Customer Reviews

Microsoft Streets and Trips 2005 GPS [Old Version]

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I always liked Streets & Trips program - its graphic is superior to other map programs (streets looks like real map, instead of pixelated lines). I used this product whenever my family had to travel to places - and it saved us many many times. However, when we get lost, I always wished there would be an easier way to find out where we are instead of trying to look for street signs and figuring out. So when I saw MS S&T 2005 w/ GPS on sale (came with sixty rebate for upgrade - fourty nine after rebate), I jumped on it even though I own Garmin iQue - which is another incredible bargain.

As with any maps, S&T sometimes will give you not the fastest directions or a wrong location for an address (2002 version gave the closest match without any warning which I took without realizing it until I got there a few times), and unless you buy new version every year, there will always be addresses that don't show up - esp. new housing complexes near my city.

Anyway, I've had no problem with the driver nor performance drop as others have mentioned with my IBM T42 P1.5Mhz, and 512RAM. Initial GPS reception is faster than iQue side by side. It does everything that it says it does. It tells you where you are, keeps your track, and the software can calculate route and tell you exact turn direction and time estimate.

However, much of the routing functions are not automatic as it should be. This GPS basically tells you where you are on the map, and that's it. It will not give you voice guidance (a major flaw), it will not automatically show you turn direction, it will not calculate estimated time of arrival. It will show you MPH, dirction (north, south, etc.), and I believe altitude as well. But unless you have someone sitting next you to help you navigate, please don't use it - it will be a dangerous distraction.

I got this because it was such a good bargain (that I could always sell on eBay), and I could reasonably assume that MS will eventually fix the deficiencies once they realize there is money to be made in the GPS market. Also, I just prefer S&T for looking at a larger map and quickly find out an address over Garmin iQue (it could be a pain to browse the map on a tiny screen), and GPS was just a bonus.

Get it only if you're NOT going to use it as your primary routing tool and you seldom drive by yourself, or are willing to stop on the side of the road to figure our where you're going. If you need something to route you automatically when you drive alone, I don't think anything beats Garmin iQue in the market today.

I love the basic Streets and Trips (I owned the 2004 version). And although this version has been slightly dumbed down, presumably to accomodate the greater accuracy required by the GPS, the addition of a GPS locator goes a LONG way towards making up for this deficiency.

I tried to link my Garmin 60CS to this program and although it worked it didn't lock onto the satellites nearly as reliably as the enclosed locator. The marriage of Streets and Trips to the GPS locator has made this a very functional affordable GPS unit!

Welcome to the world of affordable GPS linked to a phenomenal mapping program. If you find yourself traveling to points unknown I cannot imagine a better solution for getting around than this product in conjunction with your notebook.

A few comments about the Streets and Trips mapping software. I am familiar with the Delorme product and the Garmin product and Streets and Trips blows them both away - no contest. Instantaneous panning, zooming in and zooming out, outstanding routing software, and a plethora of other features makes Streets and Trips, by far, my favorite mapping software.

One problem I had, and hopefully this will help others who might encounter the same problem: Downloading the software into your computer does NOT load the drivers! This must be done separately with the Setup disk when you first attach the locator device. Should you fail to put the Setup disk in and let your computer find the driver automatically on that disk, then your program will not recognize the locator! I wasted quite a bit of time trying to figure out what was wrong.

The problem was that the included driver software turns your USB port into a pseudo-serial communication port enabling the software to recognize the locator. The software will not recognize the locator UNLESS it is attached to a communications port. So be careful and follow the installation instructions carefully. The locator is made by Pharos GPS and if you have any installation problems go to their web site for further instructions.

I can recommend this product without hesitation

The GPS works well (i.e. it tells you where you are on the map). As far as the routing, there are no voice prompts (helpful when driving alone), there is no distance countdown to the next turn (a great feature on other software), the zoom on the map resets itself when moving to the next turn instruction (zooms way out, quite annoying), the software does not automatically move to the next turn instruction (it really should when using GPS), and the software does not automatically recalculate a route when deviating from the recommended route (you have to push a "go" button which can be tough while driving). All in all, this software works better if you plan on traveling with another person to operate the laptop.

