Garmin Upgrades Mobile Service

GPS leader Garmin International has upgraded its Garmin Mobile subscription service with a new, friendlier, “nuvi-like” interface and Google Local search. One of the most useful aspects is the addition of new icons so it takes fewer keystrokes to choose a destination and get directions.

Garmin Mobile is now offered on BlackBerry, Symbian and Windows Mobile smartphones. It provides turn-by-turn voice promoted directions, traffic info, weather conditions and forecasts and comparative fuel prices.

Other additions include integration with the phone’s address book so users can navigate directly to any stored addresses. Also, because of the Google Local integration, the app now has a database of more than six million hotels, restaurants, ATMs, gas stations, airports and other “points of interest.”

The new version will roll out in July.

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