My two cents is that Pogue nailed it, as he often does (disclosure: I was a minor contributor to his iPhone "Missing Manual" book and got one free, autographed copy for my trouble [g]).
Where he really gets it is when he notes how many areas the nuviphone falls short in other than nav. Recent studies show that iPhone users are consuming fewer voice minutes than many other smartphone customers (OK, this may be a reflection of AT&T's lousy call quality too) and I know that I use mine as a pocket computer much more than a phone.
As such, it would make a less than perfect GPS and so I am happy with it for computing and my nuvi for nav.
-dan
- Nüvi forum moderator - Nüvi 760 in an Audi A3 2.0T & BMW F800 ST (350 & 680 stolen/recovered!) / Supporting a Vespa trek: >> details << Language Guide / US Topo / GPS III+ / MacBook with OS X & Win XP / Cape Cod, MA
This is getting horrible reviews as a phone. The navigation feature is secondary.
The tech bloggers really hate despise the PND form altogether. Every roll out is an excuse for them to put another nail in its coffin. They hate TomTom the most though. They loved the Dash which was a disaster because it had some techy features not supported by their map provider yet.
As a heavy user of gps I couldn't disagree more but if I was a light user the updated maps and real time traffic from a good smartphone app would do the trick for $10 a month.
Does anybody know how long manufacturers and carriers typically contract to carry a phone? For example, is their likely a US exclusivity agreement between Garmin and AT&T for one year? Or are they longer or shorter? I will probably get one of these eventually, but I am assuming that AT&T will offer these for how ever long the contracts specifies and then quit carrying it. I had always sort of hoped that this would be offered as an unlocked phone in the US, but I doubt that will ever happen. I suppose my best bet is to buy one used from Ebay in the future. Also, I see that it can be purchased from AT&T without a contract for $549.99 or from Amazon for $499.99. Is it pretty unlikely that the no commitment price would ever come down? I have even though about buying one from another country if it has Google Local Search. Do you guys think that at this point there is anything Garmin could do to boost sales of this? Would waiving the additional fee for premium connected services and adding Google Local Search back in help much?
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[TOPIC] Garmin nuvifone launched US and Europe
Posted - 08 oct. 2009 : 20:25:50
