Product Description
Microsoft Streets & Trips 2006 with GPS Locator combines Streets & Trips, the complete and customizable trip planning software, with a sleek and stylish Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver. With advanced GPS features and voice prompted directions, you’ll always know exactly where you are and where your next turn is. Just plug it in your laptop and go!
Amazon.com Product Description
Microsoft Streets and Trips 2006 with GPS Locator combines the latest version of Microsoft's enhanced customizable trip planning software, Streets and Trips, with a sleek and stylish Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver. Just plug the receiver into the USB port on your laptop, start your car, and you'll always know exactly where you are, where your next turn is, and how far it is to the next gas station or point of interest.
The navigation screen with GPS pane. A blue progress bar counts down to the next maneuver. View larger. |
Find all points of interest within a given radius. View larger. |
Acquire your location with the Wi-Fi Location Finder. View larger. |
Streets and Trips 2006 is an easy-to-use, hands-free trip planning and guidance solution. Whether you're running errands or planning a cross-country road trip, Streets and Trips 2006 offers customizable maps and information on more than 1.8 million points of interest (POIs), such as restaurants, ATMs, museums, campgrounds and more. Online or off, Streets and Trips 2006 provides updated maps that give you accurate, detailed door to door directions and puts 5.9 million miles of routable roads and highways throughout the US and Canada at your fingertips. While you're driving, verbal turn-by-turn directions let you concentrate on the road while the software guides you. Customizable trip planning features allow you to plan multiple stops, find nearby places to visit, calculate drive time, and more.
Taking advantage of the enhanced trip planning software is easy. With a customizable viewing pane, you can display turn-by-turn directions, including street names, in large type for easy viewing, and large, easy-to-see arrows that indicate the direction of your next turn. The pane displays the distance to your destination in miles or yards, and for a quick "at-a-glance" view, a thermometer-style bar shows the relative distance you've travelled. To create a route and generate directions, you simply type in the starting and ending locations and click on "Get Directions." It's that simple. Your trips can include multiple segments, and you can instruct the software to customize your route by telling it what types of roads you want to travel, how much gas your car has, and the general area where you want to stop to gas up. Streets and Trips 2006 will do the rest, giving you your optimal itinerary, down to the precise gas station. Overall you'll have access to over 1.8 million local POIs such as hotels, restaurants, gas stations and ATMs, and by planning ahead, Streets and Trips 2006 will help you avoid delays with construction updates and other recent changes to your route.
With the GPS receiver plugged into your laptop, you'll always know exactly where you are. The GPS panel shows your current latitude/longitude, direction of travel, current speed, and GPS signal strength. This is also the control panel for arranging and customizing the map display, and you can even create a "bread crumb" GPS trail, making your return trip a breeze. Voice-prompted directions announce upcoming turns with precise instructions, such as, "In one point two miles, turn left on Andover Street." If you drive past your planned exit, the software will tell you immediately that you're off track. A single click will get you back on track. The "Re-route from Here" feature quickly recalculates directions if you miss a turn.
To find a certain POI, such as restaurants or gas stations, you simply select from 35 POI types to display on the map. You have the option of searching within a certain radius of an address that you choose, your current location, a specific direction within a planned route, or all of the POIs along the entire route. Your results are displayed in a directory-tree listing. When you click on a POI, a balloon box pops up on the map with detailed information, including an address and phone number, and if you right-click on the POI icon, you can add it to your route list.
MSN Virtual Earth and Other Extras
To enhance to your travel experience, Microsoft Streets and Trips 2006 offers a link to MSN Virtual Earth, Microsoft's online repository of satellite maps. Let's say you're viewing a map of the theater district in Manhattan. If you want to see a bird's-eye view of it, just click the Virtual Earth icon and a satellite image of the area will load into your browser. Another convenient feature is the "Night Map Style" which makes reading your routes at night or in other low-light conditions a breeze. The map's background is black, and roads and street names are shown in shades of green for easy viewing. Also included with Streets and Trips 2006 is Pocket Streets for your Pocket PC or Smartphone, which you can load onto your compatible Windows-based Pocket PC or Windows-powered Smartphone for greater travel convenience.
