T-Mobile released the first Android-powered Garmin smartphone in May to mixed reviews, and slow sales.
This week, the wireless carrier has dropped the price of the phone, from $200 to $130, looking to keep the price competitive in a world where Froyo will soon be the norm.
The phone has a 3.5-inch screen, 3MP camera with autofocus, and because of the GPS, the pictures can be geo-tagged. The GPS, as standard, works over 3G and Wi-Fi.
While those specs are not impressive, the Garminfone is notable because of its GPS system, which has on-board US maps, text-to-speech, full driving/walking/public transportation directions, real-time traffic, weather, local events, movie listings and even gas prices.
The next best feature is “Garmin Voice Studio” which lets users “record and customize voice directions which can also be shared with family and friends.”
Because it is more a GPS with phone capabilities than anything else, the device will come with a charging window and a dashboard mount for the car.
Result for: dashboard
GearLive, citing a source close to Microsoft that is “never wrong,” has reported today that the Microsoft Xbox 360 will be the first console to get native Hulu support, with the announcement coming at the E3 event later this month.
Microsoft will show off a subscription-based Hulu, says the source, at E3, which begins on June 14th.
The rest is speculation, but the site says Hulu will be integrated into the Xbox 360 dashboard, just like Netflix and other Xbox Live services are currently.
The subscription fee is still unknown, but it seems improbable the monthly fee will cost over $9.99.
As speculated in the past, a subscription-based Hulu would include full access to all seasons of TV episodes. Users using the free ad-based Hulu normally only getting the last 5 trailing episodes of any given season.
Result for: dashboard
Joystiq is reporting today that “USB Mass Storage Device Support” should hit the Xbox 360 console sometime within 2010, most likely with the upcoming Spring 2010 dashboard update.
Citing a document written by a “senior software development engineer,” the support will allow gamers to save and consequently load game data from USB devices, a much wanted feature.
With the support available, gamers can download Arcade games, DLC or other content right to their storage device, although it is unclear what capacity cards will be made available (minimum must be 1GB and max must be 16GB). The source also claims that “installation of a full disc-based title” is also a possibility, although the disc will still need to remain in the tray, for authentication purposes.
In regards to the minimum and maximum posted above, the document says: “The system partition occupies 512 MB of space, and by default the consumer partition occupies the remainder of the device capacity, or 16 GB, whichever is smaller.”
