Customer Reviews

Microsoft Streets and Trips 2007 [OLD VERSION]

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(29)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

This remains an outstanding trip planning and GPS program. Unfortunately, some of the map details are still not as good as were found in the 2004 version of this program. I can't understand why MS would dumb down their product. Also, the street names seem to have been dumbed down as well. For example, Golden Eagle Ferry Road has been reduced to Ferry Road. There are innumerable examples of this dumbing down and simplifying which only serves to confuse.

Despite the dumbing down of the actual map data the program remains a superb mapping program with many updates since the 2004 and 2005 versions. New streets, restaurants and other points of interest are now incorporated. This program offers a truly affordable GPS guidance system for nearly all consumers without having to go to the expensive Garmin or Magellan systems. If you find yourself traveling to points unknown I cannot imagine a better more affordable solution for getting around than this product in conjunction with your notebook computer. Even if you have an "all in one" solution such as the Garmin Nuvi Streets and Trips can help you plan your trip and routs. I have both and they compliment one another very well.

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.

I heartily recommend this product! The updated mapping details and new points of interest are also useful.

Microsoft provides users with the fastest, sleekest consumer map software with Streets and Trips. As such, I have been a fan of Streets and Trips since the 2002 version. Unfortunately, Streets and Trips is merely a slight improvement over its predecessor, Streets and Trips 2006, and still has most of the key problems.

There is no question there are several benefits to Streets and Trips over online "free" applications with their invasive advertising, sluggishness and reliance on an Internet connection. Resident map data addresses all of these annoyances and gives the user more control. Putting that particular debate aside, Streets and Trips 2007 does suffer from a lack of connectivity in its inability to update core grid data and point-of-interest data over the Internet.

As I mentioned in my review of S&T 2006, Google Earth is setting the stage in the consumer map world. While Satellite photos do little for trip planning, Google does a nice job of locally caching large amounts of data from a remote server. The Streets and Trips development team must do the inverse of this. Most of the data should be resident on the local computer with dynamic integration from a variety of remote sources.

Dynamic updates can serve many purposes. The most straightforward is correcting inaccurate road information and updating core data as new roads are constructed. Secondly, there is a great deal of POI (point of interest) data that could be updated continuously. Lastly, if Microsoft promoted a comprehensive ecosystem, various government and private entities could provide plug-ins for Streets and Trips. At the current time, this ecosystem does not exist.

The lack of real-time connectivity leads to other shortcomings. In essence, Streets and Trips creates static maps. This precludes the implementation of real-time traffic or weather. Sadly, Microsoft has lost out on so many other value-added features that are provided by Google Earth, Yahoo Maps, and the Weather Channel online.

Oddly, key problems in its management of basic street data persist. For example, it can't properly interpret hyphenated street addresses in the boroughs of New York. Of course, it is impossible for a single user to error check the entire database, so I am curious what other errors exist.

Like most map programs, Streets and Trips is automobile-centric. This means that it interprets one-way streets literally. While great for drivers, it doesn't help for walking. Moreover, there is no interpretation of public transit systems where users would walk to a subway or train stop, board, and walk to a destination.

Shortcomings aside, Streets and Trips 2007 is still a very useful consumer mapping tool. After you become accustom to the application, you will find yourself using it for the most mundane trips. It is very fast and easy to use - perfect last-minute errand planning. In the larger context, however, Microsoft does need to update its Streets and Trips business model to provide users with the same features they have grown accustom to with web-based applications. Only then with Microsoft have a killer app.

Pros
Fast
Ease of use
Exceptional clarity in maps and interface
No advertisements
First connectivity steps with Windows Live

Cons
Can't properly interpret hyphenated addresses
No export of point-of-interest data
No integration with 3rd party data
No real-time traffic
Won't print to larger formats (can't print to legal or tabloid)
Not enough control during printing (fonts and streets)
Not fully integrated with Office applications

First of all, I like the product. It works reliably - and that's more than you can say about some other MS products.

Picky points:
1. To use the GPS navigator, you must click one more time - to agree that you will not sue MS if you screw up your driving. Yeah, yeah. Well, once would have been quite sufficient.
2. Construction updates: Huh? Completely useless. Example - in California, heading on Hwy 89 from Lassen to Mt. Shasta, the road has been under serious construction (new bridges, etc) for years. Yet, nothing is noted when the latest construction info is downloaded.
3. Distances to turns are usually correct. However, on I-15 in Utah, the exit numbers are 3 or 4 miles too far north. I can understand this on smaller roads, but on I-15?
4. Off-route: the program should be a little more reasonable. I'm on the road around the rim of Crater Lake, and for whatever reason (probably a bad fix from the GPS), my track appears to veer off into space, and a voice warns me, "Off route". Huh? Hey, I'm on the only road....
5. Once in a while the program directs you to roads that existed, but no longer are correct. You must carry an up-to-date atlas and check your planned route.
6. No indication is given for road surfaces. Sometimes the program will direct you to roads that are gravel. That might be okay for you, but I'm pulling a trailer, and I don't go well on gravel.
7. The program shows you your elevation, but in tiny type. No provision is made for increasing the size. Another point - it would be really handy to have the program show you an elevation profile of your planned route.

Some terrific things:
1. Your actual speed is shown in big numbers. Very good - my truck has extra-large tires, and my speedometer reads 12% BELOW the real speed. Good way to get a ticket.
2. Map orientation is selectable. Wonderful.
3. Painless integration with the GPS unit. Plug it in, away you go.
4. It's surprisingly quick to note that you're off route. It's strange when you pull into a rest stop, and the program advises you that you're off route, but it's REALLY useful when you make a wrong turn in the city - got 50 feet and you'll get warned. This is very useful so that you can make a quick correction at the next block.

