Microsoft Streets & Trips 2006 with GPS Locator - complete package

• Average user rating: 2.5 stars out of 2 reviews
• My rating: 0 stars

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• 7 stars

  Great Bargain Basement GPS if You Have a Laptop

  by djmurph on November 22, 2007

  Pros: Great price and features

  Cons: You have to use a laptop/ POI icons are almost invisible

  Summary: First the bad - Using a laptop in the car is a hassle unless you always travel alone and have the passenger seat empty. An in car laptop stand would ...

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  Summary: First the bad - Using a laptop in the car is a hassle unless you always travel alone and have the passenger seat empty. An in car laptop stand would be just the ticket, but if you are going to spend the extra money on one of those you might as well get a real GPS. Next many of the feature are difficult to impossible to use while underway. So you end up having to pull over to find POI's, etc. Other features missing are a countdown of miles and time to go. Also if you want to see the turn by turn instructions for the whole route you click on an icon and it splits the screen in two making the map more difficult to see. Plus the software doesn't keep track of where you are on the list of instructions, so if you have to scroll through to figure out where you are and where you are heading.
  
  On to the good - I already had a laptop and came across the older version of Streets and Trips with the GPS in the bargain bin at Best Buy. I spent around 90 bucks taxes and all. For the price how can you go wrong? I have since upgraded to Streets and Trips 2006 by buying the software on its own without the GPS.
  
  Streets and Trips is good mapping software on its own. You can create directions very easily and print them out. Addidng the GPS to the software gives you a very inexpensive GPS. The software has loads of POI's which I have used to find hotels, restaurants, etc. The downside is that when shown on the map the POI's are tiny little squares which are barely visible even on the highest zoom levels. There is a drop down menu where the POI's (called "nearby places") are displayed by type, then are sorted by proximity to whatever point you select on the map. Difinitely a feature you have to pull the car over in order to use. Once you find a place you can easily add to your route.
  
  You can get updated construction information anytime with a simple mouse click. Multiple destinations are no problem unlike many in car GPS systems. I can create a plan for a sales trip and hit the road with every stop programmed in including hotels, airports, whatever.
  
  If you want to put GPS capabilities into your car and not spend a lot of money, this product is hard to beat. But the PC UI isn't very road friendly and you'll end up pulling off the road if you need to make changes on the fly.
  
  The other issue for me is power management. I use an inverter in my car but it's not very practical to travel with it when I fly. So after several years of using Streets and Trips I will be upgrading to a portable GPS soon. I don't doubt that I will still use the software frequently to find places on the map, print directions for others, creating territory maps and all of the other stuff that Streets and Trips does a great job with.
  
  If you are on a budget you can't beat this system. I've seen it priced as low as $65.00 online.

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• 3 stars

  not a huge help

  by cheiro_de_chuva on June 10, 2006

  Pros: fair price

  Cons: no automatic re-route, lost gps signal, outdated map, not precise

  Summary: I have been a delivery person for years now and like many in my business an old fashion guy, but i tought i would give chance for a navigation system, ...

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  Summary: I have been a delivery person for years now and like many in my business an old fashion guy, but i tought i would give chance for a navigation system, so i bought a nice laptop and microsoft streets and trips 2006, am i happy with it? Not really, i have a friend with a tom tom navigation system and he says it puts him right in front of the place, not the case with this software, it is not precise , at its best it will put you on the street that you need to be and if you are not familiar with the town im sure you will get lost. It tells you to turn giving you only measure distances, for example, at zero point two miles turn left, it is easy if its the only strett ahead of you, but in some cases you have the streets so close one from another that makes hard to know wich one to take, if you are going to take a highway or a major route, a lot of times, only says, keep right at the ramp, wouldnt be easier to say, keep right at the ramp to 495 east? Map night is not that great, looks good but is not pratical, believe me. Yesterday i used in New York City, it was raining and i lost the gps signal several times, and when i got it back was just to hear off route. Buy this if you are a experienced driver and know your main routes, not reliable. I tought i was going to trow all my maps out of the window, not this time, old fashion paper maps are still in business.

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