The GPS with Streets and Trips 2005 is very easy to use. None of the usual learning issues. Just plug it into the USB port, it locates the satellites, and shows your position on the map. Fun to see the GPS trace of our route while exploring campgrounds. It is amazingly accurate except for the altitude, which for us was about 100 feet lower than actual. The GPS has no user interface to learn and uses a suction cup to attach to a window. I locate it low on the windshield under the wipers and run the cable to my notebook which happens to securely fit between my van front seats on top of the storage console. The notebook is powered by a 12V to 120V converter available at Radio Shack.

While the map has plenty of details in cities it sometimes doesn't show remote but well traveled roads. The road to Scottie's Castle in Death Valley isn't on the map but if you type Scottie's Castle into the Route Planner it will locate the landmark and highlight the road correctly. This major regional landmark doesn't display in the Nearby Landmarks feature either for some reason but exists in the data. Same issue for the road south of Furnace Creek along the east side of Death Valley. So the data is in the program but it doesn't always display it.

It would be wonderful to have the topography of the USGS maps added in. The landscape map included is of very poor quality.

Another issue is that it doesn't give you the mileage to the next waypoint. The data seems to be available to do this but the program doesn't have this valuable feature, yet.

National Geographic has GPS features with some of their map software but they don't have most of the useful features of Streets and Trips and you need a GPS unit that requires substantial learning. Streets and Trips in combination with Benchmark Maps' Road and Recreation Atlas is probably the most comprehensive solution, or running S & T and an NGS map (two GPS units).

My wife wasn't excited about the program until we used it extensively on a 1,700 mile road trip from San Jose, CA to Death Valley, Las Vegas, across the desert to LA and up the coast. She's a big believer now!

Definately worth buying now but look forward to the next version.

Having used "03 and "04 Streets and Trips, I was disappointed that this "USB GPS" version still used serial port drivers to allow USB operation instead of direct USB.
The most disturbing problem, however, is that some how they have screwed up the data base where a large percentage of the addresses I have tried to find are wrong or not on the maps.
The search feature accurately found these addresses on previous versions and no support to S&T '05 is currently provided by Microsoft.
Except for a slightly better GPS interface, not much new is offered by the `05 consequently, I would avoid `05 Streets and trips and go with the '04 version.

I got S&T with GPS only a couple of days ago, but I am too excited not to write a review. I've painfully deliberated on a GPS device to get for over a year. I've been using S&T since 1999, and I love the software. You can find both addresses & businesses, and you even get the phone numbers! Better yet, the software is intelligent enough to figure out whether you are typing in a place or an address. You can even mix the two! E.g., if you type in "Taco Bell, CO" - you will get a list of all Taco Bells in CO! It is very intuitive and easy to use.

On the minus side, the software does miss the latest housing development - whole blocks of streets, even some of the ones that have been around for years. But that's a problem I've seen with all mapping software, so I got over that pretty easily. And yes, sometimes the directions aren't the best - but most of the time they are pretty good.

I did not have any problems installing the software or connecting the hardware (a USB cable plugs into a USP port of your laptop and a swap GPS unit - maybe a tiny bit bigger that a book of matches). I did not have to install the GPS driver separatly as someone else mentioned: installed S&T through setup, connected the GPS cable, and I was in business. (WinXP SP2 on a Compaq Presario 2108US - Athlon XP 2800+, 768MB RAM, 40GB HDD - the software needs around 1 GB if you install everything on your HDD, less if you run from a CD - but then it will run slower).

