Garmin-ASUS nuvifone M20 and G60 shipping to Singapore in August

After a patently absurd amount of delays, it actually feels like the Garmin-ASUS nüvifone tandem is approaching a proper launch. Whether or not anyone actually cares anymore, however, remains to be seen. Across the sea over in Malaysia, one particularly lucky soul seems to have stumbled upon both the Linux-based nüvifone G60 and the WinMo-powered nüvifone M20, and he claims that both handsets will be shipping en masse to the region "within 30 days." Best of all, that totally jibes with what we've heard directly from Garmin today, which has informed us that the smartphone will be in Singaporean stores in August, with a few other Asian nations seeing it in late July. Now, if only North Americans could look forward to the same...

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Nokia talks shop about its revised US strategy, but is it enough?

The old adage goes "be careful what you wish for; you just might get it." After years of bellyaching (we're as guilty of it as anyone) that Nokia was giving Europe first dibs on its hottest handsets over North America, we're now seeing perhaps the most dramatic, positive shift in North American strategy in the company's history -- in fact, they're straight-up saying that they want to push all the way to number 1 in the local market. But is it enough of a shift to fend off aggressive moves from Samsung, LG, Apple, and the rest of the gang across every conceivable market segment?

Nokia's product portfolio manager for the region, Ira Frimere, sat down with Computerworld recently to discuss the renewed push, admitting that the company has had to rethink some fundamental things about its products and its business model to help its cause in the States; one small example is the fact that the Surge is launching without the typical four-digit model number or Nseries / Eseries code that is found on virtually every Nokia sold worldwide, ostensibly because Americans apparently prefer names to numbers (it'll launch as the Surge 6790 internationally, it turns out). Additionally, the company has dedicated a facility in San Diego to working with its North American carrier partners -- AT&T and Verizon, most prominently. It's still early on, but the labor there seems to already be bearing fruit, considering that AT&T will be stocking three S60 devices once the Surge launches -- a record -- and Verizon's rumored to have some interesting stuff in the pipeline.

Frimere adds that Nokia believes services are key to winning American hearts and minds, an area the company has been putting extensive R&D into lately with its Ovi line (unfortunately, so is everyone else -- and getting to iTunes and App Store-level acceptance with Nokia Music and the Ovi Store is going to be an uphill battle, to say the least). Ultimately, the conclusion seems to be Nokia's reluctant admittance that breaking into the US market requires a willingness to give carriers far, far more respect than they deserve by bending and breaking to their somewhat odd demands -- and that's going to be an ongoing problem for consumers, whether you're a Nokia fan or not.

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LG's XF1 500GB multimedia hard drive touts HDMI, shimmery case

Looking for an external hard drive with a flashy color-shifting case, reasonably stout multimedia credentials, and a website with an outrageously long flash intro? Look no further than LG's XF1, a 500GB machine with a USB interface and HDMI output to stream some high-def content straight to your set -- but at a maximum of 1080i. It'll do AVI, Xvid, and MPEGs 1, 2, and 4 along with your typical audio codecs, but conspicuously absent on the video side are H.264 and MKV, meaning it's not exactly the comprehensive playback device you might be looking for if you haven't gotten around to standardizing your downloads to a single encoding. (Guilty.) In fact, it sounds almost exactly like Iomega's 500GBScreenPlay in a slimmer, sexier case, and when it comes to perfecting your home theater does anything other than sexiness matter? Well... maybe price and availability, but sadly those are pieces of intel LG isn't sharing just yet.

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