Entered CNET Catalog: 10/21/2005
SKU: AO-7511-201
Manufacturer: DeLorme Mapping Co.
Manufacturer description
Street Atlas USA 2006 is your source for the most up-to-date street, road and along-the-way detail available. Use it to plan the perfect trip on your desktop, then take it on the road with your laptop and GPS for flawless, worry-free navigation. The long-time leader in innovation, now with a wealth of new features. DeLorme pioneered consumer mapping software with the first release of this product in 1991. Today, Street Atlas USA 2006 remains the gold standard. DeLorme cartographers are constantly updating the maps using a variety of trend-setting techniques, including new GPS mapping and aerial imagery methods developed at DeLorme. In Street Atlas USA 2006, you'll find 268, 000 additional roads, with a particular emphasis on populous and fast-growing areas. You can find everything imaginable while traveling, from the many expected items to many more not commonly found. Locate POIs by name and/or category, including restaurants, lodgings, and gas stations...as well as Wal-Marts, Starbucks, post offices, fire stations, hospitals - the most complete and useful selection available. For Street Atlas USA 2006, DeLorme contacted over 90 nationwide chains for GPS-accurate place-ment of their individual locations. So, they'll be right where you expect them to be! The software determines the quickest or shortest route and provides easy-to-read text directions showing total mileage and drive times. It can also calculate your end-of-day stops and fuel stops, as well as fuel costs. Don't like the route suggested? Simply add Vias to the road segments you prefer and the software automatically recalculates and updates your driving directions. Or, use the draw tools to block out areas you want to avoid... for example, the inside of an urban beltway. You can even add your own routable local roads in rapid growth areas to keep your maps current.Product summary
The good: DeLorme Street Atlas USA 2006 provides voice directions for GPS users, more than 268,000 new streets and roads, and a new toolbar for easier access to popular features.
The bad: This DeLorme atlas is harder to learn than Microsoft Streets and Trips 2006, and its new MapShare feature, which lets you post travel directions online, lacks interactive maps.
The bottom line: DeLorme Street Atlas USA 2006 isn't as easy to use as Microsoft Streets and Trips 2006, but it displays far more restaurants and other attractions. Its comprehensiveness makes it a solid buy.
Editors' review
- Editors' Choice: No
- Reviewed on: 12/09/2005
DeLorme Street Atlas USA 2006 is a very good mapping program for planning short or long-distance road trips anywhere in the United States. However, it's overkill for cross-town jaunts where a free Internet mapping service such as MapQuest or Google Local would suffice. Version 2006 brings some useful upgrades, including a top-of-the-screen toolbar that makes it easier to create routes, set options, and perform other basic tasks. It also has a beefed-up database with more than 268,000 new streets and roads. DeLorme Street Atlas USA 2006's street-level maps provide more detail, including additional restaurants and alleyways, than those in Microsoft Streets and Trips 2006, which is easier to navigate. DeLorme Street Atlas USA devotees should upgrade, and anyone plotting a Kerouac-style adventure (or even a family vacation) should give DeLorme Street Atlas USA a close look. Quibbles aside, DeLorme Street Atlas USA 2006 is a fine mapping program for serious road warriors. It's not as intuitive as Microsoft Streets and Trips 2006, but it displays a lot more restaurants and other points of interest.
Setup is easy and takes about 10 minutes. You have the option of running the DeLorme Street Atlas USA database from CD or loading it onto your hard drive. The latter option is the faster and smarter choice--CDs are slow and easy to lose--although the app gobbles up 645MB of hard disk space.
The new interface brings some welcome enhancements, most notably a top-of-the-screen toolbar that provides quick access to popular features, such as calculating a route, saving map files, and starting a GPS connection (optional). Like Microsoft Streets and Trips 2006, DeLorme Street Atlas USA has several GPS-specific tools, including voice directions.
The DeLorme Street Atlas USA database is quite comprehensive. Better than Microsoft Streets and Trips? Yes, for the most part, but not always. In downtown Boston, for instance, Street Atlas USA displayed dead-end streets and alleyways that Streets and Trips didn't show. But in the Denver metro area, DeLorme Street Atlas USA didn't show the newly completed Northwest Parkway, whereas Microsoft Streets and Trips did--proof that even with 268,000 new roads, you're bound to miss something. Not that online mapping services are any better, as CNET News.com's tests revealed.
DeLorme's new MapShare feature lets you post personalized maps on the Internet--a convenient way to provide directions to family reunions, business meetings, and other events. Unfortunately, it's a good idea that needs work. Our main gripe is that Street Atlas USA's online map isn't interactive. On a San Francisco-to-Los Angeles map, for instance, you can't zoom into a street-level view of Los Angeles. On the plus side, detailed driving directions are posted below the map.
DeLorme offers generous support options for Street Atlas USA 2006. Although the telephone technical support number is not toll-free (you'll have to pay toll charges), the call itself is. E-mail is also free, and DeLorme says it will answer queries within two business days. Online, DeLorme provides FAQs, tutorials, a user guide, and various troubleshooting tips for Street Atlas 2006.
