Microsoft Streets & Trips makes trip planning easy, so you can relax and drive with confidence. Get accurate driving directions to just about anywhere in the United States and Canada. Streets & Trips requires no Internet connection and includes more than 1.5 million points of interest to choose from--plus additional listings that you can view when you're connected to the Web. With updated maps and extensive trip planning features, Streets & Trips will help you plan your trip, your way.

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Product Description

NEW—Entertainment online’s FREE trial membership for special savings; NEW—Send location information to your mobile device; NEW—Updated street maps for the United States and Canada; NEW—Experience an even more intuitive look and feel

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #864 in Software
• Brand: Microsoft
• Model: B17-00438
• Released on: 2008-09-20
• Platforms: Windows Vista, Windows XP
• Format: DVD-ROM
• Dimensions: .30 pounds

Features

• Updated street maps for the United States and Canada
• Customizable trip-planning options remember your preferences and allow you to plan stops, scenic detours, and fuel stops; add multiple destinations; and quickly alter your route
• Optimize your trip by calculating mileage, time, and expenses in advance
• Avoid potential delays with free construction updates from the Web; identify one-way streets at a glance
• Info on 1.5 million locations—no Internet connection is required; find additional listings when you’re online and send location info to your mobile device

Amazon.com
Microsoft Streets & Trips makes trip planning easy, so you can relax and drive with confidence. Get accurate driving directions to just about anywhere in the United States and Canada. Streets & Trips requires no Internet connection and includes more than 1.5 million points of interest to choose from--plus additional listings that you can view when you're connected to the Web. With updated maps and extensive trip planning features, Streets & Trips will help you plan your trip, your way.

Get accurate driving directions to just about anywhere in the United States and Canada. Click to enlarge.

Do you already own a GPS receiver? If you already own a GPS device, you can use Streets & Trips to track your position and progress on the road. With a GPS receiver connected to your laptop, Streets & Trips can display your speed, location, direction, altitude, and position. With a GPS receiver, Street & Trips can provide spoken directions and street names as you drive. It can also put you back on track if you make a wrong turn. Click to enlarge.

New and Enhanced Features

• New--Updated street maps for the United States and Canada.
• New--Entertainment online's FREE trial subscription for special savings at restaurants, hotels, and special events.
• New--Experience an even more intuitive look and feel.
• New--Send location info to your mobile device.
• Customizable trip-planning options remember your preferences and allow you to plan stops, scenic detours, and fuel stops; add multiple destinations; and quickly alter your route.
• Optimize your trip by calculating mileage, time, and expenses in advance.
• Identify one-way streets at a glance.
• Avoid potential delays with free construction updates from the Web.
• Info on 1.5 million locations--no Internet connection is required.
• Find additional listings when you're online and send location info to your mobile device.

Plan your trip your way. Then, relax and enjoy the ride!
Streets & Trips 2009 takes the hassle out of trip planning, while it takes the stress out of driving. Whether your next trip will be coast to coast or just across town, you'll drive with confidence with Streets & Trips by your side.

Plan your trips to match your driving style.
Do you prefer scenic roads or Interstate highways? How often do you like to stop to rest? Streets & Trips can remember your driving preferences and suggest routes and rest stops that will help make your trip more enjoyable.

Calculate your mileage, trip costs and arrival time before you leave.
This is a great planning tool, especially for comparing different routes you're considering.

More than 1.5 million ideas for stops along the way!
Looking for an Italian restaurant in Des Moines? A hotel in Vancouver? Streets & Trips comes with detailed information on over 1.5 million locations Ð ATMs, hotels, restaurants, gas stations and other points of interest. No Internet connection required.*

Get even more information with online search.
Whenever you're connected to the Internet, you can search online to download more locations and recent updates to your maps.

Access street-level maps and personalized directions.
Updated street-level maps and turn-by-turn directions make it easy to stay on track. You can also add personal notes to your maps. With addresses, phone numbers and other notes alongside your planned stops, you'll have all the information you need in one handy place.

Track your position and progress with a GPS receiver.*
If you already own a GPS device, you can use Streets & Trips to track your position and progress on the road. With a GPS receiver connected to your laptop, Streets & Trips can display your speed, location, direction, altitude and position.

Spoken street names and automatic re-routing.
With a GPS receiver, Street & Trips can provide spoken directions and street names as you drive. It can also put you back on track if you make a wrong turn!****

*GPS receiver not included, GPS functionality requires a GPS device that supports NMEA 2.0 or later.

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Customer Reviews

Still The Fastest Interface, Some New Features, Atrocious Tech Support
As a loyal user of Streets and Trips for several years, I have purchased every version (often by pre-order) since 2001. In short, S&T has several advantages over online alternatives (and a few limitations) that generally make it a worthwhile investment for both business and leisure travelers.

If you already have a previous version of S&T, purchasing this version would primarily be for updated map data and point-of-interest information. The cosmetics are slightly different than S&T 2008, but there are only a few minor feature enhancements. If you are using Google Maps or Mapquest, Streets and Trips offers four distinct advantages over these free alternatives 1) speed 2) control 3) no advertisements 4) offline access (i.e. no Internet required). Personally, I became a big fan of S&T when I began to travel more frequently prior to having 3G mobile broadband access on my notebook. The ability to quickly get directions while on a business trip is very, very helpful.

.............. Why Pay For Streets and Trips 2009 When Free Online services Exist?...........

