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View Full Version : Pocket Streets for free or at least convert new maps to old


revolution.cx
03-07-2003, 12:12 AM
I have posted a program that converts new style Pocket Streets Maps (2002 and 2003) into 2001 format. The "conversion" process merely changes a single byte in the file so Pocket Streets 2001 will load the maps. There may be some incompatibilities but it has worked well for me so far.

Also there's still at least one place where you can download Pocket Streets 2001 for free (Microsoft used to give it away for free).

More info on our page here:

http://revolution.cx/rcx/pstreets.htm

Please address feedback to this thread and not email as this program is free, unwarrantied and provided without tech support.

PetiteFlower
03-07-2003, 12:37 AM
I got lucky, I got a new computer a few months before I got my Axim and Pocket Streets was included in the Microsoft Works Suite that came with it. I was surprised but happy, since getting lost seems to be my mutant power :)

goirish!!
03-07-2003, 01:02 AM
I have posted a program that converts new style Pocket Streets Maps (2002 and 2003) into 2001 format. The "conversion" process merely changes a single byte in the file so Pocket Streets 2001 will load the maps. There may be some incompatibilities but it has worked well for me so far.

Also there's still at least one place where you can download Pocket Streets 2001 for free (Microsoft used to give it away for free).

More info on our page here:

http://revolution.cx/rcx/pstreets.htm

Please address feedback to this thread and not email as this program is free, unwarrantied and provided without tech support.

This is great!!! :rock on dude!:

Believe it or not I had just down loaded 2001 and tried to use some of the newer maps on it this morning.(I knew that it would not work but I still wanted to play around and see for myself)

This is the best!! (Should have charged small fee for the app.) But hey, I'm all about free ware.

don't mind if we post this up on other sites do ya?

Speaking for all the cheapskates of the world THANKS!!!!! here's one to you........... :beer:

revolution.cx
03-07-2003, 01:17 AM
I have posted a program that converts new style Pocket Streets Maps (2002 and 2003) into 2001 format. The "conversion" process merely changes a single byte in the file so Pocket Streets 2001 will load the maps. There may be some incompatibilities but it has worked well for me so far.

Also there's still at least one place where you can download Pocket Streets 2001 for free (Microsoft used to give it away for free).

More info on our page here:

http://revolution.cx/rcx/pstreets.htm

Please address feedback to this thread and not email as this program is free, unwarrantied and provided without tech support.

This is great!!! :rock on dude!:

Believe it or not I had just down loaded 2001 and tried to use some of the newer maps on it this morning.(I knew that it would not work but I still wanted to play around and see for myself)

This is the best!! (Should have charged small fee for the app.) But hey, I'm all about free ware.

don't mind if we post this up on other sites do ya?

Speaking for all the cheapskates of the world THANKS!!!!! here's one to you........... :beer:

Thanks, even I couldn't charge for an app that changed one byte of a file. Though I don't know why it's a 90K .exe - something to look into sometime.

I have been neglecting my freeware karma for sometime so this is the least I could do. Who knows how long Microsoft will wait before they tell all the sites hosting Streets 2001 to take it down. I don't consider this piracy since they were giving it away themselves - but they do own the copyright and if they ask the various sites to remove it they will have to comply.

I was hoping to get a quiet start to make sure the thing works and then I wanted Thoughts to get the dibs on the first post.

I'll email the man and ask him to post, otherwise if you don't see any mention of it in a few hours feel free to spread the word.

Gremmie
03-07-2003, 01:25 AM
Anyway of tricking Pocket Streets to load onto a newer device? Anything beyong StrongARM won't load, even though its compatible.

revolution.cx
03-07-2003, 01:28 AM
Anyway of tricking Pocket Streets to load onto a newer device? Anything beyong StrongARM won't load, even though its compatible.

Loads just fine on my iPaq 1910 (Pocket PC 2002).

goirish!!
03-07-2003, 01:31 AM
Anyway of tricking Pocket Streets to load onto a newer device? Anything beyong StrongARM won't load, even though its compatible.

Running 2001 on an Axim

Sooner Al
03-07-2003, 01:52 AM
Anyway of tricking Pocket Streets to load onto a newer device? Anything beyong StrongARM won't load, even though its compatible.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=5A28645F-8FE5-4373-ACD3-CD4486E63AF9

Some versions of Pocket Streets 2001 on the supplied CDs are old versions that will not load on StrongARM devices. I ran into a similar problem with my old iPAQ 3630 back in January 2001.

revolution.cx
03-07-2003, 01:57 AM
Anyway of tricking Pocket Streets to load onto a newer device? Anything beyong StrongARM won't load, even though its compatible.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=5A28645F-8FE5-4373-ACD3-CD4486E63AF9

Some versions of Pocket Streets 2001 on the supplied CDs are old versions that will not load on StrongARM devices. I ran into a similar problem with my old iPAQ 3630 back in January 2001.

