Garmin Begins Shipping the iQue 3600
Garmin International announced today that the iQue 3600 began shipping this week to leading electronics retailers and traditional Garmin dealers within the United States. The iQue 3600 is the first PDA with integrated Global Positioning System (GPS) technology. It runs Palm OS 5 and carries a suggested retail price of $589.
The iQue 3600 is the first PDA to feature a built-in GPS antenna and integrated turn-by-turn navigation software. Using an ARM processor powered by Palm OS 5, the iQue 3600 combines Garmin’s proprietary Que technology with the unit’s Address Book and Date Book. The integrated result is that users can look up an address or appointment on their iQue 3600 and navigate to it using the mapping function, following turn-by-turn, voice-guided directions to their destination. Their progress is presented digitally on the device’s color display.
The iQue 3600 is powered by Motorola's 200 MHz DragonBall MXL microprocessor, it has 32MB of RAM, an SD memory expansion slot, and a 320x480-pixel transflective TFT display with more than 60,000 color combinations. The handheld measures 5.0" x 2.8" x 0.8" (72 x 128 x 20.3 mm) and weighs 5.2 oz.
The iQue 3600 marks the first in a series of planned future products that will combine Garmin’s expertise in location technologies with open mobile computing platforms, such as the Palm OS. Early enthusiasm for the iQue 3600 provides an indication of additional opportunity in the PDA market that the company wishes to capture. Based on this market potential, Garmin is shifting its R&D focus from CDMA and follow-on GSM handsets to devote more engineering resources to the development of products based on open mobile computing platforms, including those enabled with Bluetooth technology and other wireless capabilities. Garmin will monitor long-term opportunities in the wireless market and will continue product enhancements in support of international consumer sales of the NavTalk GSM as well as opportunities in vertical applications as they arise.
The iQue 3600 earned the prestigious "Best of Innovations" Award in the Mobile Office category of the Innovations 2003 Design & Engineering Showcase competition at this year’s International Consumer Electronics Show. The iQue 3600 won acclaim for its form, function, value and marketability.
Find the best price on a Garmin iQue 3600
Thanks to Reggie from ClieSource and Gauarv for the tip
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Garmin iQue won't syn with Mac OSX
RE: ....
http://www.pdastreet.com/forums//showthread.php?threadid=22568&goto=newpost
Better Hurry up!
Garmin does need to be way ahead of them to sell. They already got thier future costumersall pist of because of all this waiting. One month ago this would be great for them they had no competition, now they got to figth it with the TT2 and the shadow of the TT3.
RE: Better Hurry up!
PALM III, PALM 150, VISOR PRISM, SONY CLIE SJ30 All of them working.
RE: Better Hurry up!
Captain T
"You will never make progress trying to sail into the wind - chart your course!"
RE: Better Hurry up!
But, sadly, disappointing news for developers.
From the tone of some new comments on their iQue developer page, either they've heard my gripes here, or I'm not the only one complaining... I suspect the latter. ;-)
Two specific disappointments:
Given their "pre-signup" of developers since January, I have heard SQUAT from them. Absolutely nothing. This does not bode well. It looks I'm going to have to exersize some "connections" to get a halfway decent price on development bucks, markers I would prefer not to call.
The second is more onerous - the new FAQ on the developer's page for the first time mentions what is going to be available from the Garmin API - and it's not much. The obvious Palm OS hardware issues are covered, such as screen control (soft Graffiti, etc.) and the thumbwheel. The disappoinment is that the GPS information is apparently limited to basic positioning data, and there is no access to the map rendering engine. Rats.
Garmin, you are missing your opportunity to be a bigger player in GIS. 3rd-party applications can be your salvation here if we had a decent mapping engine. Are you going to continue to cede this market to Trimble?
RE: But, sadly, disappointing news for developers.
If not, they may have lost a customer...
coop
RE: But, sadly, disappointing news for developers.
"Most boaters are quite familiar with the term NMEA, the acronym for the National Marine Electronics Association. This is the organization that established the NMEA 0183 data standard used by marine electronics manufacturers worldwide. A very confusing coincidence is that the highly similar term NEMA is the acronym for the National Electrical Manufacturers Association. NEMA is a self-regulating industry body that publishes standards for industrial enclosures. These standards identify the level of protection a particular electrical enclosure may provide. For instance, a NEMA 4 rating signifies an enclosure designed for indoor or outdoor use, and one that provides a degree of protection against wind-blown dust and rain, splashing water, hose-directed water, and damage from external ice formation. Autonav's new daylight and sunlight viewable LCDs are examples of products sealed to NEMA 4 standards."
------------------------------
- Steve Smith
A physicist is the atoms' way of thinking about atoms.
RE: But, sadly, disappointing news for developers.
Which does beg the question about other GPS information, such as altitude, DOP (dilution of precision), degrees from magnetic north, and so on and so on... things we take for granted from GPS systems. The Magellan Springboard API has access to all this data (or at least the information that can be used to calculate it). Incidentally, the Magellan's output is *not* in NMEA format, but presented as Palm OS database structures.
Anyway, what I was griping about was apparent lack of access to the map rendering code - the low-level efficient stuff they use to draw their maps on the screen. I wrote my own many years back, but, frankly, it stinks in both appearance and performance because of the rather poor drawing tools available in Palm OS. With the Garmin, I'd rather concentrate on the GIS portion of the applications than spend yet more time reinventing a wheel that's already there. I already know that clients are going to immediately compare my maps to the high-quality maps that work with Garmin's internal software, and from the way things seem to be developing I'm going to have to throw my hands up with a "I'd love to use theirs but they won't let me".
:-(
Possible Garmin smartphone on the way?!
"As it plans new devices, Garmin is also shifting its research and development efforts from CDMA and follow-on GSM handsets to open mobile technologies such as Bluetooth, according to the company."
http://news.com.com/2100-1041_3-5053592.html?tag=cd_mh
If Garmin can add BT or cdma/gprs functionality to future iQue's, I would be extremely impressed!!
Visit http://goodthatway.com/
-better living through better technology.
Addenum:
Quote:
"In a statement released today, the company said it is dropping plans to create mobile phones with integrated GPS receivers. Instead, it will develop products like the iQue 3600 with built-in wireless networking technologies, such as Bluetooth.
At the initial announcement of this handheld, Garmin representatives said the company had dropped plans to integrate Bluetooth into this model when ran into difficulties with it interfering with the GPS receiver. Still, it believed the problems could be overcome with more time."
Well...wireless handheld can still mean integrated BT or cdma/gprs IMO. It obviously will be more pda-centric than phone-cenric, but that's OK when the main purpose is to have GPS functionality...
Visit http://goodthatway.com/
-better living through better technology.
bluetooth probs can be overcome
Personaly I am excited to hear some head to head reviews between the integrated Garmin solution and a one of the 2-3 bluetooth solutions mentioned above.
Sweet!
So does anybody know what the best deal is out there to get one of these?
-------------------------------------------------------
currently using Palm m125 and waiting for Garmin iQue.
RE: Sweet!
mmm virtual grafitti
the software
Anyone?
SDIO?
"began shipping this week" - uhh... to whom?
I *must* have one for my business because GPS/PDA is my professional specialty (like you can't figure this out from previous postings!), but tell you what - Garmin is not making any friends among anybody who is dealing with them for the first time. It has been one excuse after another.
>-(
RE:
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