The Garmin nuvifone has been on our radar for a long time now and we already know most of the specs of the G60. What we really didn’t know was how much the device would cost and what carrier it would be offered on. AT&T and Garmin cleared up those questions today.

The Garmin nuvifone will hit AT&T at a price of $299 after a $100 mail-in rebate and a new 2-year agreement. The Nuvifone Premium connected Services for the device will cost $5.99 per month and include traffic updates, white pages, weather, movies, local events, fuel prices and more.

Over in Europe subsidized price notebooks and netbooks are very common with most of the major mobile providers offering all sorts of notebooks to users at discount prices. The caveat is that you have to sign away years of your mobile broadband freedom to get the deals.

Subsidized notebooks and netbooks aren’t that common here in the U.S., but they are starting to gain in popularity. AT&T already offers a subsidized price Acer Aspire One and the mobile provider has announced that it will now be offering a subsidized Dell Mini 10 and Lenovo S10 netbook at stores across the nation.

One of the things I remember most about road trips when I was a kid was that it only took about an hour before I was smacking my brother in the head as we drove down the road and dad was trying to reach over the seat to beat me. Things aren’t much different today; my kids last only about an hour on the road before things get rowdy.

Thankfully, today we have all sorts of entertainment devices for our cars to keep kids occupied. AT&T has announced the official launch of its CruiseCast mobile satellite TV service. The new service has launched with 19 different channels.

AT&T will be launching another smartphone from Hewlett-Packard. The iPAQ K3. The codename is “Obsidian”, the date is November 30. This new smartphone works on triband HSDPA as well as quadband EDGE.

Some other features include Windows Mobile 6.5 OS, a 2.8-inch QVGA display, a 2MP camera, a full QWERTY keyboard, a 256MB of RAM, a 512MB ROM, a microSD card slot, a 3.5mm headphone jack, GPS and WiFi. No info on pricing at the moment.

Ralph de la Vega from AT&T has confirmed that the company has in fact been looking at lowering the cost of data plans. Instead of cutting the cost of unlimited access, the company plans to introduce lower priced plans with limited bandwidth.

“Right now we continue to study what is the best thing that is available, not just from an iPhone point of view, but what you can do to stimulate additional demand,” said de la Vega, adding, “[w]e view Apple as a strategic partner for us, a very good partner to have now and into the future.”

In Europe, the practice of subsidizing notebooks and netbooks on mobile carriers is very common. In the US, the practice is still relatively unknown. RadioShack offers a netbook bundled with mobile broadband, but it is one of the few such offers in the States.

AT&T has announced that it will be expanding its subsidized netbook offer and rolling the products out to its stores nationwide. The new expanded lineup will include Acer, Dell, and Lenovo netbooks all bundled with mobile broadband plans.

Most of us will agree that contracts required to get mobile phones today are not how we would prefer things work. I always wanted cellular service that worked like my old landline. I pay for what I use and if I don’t like the service, I change at will.

The closest we get to that sort of service with mobile phones are the pay-as-you-go plans like the AT&T GoPhone. AT&T has announced that the GoPhone now has an unlimited calling option that lets you call all you want for $3 per day.

The smartphone market is booming and complex, feature packed devices like the iPhone and the G1 may catch the eye of fans of technology. However, there is a large portion of the handset market that cares nothing for all the geeky features and complexity of the average smartphone.

For the non-techie group of mobile phone users Pantech has announced a new black version of its Breeze handset. We first saw the Pantech Breeze in silver last year when it debuted at AT&T. The new handset is the same thing with a black case that may keep its looks longer than the silver version.

We heard a lot about femtocells last year. A femtocell is a device that allows your cellular phone to connect to the Internet for calls to provide better coverage indoors. So far there have been a few of these femtocells launched.

AT&T has offered details on its first 3G femtocell it is calling the AT&T 3G MicroCell. The MicroCell requires a broadband Internet connection and will support up to 10 3G cell phones in a home or small office. Up to four simultaneous voice or data users are supported at once.

I was among the many who was hoping that the rumor that Walmart would be selling a $99 iPhone 3G was accurate. As it turned out Walmart did in fact get the iPhone 3G, but the price was only slightly less than other iPhone retailers.

However, your hopes of a $99 iPhone 3G aren’t completely dashed, at least not for a few more days. AT&T is currently offering refurbished iPhones while supplies last. The 8GB refurb handset will sell for the magic $99 number.

One of the gifts many people want for the holidays is a new mobile phone. There are certain groups of mobile phone users who don’t want lots of extras like young users and the old. These groups want a phone that is easy to use and cheap.

Pantech and AT&T have announced a new handset called the Pantech C630 that could be perfect for those wanting a simple phone with a good feature set for a low price. The C630 will be available to purchase starting tomorrow for only $39.99 with a 2-year agreement.

Several people are getting SMS messages from AT&T reminding them of the long-awaited “free wireless at Starbucks” plan. It was first announced in February with a target launch spring 2008, the service has been quietly running on and off since April, including two hours of daily access at any Starbucks store or AT&T hotspot.

T-Mobile users with existing hotspot accounts are supposed to have ongoing access to the network in Starbucks stores. The service has been available on a spotty basis, but this is an official “yes it’s working” announcement that has been a while in coming. Hopefully we can put an end to this chapter and the service stays on at long last.

For some users a smart phone is overkill. All some people want is the ability to send text messages and make phone calls. For this type of user, a fancy smartphone with word processing and other functions isn’t particularly appealing.

AT&T has announced a new Samsung handset called the Propel that is designed with the text user in mind. The phone has a full QWERTY keyboard in a vertical sliding design. Multiple color options are available and the handset can do email and offers 3G connectivity.

As the holidays grow nearer, we will see more and more handsets that are new announced in an attempt to grab the holiday dollars of shoppers. Most of the handsets will be exclusive to one provider or another. Pantech and AT&T announced their newest mobile phone today called the C610.

The handset is a flip-phone that offers a multiple multimedia features including GPS and 3G network access. Pantech says that the design of the handset emphasizes fashion and function. It looks rather plain to me, but is decent looking.

It’s getting to be more and more common for people to forgo the home phone line in favor of wireless only. The reason is that virtually everyone needs a cell phone, and only a few people need a landline. AT&T has announced a new device that makes having a landline in the home cool again.

The device is called AT&T HomeManager and in its initial launch HomeManager is available in nine markets including — Chicago, Austin, San Antonio, Dallas, San Francisco, and LA. The system revolves around a 7-inch touch screen frame built by Samsung. The frame connects to a home broadband network and can be used to place and receive phone calls.