Garmin looks to be bringing a bit of a more personal experience to some of their devices, partnering with Boston-based uLocate to bring the popular Where application to a selection of unnamed navigational devices.  This looks to be huge for both parties.  Not only does Garmin benefit from Where’s rich variety of widgets, everything from Yelp’s restaurant reviews to GasBuddy’s gas price comparisons to Facebook, but uLocate now has a presence on the platform of America’s number one PND maker.

It would be great if Where was available on Garmin PND’s.  Not only would it make the device’s exponentially more useful, but relative to the  value added Garmin probably paid next to nothing, multimillion dollar deal or not.  So far though, Where has largely been a player in the wireless world and given its huge popularity on the 3G iPhone we’d also expect to see Where featured on Garmin’s nuviphone.

It would definitely make sense, but so far neither company has verified anything.  We’ll keep you updated as we find out more.

via cnet

Garmin’s much-anticipated Nuviphone, expected to be out in time for the holidays this year, looks like it’ll be made by Asustek according to industry sources.  This despite the fact that Garmin has always placed a big emphasis on manufacturing its own products.  But with phone business involving technological expertise outside Garmin’s realm, Garmin’s director of OEM and mobile marketing Roger Jollis said that they were working with a Taiwanese company to put together the navigational Nuviphone.  Despite the fact that Jollis hasn’t revealed who that Taiwanese partner is, sources have told Digitimes that Asustek has been working with Garmin on the project for two years now, providing expertise in RF technologies.  Jollis did say that the Nuviphone will not be Garmin’s only mobile handset as they have other planned to hit the market by 2010.

Internet telephony company Nuvio isn’t too thrilled with the new Nuviphone, suing Garmin, claiming the name infringes on its own trademark. Because Nuvio claims that their customers commonly refer to their service as the “Nuvio phone”, the company felt it would be in the best interests of its customers to not settle out of court. Without filing a formal lawsuit, they can’t ensure the Nuviphone name won’t confuse their existing and future customers, the company claims.

It gets worse though. Not only does Nuvio want Garmin to nix the Nuviphone name, they also want Garmin to nix the Nuvi from its famous Garmin Nuvi GPS devices and will seek damages for past infringements.

Via The Olympian