The phone is expected to become available in the Taiwanese market at first, starting this month. The release date is said to be July 27, meaning tomorrow. In addition, the same handset will be launched in two other countries by the end of next month (August, to be more precise). The two countries are Malaysia and Singapore.

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But the plans made by the Garmin-Asus alliance, if I may call it this way, are more complex than just that. It seems that August will be the month to release another device, the Nuvifone M20, a smartphone based on the Windows Mobile. It is expected to hit several markets, from countries like Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand.

As for the release of both handsets in the European continent, we sure hope that customers will have the chance to buy them by the end of this year.

As for the prices, we don’t know right now the details, but we can wait for tomorrow for new information.

(Source: UnwiredView)

It seems now that the Taiwan-based company persists in announcing Asus-only-branded handsets, despite the alliance between Asus and Garmin.

Therefore, Asus has just unveiled the Asus P835, which is said to be the best PDA phone that one can find in the market, which was “designed for business-savvy professionals”. The design of this new phone is quite simple and elegant, as you can see for yourselves, and it’s based on a better version of the Asus Glide interface, which is said to be “the most innovative, intuitive and interactive mobile user interface available today”. Not to mention the fact that “new Glide has been given a significant facelift over its predecessor, boasting new icons that can take the beauty and interactivity of the interface up a notch – making the best even better”.

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As far as the features are concerned, they include: quad band GSM/GPRS/EDGE connectivity (850/900/1800/1900 MHz), a tri band UMTS/HSPA connectivity (900/1900/2100 MHz) that enables fast HSUPA 7.2 Mbps download speeds and 2Mbps upload speeds, the Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional operating system, an on-screen QWERTT keyboard, a 3.5 inch TFT touchscreen with 65k colors and a WVGA resolution of 800×400 pixels, USB v2.0, Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR connectivity, Opera browser, Wi-Fi Access point, a 5 megapixel camera with autofocus and video capabilities, assisted GPS, Qualcomm 7201A 528MHz processor, an internal memory of 4GB and microSD card slot.

Measuring 115×59x13.8 millimeters and weighing 148 grams, the phone provides no more than 6 hours on 3G networks or 7 hours on 2G networks and up to 350 hours of stand-by time.

Unfortunately, Asus didn’t unveil information about pricing and availability, but we sure hope that we will get to see what the Taiwanese company says it’s the best PDA phone very soon.

(Source: Press release)

The phone is expected to be presented at the 2009 edition of the Mobile World Congress which is to be held in Barcelona.

As far as the features are concerned, they include: a combination between a dual-band 3.5G with a tri-band GSM, Wi-Fi connectivity, internet browser similar to the one used when surfing on desktops, push email, document viewing, Bluetooth connectivity, Garmin sat nav, a full QWERTY soft keyboard, location based services (also known as LBS), Ciao!, “a ground-breaking LBS application that helps users stay up to date on their friends’ whereabouts and status by linking numerous location-centric social networks”, a 2.8 inch TFT touch lens VGA display with a resolution of 640×480 pixels, a 3 megapixel camera with geotagging (it means that the images are given the latitudinal and longitudinal coordinates), integrated microphone and speakers and 4GB/8GB of internal memory.

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As I said earlier, the Garmin cell phone is said to show its face at the MWC 2009 (which is to take place starting next Monday), while details about pricing and availability will be given to the large public by the end of the first semester of 2009.

(Source: Press release)

In the given context, prepare yourselves for the first Garmin cell phone, which will be released under the name of Garmin-Asus nüvifone G60. The device will be equipped with the following features: a quad-band GSM and tri-band HSDPA, a very large display which is touch-sensitive and comes with a virtual QWERTY keyboard, the Garmin-branded software for navigation (it has turn-by-turn directions), pre-loaded maps and a great number of applications based on location, Wi-Fi connectivity, Webkit-based HTML browser and Stereo Bluetooth.

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“We believe that converged devices are an emerging opportunity”, said Dr. Min Kao, chairman and CEO of Garmin LTD. In addition, he said that “this alliance is advantageous to both companies because it allows us to combine our resources and establish a strong foundation from which we will innovate and introduce the world to the benefits of LBS-centric mobile phones. We’ve been working with ASUS for over one year on the initial nüvifone that was announced in 2008 on the basis of an ODM relationship. Learning from this experience, we concluded that by leveraging and combining our respective industry-leading areas of expertise at a higher level, we will be able not only to significantly expand our product line, but also to shorten our product development time”.

If the collaboration between Garmin and Asus was unveiled to the large public during a press conference that took place in Taiwan, on February 4, the first ever Garmin cell phone will be presented at the Mobile World Congress that will be held in Barcelona.

