Customer Reviews

Delorme Mapping Street Atlas USA 2005

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I bought and returned either the 2002 or 2003 version... sorry I do not remember which... because it was so difficult to use and interface was so horrid. I have used and liked ST8 as well as Microsoft Trips and Streets for years. They both worked very well on my IBM 800 MHz notebook. Today I received and installed this new version of ST2005, expecting that I might hate it like the earlier version and have to return it. Much to my surprise I like it very much. It is easy to use and is well-worth the money for all the features. Of course, since government data is used for all mapping programs, there are errors and some points of interest are way off from actual location. Some POIs are missing and strangely, all the casinos are missing in Stateline, NV, as they are in all mapping software. The voice feature works great in XP, but I have not tested it on my IBM notebook yet with my GPS. I expect it to work like the old version I have usd for many years. It installed easily and smoothly on my Dell desktop with XP. Overall, a winner.

UPDATE: I installed SA2005 on my IBM notebook with XP SP2 including the database CD (on the hard drive), and it worked perfectly on a 1,000 mile trip. The voice commands are interesting but not very useful, except for city driving and they help to keep the driver awake. All features worked as advertised. By the way, due to weak speakers in notebooks and road noise, I suggest taking along an earphone speaker and plugging it into the headphone jack on the notebook to actually hear the direction commands. The "back on track" feature is especially nice as it creates a new highlighted route from the place one drives off the planned route, without changing the rest of the route.... voice directions are also updated in seconds. The large arrows and info below the maps, even on a 12" LCD are great. Altitude, time to destination and miles to destination are great features as well. After using the program for a real trip with a generic USB GPS receiver, I can say that the program now gets six stars... if that were possible. It has been thoughtfully created for drivers. It goes way beyond Streets and Trips with many, many features, but I do like and use Streets and Trips as well. One tip for generic GPS users: do not select USB port when setting up the GPS to commmunicate with the program. Be sure you have Comm port 4 or 5 listed as choices and pick one of them instead of USB. If neither 4 or 5 is listed, unplug the GPS and plug it back in to get the correct comm port listing. The GPS works amazingly fast with this program... got signals every time within 10 seconds.

I'ved worked with Microsoft's Streets and Trips and the Delorme Mapping Street Atlas. The panning, zooming in and zooming out functionality is an order of magnitude better in Streets and Trips than Delorme's Mapping Street Atlas. I also like the mapping details in Streets and Trips better. There are more points of interest in Streets and Trips and the "directions" function is also much much easier to use.

I found the Delorme product generally cumbersome to use by comparison to Streets and Trips which worked elegantly and seamlessly.

The GPS receiver OTOH worked fantastic! It locked on to the satellites quickly and provided excellent real time location on the map. Despite the wonders of the GPS receiver however I still found the program awkward and difficult to use compared to Streets and Trips.

Honestly, I cannot envision any application for which this program would offer any significant advantage over Streets and Trips.

Now I realize I sound like a Microsoft shill. Believe me, I am not. Nothing would have pleased me more than if this product blew the drawers off the Microsoft product. But, unfortunately, this just wasnt' the case.

Overall this program was a disappointment.

I've used the older Street Atlas 7.0 for about five years and have been really happy with it. I use it on the home machine for planning and on the laptop with a GPS for traveling. My gripes have been minor, some small annoying errors in the database and its refusal to remember my settings when I exit. I upgraded because DeLorme offered a discount and I figured in five years they might have fixed those annoyances.

The annoyances remain, and this version is glacially slow. Twenty two seconds to load (three in 7.0), fifteen seconds to search for an address (1-2 in 7.0). Likewise panning and zooming is slower. This product is promoted as "faster", and other reviewers confirm that it is, compared to 2004. I pity anyone using that version. I was going to complain that "Find" stopped working a month ago until I read about the geomagnetic update thingy from another reviewer. That fixed my problem, but now my complaint is: Why didn't DeLorme tell me about it. They certainly have my mail addresses, both e- and snail-, as evidenced by all the promotions they send me.

The maps are prettier and easier to read once you get used to them. The user interface is entirely different, resembling an old version of TopoUSA that I have. I guess the new one is better, but for me not worth all the relearning.

I've returned to using the old version.

As a long time Delorme Street Atlas user, I have always been bothered by the inability of the program to export route directions. The user has always been limited to a "quick print" in a small font that is extremely difficult to read. Thus, when the 2005 version boasted the ability to copy route directions to the user's clipboard, I was delighted. However, in actual use the feature has serious problems in that doesn't do a complete copy . . omitting at least one key column--distance traveled.