User opinions
Select a User Opinion to view: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15out of 15 user reviews
Good, but not great. Lacks ease-of-use for driving
Pros: Calculates routes quickly, Reasonably accurate. Good voice commands
Cons: Hard to get information about routes, non-intuitive interface
What I find most aggravating is the routing/planning functions. If I add several stops to a route, it would have been helpful to have been able to re-order them in several ways. The software should allow an automatic re-routing based on time or shortest route, resetting the stops. It should allow me to manually reorder the stops by dragging them to a new place in the list. I should be able to right-click on the stop and give it a new position in the list.
I also find the information provided for the directions odd. It lists the distance and time between turns, which makes sense. It lists the total time and distance for the trip, which is fine if you are going between only two points. But there is no way, short of manual calculation, to figure out how many miles or how much time it takes between intermediate stops. If I am going from A to B to C to D, there is no easy way to tell how long the leg from B to C will be.
There is also no way to indicate stops that have already been made - so that when I recalculate the route because I decided to add a stop in the middle of my trip, it takes me back to the beginning. When I get to a stop, I would like to be able to indicate that I have been there and that it should only recalculate for the rest of the trip.
The software is usable and useful, but there are so many little annoyances like this that I would love to find another option.
out of 15 user reviews
outdated software
Pros: GPS accuracy
Cons: Software WAY outdated... you will get LOST bigtime!Q
out of 15 user reviews
User UNFRIENDLY comes to mind!
Pros: Can't really think of ANY
Cons: The user interface is awkward and illogically laid out
Not to mention the FREE mapping available on Google and Map Quest.
Save your money on this one boys and girls! It's crap!
out of 15 user reviews
I've learned to love it.
Pros: Features, navigation, works great in aircraft and in cars, autocorrection is awesome.
Cons: Interface written by a geek !
Now have 2007 version. So far most of my problems were due to my working with this non-intuitive excellent product. But it is far superior still to the ms (monopoly) product. Wish they would hire humans and not geeks to design intuitive interfaces. Even the help blows. Still worth an 8 however.
out of 15 user reviews
The price is cheap
Pros: The price is cheap
Cons: map is not update for even 5 years old streets
The map software takes sometime to get familiar with and the email support is not helpful.
out of 15 user reviews
should be a lot better
Pros: new features are a plus over version 2004
Cons: same old info as version 2004 (one year after email)
out of 15 user reviews
Don't Waste Your Time With This Product
Pros: none that I can think of
Cons: outdated maps, not user friendly, poor user interface
out of 15 user reviews
Wish Microsofts Streets would let you talk to it.
Pros: I love the fact that you could talk to it and it talkes back
Cons: Bad direction, search engine
out of 15 user reviews
Pretty good software if you drive by youself
Pros: good voice , great new dynamic zoom in
Cons: hard to learn interface, some maps are not up to date
After reading some reviews here, i think people gave very low score to Delorme.
Whats bad about it? Interface is very bad.You would have to learn it... it is not in anyway user friendly and follow any windows standards.
Whats good about it?
Voice is much better then new microsoft 2006 voice. It tells you how far whats the street name etc.. when microsoft just says'turn left in 100 feet'.. what if there are two turns near by?
The new dynamic zoom in is very good.. now when you driving it zooms in by itself on exits and turns and zooms out on long road.
Maps are ok.. depends .which area..
Interstate road maps are ok .. but if you drive in big city like Miami or New York.. you maps might not be up to the date.
Its happened to me in Miami and Virginia.
Microsoft "find near by" much better then Delorme.Microsoft also much better then delorme in creating route.However, Delorme kills microsoft if you driving and neeed gps to track you position and tell you where to go.
Microsoft can't auto recalculate if you went wrong way.Delorme recalculates and get you back.
At the end of the day, if you ask me what would you take to a long trip Delorme or Microsoft 2006 street and tips.. i would have to stick with Delorme.
out of 15 user reviews
Just gets worse
Pros: It's colorful
Cons: poor functionality
out of 15 user reviews
It's a handful!
Pros: Inexpensive; fun and pretty accurate
Cons: "Jumpy" Goes Silent
out of 15 user reviews
The 2006 version moved my house to another block
Pros: Price, very cheap compared with the others
Cons: Maps update, software update, difficult set up
This software is unable to find any address in Queens or Brooklyn (NY) the way it is known here and often can not find addresses in NJ, MA, FL and GA. It often send you all the way to another part of the city, I’ll never forget the day I was directed to a road that finished in the middle of a preservation area in NJ, when I was just trying to get out of Six Flags and take the I-95 North back to NYC. I drove by streets and avenues that were built many years ago and they are not available on the Street Atlas 2006. Delorme is only excused on Boston, MA, because nobody knows what’s going on there anyway. However what really makes me mad is that Street Atlas 2006 moved my house to the next block.
I’m using the 2004 version till I find better software, but on both versions the GPS often goes off line by it self in the middle of the trip, sometimes the settings changes by it self. What’s going on in this company? Seriously, is anyone trying to destroy it?
out of 15 user reviews
Great only if you like to look at maps, not actually use them
Pros: Nice packaging?
Cons: user interface, instructions, accuracy
out of 15 user reviews
Unimpressive Update
Pros: I like the visual presentation
Cons: GPS is way off in the Birmingham area just like with past versions.
out of 15 user reviews
2006 maps same as Street Atlas 2004 in the Phoenix area.
Pros: Interface consistent with several Delorme products and versions.
Cons: Major highway were completed in 2004 in Phoenix that are not reflected in this version!
