10-19-2005, 07:00 AM
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Developer & Designer, News Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 12,959
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Pocket Streets 2006 (Free Download) for the HP iPAQ hw6500 Series
"With Microsoft Pocket Streets 2006 you can transform your HP iPAQ into your own personal guide. Find your way through the major cites of the United States, Canada, and Western European without getting lost. Take your maps with you in the palm of your hand. Zoom in for street level detail or zoom out to get the big picture; find the nearest restaurants, tourist attractions, hotels, ATMs, and much more; locate your position on the map with the integrated GPS feature of your HP iPAQ hw6500 to see where you are, where you are going, and what is around you when you get there."
Now that Cingular and HP have released (or will soon release) the HP iPAQ hw6500 series, you might want to take advantage of some of the offers floating around. Of note is the availability of Microsoft Pocket Streets 2006 as a free download. No word yet on a retail version of Pocket Streets 2006 for other Pocket PCs, but we'll keep you updated once further information is made available to us.
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10-19-2005, 04:39 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,202
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I believe this is included in the retail version of the standard Streets & Trips 2006 retail version. Seeing as that is relatively inexpensive (at least after rebate), I wonder if there is much call for a standalone version of S&T. Of note, it does not provide routing assistance on the PPC. I notice that HP indicates Navteq turn-by-turn routing is available at an additional cost.
Don't most of the other integrated GPS units include true mapping software? If so, this would seem to be another sign of cutting corners, at the consumers expense, by HP.
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10-19-2005, 06:12 PM
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10-19-2005, 07:56 PM
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Editorial Contributor
Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 5,411
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From the HP specs, the 6500s come with 'GPS Navigation from TomTom products'. Hopefully that is the case with the Cingular version. Pocket Streets is a nice offer, but it isn't something I'd get real excited about. Pocket Streets has no routing capability and there is no add-on. The full desktop product Streets and Trips does come with Pocket Streets and gives you the ability to produce maps for the handheld version. If you just have Pocket Streets you are stuck with the maps that MS has available for download. There are a good number, but it isn't the whole world. Maybe some day Virtual Earth will have a feature where you can generate Pocket Streets maps. That would be cool.
The Standalone version of Pocket Streets in the past has provided a great number of canned maps on CD. It also was limited to downloaded maps from MS to supplement, or a copy of Streets and Trips to generate custom maps. Never seemed like a good deal to me, especially with S&T being available for less than $30 after rebates.
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Sometimes you are the anteater, sometimes you are the ant.
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10-19-2005, 08:36 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,202
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Sven
From the HP specs, the 6500s come with 'GPS Navigation from TomTom products'. Hopefully that is the case with the Cingular version. Pocket Streets is a nice offer, but it isn't something I'd get real excited about. Pocket Streets has no routing capability and there is no add-on.
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It would appear HP or Cingular dumped TomTom from the US release - from the Cingular site: "GPS location capabilities via integrated GPS receiver with separately purchased GPS navigation application provides driving directions at your fingertips" (emphasis added).
I guess they decided the cheapest way to give maps was via S&T, despite the fact I don't really think that gives a true GPS experience, due to the lack of routing capability. Maybe they are still going the one city, TomTom route and throwing in the S&T as an add-on, but it doesn't sound like it.
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10-19-2005, 10:16 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 327
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I find it ASTOUNDING that Microsoft has still not implemented routing into Pocket Streets. Lets see, just about EVERY pocket mapping application has this feature in it, and Pocket Streets has been around longer than just about EVERY pocket mapping application available today, and yet it is still the glorified mapping application it has always been, with the ability to tell you were you are added. In 5 years they still have not been able to implement routing ? Mediocrity, thy name is Microsoft ! 
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10-19-2005, 10:38 PM
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Editorial Contributor
Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 5,411
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by dma1965
Lets see, just about EVERY pocket mapping application has this feature in it |
For a price.
I consider Pocket Streets FREE (though you can buy it if you really want to). It's a bonus with Streets and Trips, and works on both my PPC and Smartphone with maps available for FREE, either cut from S&T or downloaded from MS.
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Sometimes you are the anteater, sometimes you are the ant.
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10-19-2005, 11:42 PM
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5000+ Posts? I Should OWN This Site!
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 5,616
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Sven
The full desktop product Streets and Trips does come with Pocket Streets and gives you the ability to produce maps for the handheld version. If you just have Pocket Streets you are stuck with the maps that MS has available for download. There are a good number, but it isn't the whole world.
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I dunno about all the maps available for download (I've only looked at a few), but at least the map of Calgary, Alberta is rather truncated compared to the actual city. It has a very good chunk of both the north ends and south ends cut off, with some of the west missing as well. I imagine that's the case with the eastern edge but I didn't get that far before I uninstalled the program. And it's been that way for quite a while, up to at least the last version. So it may pay to get the desktop version as well if you really want completeness.
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10-19-2005, 11:51 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 327
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Sven
Quote:
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Originally Posted by dma1965
Lets see, just about EVERY pocket mapping application has this feature in it |
For a price.
I consider Pocket Streets FREE (though you can buy it if you really want to). It's a bonus with Streets and Trips, and works on both my PPC and Smartphone with maps available for FREE, either cut from S&T or downloaded from MS. |
Sure you can get it free, or pay retail, or steal it for that matter. The point I am trying to make is that they keep re-releasing a renamed version of essentially the same software over and over again. I know someone who installed this software on his Pocket PC due to the fact that it claims to have GPS functionality (which it does have), expecting it to be able to route him to a location, since his desktop Mappoint installation will do that exact thing. Lo and behold, was he surprised to find that the handheld software does no such thing. Wow, imagine that, a handheld Microsoft program which does not do what the desktop version does. Is this because it cannot be done? No, Textmaker, Planmaker, Mapopolis, etc. have shown that it can be done, and yet Microsoft continues to "upgrade" software in the most half a$$ed manner one can fathom. I applaud Microsoft for updating Pocket Excel and Pocket Word to make it more like the desktop applications, but give them a HUGE thumbs down on Pocket Money and Pocket Streets. Microsoft has BILLIONS of dollars in the bank and is still profitable, but continues on this path of indifference. Again I say it: Microsoft=Mediocrity ! :soapbox:
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10-20-2005, 01:02 AM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,202
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I'm not sure I feel as stongly as DMA1965 does, but in a lot respects I agree that it's odd MS hasn't provided routing on the handheld, where it would be the most use. Looking at a tiny map on a handheld without directions is really not that useful.
They have the map data already, and obviously it doesn't cost them a lot to give it to us in pocket format. They have been able to provide routing on the desktop for years and years. It can't be THAT huge of a task to port the routing intellegence to the mobile platform. Now, they'd have to add turn-by-turn voice prompts, but I think the new versino of the destop does this already. Heck, they aren't even protecting a cash cow, like they are with the office apps. Arguably, they could and should charge a premium for a full featured mobile app, as the market obviously supports it.
Sooooo, why doesn't MS do this?
And back to the topic at hand. I poked around on HP's site. It looks like they are not including TomTom on the Cingular branded HP 65XX devices. You can download Pocket Streets and Trips and they have a "coming soon" page up talking about the HP Navigation system that I assume you could buy.
I think the real question is going to be how successful will this device be, since there are already WM5 devices in the market with better specs. The built in GPS is nice, but not much of an advantage when you figure you still will need to buy software, and a Bluetooth GPS device still offers the advantage of being placed in a more antenna friendly location. If T-Mobile USA had ANY brains at all, they would get the K-Jam to market before Cingular releases these things and steal some customers. However, :roll: they don't seem to see the same market opportunities I do, so that will be next year.....
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