GPS: Airis T920 or Garmin Nuvi 310/360?

Nessun Entrata

Hello everyone, could someone tell me if this is the Airis T920
http://www.bid.tv/ProductDescriptionPage.aspx?Id=1569027&Cat=6&Sub=15&Type=Categories

The last one sold for £129.99.

Sounds o.k if it is.

greglo23

it looks to be the same unit ok but does it have the european maps ?

Nessun Entrata

No way of knowing what maps are on it as it does not say anywhere and have not seen them on the channel as i don't watch it.

Might take the risk if i cannot find one on ebay or cheaper elsewhere.

pissed

Just got 2 from this guy delivered via a friend in NI. Worked out just under €160 each incl delivery! Q2/2006 UK/Ireland on a 256MB card. Happy days.

Glad somebody got them , imagine not posting to Ireland .... his loss as im sure Boardsies would have bought them all

On another note does anyone know if it is possible to change the voice in the system like the way you can with say tomtom ?

digitaldr

Anyone know if it's possible to load US maps on the airis T920 - personally I have my doubts!

SoBe

digitaldr wrote:

Anyone know if it's possible to load US maps on the airis T920 - personally I have my doubts!

not sure about thta one alright,ill have to look into getting some us maps and give it a go,would be very handy

BigCon

It takes about 5 seconds of holding in the side button to turn if off - anyone know how to reduce this (maybe like the way they got rid of the touchscreen click)?

Avns1s

Only complaint I would have about the Airis T920 is that the switch is super sensitive to switch the unit on. I have gone to it a few times to find it totally discharged and it's a pain to get it up and runnig again as you have to go through the language, time and date setting, etc.

Also, when fully discharged, it doesn't register on your computer via the USB cable and so doesn't seem to charge so it's out to the car and work off the car charger for a few mins. Not that this is a major problem but a few people have asked for demo's and rather than have the demo outside......!

BTW I got mine from Pixmania a few weeks ago and couldn't find fault with them at all.

delly

Damn you all and your good words about the Airis. I posted a thread yesterday asking if it or the TomTom was better and was going to wait until the end of the week to buy, however the anticipation got the better of me and I picked an Airis up yesterday.

Funny story however, I decided to get it in a bricks and morter shop what with all the Pixmania hassle, plus I couldn't wait. So I got it in a well known chain that sells electrically Powered equipment in the City. Happy with my purchase I got home and removed the 'security' seal from the box. However I was horrified to find that instead of my nice and shiny satnav, there was a heavy flat head screwdriver in its place. Somewhere along the line some cheeky sod did a quick swap and I was the sufferer as a result. Brought it make to shop just before they closed where there was no hassle getting a fresh one. They said that it was a first for them.

Patrickof

Just to clarify, I already have Route 66 Navigator Europe for my PDA. Now my wife is looking for a GPS, can I buy an Airis with no maps (or just Ireland/UK) and load my version of the maps onto it?

shayser

Patrickof wrote:

Just to clarify, I already have Route 66 Navigator Europe for my PDA. Now my wife is looking for a GPS, can I buy an Airis with no maps (or just Ireland/UK) and load my version of the maps onto it?

This is from the Support > FAQ section of www.66.com

ROUTE 66 Online Support

Product: Navigate
Operating system: Windows Mobile Pocket PC
Version: 7
What activation restrictions apply?

The ROUTE 66 Navigate 7 software must be activated before you can use it. The following activation
restrictions apply to the "ROUTE 66 Navigate 7" product:

- You can use the same product key as many times as you like on the same Pocket PC device
- You can use the same product key on a second Pocket PC only starting 1 week after the first
activation
- You can use the same product key on a third Pocket PC only starting 1 month after the second
activation

The product key you need to activate your product can be found inside the CD box (behind the CD)
and on the Quick Start Guide.

The activation is made on our web site (http://www.66.com/activation/). Please enter all the
requested data. You

D'Peoples Voice

kamcd wrote:

has anyone managed to upgrade to europe maps from britain and ireland one's. i thought it would simply be a matter of buying the maps from either airis or www.66.com but i got the following e-mail from 66 this morning.

"The installer of the software was modified, so it can be installed on the AIRIS PND devices. We do not sell this versions of the software and none of our updates or upgrades of Navigate7 is compatible with PND devices.

Please contact Airis to find out if they sell other country versions for this device.