Sweet! Thanks for finding that link, now we are really in business! Has anyone checked to make sure this install on StrongARM and XScale, 2000 and 2002? I just don't have time right now.

taxus
03-07-2003, 02:55 AM
Hey it works!!! :)

Many thanks, I was very close to buying Pocket Streets 2002. ;)

Just so you know: French site PocketPC Paradise (http://www.pocketpcparadise.com) has a download link for the French version of Pocket Streets 2001 (http://www.pocketpcparadise.com/telechargement/freewares/utils/pocketstreets2001/pst2001f.exe). I confirm that it works on a Pocket PC 2002 StrongARM (Toshiba e310).

I couldn't find it in the Microsoft Download Center.

wbgordy
03-07-2003, 03:01 AM
The generosity and talent found on this forum is astounding!

revolution.cx
03-07-2003, 03:09 AM
FYI: I'm updating our webpage as the new info flows in. Thanks from me and all the downloaders out there.

JonMisurda
03-07-2003, 04:32 AM
I downloaded a map for Pittsburgh from the MS website, converted it and installed PS2001. Viewing it works great but when I search for a particular address, it says I'm out of memory. Granted I have an old Jornada, but I do have 20 meg of RAM free...

Is this really a memory problem or is something not completely compatable?

Thanks for the program though, the new maps are definitely better than the old PS 3.02 i was using.

Jon

goirish!!
03-07-2003, 04:46 AM
I downloaded a map for Pittsburgh from the MS website, converted it and installed PS2001. Viewing it works great but when I search for a particular address, it says I'm out of memory. Granted I have an old Jornada, but I do have 20 meg of RAM free...

Is this really a memory problem or is something not completely compatable?

Thanks for the program though, the new maps are definitely better than the old PS 3.02 i was using.

Jon

Had the same thing happen to me with a map of Memphis. Running an Axim and I've got 35Mb free. :?

revolution.cx
03-07-2003, 04:58 AM
I downloaded a map for Pittsburgh from the MS website, converted it and installed PS2001. Viewing it works great but when I search for a particular address, it says I'm out of memory. Granted I have an old Jornada, but I do have 20 meg of RAM free...

Is this really a memory problem or is something not completely compatable?

Thanks for the program though, the new maps are definitely better than the old PS 3.02 i was using.

Jon

I think this is the one catch, you can't search for addresses. You can search for places which works. A trick is to use the place search and use the street name you are looking for since it searches the addresses of places (e.g. searching for "Boren" turns up a restaurant on Boren Street in Seattle).

I thought that I had used address search with this when I was in Los Angeles but I'm probably just remembering wrong.

JonMisurda
03-07-2003, 05:44 AM
Ok, thats cool...

Out of curiousity, how did you discover the one byte difference? Were you able to do i binary diff of a PS2001 map with a PS 2003 one? If so do you think that there is a conversion that will work to fix this searching problem? (If you point me in the right direction I'd even look into it myself)

Jon

revolution.cx
03-07-2003, 06:32 AM
Ok, thats cool...

Out of curiousity, how did you discover the one byte difference? Were you able to do i binary diff of a PS2001 map with a PS 2003 one? If so do you think that there is a conversion that will work to fix this searching problem? (If you point me in the right direction I'd even look into it myself)

Jon

I can't take credit for it. On this download page for Pocket Streets 2001 someone posted a comment that said change byte 3 from 9 to 6 and the maps will work:

http://www.ppc4you.com/show.cgi?softid=29

And so they do. Except for address search.

Sooner Al
03-07-2003, 03:05 PM
...to Pocket Streets 2001, ie. little or no integration with Outlook. Pocket Streets 2002 and 2003 are integrated with Outlook. Here is a link to the upgrade that is available for 2002. This is built-in to 2003.

http://www.microsoft.com/pocketstreets/using/outlook.htm

FYI, you can get Streets & Trips 2003 for $14.95 or so from Sam's Club after the $20 Sam's Club rebate. IMO, its a very good deal. Pocket Streets 2003 is included... Other retailers may have similar deals... I bought S&T because I wanted to create custom maps of areas other than the selected large Metro areas available for download from MS.

kwerner
03-12-2003, 12:06 AM
-Besides having a slightly newer map, is there an advantage to using a 2003 map with PS2001? It looks like there is a big disadvantage with the search problem. What gets updated from year to year besides some new streets in a sub-division?

-Anyone know if there is a way to create state maps with less detail in Streets 01, 02, 03? Basically I'd like to have a state map that had all interstates, state highways, cities, parks, hospitals. A country map with interstates and only cities over a certain size would be nice too. A world map with only big cities would be really cool :-) Any ideas out there??? The only option I've found is scouring the net for state maps, atlas maps as gif files, none of which were ideal.

