 6.1. These are both quite disappointing phones, in my opinion.

I recently talked about the Garmin-Asus alliance and how they are producing the Nuviphone G60. It looks like their alliance seems to be working well because there has been word on their next phone, the Nuviphone M20. The M20 has a 2.8-inch touchscreen, a 3MP camera, Bluetooth, GPS and WiFi. This phone will come with your choice of 4GB or 8GB on-board storage. This phone will come in 4 colours: yellow [gold?], red, blue or black. Unfortunately, you won't have your choice of changing the OS, which is WinMo 6.1.

2 new N97-based touchscreen smartphones have recently been leaked. They both have a similar design to the N97 and it's actually quite easy to get them confused. I actually had to watch the video 3 times to finally see the phones because i thought it was the N97 at first. In the video below, you will see what may be the Ivalo and the Madeleine (codenames). "Ivalo [left picture] is supposed to pack a 3.5" wide touchscreen, 32GB ROM [storage], AGPS, FM transmitter and receiver, 5MP camera, WiFi, TV-out and Bluetooth." No slide-out QWERTY keyboard will be available with the Ivalo. The Madeleine [right picture], on the other hand, will have a design exactly like the N97 except that the D-pad is moved to the right side; the N97's D-pad is on the left side. Beware, the N97's specs are actually superior to the Madeleine's. Madeleine will have the same slide-out QWERTY, WiFi, GPS, etc. But, the Madeleine comes with only a 3.2MP camera; the N97 has a 5MP camera. I actually like the design of these 3 (N97 , Ivalo, Madeleine) phones because i love the way the Nokia N97 originally looks. I think it's also good that Nokia is capitalizing from this amazing design. There will be more word at MWC this weekend. Enjoy the video below, via YouTube.



Pantech IM-S410 (and picture): http://i.gizmodo.com/5152164/pantech-im+s410-the-first-phone-operated-by-stank-breath
Free Windows 7 Upgrade: http://lifehacker.com/5152151/buying-vista-this-summer-could-mean-a-free-windows-7-upgrade
Acer DX650 and X960 (and pictures): http://www.gsmarena.com/live_shots_of_upcoming_acer_dx650_and_acer_x960_show_up-news-791.php
Garmin-Asus Nuviphone M20 (and picture): http://www.gsmarena.com/garminasus_announce_a_new_gps_phone__the_nuvifone_m20-news-789.php
2 New Nokia N97-Based Touchscreens (and picture / video): http://www.gsmarena.com/two_touchscreen_nokia_phones_leaked_by_nokia_look_promising_-news-790.php
2 New Nokia Touchscreen Leaked (video link): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzuKGaqkO8c