Microsoft Streets and Trips 2006 With GPS Locator[Old Version]

Customer Reviews

Police use

2007-06-12
I use this GPS in my patrol car. My only complaint is that it doesn't accept cross streets to locate an intersection. You can only locate the cross streets by using numbers, or "hundred blocks" ex: 12000 block of A st. Can't use "A St & Smith St". Then, you also have to put in the city, state, zip code too. Too bad it doesn't default to a city.

great product, except for a long wire

2007-06-12
I was thinking about buying a GPS for my car for a few months before I bought this. The problem I had with all the regular ones was the small display and the price tag (a decent one cost $500+). I was also worried about the ability to update the maps. That is when I came across Microsoft Street and Trips. With my 14" laptop, I figured I can make it a GPS with a display larger than any $1000 GPS will give me. I bought it at Amazon for $80. This was year and a half back.

Now after using it on numerous trips since, I am glad I chose it. It works great. It gives you real-time positioning information and voice guidance (just like any other GPS). It allows you to plan your trips completely (stops, cost, speed, type of roads and what not). It also has list of attractions, restaurants, etc. If your computer has internet connection (which one doesnt, these days?), it can update highway construction information and such.

The biggest flip side of the product, if you want to call it one, is that you need a laptop. There are two problems - the cost of laptop (if you dont have one) and power for a long trip. If you dont own a laptop already (which is unlikely, if you are reading this review), I would recommend buying a cheap one now (they come as low as $300 these days). Combined, it will only cost you under $500 (still less than any average GPS - and you will have a laptop of your own!!). For the second problem, I bought a $25 power inverter in my car (from amazon). So I can now keep it on as long as I want.

The other nuisance is the wire. The GPS device that comes with this version of Streets and Trips connects to the laptop using a USB cable. That wire make it a little clumsy. The sticky that came with it doesnt stick to the windshield well (you can still leave it on the floor, it will still catch satellite signals). The newer version (2007) comes with a wireless adapter.

Overall, I would recommend it over any other GPS in the market.

Jake

2007-05-22
I used this item on my last trip and found it to be lacking in a few things, I ask it to locate camping areas and it did not show any even though I saw them along the route. I am going to try and use a download the next time out.

Don't leave home without it

2007-03-30
This has been an outstanding purchase. I have never had an integrated navigation package in any vehicle that I have owned, so I can't really compare it to one of those, but this has been a great, cheaper alternative and a huge help on many road trips over the past year. It is so good and dependable, that I think I've almost become too dependent on it. It is easy to plan out your route at home or on the go, and it has an included phone directory so that when you get to where you are going you aren't dependent on the internet, or finding a phone book to call for take-out or find your favorite restaurant. The only down side is that its almost impossible to use by yourself. You really need someone else in the car with you to run the laptop.

Very pleasantly surprised

2007-03-26
Installation was quick. I was very pleasantly surprised at how well the system works with my old Dell Inspiron 4000 (Windows XP Pro).

very nice program ...

2007-11-21
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 ... :)

It works

2007-11-10
It works, it is a tad akward to use and would be much more conveniant if you could upgrade it rather than just buy a new one every few years

got me from California to Florida straight out of the box

2007-10-31
Bought this to help me on a 1700 mile cross country drive while moving house. Did just what was required, and made for stress free navigation. Only slight criticism, it would be nice to be able to change the brightness of output. I found during night driving that I had to switch on the screen save to keep my night vision.

I bought the 2006 version as it was a lot cheaper than the 2008 version. I realized up from that the maps might be out of date, but this was no issue for me during the trip.

Behind the times but it has a niche for "techies"

2007-09-27
It is very annoying when you make a wrong turn. It will just keep repeating "off route". It does not recalculate unless you force it to.

Because of danger of theft, you have to hide the laptop computer every time that you stop. There are a few too many cords with laptop charger and GPS sensor cords strung around the car.

I like the built in options for distance, mileage, nearby attractions and large screen. I will use the vehicles built in navigation to get me to my distination, but I will use Streets and Trips to locate any nearby attractions. It is nice to be able to plan my trip on my home computer and then transfer the information to the laptop for travel.

It does have a lot of roads that are not on most other GPS guides. I like the simplicity of choosing a route and being able to send that route to other people over the internet. It does give GPS coordinates and elevation. If you are a tech oriented person then this might be for you. If you like hands free, then a voice operated system is probably a better choice. This is an inexpensive alternative to the expensive navigation systems if you have a laptop computer.

Should be better than Google but isn't....

2007-07-07
I bought this a while ago and found it useful as a laptop GPS but as a route planner I found it to be lacking. First off, it is not as intuitive as when I try to do directions on Google Maps.

For instance, when I have pushpins set on a map, I should be able to simply right-click and select another pinpoint as a destination. Or at the very least click and drag one pushpin to another to get directions. Instead if you drag a pushpin, it gets move yet still retains the address of its original position!!! Even thought it's obviously a different location. I can't for the life of me figure out why they would even allow dragging if the information isn't going to be updated. That type of drag serves no useful purpose whatsoever.

It kind of shocks me that the biggest software company on the planet can't figure out how to make things intuitive. You would think they'd have the best product out there. But they don't. Streets and Trips is useful for getting a map when you don't have an internet connection but if you do, it's easier to make a map from Google and print it to PDF which you can have onscreen while you're driving.

With GPS it's pretty good for navigation but that's it.