Customer Reviews
Best for the price, but be careful on 1st use
As a user of Microsoft Streets and Trips 2005, I found software a deal at around $40. I already had the GPS from the 2005 version.
New version has voice prompts and Dynamic View (zooms to the turn - so I don't have to anymore) - a great feature that adds safety because i usually did that myself while I drove.
I find the product to be great. I travel to new states every week with work and streets and trips always gets me there.
On 1st use, be careful though. I installed 2006 version & programmed all my destinations. I got on the plane; but, once in my rental car I plugged in the GPS... Ouch... It needed to access the internet to configure the GPS that was already configured before I installed the 2006 version. Luckily my hotel was close. I used the map to get there; but, the GPS was useless until then. I was quit perturbed. Installation was immediate once I has a net connection.
Pros: New voice commands, Dunamic Zoomm Finds most everything with no problems.
Cons: Is not always 100% accurate with restaurants and newer intersections.
An extensive planning program
This product is great for planning trips! You can plan everything from what type of roads you like to travel on to what your typical speed is. There are settings like "Fastest" and "Shortest" but those may not provide you with the route you had in mind. So, you can simply select an area of land that you want to avoid, and the program will adapt your route and directions to detour any areas you don't want to travel in! You can also pinpoint and print a map showing thousands of points of interest along your trip from atm's and hotels to emergency locations and any number of restaurants. Another nice feature is the fuel planning. You can input your vehicle's fuel capacity, typical mileage, and the cost of a gallon of gas. The program will add warnings in your driving directions before you need to fuel up again. You can set this to warn you at many different levels so you are warned to get gas when you usually like to, not when the program thinks you should! This feature will also estimate the cost of gas for your trips.
I have not used the Pocket Streets and Trips on my PDA, and I chose not to buy the version of this program with the included GPS unit. I have a bluetooth GPS unit with my Dell Axim and it came with an extensive mapping software whose data provider is the same as for this program. I have read that the Pocket Streets and Trips is not very functional and that the connectivity between the pocket and desktop version is limited at best. I can't really say too much, because I haven't used it. But, I did buy the pda and gps unit partially based on that information.
I use the Streets and Trips to plan my trips, and I usually take a hard copy of a large map showing the entire area I'm covering with me. But I take my pda with gps with me on the trip to actually guide me along the way.
This product is for anyone, whether you have a pda with a gps program or not! It's always nice to have a program like this to be able to plan before you go. Excellent software for the money!
Don't buy this trash
I have been using Streets & Trips since 1999. If you can get your hands on one of the 2003 thru 2005 versions, there's NO reason to buy 2006. I use this software in my business to print maps when I want a paper backup to my Garmin gps unit software waypoints. I travel a lot around our state and can say that Microsoft has done absolutely NOTHING to improve the accuracy of the maps data. Major highway extensions and private roadways that were completed as long as 4 years ago, still do not show up in the "newer" versions. This is totally bogus and a waste of your money. I have decided not to buy another S&T version until 2008 at the least. It is quite apparent that the MS S&T dev team has focused time on inadequate gps navigation improvements at the expense of acquiring more accurate map data. Buy an earlier outdated version or go somewhere else.