One funny thing: the program is prone to give you completely useless intructions: "in 14.3 miles, continue straight" Ha ha. But then when you come to a confusing intersection, no comment. Oh, well.

Summary: for about $100 including the GPS unit, this product is very, very, good. I've used it to plan my routes and find places for 10,000 miles, and it's been a faithful companion - not perfect, but a pretty good navigator.

Re Microsoft Streets and Trips 2007:

Think of a pretty house (easy to use, nice maps) with a rotting foundation (data errors, crashing, bad routing) and you'll understand why I'm conflicted about this product.

My particular area of concern is the lack of POIs (points of interest). Most good systems will have from 3-7 million points. S&T 2006 had a meager 1.8 million points and generated many complaints because of it. So, what did Microsoft do for 2007? They actually REMOVED 600,000 points!! This is lunacy. Among other things, virtually all RV parks have been eliminated, making it useless for planning that type of trip. Many other points are still missing also, e.g. Wal-marts. My guess is that no one will pay what MS wants for inclusion in their precious map. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

If something better came along, I'd dump this thing in a heartbeat. Problem is, all the others are worse. DeLorme has better data, but ugly maps and a weird home-grown user interface that's nothing like Windows or Mac standard. Rand McNally, etc. are not even in the same league. Online maps don't work too well when you're nowhere near suitable web access.

The best map program ever is still the late lamented AAA Map&Go. I could literally plot a cross country road trip in five minutes with this great product. DeLorme dropped it years ago, it didn't match their arrogantly misguided ideas about user interface. If they ever brought it back, I'd be first in line.

I've used MS Streets and Trips for years with minor problems. This year I upgraded to a Windows Vista Laptop and wanted the latest software for it. I have a GPS and I use a Pocket PC PDA so I need Pocket Streets.

After I got home I read the fine print on the box. It list support for no higher than the Windows XP OS. But, so far the program is running fine on my Vista machine.

The laptop has no serial COM ports and S&T 2007 won't detect a USB port. The description of S&T 2007 which includes a GPS indicates it uses a USB port but apparently it needs the included USB adaptor. I could not locate where I could purchase such an adapter.

S&T 2007 no longer ships with Pocket Streets. Nor could I locate where I could download a copy. I can (for now) use my old Pocket Streets program because 2007 does EXPORT Pocket Street maps.

Finally, within two miles of my home the map list an airport and runway that was shut down in the early 90's. The main highway a few blocks from me has only 3 exits in 2 miles yet S&T 2007 list over a dozen intersections which means when I get directions I always end up down a dead-end road.

I've purchase many versions of Streets and Trips and this is the first time I felt I've wasted my money. Open software can't be returned from where I purchased it. I guess I'll have to start researching other software packages.

I purchased Streets and Trips to use with a Windows Mobile 5 PDA and Bluetooth GPS reciever. As I was looking around at various gps software and maps, I decided on Streets and Trips intending to use Pocket Streets even without the ability to give turn by turn routing due to some reviews of Street Atlas claiming the maps were often inaccurate causing mistakes in it's routing.

I was quite shocked when I installed Streets and trips 2007 and found it no longer included Pocket Streets.

If you are not using a laptop, pass on this.

I eagerly look forward to each new edition of Streets and Trips, having selected it as "best" some years ago. The 2007 edition has - unexplainedly - introduced bad map data near me. Specifically, there are "locked gate" PennDOT-only access and service plaza service roads being used for routing along the Pennsylvania Turnpike in the Philadelphia suburbs. Clearly this is bad map data in the 2007 edition. Anyone traveling through this area, beware, as the routes are impossible to follow.

Several years ago I used DeLorme's Street Atlas with a USB GPS receiver. The software worked but the interface was lousy. This year I tried Microsoft's Streets and Trips 2007 and was surprised to find that it has an interface that is smoother in some ways than the Delorme software, but still surprisingly clumsy. And the help is possibly the worst I have seen in a Microsoft product (that's saying a lot). Here are some of the problems:

1. Street & Trips is expecting a GPS receiver that uses a **COM PORT**. Are you kidding me? In 2007??? The Delorme Earthmate 20 (usb) will work if you use the delorme com port emulation software, but why is this necessary??? (And it was not trivial to get it to work.)

2. The handling of pushpins (identifying spots on the map), favorite places, and the like, is extremely clumsy. (Although, contrary to another review, you don't to re-enter the information each time. You just save the file and reload it.)

3. Directions are sometimes not so great. Why would you instruct someone to "turn left" if you don't know which direction they're pointing (e.g., when you're stationary in a parking lot)? Much better in such cases to say "head NE" or some such. Freeway exits (at least in So. California) were often not handled well. (One freeway entrance was identified as a "local road", which at the time proved quite confusing.)

4. Why doesn't the software automatically recalculate directions to put you "on-route" once you're off-route? You can push F3, but why is this necessary?

5. I never got the voice providing driving guidance to work. The online help was useless. I'm sure someone can jump in and tell me how to do it, but it should be trivial.

6. In general, the software has the feel of a bunch of modules written independently and thrown together. I'm not a reflexive anti-microsoft bigot (I bought this software after all), but I find that much MS software is bad precisely because it feels like it's cobbled together without much attention given to integration. It's shiny on the surface but the shine vanishes once you really start to use it.

Given this experience, I will probably give the Delorme software another try next time around.

if you don't have this software, it is a must. I travel on business a lot, and could not live without it.
However, if you have the 2006 version, don't bother with this. I still haven't found any real upgrades with noting. It does update roadways and locations if you need that.

A new splash screen...that's about all I could tell that is different between this and the 2004 version. I'm sure there are a few other things that have changed, but nothing that affects how I use it. If you are thinking of upgrading, don't bother...because Microsoft certainly didn't bother to make any worthwhile improvements.