Another issue is that the program doesn't remember view settings. Thus, if like me the user likes to have "map center cross hair" showing, it's necessary to set this up on each new map . . . very annoying, especially since previous editions remembered the setting.

The shame is that these issues were brought to Delorme's attention early on, and could easily have been addressed with a service pack. Unfortunately, the company doesn't seem at all concerned with customers' complaints.

I travel on the road all the time and I use my GPS and laptop to find my way around. I would have to say that the software that comes with the Garmin GPS is a hundred times more accurate and useful.

I have found that many of the roads in Street Atlas were labeled wrong or just plain drawn wrong. There is a lot of old information and not updated regularly. I live in a neighborhood that was built almost ten years ago and in Street Atlas 2004 it still didn't have my neighborhood in it and I live near a major city.

I can't recommend this software for other than very basic information. You can get a paper map that will work better.

I have been using the 2004 version of this program for about 5 months before I finally upgraded to this version. On my P2/250 laptop it runs slowly, but not nearly as slow as the 2004 version did. I just purchased a GPS device for it and love how it integrates with it. I travel extensively in my job and having the GPS feature makes finding where I'm going very easy.

There are some inaccuracies with the POI's as others have stated, but they aren't so far off that you couldn't find them with a little looking around. At least with them marked on the maps you get a very good idea where they are.

Web based maps are good to have, but when you have to travel to several locations in a day its impossible for me to get online to find where I'm going. With this in my vehicle I can get where I'm going anywhere in the country with just a little typing and a few mouse clicks. I recommend this program to anyone looking for a mapping program, especially if you have a GPS device to find where you are and where/when you have to make your next turn.

After using Street Atlas 2005 for one trip I find it was worth making the upgrade. One new feature is that it shows the next turn and the turn after that in the Show Turns window. It also gives this information in the voice navigation. This will eliminate a number of instances where I have used the voice commands to obtain this information. The number of trail points is now settable which can clear the map and reduce the load on the computer. There is a new version of the Microsoft speech recognition software. The file system has been simplified with the option to return to the full system if desired via a patch available free from DeLorme. The program loads much quicker. I recommend buying Street Atlas 2005.

Problems in many areas:
- Buggy installation: I had to re-install after a squeeky clean reboot (on XP; had to use msconfig to boot with no other drivers). The software still has trouble locating well-established addresses and significant landmarks.
- Weak "find" function. Cannot identify addresses with any intelligence.
- User interface is not intuitive at all; ambiguous commands, poor screen/button layout.
I'm trying to be patient and tough it out, but frankly I would not buy it knowing what I know now. I also have Msft Streets & Trips, and although it has limitations as a navigation tool, the U/I is much easier to use, no problems with installation, and the data is far more complete.

I was blown away by this product... in the sense that I could not imagine that such a well-functioning piece of software could be rendered virtually unusable by a horrendous interface. The controls are tiny, numerous, and often cryptic. To set up your GPS mouse, for instance, you would have to click the 'Exchange' button. Don't even think about using this product while driving, it is not suitable at all for a touch-screen display.

Having said that, the maps themselves are accurate, and the programs packs a ton of useful information.

This is coming from a computer programmer here so I may be a bit biased and sympathetic, but overall the 2005 version is very good for my needs. The interface is not very bad considering that I set up a car PC with a 7 inch touch screen and I am still able to use it effectively.

The maps are quite accurate but as with any massive collation of data, there are errors. many very recent streets are on there and there are many points of interest. One poor aspect is that sometimes the points of interest are located on the maps over a mile from where they should be. This is probably due to poor address juxtaposition by delorme.

I use this with the earthmate GPS and for $120 all together it is quite accurate and the GPS is a really cool toy. It refreshes very fast and can show you your speed nearly real time. It is also very accurate.

Their shortest path algorithm is quite fast and on my 1ghz mobile computer, the program loads and is responding to gps in under 30 sec.

Now there are going to be errors of course but I would say that you can get directions from this software accurately in general. I have been using it on Long Island for a month now and besides POI's being mislocated I do not see many gross errors. I do not use the voice navigation because it is annoying having a computer talk to you, but the on screen map routing and turn signals are very good. I would never blindly follow voice directions anyhow from a computer!

If you are using a laptop it will be hard to use for sure if you are alone but if you have in dash navigation it works perfect for me, and I would recommend it.