On the back of the nuvifone G60 announcement (the linux smartphone, first announced roughly a year ago), Garmin-Asus have announced a 2nd nuvifone, the M20.  Now, this phone is a Windows Mobile 6.1 device, so it looks like it’s come more from the Asus end of this joint venture, but running a version of Garmin’s Mobile XT.  The specs include a 2.8″ touchscreen display, HSDPA up to 7.2Mbps, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, support for real-time traffic and weather (we’re waiting for confirmation whether these will be available in the UK), 4 or 8GB of storage, and Garmin’s Ciao! service, which is their social networking application.

More details and prices will be revealed at a later date, although we may see more detail next week at MWC.

Garmin and Asus have announced a strategic alliance, which will design, manufacture and distribute co-branded location-centric mobile phones under the Garmin-Asus nüvifone brand.  They are planning to launch a number of handsets this year and the Garmin-Asus nüvifone G60 (previously Garmin nüvifone) will be the first to be formally launched in two weeks time at MWC (Mobile World Congress), the trade show in Barcelona.

Garmin hope this model will be shipping in the first half of 2009, and have stated it will offer location-based services such as the Garmin navigation software, connected local search and Ciao, “a social networking application that bridges the gap between multiple location based social networks and integrates them seamlessly into one device”, which certainly sounds interesting.

We’ve covered the Asus Eee PC range many times before, but above is a variant of the 901 with built in 3G support.  Orange will supply this to you for free in exchange for a £25 per month 24 month contract.  The Eee PC 901 comes with Windows, 16Gb of Flash Memory, with (according to Orange) five hours of battery life, an integrated webcam, and features an 8.9″ compact design, weighing in at just 1.1kg.  It’s available in Black or Pink.

It comes with the “Internet Everywhere” tariff, which includes 3GB of data per month (well done to Orange for not using the “unlimited” word) and 100 texts direct from the laptop.

This should be available from the Orange Shop soon, although it was not yet available at the time of writing.

Maplin have reduced the price of the Maplin minibook between now and 24th December. Instead of the RRP of £169.99, it’s now just £139.99. Maplin have offered discounts on this small netbook before, but this is the largest discount we’re aware of. Also available from that webpage is a downloadable Wi-Fi patch for the device to deal with wireless connectivity problems. From that webpage there is also a link to CnM Lifestyle, from where you can download system restore tools, a few extra applications and games, and even a driver for the Huawei E220 USB Modem for 3G access.

This may not be as feature rich as the Asus Eee PC units, but price wise it certainly may serve as a device for kids to have internet access.

Here’s an interesting device from Asus.  The Asus AiGuru SV1 is a dedicated videophone for Skype.  It features a 800 x 600 display, built in mic and speaker (although there are sockets for both to plug in your own), and it can connect directly to the network via Wi-Fi or Ethernet.  It doesn’t need a PC to be turned on, and even features a limited battery to allow you to move it around.

It should be available in October, although exact UK pricing is not yet available.

In other Skype news, the Unlimited Europe deal has been expanded again, and now additional covers Moscow and St. Petersburg, and still only costs €3.95+VAT per month.  As well as adding these to the Unlimited World deal, it has been expanded even further to also cover Buenos Aires and Córdoba (Argentina) within the €8.95+VAT per month cost.

As well as offering low price laptops, the Chief Exec of Asustek has stated that Asus intend to provide 20GB of free online storage to all users. They are also hoping to offer free downloads of music, movies and educational or gaming software for a limited time (which maybe around 3 months from purchase).

Picture courtesy of linitx.com.

After the Asus Eee PC, here comes Maplin with their own equivalent.  The Maplin minibook has a quite impressive spec:

• Small on price and very small on size – ultra compact and just 650g!
• Ideal for web surfing, email, word processing and spreadsheets
• A perfect travel or business companion with built in Wi-Fi technology…be truly mobile
• 7-inch TFT widescreen screen and stylish piano black finish casing
• Easy to use Linux operating system
• 3 x USB 2.0 ports
• Stereo speakers and built-in microphone
• Touch mouse pad
• Email and Office (word processor and spreadsheet program)
• PDF viewer
• SD / SDHC Card reader
• 10/100Mbps Ethernet port
• 2GB SSD (soild state disk) shock proof storage
• Expand the storage with USB or SD Flash Memory (not external hard drives)
• Supports up to 4GB SD cards and 4GB USB sticks
• Multi-theme display (Child or Adult mode)
• DDR2 128MB memory
• AC adaptor / charger
• Complete with Xip office applications
• 12 month warranty

Even better, it’s on special offer during August at £169.99, and will be £219.99 from 3rd September.

The latest rumours are that Asus are planning to provide longer lasting batteries for their Eee PC range to allow “All day usage”. Now, “All day” means different things to different people, and we suspect it means some different again to marketing folk, but this bodes well for the Eee range. No word as to whether these will only be available for new devices, or whether they will be available for existing devices.

Of course, if you can’t wait, there are already third party extended batteries available…

Story and picture courtesy of Eeeuser.com.

Well, it appears there are shortages of the Linux variant of the Asus Eee 901 in the UK at present. What’s caused this you might ask…? Despite the rumours that it’s Microsoft putting pressure on Asus, Asus have revealed it’s caused by Intel not being able to supply enough Atom chips, which is limiting supply. Why is it only affecting the Linux variant? Simply these are more popular, and hence selling faster!

In other Asus news, Asus have revealed the pricing of all of the new variants; the 901 is £299 (20Gb SSD Linux or 12Gb SSD Windows XP variants), the 904 (basically a 900 in the 1000 case) is £269 (80Gb HDD Windows XP), and the 1000H is £349 (80Gb HDD Windows XP) or £369 (40Gb SSD Linux).

Finally, Asus have produced this chart (above) which compares the different units.

Some content courtesy of Register Hardware and Mobile Computer Magazine.

We’ve already covered the Asus Eee Box PC a couple of times before, including listing out the specs of the device. However, Asus have now confirmed the UK price.  It looks like the UK price will be £199, which will include the device with the 80Gb Hard Disk, Windows XP, a keyboard and mouse, but no monitor.  For that price, we expect it’ll be the 1Gb RAM version, and probably without the optional Bluetooth module.