Streets and Trips 2005 with GPS Locator

Reviewed by

Jeff Bertolucci

on 10/07/2004

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CNET editors' rating: 3.0 stars Good
Detailed editors' rating
Average user rating: 3.0 stars out of 5 reviews
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The good: Plug-and-play GPS setup; tracks your location in real time; displays speed, altitude, heading, and other directional coordinates.

The bad: Vehicle frame may block GPS signal; checking map location while driving is dangerous; no voice navigation.

The bottom line: Streets & Trips 2005 with GPS locator is fun and inexpensive, but it's awkward and needs voice navigation to be a full-fledged alternative to other GPS-based vehicle navigation systems.

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CNET editors' review

CNET editors' rating: 3.0 stars Good
Detailed editors' rating

Reviewed by:
Jeff Bertolucci
Edited by:
Robert Vamosi
Reviewed on: 10/07/2004
Released on: 08/24/2004

Microsoft Streets & Trips 2005 with GPS locator is a bargain alternative compared to expensive auto-navigation systems that cost hundreds of dollars more. Combining the latest version of Microsoft's popular mapping software with a two-inch square GPS receiver, Streets & Trips 2005 pinpoints your vehicle's exact location on street and highway maps, and it even tracks speed, direction, altitude, and other coordinates. Unfortunately, it's clunky to use. The GPS receiver has trouble getting a satellite signal unless placed near a car window, the software lacks voice commands to guide you, and cruising while reading a laptop screen is so dangerous it should be illegal. That said, the software is handy for planning long-distance trips or when driving with a passenger. Our recommendation: Buy Streets & Trips without GPS. You'll save money, and your insurance agent will thank you. The setup for Streets & Trips 2005 with GPS locator is a two-step process. First, you load the Streets & Trips CD, which by default installs 1GB of data, including program files and maps, on your hard drive. You'll save 450MB of disk space by running Streets & Trips from the CD, but that'll make the software as slow as a Yugo up a 9 percent grade. We installed the software, including the GPS driver, in about 10 minutes without incident.

Second, after the software is installed, you connect the GPS receiver to your PC. It's effortless: just plug one end of the supplied USB cable to the PC and the other to the biscuit-size GPS device. The Streets & Trips software immediately recognizes the receiver, but you'll need to click the Track position box in the GPS Task Pane to view your location on a street map.

The GPS Task Pane dynamically monitors your speed, direction, altitude, latitude, and longitude.

Attached to the GPS's USB cable is a simple suction cup, which should be used to attach the GPS receiver to a location with a clear view of the sky, such as your car's dashboard or rear package shelf. Unfortunately, the suction cup we tested couldn't support the GPS device. We wound up hanging the receiver outside our car window instead.

The Streets & Trips 2005 interface retains much of last year's appearance, except for the new and nifty GPS Task Pane that displays your speed, heading, altitude, and even (for lost off-roaders) latitude and longitude. The display, which changes in real time as you cruise down the road, is fun to watch but, therefore, distracting and dangerous, particularly if your laptop is perched solo on the passenger seat.

Streets & Trips 2005 with GPS locator could be helpful to lost travelers trying to navigate an unfamiliar city, but it is not a replacement for a full-fledged GPS navigation system with a dash-mounted LCD screen and voice navigation or one of the several available PDA solutions with voice prompts, such as CoPilot Live Pocket PC 5.0. Streets' lack of voice navigation is, in fact, its biggest shortcoming. Unless you have a passenger who can help you navigate while you drive, you'll want a GPS system that tells you when to turn, not one that makes you read onscreen directions. If alone in the car, you should pull over, launch Streets & Trips, find your position (represented by a car icon on a street map), enter the address of your destination, and memorize the directions the product gives you. Needless to say, that's asking too much, but we cannot recommend that you attempt to read the directions while driving, unless you're fond of whiplash and the sound of crunching metal. Continue reading

Most helpful user reviews

Average user rating: 3.0 stars out of 5 reviews
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2.0 stars

2 out of 2 people found this helpful

"problems with program"

by testingitout on May 15, 2005
2.5 stars

2 out of 3 people found this helpful

"It works for simple stuff realtime gps is not usable"

by mathewss on June 5, 2005
4.5 stars

"Worth the money for sure"

by jrr800 on December 8, 2005
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Recent user reviews

Average user rating: 3.0 stars out of 5 reviews
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Showing 3 of 5 user reviews
4.5 stars

"Worth the money for sure"

by jrr800 on December 8, 2005
4.5 stars

"Very Cool; Inexpensive; gets job done"

by YNGOHIO on September 3, 2005
3.5 stars

"Good mapping and GPS"

by mhand on June 28, 2005
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Reviews from around the WebPowered by alaTest

alaTest.com

Editors' rating: 74

Summary: alaTest has collected and analyzed 141 reviews of Microsoft Streets & Trips 2005 from international magazines and websites. Experts rate this product 74/100 and users 69/100. Comparing these reviews to 138546 other GPS reviews gives this product an overall alaScore™ 74/100 = Good.

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pcmag.com

Editors' rating: 80

Summary: It continues to be one of the best choices for those who buy disk-based mapping software despite its foibles, which are common to mapping products in general. The new version also makes it easier to install other GPS receivers you may have.

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