Sat Nav & GPS Blog

The Give-a Give-a Garmin advertising campaign is in full-swing, and we feel it’s been highly successful in driving the brand. Here’s the 2008 Xmas Give A Garmin advert:

If you’re looking for a fantastic Christmas gift for him or her take a look at our Give A Garmin page. We’ve got something for everyone!

It’s a fact that Irish consumers pay more than a lot of their European neighbours and with everyone tightening their purse strings coming up to Christmas it may seem a logical choice to buy from international online discount superstores.  Sometimes you can save between €20-50 but what a lot of people are not aware of are the hidden costs that may occur.

So what should you watch out for….

• .ie domains – often these online discount superstores have .ie domains (for example pixmania.ie, expansys.ie) but actually have no presence in Ireland at all and even some stores that claim an Irish presence don’t hold stock and have it shipped in when you purchase it. So if you want to buy from an Irish store, make sure that there is an Irish address, the company is registered in Ireland, carries stock and there is someone at the end of the phone to talk to.

• Warranty – what are they offering? Probably a full manufacturer’s warranty but where are the manufacturers based and what is the stores return policy? If you have a fault with your system, you will have to fork out to get it shipped back (most likely outside of Ireland) to the online store or manufacturer for a warranty replacement.  Under the Sale of Goods Act when you purchase from an online store, your contract is with the store and it is their responsibility to sort out your problems – try explaining this to a customer support representative based in France.

• Support – can they help you with your purchase? Probably not.  When you decide to spend a couple  of hundred euros on a electronic device you want to make sure that you are buying the right product for you. Larger online stores tend to not be able to provide you with this service.

• eBay – a number of manufacturers will not provide warranties when their products are purchased on eBay.

I’m not telling you not to buy from these online discount superstores but merely advising you of the risks.

After watching last nights episode of The Apprentice on TV3, I have to say that I felt sorry for all the contestents as I think that they had a mammoth task trying to sell Garmin satnavs on a Saturday and Sunday. They hopelessly tried to sell premium products at Fairyhouse Market and to the Sunday strollers on Dun Laoghaire pier.

Do you think you could have done better? Below is a list of the products they were given. Where would you have gone to sell?

Coming up to Christmas means one thing – the Xmas present search. For some it turns into the Xmas present horrors, but this year you needn’t worry. There’s really only one serious Xmas Gadget Gift – Sat Nav GPS.

So we’ve pulled together a list of all the best sat navs and accessories that will make the perfect gift for him or her. Head on over to the Xmas Gadget Gifts page for quick easy gadget recommendations.

Happy Xmas shopping

For a while we were only selling Garmin products because we felt that they were the most efficient and sophisticated GPS devices on the market …until now! We have added two more brands on to mysatnav.ie which we think are high quality systems – TomTom and RAC.

TomTom Go x30 series

The TomTom Go x30 series is a plug & play, widescreen, lightweight, easy to use GPS with a high sensitivity GPS receiver.  With clear voice instructions and a high quality touchscreen this GPS allows you to plan your itineraries with ease and choose the route you want.  Unique features on this TomTom range are:

• IQ Routes – Calculates your route based on the real average speeds measured on roads.

• TomTom MapShare technology -Make corrections to your own maps and benefit from thousands of corrections made by TomTom users everyday.

RAC 300 + Route 66

With the demise of the Airis T920, we have always been on the look out for a similar lost-cost navigator that uses the excellent navigation software from Route 66 and we think we have found it in the RAC 300.

The RAC 300 features the latest Navteq Q3, 2008 mapping (equivalent to Garmin’s 2009 mapping). The Route 66 software continues to be one of the best GPS navigation packages available with the easiest street searching functions that we have come across.

Garmin have announced the availabilty of Mapsource City Navigator Europe NT 2009 Map Update (version 11).  This release will update any system that had City Navigator Europe Version 10 or earliar.

To see the level of map detail available on Version 11 click here.

To purchase this map update click here.

Garmin have released a few new addtions to their nuvi range, all of which come preloaded with the latest 2009 (version 11) maps.

nüvi265 nüvi265w

Much like their predecessors, the nüvi 255 and nüvi 255w, these systems are both simple to use, low cost personal in car navigators with the exception that they have Bluetooth® wireless technology for hands-free  calling.

nüvi765

The nüvi 765 is the latest addition to the 700 series. So what makes this different from the nüvi 760? The nüvi 765 has a brand new feature called Lane Assist, providing drivers a clear illustration of what lane they should be in when approching busy intersections or when navigating through unfamiliar cities.

myPOIs.ie and Pumps.ie have announced the availability of daily fuel price updates for Garmin sat-nav users.  For the first time in Ireland users will now be able to download regular fuel price updates directly onto their sat-nav from www.mypois.ie.

www.pumps.ie is Ireland’s No. 1 and definitive online source of up to day service station fuel prices and price analysis. Entirely community driven, the web site receives over 300 fuel price updates on a weekly basis.

“It’s all about giving the best service and information we can to our subscribers.  We are delighted to have teamed up with Pumps.ie.  Fuel prices are an emotive topic and with significant price differences at service stations, often within the same geographic area, substantial savings can be made by simply shopping around.  This service gives our subscribers information when they most need it and should put a few euro back in their pockets each week!”, said John Dundon for myPOIs.ie.

“There are huge benefits to everyone by having our information on mobile devices such as sat-navs,”, said Jonathan Dean of Pumps.ie.  ”This partnership with myPOIs.ie means that we now have a database of over 1,500 service stations in Ireland with accurate locations.”

Both companies have further plans to enhance the service over the next few months to add details such as opening hours and facilities available at the service stations.

Finally completed the task of getting all the new Garda Speed Enforcement Zones (Sez) into our database.  What was taking the time was working out the direction of each zone.

So you can now download the complete set of the Garda Speed Enforcement Zones to your Sat-Nav from www.mypois.ie.  Sorry but for the moment this only works with Garmin sat-nav.  There are full instructions on the site about what you have to do.

There are no speed limit details with any of the zones (presumably because there are several limits in each zone) however if any one out there wants to collect this information and share it with the rest of our community, we’ll be happy to add the details to our database.  Send an email to submissions@mypois.ie with the zone identifier e.g. WW010  (Zone 10 in Co. Wicklow) and the speed limit/s.

We will likely tweak the dataset over the next few days so maybe refresh your sat-nav at the end of the week.

Click here and download now!

Yesterday, as reported on RTE Evening News, Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy launched eight new speed detection vans in Templemore, Co. Tipperary as part of An Garda Siochana’s Road Safety Strategy 2007 -2012. The aim of this strategy is to reduce road collisions, deaths and injuries on Irish roads.

After an extensive analysis in conjuction with the National Roads Authority, the Garda have identified over 800 speed enforcement zones which are based on collision histories where speed was a major contributor. A full list is also available on their web site. The aim is to provide “information to motorists in order to raise awareness of speeding in these zones”.

To view the Garda Speed Enforcement Zones on www.mypois.ie, click here.

To see details of zones, the easiest way is to search by county using the ‘Find on map’ facility at the top of the web page.

Later today, the speed zones will be available for download onto Garmin sat-nav devices from www.mypois.ie.  There will be alerts when entering and leaving a zone and the zone heading (North, South etc.).  There is no charge for this download.  You can also download Road Safety Authority Danger Zones which are based on 2005 accident data.

We will update the blog once the download is ready to go.