Product Description

Microsoft Streets & Trips 2007 with GPS Locator combines Streets & Trips 2007, the customizable trip planning software, with a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver. With advanced GPS features and voice-prompted directions, you’ll always know exactly where your next turn is.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2939 in Software
• Brand: Microsoft
• Model: ZV3-00007
• Released on: 2006-10-12
• Platform: Windows XP
• Format: DVD-ROM
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: 6.00" h x 1.00" w x 8.00" l, 1.00 pounds

Features

• USB adapter for cable-free travel option; locates points of interest
• Customizable trip-planning software with sleek new GPS locator
• Door-to-door routing, location-finding, and comprehensive mapping
• Track route in real-time in full-screen display with simple navigation buttons
• Get real-time, voice-prompted, turn-by-turn directions

Amazon.com
Microsoft Streets and Trips 2007 with GPS Locator is the ultimate travel tool for anyone who wants to plan a memorable vacation, or simply needs to find their way around town without a hitch. It starts with all the door-to-door routing, location-finding and comprehensive mapping power of Microsoft Streets and Trips, and adds a plug-and-play Global Positioning System (GPS) locator that helps you stay on track and always knows where your next turn is.

Combining the power and versatility of a GPS receiver with mapping information that is pinpoint accurate and easy-to-use, Streets & Trips 2007 with GPS Locator is the smart way to travel with complete confidence.

Streets and Trips 2007 with GPS Locator gives you a navigator and tour guide who's ready to go virtually anywhere you want to go in the U.S. and Canada, plus it will monitor your progress from the sky and help you stay on course.

The Benefits of GPS
Microsoft Streets and Trips 2007 with GPS Locator features all the great benefits of Streets and Trips 2007 plus extras only a GPS device can provide. The new sleek, stylish, ultra-compact GPS device with SiRF star III technology is 10 times more sensitive than previous models, finds your location faster, and has the power to locate you even in most buildings or a crowded city. Plus, the all-new USB adapter gives you the flexibility to travel cable-free. Just plug in the included GPS receiver and start using it right away.

The GPS device allows you to track your route in real-time in an easy-to-read full screen display with simple, easy to locate navigation buttons. You can also change to the special night map display with a single click of the button. Get real-time, voice-prompted turn-by-turn directions that always let you know where your next turn is. The GPS device also enables you to easily see upcoming turns with an automatically zooming map that shows relevant details based on how close you are to your next turn.

Other GPS features include the ability to locate gas stations, restaurants, and other points of interest closest to you as you go, as well as a GPS Task Pane that provides important information fast, including driving speed, latitude and longitude coordinates, altitude, travel direction, and more. Lastly, the GPS Trail function lets you retrace your steps to quickly find your way back to your starting point.

All New Software Features
Meanwhile, new features in the Streets and Trips 2007 software make your planning more productive and your trip more enjoyable. The new Live Search feature lets you find current business listings when you're online, then take them with you. Meanwhile, a new keyword search helps you quickly find listings near your location by entering words such as "coffee" or "restaurants." Search results automatically refresh as you move around the map, so you have the most relevant information.

Lose that lost feeling forever. The GPS Task Pane tells you where you are, what direction you're heading, and how fast.

The new full screen navigation mode makes it easier than ever to know where you are. Directions are now easier to see and read--even on smaller screens. Plus, an estimated drive time calculator helps ensure you always know how far you are from your destination. Meanwhile, a new easy reverse route option means that one click is all it takes to plan your way back or retrace your steps. And last but not least, Streets and Trips 2007 contains all the latest maps for the U.S. and Canada.

Trip Planning with Door-to-Door Convenience
Streets and Trips 2007 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 2007 offers customizable maps and information on more than 1.2 million points of interest (POIs), such as restaurants, ATMs, museums, campgrounds and more. Online or off, Streets and Trips 2007 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. 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 2007 will do the rest, giving you your optimal itinerary, down to the precise gas station. Overall you'll have access to over 1.2 million local POIs such as hotels, restaurants, gas stations and ATMs, and by planning ahead, Streets and Trips 2007 will help you avoid delays with construction updates and other recent changes to your route.

