Streets and Trips 2004 is out

[gorkon280]

Saw it at Best Buy. I don't know if there's been any enhancements to the PPC version, but the desktop version has FINALLY lifted the 15 second rule! YAH! Microsoft realized that that one thing made it a BITCH to use....you'd be 1/4 a mile down the road form where the program said you were! Now we finally have something! Now if the add routing to the PPC version as well as 1 second updating, that's all the better. Right now, everyone else has MS beat on PPC mapping.....well, except MS's beautiful maps.

[Pony99CA]

Saw it at Best Buy. I don't know if there's been any enhancements to the PPC version, but the desktop version has FINALLY lifted the 15 second rule! YAH! Microsoft realized that that one thing made it a BITCH to use....you'd be 1/4 a mile down the road form where the program said you were! Now we finally have somehing! Now if the add routing to the PPC version as well as 1 second updating, that's all the better. Right now, everyone else has MS beat on PPC mapping.....well, except MS's beautiful maps.
Wow, you even scooped Microsoft (http://www.microsoft.com/streets/) on this one. :-)

Steve

[srs]

yes, the interface on s&t / pocket streets is the best, by far, of all the mapping programs (and I've tried most of them, including teletype (ugh), pharos (gah), destinator (better)). The controls are very intuitive and the program displays POIs and other information very well. If only it had routing and a more reasonable update interval...

[Sooner Al]

There is a post over on the news:microsoft.public.streets-trips news group that routing is still not included in this newest version of Pocket Streets...

Are US Post Offices now be displayed? They were missing from Streets & Trips/Pocket Streets 2003... :(

[SHoTTa35]

damn... i'd much rather use MS's software!! I still only use Pocket Streets now but no GPS yet..

[gorkon280]

Why don't they include this like most wanted feature. I remember when I looked forward to buying the new program every year but nothing much has changed except the data in the last 3 and now 4 years....since S&T 2000. Granted, normally this would be ok, but there OLD travel planning program was leaps and bounds over the current offering. Granted, it had issues as well, but at least I was able to find out about these things in the program. Click on a POI and if it was more than a restaurant (like say if it was a national park) it may give you a picture and a link to the website. It doesn't even have that now! Granted, you'd never be able to do taht on the PPC, but I would be estatic if they would do these two things:

ADD ROUTING!!! PLEASE!!! Even if you can't recalculate it (although you should be able to do this...it's possible).

Let me create maps any size I want. Maybe display a warning about low performance. Or if you can't do that, divide it into multiple files for easy uploading.

[Pony99CA]

Why don't they include this like most wanted feature. I remember when I looked forward to buying the new program every year but nothign much has changed except the data in the last 3 and now 4 years....since S&T 2000. Granted, normally this would be ok, but there OLD travel planning program was leaps adn bounds over the current offering. Granted, it hd issues as well, but at least I was able to find out about these things in the program. Click on a POI and if it was more than a restaurant (like say if it was a national park) it may give you a picture and a link to the website. It doesn;t even have that now!
I was just thinking about this, too. At one time, Streets & Trips included Zagat's information about restaurants. That may have been before they added routing, though, back when there were two products -- Microsoft Streets for mapping and AutoMap for routing.

Steve

[Pony99CA]

I found a Streets & Trips 2004 announcement page (http://www.microsoft.com/catalog/display.asp?subid=22&site=11616&x=47&y=17). I hope their main Streets & Trips page (http://www.microsoft.com/streets) will give more details soon; it's still stuck in 2003. :-)

Steve

[hamishmacdonald]

But does anyone actually like PocketStreets? I thought it was rubbish - hard to read, many streets unlabelled, etc. I bought AutoRoute because I thought the new, un-free version of PocketStreets would be better. It was exactly the same.

TomTom CityMaps, on the other hand, totally floored me. I'm still very happy with it. It figures out routes, has all manner of different display options, and looks nice, too. I use AutoRoute on the desktop, but CityMaps is what I carry with me.

[SHoTTa35]

Pocket Streets doesn't have much of the features you find in others but i rather it and only use that. If it's upgraded with the features from others then to me it's the best... planning turn by turn maps on the go without GPS would be good too... but exporting maps from Streets and Trips def rocks :D

[Pony99CA]

But does anyone actually like PocketStreets? I thought it was rubbish - hard to read, many streets unlabelled, etc. I bought AutoRoute because I thought the new, un-free version of PocketStreets would be better. It was exactly the same.

I like Pocket Streets. No, it doesn't do routing, but the maps are decent and the user interface is pretty good. I like the maps and points of interest facilities much better than those on CoPilot Live, for example.

