Man, talk about awful timing. At least TomTom and Navigon were able to sell a few rounds of their pricey iPhone GPS application before Google went and ruined everyone's day (at least in the GPS biz), and now that Google Maps Navigation is but an approval away from hitting iPhone users for free, we've got serious doubts about Telmap's ability to market its newest product. Utilizing NAVTEQ maps and familiar shells like MapQuest Navigation (in the US) and Orange Maps (in France), the company seems quite proud of its newest routing solutions. Oh sure -- there's live traffic, turn-by-turn guidance, in-car and pedestrian modes, etc., but is anyone really doling out cash for a phone-based routing system right now with Google at the wheel? Exactly.

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.

Can you believe it? No, seriously -- can you believe it? Nearly two full years after its surprise introduction to the world, the nüvifone G60 is finally coming to US shores. In an official press release outed today, the Garmin nüvifone G60 has been blessed with an October 4th launch date on AT&T. Oddly enough, nary a mention of "ASUS" or "Garmin-Asus" is found, but regardless of semantics, you can bet that it'll be looking for buyers this Sunday. The internal GPS chip and 3 megapixel, auto-focusing camera will enable users to geotag photos and emails and navigate using the same heralded user interface that folks rely on today with the company's standalone PNDs. You've already pounded the specifications into your head by now, but the last figures you'll need to know are these: it'll run $299 on a two-year agreement after a $100 mail-in rebate, and if you're hoping to access Premium Connected Services -- which includes traffic updates, white pages, weather, movie, local events and fuel price content -- you'll be forking out $5.99 per month after the 30-day trial expires. So, after all of this, who's in?

Oh, brother. TomTom just hit us up with the real details on its iPhone car kit slip this morning, and we've got a feeling you won't like what it has to say. It confessed that the posting was indeed a mistake, and thus, the pricing was also incorrect. If you'll recall (c'mon, it wasn't that long ago), the Apple store listing explained that the £99.99 car kit included the iPhone app, when in reality, that price definitely does not include the app. Jump on past the break for TomTom's official statement, which now curiously states that the "iPhone 2G" will be compatible with the car kit, yet doesn't mention the iPod touch at all.

October 19th may be under a month away, but that's still an eternity in "waiting years." Thankfully, Motorola has posted up a handy guide that spells out exactly what kind of pre-loaded software comes with the CLIQ, and we've got to say -- the list is fairly impressive. For starters, users will get access to LastFM, an array of Google features, Yahoo! Mail (funny, real funny), Digg, Mint, Facebook, Twitter, Travel Channel, MTV and Amazon's MP3 Store. On top of all that, Moto's throwing in QuickOffice -- a piece that demands $9.99 on the iPhone -- as well as TeleNav Navigator, which has also found itself on a few other Android-based smartphones over the centuries. Hit the read link for the full list, but only if you don't mind the tease.

[Via Phandroid]

With Garmin-Asus' nüvifone G60 already on sale in Asia, it makes sense to hear that said smartphone will soon make its way over to North American soil. Of course, it also made sense to think that this thing would be launching on AT&T about forever and a day ago, so we're not holding our collective breath just yet. At any rate, Garmin recently made abundantly clear on a quarter-end conference call that the GPS-infused handset is in the final testing stages with an undisclosed amount of US carriers, and if all goes well, it'll hit the streets in Q4. What's crazy is that every last specification remains unchanged from when it was announced back in January of 2008; meanwhile, Apple has shipped two new iterations of its iPhone, Android has blown up significantly and even Motorola and Palm have seemingly resurrected themselves from the grave. Knowing all that, will anyone even bother to show up to snag one in "just a few months?"

TomTom told us that its long-awaited iPhone navigation app and in-car mounting kit would be landing "this summer," and at least on our watch, summertime is quickly drawing to a close. If a pre-order listing over at Handtec is to be believed, it looks as if the outfit is exceedingly close to finally having both the software and hardware ready for shipping. The £113.85 ($194) asking price includes a suction mount for your iPhone as well as the mapping software, though there's no indication of exactly how much the app and hardware will run by themselves. Of course, until the iPhone supports multitasking, using it as a dedicated PND is still a risky move; one stray call during a pivotal moment in your travels and you can consider yourself lost. Oh, and then there's the fact that this thing has a TomTom logo on it -- if the iPhone app functions anything like the company's high-end GO 740 LIVE, we'd say you're better off asking Mr. Gas Station attendant (or buying a different brand).

[Via DaniWeb]

TeleNav has already launched its subscription turn-by-turn navigation service for the G1, so it stands to reason that official myTouch 3G support would be close behind -- and sure enough, the company has announced that its GPS Navigator app will be available for download to T-Mobile's second Android device starting tomorrow, August 5. The app features all of the goodies that TeleNav users have come to know and love, including traffic and incident monitoring with automatic rerouting, gas prices, business information, and a choice between 2D and 3D maps; additionally, you've got automatic day / night coloration, carpool lane and tollroad avoidance, and speech recognition for destination input -- a big plus when you're on the road and you need to keep distractions to a minimum.

