Mobile Phone News

After years of wrong turns, it seems like Garmin-Asus’s nuvifone has finally found its way to a US provider, with two separate sources claiming the nav-enabled handset will be coming to AT&T, and soon. This falls in line with earlier indications that it would be making a slight left turn onto American streets in Q4, and will mark the end of a tortuous journey to retail. Both the G60 with its homemade OS and the Windows Mobile M20 are said to be inbound, meaning you’ll still have a choice to make even if you choose one of these. No confirmation from AT&T just yet, naturally, but we’ll keep you posted.

Sure, we’ve already seen Android pop up on the HP 2133 Mini-Note thanks to some intrepid DIYers, but at this time comes word from The Wall Street Journal that HP’s got programmers looking into using the Google OS officially for an upcoming netbook. VP of the PC division Satjiv Chahil’s quoted as saying they’re in the process of assessing its capabilities, so don’t get your hopes up anytime soon. Also mentioned is Asus, which we already knew about from back in February. Interestingly, the report states that Dell’s been tweaking the software for use in multiple devices due out this year, including a MID and one of those long-rumored smartphones — that is, assuming they make one that can tickle the carrier’s fancy.

Not a lot to go on in this place, but PC World is quoting an “ASUS representative” who says that the Eee Phone will be declare later this year. Unlike the Garmin-ASUS offerings, the Eee Phone would be a low-cost consumer jobbie as previously confirmed by ASUS’ chairman, Jonney Shih. As such, we expect it to have a massive bezel, a cheap, over-sized plastic case and some kind of open-source OS that consumers can’t resist. Hey ASUS, you got lucky with the Eee PC, don’t push it.

Filed under: Handsets