Street Atlas USA 2004 Handheld

by DeLorme US Software

Product Features

• Create address-to-address routes anywhere in the U.S. directly on your handheld computer
• Includes street-level maps for the entire U.S., from rural roads to detailed city streets
• Includes Canadian primary and secondary roads
• Quickly locate on detailed maps your address book contacts
• Store the maps on removable-media devices

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0000C0ZC2
• Date first available at Amazon.com: August 25, 2003
• Average Customer Review: 1.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #18,506 in Software (See Top 100 in Software)
  • #90 in Software > Education & Reference > Mapping
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

Now experience the added security of always having exactly the maps you need, conveniently accessible on your handheld computer. The enclosed software provides detailed maps of the entire U.S. conveniently on CD-ROM.

Much more than simply maps, this powerful software brings many capabilities previously only possible on desktop PCs to the world of handheld computer mapping.

• Includes street-level maps for the entire U.S., from rural roads to detailed city streets
• Includes Canadian primary and secondary roads
• Create address-to-address routes directly on your handheld computer
• Quickly locate on detailed maps your address book contacts, plus 4 million updated points of interest. Includes restaurants, hotels, attractions, banks, schools, and more
• Connect to the DeLorme Earthmate GPS receiver (available separately) and track yourself in real time on street-level maps anywhere in the U.S. Now with large Turn Arrows
• Store the maps on removable-media devices
• Beam maps to family and friends--it's amazing!
• Bring topographic maps with you using Topo USA 4.0 software (available separately)
• Voice prompts for Pocket PC
• High-density screen support for Palm OS 5.0 devices

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Product is "Adequate" But Needs Some Work, November 1, 2003

By 

Brian (Springfield, MO (USA)) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Street Atlas USA 2004 Handheld (CD-ROM)

I purchased DeLorme's Street Atlas 2004 Handheld USA for my Sony Clie (NR70V Hi-Res) as I travel extensively cross-country for my job. I was interested in a Palm OS Street navigation software that could give me point-to-point turn-by-turn driving instructions while on the road.

Overall, I found this GPS solution to be "Adequate," but needing a bit more development before it is ready for the road-warrior. Here are the pros and cons that I found while using the software:

Cons: User interface to create and download maps to the Palm is not intuitive and does not follow standards. When I finally figured out how to create a map of my surrounding city and suburbs and get it on my Clie, I was suprised to see that the map file size was 3MB in size. I'm wondering if a cross-country map would even fit on my handheld! The "Find" street/place feature on the Palm does not seem to work right - it is slow and it finds addresses that have nothing to do with what was searched. Geolocating to a found address is also slow taking 2 minutes to locate and position to an address. Creating a point-to-point driving route on the Palm takes almost 10 minutes for a cross-town 10 mile trip (probably not useable to create cross-country routes on the Palm). Product does not support Sony's Hi-Res screen and text/buttons are "choppy." Maps while driving do not show most street names - 1 or 2 streets are shown with names if your lucky. There is no Zoom option on the screen - you have to push the up/down arrow to zoom. In Sony's NR70V model these buttons are not accessible while cradled. Screen Redraws are slow when moving from one grid to another. Next turn instructions are slow to display after your previous turn (5-8 seconds) - this will be a problem if you have turns back-to-back on your route.

Pros: GPS tracking of your vehicle along the map is accurate. Routes can be created on your computer and downloaded to the Palm. DeLorme will most likely release updated versions (free upgrades, I hope!)

Note: Also purchase an accessory cable that charges your Palm and powers the Earthmate GPS device - they run around $50 (Do a search on "Earthmate Data Cable with Auto Charger" to find this item on the internet.

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Don't let the "Handheld" in the title fool you., January 19, 2004

By 

"ddyersf" (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Street Atlas USA 2004 Handheld (CD-ROM)

Bought this and was hoping that it would live up to it's name, a Street Atlas to be used on a handheld. Don't believe it. It's just a map viewer.

When I'm out driving and I need to find an address, I need a handheld app that will let me search for it. This won't. That functionality is only on the desktop half of the software, when I'm sitting at home. If I could foresee in advance all the addresses I would need to use when I'm away from home, I could search and save maps and routes in advance. Then sync them with the handheld, and then I could use them. Who uses map software like that?

The worse thing about this lack of functionality is how they hide that from you. It's not clear in the documentation available BEFORE you buy it. Worst of all, it's not really available in the documentation AFTER you buy it. You have to wrestle through a very poorly designed user interface to try to figure out what the software does and doesn't do. Not only is it not functional for me, it took me over an hour of my time and all that money to find that out.

Save your money. If you need a true handheld street atlas, keep looking.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Just Get A Paper Map and Ask Directions, September 23, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Street Atlas USA 2004 Handheld (CD-ROM)

DeLorme makes great looking maps for the PC, but the user interface is horrible. All I've ever used it for is to hook up a GPS to my laptop and let it run. Trying to enter a route or "find" an address just drives you nuts.

Street Atlas USA 2004 Handheld version is no exception, with the additional complication of having to figure out how to save a map so it can be downloaded to your PDA. You first have to save it to your PC, then separately install it using the Palm installer (probably similar for the Pocket PC). There is an extensive set of instructions for how to do this on their web site, and the fact you'll need them is a pretty good indication of the inscruitible interface. Unfortunately, lots of other instructions are needed and not obviously available. Microsoft Streets & Trips is far easier to use on the PC, but will only download maps to Pocket PCs, not Palms.

Once you get a Delmore map on your PDA, it's pretty, but still pretty useless. The resolution is zoomed way out, so you see lots of streets but no street names. Most incredibly, there is no way to zoom the map!, an unacceptable limitation. To figure out where you are, you have to tap various streets or use the find function. Tapping produces a tiny box (unreadable while driving) which spawns a pop-up display of points of interest within the box. Great, but where's the street I'm trying to find?

The find function does a pretty good job of finding a point of interest, although you won't find "hotels", you need to search for "accomodations". But try to find a street address and the program first searches your PDA's entire address book, coming up with the most obscure hits, then begins ticking off the street, and FINALLY the actual address you requested. You can add a waypoint, which will show up in 2 point type, or tap "GOTO" to produce a somewhat higher resolution map that even shows some major street names. Of course, you still cannot zoom in to get more detail.

The product may work with DeLorme's PDA-dedicated GPS, but I could never get it to connect with my EMTAC BlueTooth GPS unit, which works just fine with Mapopolis.

All in all the product produces a much prettier map than Mapopolis, but Mapopolis has a much more streamlined interface (you just insert the disk and click the state, then county(ies), you want to download). Mapopolis doesn't have all the swell points of interest, but once on the PDA, Mapopolis maps are actually useful for orientation and finding your way, which DeLorme's are not. Maybe they'll improve the 2005 version; start with the ability to zoom, for heaven's sake! For now, a good paper map is a better investment.