Thanks!
Kevin

Rob Borek
03-12-2003, 12:42 AM
I got dibs on Microsoft sending them a DMCA warning...

Ed Hansberry
03-12-2003, 12:48 AM
I got dibs on Microsoft sending them a DMCA warning...

:bad-words:

revolution.cx
03-12-2003, 03:32 AM
I don't see why, it's a pretty subtle distinction. The maps are freely available and Pocket Streets is freely available. The modification to the map file is actually *less* than renaming a file extension. So if this app is illegal than renaming a Word .doc file into a .txt and opening it in Notepad is also illegal.

And converting an MP3 file into a WMA file would also be illegal (Microsoft gives away a program that does this).

But with that _____ Ashcroft running things these days it probably is.

Then again it did take an incredibly lame group of jerks in the House and Senate to pass the bill in the first place.

Rob Borek
03-12-2003, 04:27 AM
I don't see why, it's a pretty subtle distinction. The maps are freely available and Pocket Streets is freely available. The modification to the map file is actually *less* than renaming a file extension. So if this app is illegal than renaming a Word .doc file into a .txt and opening it in Notepad is also illegal.

And converting an MP3 file into a WMA file would also be illegal (Microsoft gives away a program that does this).

But with that _____ Ashcroft running things these days it probably is.

Then again it did take an incredibly lame group of jerks in the House and Senate to pass the bill in the first place.

Actually, it's more like you're converting a DRM-protected WMA file into an MP3 file. The modification is such that it bypasses the copyright restrictions built in to Pocket Streets - Microsoft posted the maps for the latest versions because you had already licensed them by purchasing Streets and Trips or MapPoint - the later versions of Pocket Streets were not freely available.

I'm just playing devil's advocate - I'm Canadian, and there is no DMCA up here.

revolution.cx
03-12-2003, 04:47 AM
I can't say I agree with that take but I see where you are coming from (you devil you).

My take is that Microsoft changed the format of maps since Streets 2001 doesn't fully support them, from the map download page at Microsoft:

"Note: Due to the upgrade in MapPoint Technology, Pocket Streets does not open 2000 or 2001 files. You must open your old maps in Streets & Trips 2002/2003 or MapPoint 2002, resave them and export them back in Pocket Streets format. "

Additionally they don't list any license restrictions or EULA on the maps specifically.

AFAIK there is nothing in the maps that has anything to do with copy protection or rights management that I may modifying.

It would be fun to simply advertise the program as one that changes byte 3 from 9 to 6 (that's all the program does). And if MS didn't like that, make the program ask which byte you'd like to modify from 9 to 6. And if they didn't like that just make it a generic byte level editor (like Visual Studio).




Actually, it's more like you're converting a DRM-protected WMA file into an MP3 file. The modification is such that it bypasses the copyright restrictions built in to Pocket Streets - Microsoft posted the maps for the latest versions because you had already licensed them by purchasing Streets and Trips or MapPoint - the later versions of Pocket Streets were not freely available.

I'm just playing devil's advocate - I'm Canadian, and there is no DMCA up here.

Marc Zimmermann
03-12-2003, 06:52 AM
Additionally they don't list any license restrictions or EULA on the maps specifically.
You're working against Microsoft's licensing model. The new maps are only free downloads because the application must be purchased (either via Handango or one of the CD-ROM products). It's the application availability that's the key here.

Rob's interpretation makes 100% sense to me and I'd be very, very cautious to publish some app like PSConvert. I don't think that their lawyers will like it.

crb-2000
04-14-2003, 06:31 PM
I purchased a Ipaq 3800 and received a OEM CD which has a link to Pocket Streets 2001. Unfornately this lnk is no longer present. Is there another source I can obtain this download as I travel alot and need the map ability.

spursdude
04-14-2003, 07:23 PM
I purchased a Ipaq 3800 and received a OEM CD which has a link to Pocket Streets 2001. Unfornately this lnk is no longer present. Is there another source I can obtain this download as I travel alot and need the map ability.
Check out this link (http://www.ppc4you.com/show.cgi?softid=29) which was within this very own thread! :D

Unreal32
04-15-2003, 03:09 AM
Anyone have trouble using Pushpins in MS Streets and Trips? I'm using 2003, and can't place any pushpins... and yet Pocket S&T works just fine for pushpins.

Sooner Al
04-15-2003, 12:27 PM
Anyone have trouble using Pushpins in MS Streets and Trips? I'm using 2003, and can't place any pushpins... and yet Pocket S&T works just fine for pushpins.

...and I will try it on my copy of S&T 2003 and report back...