Garmin has officially annouced the iQUE 3600 GPS Handheld, the first Palm OS device to feature built-in GPS capabilities. The iQUE, which should be available in the second quarter of 2003 will have a suggested retail of $590.
The iQUE runs Palm OS 5 on a DragonBall MXL microprocessor. It comes with 32 MB of RAM and also includes an integrated SD slot. Garmin has also included a brilliant color screen. These are all nice features, but the distinguishing item of the iQUE 3600 is the GPS capability.
Garmin has done more than simply slap a GPS receiver onto a Palm handheld. The GPS antenna in well integrated into the device. The antenna is able to be rotated. This rotation allows for the GPS to be turned on/off automatically based on the position of the antenna. Retract the antenna and the GPS turns off. It will come back on automatically once you rotate it back up.
