FORTUNE - Last Updated: August 8, 2008: 10:50 AM EDT

The latest personal navigation devices offer lots of bells and whistles, but are they really necessary in the iPhone era?

By Michal Lev-Ram, reporter

SAN FRANCISCO (Fortune) — Garmin’s latest GPS device, the nuvi 880, says a lot about the state of the market for portable navigation devices. The gadget has it all: directions, MP3 player for listening to songs and books, a photo viewer - even an alarm clock.

Why all the bells and whistles? Because these are tough times for GPS makers. Demand is slowing and prices are falling fast, in part due to competition from cell phone manufacturers like BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIMM) and Apple.

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Sillicon Alley Insider - Dan Frommer | July 28, 2008 10:36 AM

Apple’s (AAPL) new, cheaper iPhone 3G flown off the shelves in the two weeks it’s been on sale — AT&T, Apple’s exclusive carrier partner, says it’s selling them almost twice as fast as it sold first-gen iPhones last summer. And there’s still a line to buy them at some Apple stores.

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Sillicon Alley Insider - Dan Frommer | July 26, 2008 8:00 AM

One of the most powerful functions on the new Apple (AAPL) iPhone 3G is its ability to pinpoint your location via GPS. Yet, at least in New York City, it’s been one of the phone’s most disappointing features.

In our experience, routinely — especially indoors — the iPhone’s Google Maps app and other location-hungry apps seem like they can’t get a precise GPS location, and seem to use the iPhone’s 1.0 location tools — cellphone tower and wi-fi triangulation — to narrow my location down to a neighborhood or a few-block radius. Real GPS, where I can follow my precise location as I walk, has only worked when I’m outdoors and away from tall buildings. This, I’m told, is a problem specific to New York City — lots of tall, old buildings with lots of concrete and metal, and lousy sight lines to cell signals.

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NEWSFACTOR -  Fri Jul 25, 4:58 PM ET

Patricia Resende

When Apple released its iPhone 2.0 software earlier this month, CEO Steve Jobs said it would provide the best user experience and the most advanced software platform for a mobile device. However, glitches in the software are leaving users frustrated, with a laundry list of complaints.

Apple launched its App Store just before it released the iPhone 3G, which uses the 2.0 software. Users of both the iPhone 3G and the first-generation iPhone upgraded with the 2.0 software can buy and download apps created by third-party developers.

Strong Expectations

The 2.0 software was also supposed to allow subscribers to Apple’s $99-a-year MobileMe service (formerly called .Mac) to seamlessly share e-mail, calendars and contacts between iPhones, PCs and Macs. It was billed as compatible with Microsoft Exchange e-mail servers.

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Sillicon Alley Insider - Vasanth Sridharan | July 19, 2008 9:00 AM

Want an 8GB iPhone 3G in Russia? Get ready to pay $1,200. What about a 16GB model? How does $1,370 sound?

While Apple negotiates with carriers to bring its iPhones to Russia and China — two of the biggest wireless markets left untapped by Apple — the black market is still thriving, the AP reports. Some 400,000 iPhones are supposedly in Russia, and perhaps twice that in China.

So what’s taking so long? Apple (AAPL) boss Steve Jobs told CNBC in June that the company is still trying to jump through regulatory hoops in China, but that iPhones should be available there and in Russia later this year.

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Sillicon Alley Insider - Dan Frommer | July 18, 2008 11:05 AM

Should AT&T be worried about new apps for Apple’s iPhone that use the Internet to connect cheap or free phone calls? No — not yet, at least.

Why not? Well, so far, there’s only one app — Truphone, currently ranked tenth in the “travel” category in Apple’s iPhone App Store. Initial reviews suggest it’s flaky, and Truphone expects you to pay 6 cents per minute to call other cellphones in the U.S. and Canada — hardly a free lunch.

But we expect other companies — eBay’s (EBAY) Skype unit, for example — to eventually create more compelling iPhone apps for Internet phone calls, which could include free calling. Or maybe Vonage (VG) will create an iPhone app that can access their Internet phone service and uses your Vonage home phone number. But even then, we think there’s a minimal threat to AT&T.

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Sillicon Alley Insider - Vasanth Sridharan | July 18, 2008 8:30 AM

In the week since Apple’s iPhone (AAPL) App Store opened, one thing has become clear: People are playing lots of games on their gadgets. Seven of the top ten paid apps and three of the top ten free apps are games.

Google — whose Android operating system will compete with the iPhone later this year — should take note. Only one of the 50 apps that Google chose to feature from its first Android developer contest was a game. It might be a good idea for Google to stir up some more game developer interest.

Why aren’t there more games already? Two reasons:

First, nobody knows what the first Android phone will look like, what sort of controls it will have, how big its screen will be, etc. Steve Demeter, developer of the iPhone puzzle game Trism, said he’s not even thinking about developing for Android: “Well I think the big thing is [developers] like to know what they’re getting. Android is a platform rather than a device.”

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