Best regards,

Carolina JUBIRCA

ROUTE 66 Customer Support

i can't find a way of getting in touch with anyone in airis so it looks like i may be stuck with a unit i can't upgrade the maps on :mad:

I bought mine from Pixmania, absolutely no problems with their service.
However I would never have bought it had I know that I can NEVER update my maps as you say.
That means by the end of Transport 21, I'll have a GPS that is only really useful for driving in Northern Connacht and the 3 Ulster counties in the Republic, as ALMOST every other county will have new major roads built in the next 10 years.

Stimpyone

I managed to track down the main dealers in Ireland and asked them about updates.

This is the reply I got.

"We are the main dist-dealer for Airis in Ireland.
I can tell you that the Airis T920 you won't be able to do any updates of, except the ones you can get from route 66 website www.66.com
You can also register your version there.
However Route 66 are releasing a new software this year, listed for April
This should include map updated to 2006.
You can also buy the map software separately - it normally retails at around € 159

Hope this helps"

Patrickof

Stimpyone, who's the airis distributor in ireland?

So, can I use my existing navigator 7 for ppc to load the maps etc onto the airis? From above it seems I can do it legally, but can it be done technically? i.e. is the navigator 7 on the airis exactly like navigator 7 for ppc?

FastFullBack

Hey, Have to say this is a great thread and has nearly convinced me to go buy a T920( even though I don't 'really' need it);)

I just have a few questions, I think they haven't been asked before.

How long is the car charger cable? Just wanna see what position in the car the unit can be placed. I know I can buy an extension but wanna see if it'd be needed.

How long can the battery last while in standby and not connected to a power source?

What kind of places of interest are preloaded around Ireland?...pubs, shops, hotels, petrol stations, etc...

Now to the map updates, just reading the last few posts and Route 66 seem to say that you can't update the Airis T920 PND. Yet in a further post the Airis distributer says that the Airis can only be updated with updates from Route 66 and that you can buy the map software separtly. Can anyone say for definited whats the story with this?

Finally can anyone point me in the way of the official Airis website? Can't seem to find it.

Thanks

Patrickof

the official airis website is www.airisfr.com it's in french but there's a drop down menu on the right for other countries. There isn't much info though on the PDA page for the T920 though - I couldn't find it anywhere.

b318isp

I've heard that Route66 are to update maps in April this year - anyone else heard this. If true, it would be worthwhile waiting until then to purchase...

eirlink

b318isp wrote:

I've heard that Route66 are to update maps in April this year - anyone else heard this. If true, it would be worthwhile waiting until then to purchase...

yes, hold off. R66 will be releasing Q4 2006 in april. May even be available last week of march yet. So stand back till april. I will be getting it as soon as its out and will check it out. hopefully the spelling has improved....

Stay tuned.....

knifey_spoonie

Patrickof wrote:

Stimpyone, who's the airis distributor in ireland?

The irish distributor is a company called Kube www.kube.ie
They own nokia.ie, have the rights to route 66 + rac satelite navigation in ireland.They trade under many names .

PDF brochure from kube

They will only sell to the trade, but even at that there not much use as when include the VAT its cheaper to buy from pixmania

Also remember that from kube you only get irl + uk, but from pixmania you get full europe

kube are selling the airis at €195+vat

They are suppplying tesco with the airis system €299 and halfords with the RAC system €259 which

Patrickof

I asked Route 66 support about putting Navigator 7 PPC on the Airis and this is what they replied:

"Please note that Airis T920 is not compatible with the ROUTE 66 Navigate 7 PPC software that is available on our website. The ROUTE 66 Navigate 7 PPC software that is available on our website is compatible only with Pocket PCs and will not run on a PND, like Airis T920."

Cal

Patrickof wrote:

I asked Route 66 support about putting Navigator 7 PPC on the Airis and this is what they replied:

"Please note that Airis T920 is not compatible with the ROUTE 66 Navigate 7 PPC software that is available on our website. The ROUTE 66 Navigate 7 PPC software that is available on our website is compatible only with Pocket PCs and will not run on a PND, like Airis T920."

The Version of Route 66 supplied with the Airis is the PND Version and not the PPC Version.

Cal.

delly

So lets get this straight, can the 920 be upgraded in the future, or is what you have the limit?

Stimpyone

knife_fighter wrote:

The irish distributor is a company called Kube www.kube.ie
They own nokia.ie, have the rights to route 66 + rac satelite navigation in ireland.They trade under many names .

