Imagine this: You're taking a drive, your GPS navigator is telling you to "turn left on Main Street" or "turn right on Grove Avenue" and then, just before you reach your destination, you think to yourself, "Gee, I wish I could make a quick phone call with it."
Now, you can, though it is not something I've yearned for. Garmin's Nuvifone G60, ($299 with a two-year contract from AT&T  ) is the first GPS navigator that doubles as a cellphone and Web browser. Unlike most cellphones that include a GPS feature, the Nuvifone offers integrated, audible turn-by-turn directions.
Until recently, you couldn't buy a cellphone that also gave you great audio directions. Google changed that Wednesday, with the introduction of Droid, a new $199 phone from Motorola and Verizon, coming next week.
But the mapping feature is available only on Droid, not yet on older Android phones or on rivals such as the iPhone. So let's take a look at the Nuvifone.
*Talk and drive. The biggest selling point for the Nuvifone is that it doubles as a hands-free car speaker. You can talk on the phone and get mapping directions at the same time.
Both Garmin and rival TomTom have other hands-free GPS units that let you do this by connecting your Bluetooth phone to the GPS device. If you talk, the audio directions come to an abrupt stop. The screen still shows you the mapping, however.
*The phone. The Nuvifone is roughly the size of an iPhone, with a slightly smaller screen. The virtual keyboard might throw you off, though, because it's in alphabetical order, instead of the usual qwerty. You need to flip it to horizontal position to get to the qwerty keyboard. That said, I found the keyboard to be slow and unresponsive when making phone calls.
*Searching. GPS units are great for looking up nearby hotels, gas stations, restaurants and other businesses, because they use satellites to figure out your location. With the Nuvifone, results are listed with directions and a phone link. For an extra $5.99 a month, you can search for real-time traffic and access other "real-time" information, such as nearby movie listings. I didn't even have to type in my ZIP code. The device already knew and displayed show times for my local theaters.
*Where's my car? Now here's a cool feature Garmin doesn't play up enough. How many times have you gone to the shopping mall or a sporting event and found yourself lost in a sea of cars trying to find your own? With the Nuvifone, you take the device out of the car cradle to bring it with you and when you return to the parking lot, open the menu and look for "Last Position." It will direct you to your car.
The Nuvifone also has a Web browser, Wi-Fi capability and 5-megapixel camera. The geo-location feature works really well with photos; they're tagged to let you know where they've been snapped.
Bottom line: Garmin makes great GPS units, but at $299 plus service fees, a good GPS with an inferior phone is probably worth passing over.
© 2009 USA TODAY under contract with MarketWatch. All rights reserved.
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