Track yourself in real-time with an easy-to-read full-screen night display.

Microsoft's "Locate Me" technology uses Wi-Fi hotspots to pinpoint your location, so you'll know precisely where you are as you're traveling. If you drive past your planned exit, 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 a restaurant or gas station, 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. Personalize your maps with drawings, notes, and pushpins to mark important information. You can also import your contacts directly from Microsoft Office Outlook and Microsoft Office Excel.

Support You Can Count on
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 2007. 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.

From the Manufacturer
Microsoft Streets & Trips 2007 with GPS Locator enhances the power of Streets & Trips travel and map software with a sleek new Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver. You’ll always know exactly where you are and where your next turn is. Just plug it in your laptop and go!

GPS opens up a new dimension of capabilities.

• Use exclusive Streets & Trips features only GPS can provide.
• The stylish and compact GPS device with new and improved SiRF star III technology is 10 times more sensitive than previous models, finds your location faster, and holds a signal longer--even in a building or in a crowded city.
• Connect the included GPS receiver right into your computer’s USB port and travel cable-free with the new USB adapter.

All the features of Streets & Trips 2007, plus the power of GPS!

Microsoft Streets & Trips 2007 with GPS Locator is the ultimate travel tool for anyone who wants to plan a memorable vacation, or simply needs to find their way around town without a hitch.

It starts with all the door-to-door routing, location-finding, and comprehensive mapping power of Microsoft Streets & Trips, and adds a plug-and-play GPS locator that helps you stay on track and always knows where your next turn is.

Combining the power and versatility of a GPS receiver with mapping information that is pinpoint accurate and easy-to-use, Streets & Trips 2007 with GPS Locator is the smart way to travel with complete confidence.

Enjoy all the benefits of Streets & Trips 2007, plus these extras:

• New! Sleek, stylish, ultra-compact GPS device with SiRF star III technology. It’s 10 times more sensitive than previous models, finds your location faster, and has the power to locate you even in most buildings or a crowded city.
• New! All-new USB adapter. Gives you the flexibility to travel cable-free! Just plug in the included GPS receiver and start using it right away.

Features only GPS can provide:

• See your exact current location. Track your route in real-time in an easy-to-read full-screen display with simple, easy-to-locate navigation buttons. Change to the special Night Map display with a single click of the button.
• Hear upcoming directions out loud as you go. Get real-time, voice-prompted, turn-by-turn directions that always let you know where your next turn is.
• Easily see upcoming turns with an automatically zooming map that shows relevant details based on how close you are to your next turn.
• Locate gas stations, restaurants, and other points of interest closest to you as you go.
• GPS task pane. Get important information fast, including driving speed, latitude and longitude coordinates, altitude, travel direction, and more.
• Reverse your route with the click of a button. Quickly and easily retrace your route to get back home.
• GPS trail. Retrace your steps to quickly find your way back. GPS trail shows exactly where you’ve been.

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Customer Reviews

The new SIRFstarIII chipset alone justifies the upgrade!!
This remains an outstanding trip planning and GPS program. But by far the greatest improvement is in the chipset hardware included. The new GPS locater is MUCH smaller than the previous versions and includes the SIRFstarIII chipset. Now your asking what the heck is that?! Well, it is the most sensitive and accurate chipset out there and it acquires the satellites nearly instantaneously and holds on for dear life under nearly all conditions. It is a VAST improvement over the old 360 locater MS used in the past versions. My only minor complaint: it might be TOO small. The old one was the ideal size. In so small a package the antenna is necessarily smaller with somewhat reduced sensitivity than otherwise might have been obtained. But not to worry! This little device works just fantastic.

The GPS functionality has not changed significantly and still does NOT include automatic rerouting once you get off route. For me this was a major disappointment. Nearly all of the "all in one" GPS devices (such as the Nuvi 360 & Nuvi 660) include this very useful feature. It would have been so easy for Microsoft to respond to the needs of their customers and add this feature that one wonders just why they heck they didn't do it! The voice and large visual prompts, which make using the program in an automobile MUCH MUCH easier, remain essentially unchanged from 2006. 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.