TomTom CityMaps, on the other hand, totally floored me. I'm still very happy with it. It figures out routes, has all manner of different display options, and looks nice, too. I use AutoRoute on the desktop, but CityMaps is what I carry with me.
Unfortunately, TomTom just because available here in the states, and I've already invested in Pocket CoPilot (now CoPilot Live).

Steve

[redifrogger]

I've had Pocket Streets 2002 for awhile and I really like it too. Is it perfect - no, but very usable I think. :mrgreen:

[ctmagnus]

Futureshop (www.futureshop.ca) has this for $50CAD ($65-$15 mail-in rebate).

[taxus]

I sure hope Microsoft has significantly improved the data for Canada, because it was pure rubbish in S&T2003. At least for my province. I found the product utterly useless.

It was hopelessly out of date (old name of 20 years ago for major boulevards for example), or very incomplete (no names whatsoever for some streets, or the road number instead). And S&T2003 horribly wrangles accented letters on conversion to Pocket Street map, so "collège" becomes "collhge". (The 8th bit is just removed, so "è" becomes "h", and "é" becomes "i".) Try doing a search after that. Useless.

A friend of mine who has both S&T2002 and 2003 said that the 2002 version had far better data. I don't understand why they didn't improve on the product instead.

It's a shame. I'd been looking forward to using Pocket Streets for my bike rides.

[ctmagnus]

I sure hope Microsoft has significantly improved the data for Canada, because it was pure rubbish in S&T2003... It was hopelessly out of date

Yeah, that's been pointed out before. :) Canada wasn't the only area out of date, either.

[hawe]

TomTom CityMaps, on the other hand, totally floored me. I'm still very happy with it. It figures out routes, has all manner of different display options, and looks nice, too. I use AutoRoute on the desktop, but CityMaps is what I carry with me.

Did you try the City Maps from Map&Travel? I am using it for London and it's great. I even think that UI is better than any other one. I found a free trial here: http://www.gate5.de/english/products/mobile_demo.html

[ctmagnus]

Does anyone here have any first-hand experience with Pocket Streets 2004? Is it improved any over 2002?

[GadgetMan]

But does anyone actually like PocketStreets? I thought it was rubbish - hard to read, many streets unlabelled, etc.

Yes, MS Streets & Trips is rubbish. It is very, very slow (try zooming or panning large maps, like over 1.5 MB in size), it insists on using RR numbers for downtown streets, it contains errors (learned the hard way myself) and non-existence of Navigation feature makes it virtually useless.

I read about and evaluated several packages and must say that Mapopolis (www.mapopolis.com) beats them all hands down, at least when it comes to North America. It utilizes the best available map data from Navtech (considered the best), it is very accurate (although not 100% perfect) and up to date, blazingly fast, easy to use and clear GUI, and has fantastic GPS navigation features.

I would consider MS Streats & Trips a very basic poor man's (it's cheap, but then you get what you pay for) alternative, providing you do not need routing and real time GPS navigation. If you want the real thing, check out Mapopolis.

Cheers,

[hawe]

I read about and evaluated several packages and must say that Mapopolis (www.mapopolis.com) beats them all hands down, at least when it comes to North America. It utilizes the best available map data from Navtech (considered the best), it is very accurate (although not 100% perfect) and up to date, blazingly fast, easy to use and clear GUI, and has fantastic GPS navigation features.

Do you have any commission agreements there?:wink: I tried twice downloading the test version and it wasn't possible installing it at all : First I downloaded the trial at handango, then I had to download additional maps from their website (subscribing before) and then I followed each step in the manual but didn't get it run, though. You really should try this Map&Travel Topcities Free Trial (http://www.handango.com/secureDownload.jsp?shoppingUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.handango.com%2Fhome.jsp%3FsiteId%3D1%26jid%3DAX1X63769751AEEXB7F26X2222AF54X7&jid=AX1X63769751AEEXB7F26X2222AF54X7&siteId=1&productId=80960&productName=Map+%26+Travel+Top+Cities+Rome+feat.+Lonely+Planet+Highlights&orderId=null&fileUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fdownload.handango.com%2Fshareware%2F364437%2Fmap%26traveltrial15.exe); :D

[GadgetMan]

hawe,

No commission, no affiliation, just a very satisifed customer :D

I suggest you send Mapopolis an e-mail ([email protected]). They have been always very responsive to my enquiries. Why not give it a try?

Cheers,

[GadgetMan]

You really should try this Map&Travel Topcities Free Trial[/url]; :D

Ouch! $20 US PER CITY??? Once I hit that lottery jackpot I may reconsider, but until then... no way!

And it only seems to conver European cities, why I live in Canada.

Cheers,

[hawe]

I'll try it...thanks!

8)

[hawe]

And it only seems to conver European cities, why I live in Canada.

That's an argument anyway...