The World in Your Pocket with World Atlas 2005 (v2.0)

[Darius Wey]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.dreamsoft.tv/wa_2005_2_info.htm' target='_blank'>http://www.dreamsoft.tv/wa_2005_2_info.htm</a><br /><br /></div><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/wey-20050910-WorldAtlas.jpg" /><br /><br />Dreamsoft has just released World Atlas 2005 for the Pocket PC. It features detailed colour maps and a select-by-list option which allows you to hop from one country to the next. <a href="http://www.handango.com/ampp/store/PlatformProductDetail.jsp?siteId=311&productId=172651&productType=2">Handango</a> has a trial version of the application on offer, and the full version can be purchased for $14.95. Note the .NET Compact Framework is required in order for World Atlas to run properly. [Affiliate]

[Phoenix]

This looks like it could be a really nice reference to have on a PPC, but I don't like how you have to access a menu (two taps) every time you want to move a notch up, down, left, and right. That would become a real pain to me - cumbersome and too slow.

You should just be able to use your stylus to tap and hold on any point on the map and then use it to slide the map around in any direction to whatever position you want. That would be a much better solution to me.

Maybe they'll add this feature in a future version.

[Andy Whiteford]

Something the pocket pc lacks is a truly great Atlas application. The closest I have found is a combination of Pocket Earth and Pocket World Info - both from Blue Point studio. I would love to see them merge these two applications together using the Pocket Earth engine.

[Craig Horlacher]

I hope they offer a free upgrade. I bought 1.0 and it really didn't work on my device. It didn't give any errors but the movement controls didn't work so it was almost worthless since it often cut off countries you tried to bring up with it's default positioning.

[Phoenix]

Something the pocket pc lacks is a truly great Atlas application. The closest I have found is a combination of Pocket Earth and Pocket World Info - both from Blue Point studio. I would love to see them merge these two applications together using the Pocket Earth engine.

I checked out Bluepoint's software... they seem to be the best in terms of an Atlas - really nice products.

[Craig Horlacher]

I upgraded to version 2 - I emailed the company with my original order number/information and they were kind enough to give it to me.

So, the navigation was fixed! I can use my dpad to scroll now! It didn't work, though it was supposed to, on version 1 with my Toshiba e830. They've also added a menu you can use to scroll or you can scroll by tapping on the map. This makes it useful to me as a basic world atlas and I'm happy with it. They also added an "Exit" option which I wish every pocket pc app would have and I still shake my head at many that don't.

The one thing I like about this is that it loops vertically and horizontally so you can scroll forever. Maybe most atlas software does this but it at least makes this better than just an image viewer with a large image of the world. It also beats a large picture in an image viewer because you can goto a country by selecting it from a list.

Two things they should look at changing:
- The image quality is not great. Some of the text you can't really read but most is fine and this keeps the file size down. It works for my needs but try it before you buy it if your need requires a certin level of detail it may not have or may not be easy to read.
- The install is still done by .cab file which means it will go to your main memory space. I'm glad I've got 128MB of ram, if I only had 64MB I'd hesitate a little more before installing this. It takes 2.5MB.
- vga support...well, I'm not sure if it's displaying in high res mode or not. The image sufferes enough from the compression level that I can't really tell.

[Atomb]

a good (free) alternative is the CIA world factbook:

http://www.cia.gov/cia/download.html


download the zip file and set it up on a memory card and it works through your pocket explorer perfectly. now not only do you have maps of all the countries, but also history, facts, flag, etc.

it's 32MB but runs well on the PPC even in 'one column' mode!

I've been using it for quite some time now.