Editorial Review:Product Description:Microsoft Streets & Trips 2006 with GPS Locator combines customizable trip planning software with a sleek and stylish Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver. Now it is easy to plan your trip and track your location in real-time. Streets & Trips with GPS Locator has more trip planning tools than any online mapping site plus advanced GPS features, so you'll always know exactly where you are and where your next turn is. Just plug it into your laptop and go!
Amazon.com Product Description:Microsoft Streets and Trips 2006 with GPS Locator combines the latest version of Microsoft's enhanced customizable trip planning software, Streets and Trips, with a sleek and stylish Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver. Just plug the receiver into the USB port on your laptop, start your car, and you'll always know exactly where you are, where your next turn is, and how far it is to the next gas station or point of interest.
The navigation screen with GPS pane. A blue progress bar counts down to the next maneuver. View larger. |
Find all points of interest within a given radius. View larger. |
Acquire your location with the Wi-Fi Location Finder. View larger. |
Trip Planning with Door-to-Door Convenience Streets and Trips 2006 is an easy-to-use, hands-free trip planning and guidance solution. Whether you're running errands or planning a cross-country road trip, Streets and Trips 2006 offers customizable maps and information on more than 1.8 million points of interest (POIs), such as restaurants, ATMs, museums, campgrounds and more. Online or off, Streets and Trips 2006 provides updated maps that give you accurate, detailed door to door directions and puts 5.9 million miles of routable roads and highways throughout the US and Canada at your fingertips. While you're driving, verbal turn-by-turn directions let you concentrate on the road while the software guides you. Customizable trip planning features allow you to plan multiple stops, find nearby places to visit, calculate drive time, and more.
Taking advantage of the enhanced trip planning software is easy. With a customizable viewing pane, you can display turn-by-turn directions, including street names, in large type for easy viewing, and large, easy-to-see arrows that indicate the direction of your next turn. The pane displays the distance to your destination in miles or yards, and for a quick 'at-a-glance' view, a thermometer-style bar shows the relative distance you've travelled. To create a route and generate directions, you simply type in the starting and ending locations and click on 'Get Directions.' It's that simple. Your trips can include multiple segments, and you can instruct the software to customize your route by telling it what types of roads you want to travel, how much gas your car has, and the general area where you want to stop to gas up. Streets and Trips 2006 will do the rest, giving you your optimal itinerary, down to the precise gas station. Overall you'll have access to over 1.8 million local POIs such as hotels, restaurants, gas stations and ATMs, and by planning ahead, Streets and Trips 2006 will help you avoid delays with construction updates and other recent changes to your route.
With the GPS receiver plugged into your laptop, you'll always know exactly where you are. The GPS panel shows your current latitude/longitude, direction of travel, current speed, and GPS signal strength. This is also the control panel for arranging and customizing the map display, and you can even create a 'bread crumb' GPS trail, making your return trip a breeze. Voice-prompted directions announce upcoming turns with precise instructions, such as, 'In one point two miles, turn left on Andover Street.' If you drive past your planned exit, the software will tell you immediately that you're off track. A single click will get you back on track. The 'Re-route from Here' feature quickly recalculates directions if you miss a turn.
To find a certain POI, such as restaurants or gas stations, you simply select from 35 POI types to display on the map. You have the option of searching within a certain radius of an address that you choose, your current location, a specific direction within a planned route, or all of the POIs along the entire route. Your results are displayed in a directory-tree listing. When you click on a POI, a balloon box pops up on the map with detailed information, including an address and phone number, and if you right-click on the POI icon, you can add it to your route list.
MSN Virtual Earth and Other Extras To enhance to your travel experience, Microsoft Streets and Trips 2006 offers a link to MSN Virtual Earth, Microsoft's online repository of satellite maps. Let's say you're viewing a map of the theater district in Manhattan. If you want to see a bird's-eye view of it, just click the Virtual Earth icon and a satellite image of the area will load into your browser. Another convenient feature is the 'Night Map Style' which makes reading your routes at night or in other low-light conditions a breeze. The map's background is black, and roads and street names are shown in shades of green for easy viewing. Also included with Streets and Trips 2006 is Pocket Streets for your Pocket PC or Smartphone, which you can load onto your compatible Windows-based Pocket PC or Windows-powered Smartphone for greater travel convenience.
And best of all, once you register your software, you can access a full year of email and toll-free customer support, and you'll also have access to an online knowledge base dedicated to Streets and Trips 2006. So no matter where you're travels are taking you, you can drive with the confidence that you'll have Microsoft's extensive support and software behind you every click of your odometer.
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Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
-
Unusable
I used this software to map a trip across the country from New York to Bryce Canyon, Grand Canyon, and a couple more stops. If your stops are near major roads then this software usually works. But if your stops are off the major roads then the software doesn't know if it's routing you on a paved road or a dirt road. The software routed me on a dirt road for 46 miles. So 20 miles from my last stop I had to come up with my own route after running into the dirt road. I ended up having to drive back to where I started from. On another occasion the software directed me to a road, but there was no road.
The software comes in useful when you've missed a turn. Press F3 and it will find a route back to where you want to go and direct you. Other than that, I didn't find the prompt particularly useful. The map seems to be 2 seconds or so behind me, so it areas where you have 3 exits, one after the other, it doesn't help.
If you're looking to save a few bucks and get the 2006 version I would say that you won't be saving anything. I don't know if the 2009 version is any better, but I can say that I'll never let this software route a trip for me again.
Rating: 
-
Not bad - But the maps are WAY out of date and NO WAY to UPDATE them :(
* I am very happy with this software except for one major sticking point. The maps are very out of date. If you are going to any new areas that were constructed in the last 4 years, forget it. and - no updates. ...
Rating: 
-
Streets and Trips w/GPS Locator
This is a great product. We have used it with a laptop on at least 10 trips and it has very good features - voice instruction; lets you see where on the map you are driving; gives restaurants and attractions. I would recommend this for anyone who wants something better than a hand-held gps or someone who doesn't have a nav system built in to their vehicle. I bought my edition on Amazon and paid under $90.00 for it.
Rating: -
Has it's plusses
* This has served me well in terms of giving me directions, but it lacks the accuracy required for netstumbling, and Google Earth mapping of data points.
There is a new version out that uses SIRFstar III, and it's supposedly more accurate. Also the 2008 version is supposed to know about traffic in an area.
I'd buy the new version if I ever lost my current unit for any reason. ...
Rating: -
very nice program ...
Purchased this program for my older laptop PC because it was compatible with Win2000. Program worked right out of the box, no troubles installing. Has very nice features, easy to read on the screen. Now if I just could afford to drive my car anywhere ... :)