Unfortunately, some of the map details are still not as good as were found in the 2004 version of this program. There are small dirt roads that were on the 2004 version that are not on the current version. 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 simplifying which may reduce the size of the program but detracts from its overall usefullness.

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 system for nearly all consumers without having to go to the expensive Garmin or Magellan systems. If you find yourself traveling to points unknown I cannot imagine a better more affordable solution for getting around than this product in conjunction with your notebook computer. Even if you have an "all in one" solution such as the Garmin Nuvi Streets and Trips can help you plan your trip and routs. I have both and they compliment one another very well.

A few comments about the Streets and Trips mapping software. I am familiar with the Delorme product and the Garmin product and Streets and Trips blows them both away - no contest. Instantaneous panning, zooming in and zooming out, outstanding routing software, and a plethora of other features makes Streets and Trips, by far, my favorite mapping software.

This years program does automatically load the drivers for the GPS locater device which the older versions tended to do sporadically. This is done, as should have been the case for the older versions, seamlessly and without any difficulty whatsoever.

I heartily recommend this product! The new SIRFstarIII chipset alone justifies the price of the upgrade. The updated mapping details and new points of interest are also useful. The ONLY quibble I have with this program, and it is not insignificant, is the failure to include automatic rerouting if you get off the indicated route. Also, remember you will need a DVD player to install this program which now comes on one DVD rather than two CDs as it did in the past.

Decent at what it does...
This is no replacement for a good GPS that has the ability to give turn-by-turn directions. The layout is still clunky. The USB device still screws up if you don't plug it in at the right time, or forget to unplug it when you reboot. I'm sure that this is a glitch... The software is still very unable to re-route you when you go off course. You can hit F3 to force the software to re-draw the route from your current location.

I'd give a bit more if I could change the voice type, or force it to give further voice directions. All it says is "In 300 yards, turn right" - turn right onto what? Give me more directions! You are forced to look at the screen to figure out what the street name is.

USB driver problems, voice problems, clunky interface, inability to automatically re-direct - these are the reasons for 3 out of 5 stars!

Overall, it's still the same software - but save your pennies and get a real GPS! Anyone want to buy a slightly used Streets and Trips 2007? :)

Great mapping software, but annoying driving guidance
The Streets and Trips 2007 with GPS Locator package consists of two components: an award-winning mapping program that allows flexibility in mapping not found online, and a hardware GPS receiver. The map part is nothing short of being excellent. It's up-to-date (even for the Big Dig!), it's easy to use, and it's visually pleasing. It's also integrated (sort of) with Microsoft's excellent Live Local online mapping service, where you can get bird's eye view as well as true 3D maps.

But as a GPS navigator, this is a big disappointment. It's really best suited for someone with only occasionally GPS needs. For example, if you plan to use GPS just a few times a year, this may be for you. And the price can't be beat, plus you get to use the big screen of a laptop.

On the down side, the big screen is not touch sensitive, so you have to operate the laptop by, what else, mouse and keyboard. The driving guidance of this thing is totally cr*ppy, period. If you've seen the screens from a Garmin, TomTom or Magellan AIO (all-in-one) system, you'll be wondering what kind of stupid people work at Microsoft. The driving screen is divided into at least three parts, sometimes more, each with smallish fonts and packed with too much information. And, a big disappointment to past and new users, there's still no text-to-speech, so the software doesn't read out street names like some Garmin and TomTom units do. The driving screens are just too busy and cluttered, period. Plus this still doesn't do automatic routing when you take a detour, and the guidance will be totally useless when there's no satellite signal, e.g., in a tunnel. Some better software is smart enough to give you a rough estimate, which is better than none.

So, in short, if you have occasional GPS needs, this is a great bundle. And the mapping software is excellent. However, if what you want is a real GPS, you'll have to shell out $400 or more for a Sony, TomTom or Garmin.

Feel free to e-mail me if you have GPS questions.