Customer Reviews
Really Disappointing 
2007-11-29
I purchased this software for use with my MAP330.
I've used the trusty MAP330 from Arizona to Alaska to Florida and it's been a great traveling companion.
I have a vacation planned to the Caribbean, so I thought I'd load it up with some maps of the area.
Initially the WWBM software wouldn't load on my XP machine, and gave ERROR-15 Can't Load Drivers. I finally shut down every other running program including my anti-virus and it finally got past the error. Fair enough...the instructions do say to close all programs.
Next the program couldn't find the CD even though it was in the drive. I rebooted, and the software now sees the CD and comes up. The first thing it says is that I need version 4 of the firmware in my GPS.
I have version 2.
Ok, so I go to the Magellan site, and look under their support section for discontinued models...and there were no updates available. Nice.
I finally ended up at the yahoo M330 group (those folks are great!) and found advise and files to upgrade to version 4.
So I plugged in my newly updated GPS and fired up the program. It came up and detected my M330, so right away I zoomed my windows screen in on the island of St. Maarten and found myself staring at a beige outline of the island with absolutely NO detail.
No roads. No cities. No topo info.
Just so I'd at least have an outline of the island in the GPS, I ran the upload process. It immediately failed and told me I have an incorrect version of the software.
I gave up at this point.
I'm very annoyed with Magellan for creating this sub standard un-friendly product. In spite of the very dependable M330 unit, I think I will look to a company with better software support for the next GPS.
Very unprecise, but better than nothing 
2006-03-29
I bought MapSend Worldwide Basemap to use on my Magellan Map 330 on a trip to Israel. It's an old model of Magellan GPS, and doesn't allow downloading anything but Magellan maps. Unfortunately, Magellan never made a detailed map for Israel, so I thought I'd make do with the base map.
The software works very similarly to MapSend Streets that I got with the GPS, though the interface seems a bit improved. Unfortunately, it only allows a single rectangular map to be uploaded into GPS (unlike the detailed maps from MapSend Streets, it's possible to upload four of those).
As it turned out, the base map for Israel is very poor. Many major roads are missing from the map, and many are off by as much as a mile and a half (two kilometers). At one point we got lost because of it - we turned off at a wrong intersection.
The base map was only useful as a _very_ rough assistance to navigating a paper map.
Interestingly enough, the base map also included topographic notation for heights, and that seemed to be much more precise than the roads.
When I was planning the trip, I had a choice. Either buy MapSend Worldwide Basemap, or buy a cable that would allow me to connect the GPS to my wife's PDA, plus some GPS software for the PDA. I chose the MapSend, and regretted this choice more than once. Live and learn!
MY GOD WHAT A WASTE OF MONEY 2006-03-24
i ordered cause i want to make a trip to south america, so i waited for the cd (with the maps) and what i received was a useless cd, i installed in my pc, and after says that will no work, i installed the patch, and guess?? it didn`t work, so i emailed the tech support, and they said "we have a problem with the security stuff in the cd, we are working on it, when we have fix it, we will send a new cd for you" and guess..... (yes you are right) 1 year and a half passed, and i don`t have the cd..., what a bad tech support.., then pleople say, don`t go to piracy..... don`t waste your money..,
Great Products -- Customer Support Stinks! 2006-03-08
I am very happy with my Meridian Color and the other mapsend products I have purchased, however, at first I couldnt get this product to work.
I had no problem getting this software to run with XP (even without the patch), however I couldnt view the basemap I had loaded onto my Magellan. I tried to address this with the company. It has been three days now and they have not even returned my emails. Customer service for this product is nonexistant.
I joined the Yahoo message board and got a simple answer to my question in about four hours someone posted the answer. Turns out I just had to go to the Menu -- Card Utilities and maunually select the basemap. I did not know that basemaps dont change automaticaly like the detailed maps do.
I cannt say enough great things about my experience with my magellan meridian color though. Navigating through Hungary like a pro, I didnt miss a single turn. I would never recommend any of their products to someone who isnt willing or doesnt have the aptitude to learn about it. The Magellan Meridian series is in my opinion the finest product on the market for what it does, portability it provides and is 100 percent upgradable with new software and new maps.
Get you head out of your a__ Thales. You have some great products, but you are blowing your customer support base with non existant customer support. I recommend anyone with a question about softward or the GPS join the yahoo groups and post the question there. Dont waste your time with customer support.
Disappointing and overpriced 2006-01-06
This is an overpriced and disappointing product that is third rate at best. The user interface is cumbersome and inferior to your average shareware product. But this was not the worse of it. Most disappointing is the detail of map details. Tokyo, for example, has virtually no landmarks and one or two roads (this for a city of 11 million people!). This seems to be consistent with other locations in Asia. Even if this product was free and included when the unit was purchased, it would be disappointing. In other words, it's not even worth it if it were free.
