Garmin International has started shipping the long awaited iQue 3600, the first PDA with integrated Global Positioning System (GPS) technology. The Palm OS handheld, which was first announced back in January, costs $589.

"Garmin's iQue 3600 is a great addition to the growing and diverse family of Palm Powered mobile devices," said Charlie Tritschler, vice president of product marketing, PalmSource, Inc. "Its world-class GPS technology combined with handheld functionality demonstrates the flexibility and innovation achieved through the Palm OS platform."

About the iQue 3600

The iQue 3600 runs Palm OS 5 and has a 150MHZ processor and 32MB of memory. It also features an SD card slot, a 3.8-inch 230x480-pixel display that supports over 60,000 colors, an MP3 player and a voice recorder. GPS features include location awareness (10 feet or less with WAAS), address look-up, auto routing, turn-by-turn navigation with voice guidance, off-route recalculation and a contact locator, which connects the Palm Address Book and Date Book to the GPS electronic map to give the user the ability to navigate directly to a specific address within the user's contact database. The device measures 5.0 x 2.8 x 0.8-inches and weighs 5.2 ounces.

In addition to the standard Palm OS applications, including Address Book, Calculator, Date Book, Expense, Mail, Memo Pad and To Do List, the iQue 3600 also bundles the Palm Reader eBook application. The iQue 3600 is slated to offer trial versions of several third-party applications, including those from Astraware, DataViz, Infinity Softworks, LinksPoint, SplashData and Vindigo. Third-party developers can add location awareness to their applications using Garmin's application programmer interface.

The iQue 3600 has flip-up GPS antenna that locks in place at two different angles to, according to the company, optimize GPS signal reception and viewing. When the antenna is in the upright position, it automatically turns on the GPS navigation function and begins acquiring satellite signals. Likewise, when the antenna is in the closed position, the GPS function will automatically shut off to preserve battery life. The company said the iQue 3600 provides the user with typical accuracy of 20 to 30 feet, or less than 10 feet when receiving corrected GPS data from the Wide Area Augmentation System in the North American coverage area.

On the iQue 3600 installation CD, the company said users can choose a basemap of North America, South America, Europe or regions in the Pacific Rim. The basemap provides the user with generalized information about highways, major city streets, railways, rivers, lakes and state, provincial and national borders. Detailed street information is available on an included MapSource CD-ROM.