Garmin announced its first GPS phone, the nüvifone, at the World mobile congress in Barcelona. It's a sleek looking device, featuring a 3.5” display and it’s a phone, personal navigator and Web browser all in one. It is a quad-band GSM mobile phone with UMTS, which is compatible with the latest in 3.5G networks around the world (read HSDPA). The nüvifone also includes Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity.
The nüvifone's 3.5-inch touchscreen display greets users with three primary icons — “Call,” “Search,” and “View Map” — and four secondary icons — “Browser,” “SMS”, “Email” and “Tools.” When the nüvifone is docked onto the vehicle mount, it automatically turns on the GPS, activates the navigation menu, and enables hands-free calling so that the user can continue their conversation and route to their destination with ease.
The nüvifone's built-in camera has Location Message Service (LMS), which tags every location with the 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 image to a recipient who can navigate directly to the location. In addition, the nüvifone provides direct access to millions of geo-located landmark and sightseeing photographs available through Google's Panoramio picture sharing site.