I purchased it in December 2005 and it still required a patch to run on Windows XP Service Pack 2, more than a year after it was released.
Consistent with Magellan's misguided restriction on not shipping any products except to a few countries, I had to have this product shipped to a family member in the USA who in turned shipped it to me.
Clearly the "Global" in GPS does not apply to Magellan's approach to service and support.
Magellan makes good hardware and should stick to that rather than trying to overcharge for inept software.
Had I known the software support is so poor for Magellan products, I would have chosen an other GPS manufacturer such as Garmin.
Poor Product and Terrible Support 2005-06-25
Cut and download a second basemap covering any region of the world into a Magellan mapping GPS receiver. Users can switch between the original built-in basemap and the new downloaded map as needed. Details include political boundaries, major roads and highways, railroads, and points of interest. The application also contains user functions to manage waypoints and routes.
PRODUCT KNOWN BAD BY MANUFACTURER!!! 2005-06-02
I purchased a copy of Magellan Worldwide Basemap. I installed it in my computer but it would not run. When this also happened to a second computer I installed it on I contacted Magellan Technical Support. After asking me about the relative positions of stickers on the back of the CD jewel case I was told I had a defective disk and was offered a replacement in 4 to 6 weeks! Since I will have returned from my trip to Europe before the replacement arrives the product is totally useless to me. Don't buy this product until they have "good" disks available. The good ones have the stickers on the back of the jewel case in an "L" configuration, on the bad disks the stickers are parallel.
Elementary at best 2005-03-08
I currently live in Asia. I purchases my Magellan on a trip home to Chicago. Back home, the default map displays almost all mapped roads and landmarks, and even some I didn't know existed.
I purchased MapSend so I could have decent maps of the area I live and travel in.
Silly me to think that it would perform with accuracy as it did back home...
The mapsend features in Asia where I've used it (Japan, Korea, Thailand, Philippines, Bangladesh) show at most 10 percent of the roads and landmarks, and all of those are displayed in horribly inaccurate positions (as much as 3 KM in some cases).
Were talking big landmarks including things like International Airports here.
A very poor product but one star given because it's better than nothing.
Totally unusable! 2004-05-01
After installing this software successfully, when I try to run the application it displays a popup stating it cannot find the CD (the CD is required to run the application) even though the CD is in the drive! So far, I have been totally unable to run this software: what a piece of junk!
Basemap lacking if used as solitary software 
2003-05-28
I have a Magellan Meridian Platinum receiver. I purchased the Worldwide Basemap so that I could use my GPS on an upcoming trip to South America. In the 'States, I use the GPS in my vehicle as I travel, and as often as posible in the backcountry on backpacking trips.
I uploaded a region of the Basemap that included the US west of the Mississippi and northern Mexico. It only took 8Mb of memory (saved to a 32Mb card). I think this is a pretty small file for such a large area. The Basemap includes bigger cities and many major roads. It also includes topography in 200' increments.
The nice part about the basemap is that it seems to be better "georeferenced" than the default map. On a recent drive, for instance, we found ourselves driving around on water - at least according to the built-in map. Changing to the basemap we found ourselves still safe on the lake shore! I think it will be nice to have topography shown on cross-country drives. But that brings me to the down side of the Basemap.
The basemap has only a fraction of the cities and roads on it. My home city, with three highways intersecting in it, is not shown. And only one of the highways is shown, starting outside of town (though there is no evidence that the highway continues or that there is a town at all on the basemap). The default map shows all the highways, tiny cities, and even major streets. I thought the basemap would have all that is on the default map and more. That assumption was not correct. It has a lot on it, and more than the default, but not the cities, roads, and other "important" things that are nice to know while driving.
Of course, a detail map can also be uploaded (from MapSend Streets or Topo). When zoomed into a detail area, that map takes over. I suspect this is why the basemap is sorely lacking. The bad part of this is that detail maps take up more memory. Even worse is that there are no detail maps for many areas - like Iquitos, Peru. I will visit Iquitos in July, but the city does not even show up on the Basemap (Iquitos and the Amazon are both shown on Garmin's default map, not Magellan's). I bought this software for the sole reason of uploading an equivalent of the default map for other areas of the world. There isn't much topography at the Amazon, so the loaded basemap looks exactly like a blank screen! I will still get my use out of the Basemap in the US, but it is worthless for the purpose I bought it for.
I believe that most readers will be better served with the built-in default map for travelling in the US. Then consider getting the Mapsend Topo and/or MapSend Streets software first. Only get the Basemap when you have the money to burn. Even if travelling abroad, you might check the availability of a detail map before dropping the cash for the Basemap.