We've been playing with a cut of GPS Navigator on our myTouch recently, and it delivers a totally usable car navigation experience -- a perfect complement to the comprehensive pedestrian capabilities of Google Maps. Most of the warnings from our G1-based review of the application carry over here -- you need true GPS reception, not merely cellular triangulation, so your phone will need a view of the sky to have a shot at picking up satellites (this also means that getting a location lock is a more time-consuming process, though it typically didn't take longer than a few seconds to do its thing). We're not digging how the colored lines that convey traffic information on highways flash; we'd rather they just stayed a solid color, the way most GPS systems handle it. We also found that the menus are a little wonky -- bringing your finger in contact with a menu item and swiping up or down to scroll would occasionally trigger the first item you touched, which ends up being a fairly annoying bug in practice. All told, though, if you can justify the expense, your $10 a month is going to net you a genuinely reasonable way to consolidate all of your help-me-I'm-lost needs -- whether by foot or by car -- into a single device.

The launch of AT&T Navigator on the iPhone this week is likely the highest-profile turn-by-turn navigation launch to hit the platform to date, notably becoming the first "premium" AT&T-offered service to be made available through the phone -- which, until now, has generally (and uncharacteristically) remained free of carrier crapware since day one. Reviews are mixed, with one of the big complaints being that maps are pulled down over your network connection in real time -- then again, this is common to virtually every carrier-branded nav solution, so we can't fault the iPhone version there. The app itself is free, but using it will run $9.95 a month on top of your regular bill -- a far cry from the goose egg Sprint is charging Pre customers for the use of Sprint Navigation which offers essentially the same level of functionality. Add in the fact that TomTom's got a much sexier (albeit bulkier and more expensive) solution in the works for this, and frankly, we're not sure this thing's going to see much success; probably worth a try, though, right? [Warning: iTunes link]

[Via AppleInsider]

While the world waits for a tried-and-true navigation app from Apple, XRoad is taking advantage of the situation by offering up its G-Map app in the interim. Kicking Tires decided to take the new software for a spin, and while the map quality took a pretty harsh beating, the overall offering was highly praised. More specifically, not every street name was present during testing, meaning that you had to rely implicitly on the turn-by-turn instructions if you weren't familiar with your surroundings. Outside of that, however, it seemed to nail all the important points. Accuracy, routing, ease of use and design were all smiled upon, and it seems critics gave the street name snafu a bit of a break with the hope of future updates solving the issues. If you're still a touch hesitant to drop your hard-earned cash, give that read link a gentle tap.

[Thanks, Ronald]

Let's face it -- we love it when our mobile makes our lives easier, and according to a quick and dirty review over at Gadling, that's exactly what the Public Transportation piece of the updated Google Maps app does. Upon straying out into San Francisco with only clothing, an iPhone 3G, a few coins and a destination address, reviewer Grant Martin was able to figure out exactly what steps / stops needed to be taken, how long the journey would take and how costly it would be. All without visiting a website or hunting down a route schedule. Overall, he was pretty jazzed about the possibilities, though he does caution that the actual mass transit systems you use could inevitably let you down. Any of you given this a go? Love / detest it?

While Verizon Wireless isn't exactly following hot on the heels of AT&T with its purported Global VZ Navigator, phoneArena has it that the carrier's BlackBerry Storm will become VZW's first handset to support the software later this quarter. Not that such news is a big shock given the worldly capabilities of this here smartphone, but it's still good news for globetrotters who'd rather not carry a dedicated PND. We're told that the service will go for $20 per month, with Mexico, Canada, France, Italy, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom being supported right out of the gate.

At long last, iPhone users who have grown increasingly frustrated by using Google Maps as their primary navigational tool can find relief... sort of. Available right now in the App Store, XRoad's G-Map application requires no internet connection whatsoever in order to function; rather, it packs oodles of maps into a 932MB package that covers most of western America and a few sporadic locales on the east. We're a bit baffled (and angered) by the not-at-all-comprehensive coverage, but we suppose we can expect updates to patch the gaps in the near future. It provides most of the same amenities you're used to seeing on real-deal GPS units, including POI editing, memo capabilities, location searching, etc. A word of caution, though: early reviews don't seem too stoked about it, so you may want to gloss it over good before hitting your card for $19.99.

[Thanks, Karel]

Man, a lot -- a lot -- has happened in the mobile space since Garmin went public with its then-mesmerizing nüvifone. Nearly a year later, it's become but a blip on the radar behind the Touch HD, G1, XPERIA X1 and iPhone 3G. Nevertheless, Garmin has come out and reaffirmed that the long-awaited handset will actually not be delayed once more, and that the "first half of 2009" shipping estimate is still valid. Let's just say that $500+ price tag we saw floating around back in May better be substantially lower whenever this thing finally gets around to hitting up a store shelf.

After an April launch, AT&T's significantly extending the reach of its AT&T Navigator service with the announcement today that a new Global Edition of the software will provide nav capabilities in 20 countries. That's probably welcome news to globetrotting businessfolk that happen to carry one of AT&T's GPS-capable worldphones -- and businessfolk seem to be exactly the demographic they're targeting with a healthy $19.98 monthly charge for the pleasure of not getting lost worldwide. Much of western Europe, the Caribbean, and six Chinese cities are on the roster, and the carrier is quick to point out that those cities will all be hosting Olympic events -- so, you know, if you need to make it from dressage to the 100-meter dash as quickly as possible, those might be the best 20 bucks you ever spent.