(Source: Press release)

We already know that ASUS was invited to join the Open Handset Alliance and DigiTimes is now reporting that the company is, in fact, planning to launch an Android-based handset. Rumors also say that the device will most probably be released in Taiwan first, under ASUS’s own brand, before selling it overseas.

In other news, the company sources also noted that Asustek plans to gradually phase out EMP-based (Ericsson Mobile Platform) handsets and instead will switch to handset platforms from Qualcomm and Marvell.

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While launching its 3.5G P552w PDA phone in the Taiwan market on October 28, Asustek plans to launch one 3G handset built using Qualcomm’s dual-core solutions in the first quarter of next year, the sources noted. All of this is pretty exciting and even if the handset market is actually crowded, there are many manufacturers who dare to use the Android and to put their hopes up about putting their own unique stamp on the powerful platform. Asustek’s shipments of smartphones in the Taiwan market totaled 30,000 units in the first nine months of this year, and the company expects the annual shipment volumes to reach 40,000 units by year-end.

Now, if you had to choose one company and one company only to produce a Google Android handset, which would you choose?

(Source gadgets.boingboing.net)

ASUS P552w cell phone operates at 624MHz speeds via the Marvell Tavor processor, and comes with the 3.5G HSDPA connectivity for fastest wireless transfers of 3.6Mbps, GPS navigation, Google Maps, and ASUS SMS Location Link that enables your handset to locate another user by sending SMS messages to each other. The SMS messages contain special URLs that link you to Google Maps and it displays directions to the both locations.

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Other features of the candybar handset include Bluetooth, WLAN 802.11b/g, USB, RSS reader, Flickr access, Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, 256MB Flash + 128MB DDR, MicroSD with SDHC support, web browsing, email, push email, Office document management, Java, a built-in 2MP camera with video streaming, and support for tones with special effects.

The new ASUS cell phone comes in black or white measuring 102 x 60.5 x 14.5 mm at 105 grams, and powers from a 1100mAh Li-Ion battery lasting up to 5 hours of talk time or 300 hours in standby mode.

ASUS M536 comes also with AuthenTec’s navigation module, multiple cellular standards support, a full QWERTY keyboard, quad-band GSM, UMTS, HSDPA, GPRS and EDGE connectivities, the Windows Mobile 6 operating system, GPS navigation, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0, a built-in 3MP camera, external VGA camera, e-mail, document viewer, A-GPS compatibility, and sports a 2.4-inch TFT LCD display of 320×320 pixel resolution.
The processor is a TI Omap 2430.

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The Smartphone’s memory consists of 256 MB ROM and 128 MB RAM, while the model features also HC MicroSD port and is powered by a 1200 mAh Li-Ion battery.
It will be available starting July at an approximately price of $850.

The P560 has 128MB of RAM memory, 256 MB ROM, a built-in 3MP camera and a secondary VGA for video calls.

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On the other hand, P320 Galaxi Mini powered by a TI OMAP 850 processor at 200MHz, has same RAM memory as the P560 but 64MB of ROM, and it also features Bluetooth connectivity but no Wi-Fi.

Both models described look cool and are quality products.
Let’s wait for the next ASUS news to find out the detailed specifications, and why not, the possible price.

Asus offered for the public some news regarding its latest Smartphone called Asus M930W, powered by a 520MHz processor, having 256MB of ROM and 128 MB RAM memory.

Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR and Wi-Fi 802.11b/g connectivity are not missing, and more than that, it integrates a 3.2MP camera with autofocus, and support for 3.5G/HSDPA.
The operating system is no other than Microsoft Windows Mobile 6 Professional.

M930W has two displays, a slider-type full QWERTY keyboard inside, a numeric keypad outside, and it can be opened at 180 degrees easily.
Asus didn’t make public any information regarding price or availability.

The silver bar-type PDA is a great media player with support for MP3, WMA, 3GP, AAC, and AAC+ audio files and also a useful browsing device with HTTP and WAP 1.2.1/2.0 support.
Being equipped with GMS/GPRS support, Push E-mail capability, software like IE, Office Mobile, Windows Live and MSN that come together with Windows Mobile 6 Professional operating system, this phone model is the most compact, powerful and full-featured PDA of the moment.

The idea is strengthen by the other features including a Flash memory of 256 MB plus 64 MB SDRAM, Mini-SD expansion slot, support for SDHC, and lots of applications such as Ur Time for watching 4 time zones at a time, Travelog for recording and sharing pictures/routes/POIs/memos, Remote Presenter, Meeting Time Planner, Newstation for real-time news, Location Courier, Backup, GPS Catcher and Auto Cleaner.

Asus P550 measures 121 x 70 x 16.5 mm and weights 188 grams with the 1530 mAh Li-Ion Polymer battery that has a working time of up to 3.5 hours in 3G mode and 5 hours in 2G.