TWIG Discovery GSM and GPS handset

And here we thought we'd heard the last of Bennifer. What? Oh sorry, Finnish GSM "pioneers" B-E-N-E-F-O-N have actually been around since the late 80s and have recently teamed-up with Navteq to launch the TWIG brand of consumer products, which they launched at 3GSM. The good folks over at Navigadget got their hands on the TWIG Discovery, which is the first product from the chute and is said to be the only handset to offer both GPS navigation and GSM telephony (uh, ok). All mapping is on-board with off-board services available when needed. It features a 262K color TFT display, GPRS, Bluetooth and "TWIG key" which starts the 2D or 3D navigation supported by a voice prompt for turn-by-turn instructions. And a TWIG Finder option allows you to locate and navigate to any other Discovery user. The writeup is in babel'd French but the device seemed to work well "without jerks." Expected to be available in Q3 of 2006 -- most likely in Europe first, where we understand Gigli was a big hit.

[Via Navigadget, thanks Jim]