PDF brochure from kube

They will only sell to the trade, but even at that there not much use as when include the VAT its cheaper to buy from pixmania

Also remember that from kube you only get irl + uk, but from pixmania you get full europe

kube are selling the airis at €195+vat

They are suppplying tesco with the airis system €299 and halfords with the RAC system €259 which

Not according to this guy.

martin@unity.ie

http://www.airisuk.com/frame/indexeu.asp?Pais=UK (AIRIS dealer link, top right, then scroll down to Ireland )

http://www.ripe.net/membership/indices/data/ie.unity.html

pissed

So lets get this straight, can the 920 be upgraded in the future, or is what you have the limit?

Suppose if all else fails you could try install tomtom on it as in this thread

http://www.gpspassion.com/forumsen/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=52616&whichpage=8

Patrickof

Route 66 support confirmed to me that the Pixmania version sold without the maps cannot be loaded with any publicly available route 66 software. So its effectively useless. Someone else also confirmed to me that they tried to load route 66 PPC and it failed.

So it looks like the mapless Airis on pixmania is useless.

delly

Hmm, I'd like to think that something like this can be officially updated rather than having to do it in a hybrid fashion. tbh while the unit is good with such small scope for updates I think i'll have to see if I can bring it back.

Daveq

Firstly lads have to say this is a great thread. Very informative, especially as I am considering buying an Airis unit.

Id say it must be possible to update the maps at some stage, maybe at the moment there is no update available but it does say on the mysatnav site that -

"If you currently own an Airis navigator please contact us if you would like to update your system to the latest Q2, 2006 map data from Navteq."

So they can bring it from Q1 2006 or previous up to Q2 so it is updatable as a unit, we might just have to wait and see what aris do with the route 66 software for newer releases. Im hoping it is updatable as I was looking at getting one as previously mentioned but without updates and at the rate they build new roads it means your going to have to buy a complete new sat nav in a few years/months/whatever which can get costly!

Cal

Patrickof wrote:

Route 66 support confirmed to me that the Pixmania version sold without the maps cannot be loaded with any publicly available route 66 software. So its effectively useless. Someone else also confirmed to me that they tried to load route 66 PPC and it failed.

So it looks like the mapless Airis on pixmania is useless.

Please NOTE: The Airis runs the Route 66 PND Version (Personal Navigation Devices) and not the PPC Version (Pocket PC).

Cal

JHMEG

Ok, I think I can clear up some of the confusion here. But first, a bit of background:

1. The T920 is a PND running a bare bones version of Windows, CE.Net Core 4.2. Normally any GPS software for PNDs is custom-built for the seller (note I didn't say manufacturer), in this case Airis. R66N7 on the T920 is such a version.
2. The PPC version of R66N7 runs on full fat Windows Mobile on generic handheld machines like iPAQs etc.

Therefore the PPC version of R66N7 will not run on Windows CE.Net Core 4.2 due to missing DLLs and other fundamental OS differences.

In theory it is up to Airis to release updated maps for the T920 when they are released by R66 (Navteq have to first supply them to R66 who convert them into their own format).

However: the map formats from both versions are the same, meaning maps from the PPC version will work on the PND version and vice versa. So rest assured that if Airis don't provide the maps, the maps from the PPC version will work fine.

As an aside, I believe the T920 is actually a Mitac Mio C510E with a few buttons and other bits deleted. Other clones are Typhoon 3200Go, MyGuide 3200, Clarion Map360, Falk N-xx (N30 etc), and possibly Transonic 3040/6000 and the Medion PNA510T (these have more buttons, and look more like the C510E tho).

I have tested Navigon Mobile Navigator 6 (supplied with some of the above units) on my T920 and it works fine. Maps are Q4/2005 tho, but the POIs are a lot better. The maps are nicely antialiased, but the UI functionality isn't as easy to get around as with R66N7. All in you win some, you lose some.

On a final note, the R66N7 Q4/2005 maps are ~138MB, the Q2/2006 are 213MB, so if the trend continues the Q4/2006 maps may not fit on a 256MB SD card (if you have one).

And on a final final note, it is possible to get TomTom 5.1 to work on the T920 (maybe v6 too, not sure tho), but the maps are so bad (TeleAtlas) that it's not worth the effort.

EDIT: The only updates you can apply to R66N7 on the T920 are directly from Airis themselves, not from 66.com. The Airis ones are here:
http://www.airisfr.com/airiseu/soporteCPD/modelos/T920.htm

eirlink

Great post JHMEG...really well explained. well done. I have one but ill have to check it tomorrow as im off to watch match.post back then...