The GPS unit was able to lock onto the satellites even inside of my apartment (although it was a little "shaky" thinking that I was moving back & forth at about 1 mph even though I was perfectly still). But when I used it in my car, it worked perfectly well - 0 mph when stopped, tracked the speed well when I drove I agree with other reviewers - it isn't a good unit to use by yourself, as there is no voice guidance - you'd have to glance on your laptop or PDA screen all the time. However my wife drives and I look on the map, so it's not a problem for me. I found the unit exremely accurate outside in Seattle area. I followed the streets exactly, tracked accurately my speed, lat/long, altitude, showed time, showed a little compass with your direction. You can set the software to center the map to your position and/or rotate the map as you turn and/or "create GPS trail" - basically draw a blue line that shows where you were. I was very impressed with performance, even though this is my first GPS unit. You even get a little clear suction cup so you can stick the unit onto your windshield, and it worked pretty well.

The GPS hardware is Pharos iGPS-360 (nobody tries to make it a secret - it says it right on the unit).

You *can* use it with your PocketPC - but you probably will need a separate cable. (can be found for around $30). I have not tried that yet. Someone said that you can hook it up to a PDA with a standard cable if your PDA has a regular USB port, but I haven't tried that yet (I have Toshiba e740, but no extention unit with USB port - so I will probably just buy the proprietary GPS cable to hookup the GPS to my PDA). I will update this review if/when I do.

Anyway - I love the software (always have), and I love the extra GPS functionality - I was really missing it. I do highly recommend the unit.

The GPS worked great, but the software could be better. One of the nice features is that the software rotates the map for you as you travel. One thing that I did notice is that the map data is old. I did a side by side comparison of streets 2004 and 2005; 2004 had more information. Streets and Trips 2005 description say it has information for 5.4 million miles of routable local, city, state, and highway roads in the United States and Canada; Streets and Trips 2003/2004 has 6.7 million miles of streets and highways. Read booth product descriptions on Amazon. Also some the gas station, restaurants, etc information is out of date.

After receiving the unit, i quickly opened it and installed the software, The Included software is pretty good, it is very detailed. The "route finder" function is pretty good in that it will recognize one-way streets and it can route (and reroute) very fast on my Pentium M 1.5GHz. And also the speed function is almost exactly the same as my cars speedometer.

The bad is that the software and the GPS doesn't seem to "work together" in that it doesn't snap to the road, it draws the location of the car based solely on the GPS data so in my case i am always a few feet west of the actual street. And it doesn't show the turn that's coming up or have any type voice navigation. This makes it next impossible to follow if you were driving by yourself. Not only that, it doesn't tell you where you are unless you look at the map and figure out based on your car's position and the streets around you.

All together it is worth the price after (...)for me because i always go on road trip with my girlfriend or family so they can tell me when to turn because it is very accurate on the positioning.

Streets & Trips 2005 with GPS is a GREAT product. I have used it on 2 road-trips across Ontario and it performed very well. There were times when the GPS couldn't receive a signal, possibly due to poor weather or tall buildings (I was in Toronto). However, after driving a bit further, the signal usually recovered. During these down-times, I had to use the step-by-step directions and follow the map the old-fashioned way.
In one case, my wife and I took the wrong exit ramp on a busy highway and were able to get back on track very quickly due to the GPS showing we were heading in wrong direction. The "re-calculate from current position" function is worth the price of the GPS alone since it helps you get back on track after taking wrong turns/exits.
Another great feature is that the map re-orients itself to the direction you are heading in, like turning the map yourself.
The only drawback to S&T2005 is you need to have a laptop with a long-lasting battery or car adapter.
For all those people who get lost easily when driving, or have an incredibly bad sense of direction, I can personally recommend you get this. It's worth the value.

This version does not have voice prompts to tell you directions or some of the other features you might expect. Microsoft now provides voice messages in version 2006 and it is cheaper than this version ($59-79 depending upon timing). It is worth the price if you have a laptop. Pocket Streets is disappointing. By the way, it is illegal to have your laptop open in the front seat in some states so don't get a ticket (they allow a normal GPS but not a laptop serving as a GPS...go figure). By the way, Microsoft does not give a discount to upgrade from version 2005 to 2006 so your only choice is to purchase a new product at full price.