Garmin-Asus blurs the line between phone and GPS with the A10
There’s no denying it. Our mobile phones are slowly taking over some of the daily duties that were once handled by function-specific devices. My MP3 player is collecting dust in a drawer and I gave my Magellan GPS to my mom. They were replaced with a fancy, multi-tasking, music playing, direction giving Hero.
One of my only gripes with Google Maps (sans Navigation; 1.5…booo), is the lack of…well…maps, when I’m outside of my data area. This happens to me more than you’d think. I can’t search for locations and I can’t navigate to a place, even if I know the address.
Enter the Garmin-Asus A10. The A10 is being touted as a “pedestrian navigation” device, but offers full turn-by-turn navigation in the car as well. There’s also a dock of sorts, that has a built-in speaker.
For those times when walking is the best way to go, the A10 is ideal for city navigation because of its bright, 3.2-inch HVGA touch screen, electronic compass and long-lasting 1500mAh battery. As with other Garmin-Asus Android-powered devices, the A10’s GPS capabilities are optimized to ensure that customers have the best location and navigation experience a smartphone can offer. Detailed maps are preloaded on the A10 so that users do not have to pay and wait for third party maps to download from a server, nor will they lose their turn-by-turn, voice-prompted navigation if they are out of cell phone coverage. In addition to pedestrian navigation, the A10 is ready for use in an automobile out-of-the-box, and it comes with a powered audio mount that magnifies the volume of the device’s voice commands
The device comes with all of the standard Google apps, Exchange support (contacts/calendar/email), a multi-touch web browser and a 5MP AF camera with geotagging. Oh yeah, the A10 also makes phone calls. Sometimes we forget to mention that.
The Garmin-Asus A10 is expected to be available in mid-2010 in Europe and Asia-Pacific.
Do you use a stand-alone GPS unit (handheld or windshield mounted)?
Source: Garmin
Via: Android Guys
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Hmmmmmmmm……..Nokia has been doing this for about 6 months now with all thier GPS phones and FREE OVI Maps with voice nav. It comes preload with a map of the USA and you can download any other place in the world, plus it comes in 25 different languages. Not sayin Garmin does not make fine Nav device however I don't know if I trust them to make a phone.
I will stick with the worlds largest handset maker I mean it needs to function as a phone first right?? Everything else is secondary.
Hmmmmmmmm……..Nokia has been doing this for about 6 months now with all thier GPS phones and FREE OVI Maps with voice nav. It comes preload with a map of the USA and you can download any other place in the world, plus it comes in 25 different languages. Not sayin Garmin does not make fine Nav device however I don't know if I trust them to make a phone.
I will stick with the worlds largest handset maker I mean it needs to function as a phone first right?? Everything else is secondary.
I think this is a general trend, in fact, long ago, many cell phones came with GPS, especially smartphones.
GPS navigation systems have soared in popularity over the last few years, and the increased demand by the general public has left the first-time buyer with a bewildering array of systems from which to choose.
GPS navigation systems have soared in popularity over the last few years, and the increased demand by the general public has left the first-time buyer with a bewildering array of systems from which to choose.