And best of all, once you register your software, you can access a full year of email and toll-free customer support, and you'll also have access to an online knowledge base dedicated to Streets and Trips 2006. So no matter where you're travels are taking you, you can drive with the confidence that you'll have Microsoft's extensive support and software behind you every click of your odometer.
- Complete and customizable trip-planning software, plus USB-ready GPS receiver
- Advanced GPS routing features like distance-based voice-prompted directions
- Door-to-door directions for any trip; calculate mileage, time, and expenses
- Over 1.8 million points of interest; plan stops, scenic detours, and fuel stops
- Maps for U.S. and Canada with more than 5.4 million miles of routable roads
Microsoft Streets and Trips 2006 With GPS Locator[Old Version] Reviews
484 of 489 people found the following review helpful Good news and bad news., By JanSobieski (United States of America) - See all my reviews This review is from: Microsoft Streets and Trips 2006 With GPS Locator[Old Version] (CD-ROM) The bad news first: The map details are still not as good as were found in the 2004 version of this program. I can't understand why MS would dumb down their product. Also, the street names seem to have been dumbed down as well. For example, Golden Eagle Ferry Road has been reduced to Ferry Road. There are innumerable examples of this dumbing down and simpifying which only serves to confuse.The good news: The GPS functionality has been vastly improved with voice and large visual prompts which make using the program in an automobile MUCH MUCH easier. The little car cursor in the 2005 version has been replaced by a much more visible circle with a large arrow in it indicating direction. Despite the dumbing down of the actual map data the program remains a superb mapping program with many updates since the 2004 and 2005 versions. New streets, restaurants and other points of interest are now incorporated. This program offers a truly affordable GPS guidance... Read more 214 of 221 people found the following review helpful Major improvements over previous versions. Must buy., By Michael V "Michael" (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews This review is from: Microsoft Streets and Trips 2006 With GPS Locator[Old Version] (CD-ROM) I've been using MS Streets and Trips since 2001 and I honestly say this version is a major improvement. This version has voice turn by turn directions (example, right turn in 200 yards) which was not avaiable in previous versions (must have GPS and Windows XP for text to voice feature); also shows the information visually on map as you drive. If you are near a wireless hot spot it can automatically locate your postion on a map without a GPS attached (its called Locate Me). Very interesting feature.The new maps also show building and sports arena locations on the map as gray outlines of the building structure (not just as tiny icons). Very useful for major downton metropolitan areas. Major highways (4-lanes, none interstate) stand out more clearly with newer visualizations and colors, which is great for finding shortcuts in non-urban areas that don't have interstates or limited access highways. Probably the most unique features is the night map visualizations. The night... Read more 24 of 24 people found the following review helpful You need a better GPS than this, sometimes, By Bryce Conner "College Student" (Syracuse, NY) - See all my reviews This review is from: Microsoft Streets and Trips 2006 With GPS Locator[Old Version] (CD-ROM) Why do I say this? It's because when you're stopped or near an intersection, the software can get totally confused and send you, with the voice navigation, 90 (or 180) degrees in the wrong direction. Then you have to stop and get directions again, or turn around if you discover in time. U-turns are frequent enough to cause it to lose 1 star.However, I like the software because it greatly helped me during a cross-country drive to move to Syracuse, NY, with no navigator to help, and it fit every need at least fairly, including trip planning from start to finish. I was able to estimate my trip costs, plan for hotel stays, and know exactly how many days it takes to get from the West Coast to Central New York (depends on how many hours you drive, sightseeing, etc), as well as how much driving I would have to do each day. Also, the one time I missed a freeway exit, I was able to take the next exit and find a quick short cut to the correct route that I may not have found (at... Read more |
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