1. The speed of S&T is far superior than Internet-based alternatives. This speed advantage is especially apparent when you pan across sections of a map. In S&T, the response is instantaneous. Also, showing the point-of-interest locations (subway stops, restaurants, hotels, etc) is lightening fast. Place the mouse on a particular address or intersecting and select "Find Nearby Places". Almost instantaneously, locations in pre-selected categories appear within a defined radius.

2. The ability to tightly control, save and print maps is big plus for power users. Planning a trip to a new city? You can save as map with directions and locations as a file. Just double click on the file when you are ready to use - just like any office document. For those who make road trips, S&T provides the option to apply different speeds to different types of roads (highways, arterial roads, local roads). Unfortunately, Microsoft stopped allowing input of specific speeds a few revisions ago and now merely has slider bars that range from slowest to fastest. Also as part of this function, Microsoft allows for input of highway/city vehicle MPG and fuel cost per gallon to calculate the cost of a trip.

3. Advertisements are irritating. Time is money. The ability to view and print maps without advertisements is a big plus in my opinion. Why waste your color ink to print a banner ad? S&T allows to see and print exactly what you want.

4. Don't have mobile broadband on your notebook? Want to check destination maps while in the air? Locally stored data is the only solution. Given that the map data is located locally on the user's hard drive, there is no need to get connected to the Internet. Of course, a hybrid environment that uses both locally stored data and online information is the best of both worlds. S&T is almost there (below).

..............What Has Changed Since Streets and Trips 2008? ..............

In terms of what has changed since S&T 2008, the answer is not much. If accuracy is important to you, it always makes sense to get the latest map data that represents both new data and corrections of old data. Point-of-interest data changes much more frequently than street data, so if you a big fan of restaurants this is a valid reason to get the latest version. However, it is important to understand there still appears to be a significant delay, sometimes over 1-2 years before a new restaurant will be added to the point-of-interest data. The inability to update this information in real-time is my biggest complaint about Streets and Trips. While Microsoft is slowly enhancing the live data capabilities, there is still a long way to go. I would guess the real issue is not technical, but financial. Map and point-of interest data is a multi-billion dollar industry. It would probably require a subscription on top of the purchase price to provide higher quality point-of-interest data.

The 2009 version appears faster in use but slower to load. This implies that more data is being loaded into memory upon launch. This might have something to do with a new process that is continuously running, streetsolkshim.exe for which I have not been able to find any information. Zooming appears faster than the already extremely fast 2008 version. However, I have no way of confirming this scientifically.

There are some different cosmetics than previous versions. Most notably are the icons on top menu bar are more descriptive and can be toggled between small and large. They have graphics like a steering wheel button representing the directions function. My guess is the icon scheme is probably designed for traveling retirees with diminished eyesight.

A minor enhancement is the ability to send an address to a mobile phone from within Streets and Trips. Somewhat oddly, the function does not allow directions to be sent. This may have something to do with SMS message length limitations.

One interesting new function that improves Streets and Trips interactivity with the outside world is the Coupon Function. This connects to Entertainment.com database of coupons. Entertainment Publications, the operator of the Entertainment.com web site, predates the web. Basically, it is a company that sells coupon books for $35 with deep discounts for restaurants and attractions. In Streets and Trips 2009, a trial to the service is suppose to be free for two weeks. Afterwards, you need to purchase a subscription. Unfortunately, I have not be able to get the service to work after six (6) calls to Microsoft's horrible Indian-based tech support. The support team members had a poor command of the English language and had zero familiarity with the 2009 version of S&T. The problem has still not been resolved.


Pros
*Fast
*No advertisements
*Ability to save maps and directions as files for future use
*Locally stored map data
*Some external data connectivity (i.e. coupons, construction, live search)

Cons
*Still no core data updating via the Internet
*Lacks very recent point-of-interest data
*Ridiculously bad tech support


....................Other Notes......................
As much as people tend to dislike Microsoft and complain about software bugs in general, problems with map accuracy are not Microsoft's fault. They don't create the data. Map data creation is a billion dollar industry run by Navteq (now owned by Nokia) and Tele-Atlas.

Microsoft Streets & Trips 2009
I'm an over the road driver and have been using Microsoft Streets & Trips for years. I have also used the Delorme products and the Alk CoPilot products for truckers. Let me say that out of all of them, I find Microsoft Streets & Trips to easily be the best out of the bunch. Why? It is the most accurate, the most intuitive, the most flexible, and by far the user-friendliest of all the solutions available.

In reading the reviews on Amazon.com for Microsoft Streets & Trips over the years, I've often noticed that most of the negative reviews the product received were generally because the reviewers did not know or understand how to use the product. So this year I thought I would write a small review to give Microsoft Streets & Trips a vote of confidence.

The 2009 version represents a significant upgrade as the look and feel of the program has been significantly revamped with a new look and larger tool bar buttons. The Pan and Select tools have also been revamped. Now you simply left-drag to pan, right-drag to select! You no longer need to keep switching back-and-forth between the two tools when moving around the map. Saves a huge amount of clicks and mouse travel in normal usage.

Nitpick: the back and forward buttons are gone and I'm hoping that Microsoft adds them back on the 2010 version as I never realized how much I used those buttons until they were gone. Those buttons also saved a ton of time and a huge volume of clicks, so again I'm hoping that Microsoft adds them back for 2010.

Automatic re-routing was introduced last year. However, for over the road drivers this feature was actually a problem. Thankfully, in the 2009 version of Microsoft Streets & Trips the feature can be toggled on and off, which is a real plus for over the road truck drivers and RVers.

Another nice new feature is the ability to automatically start the GPS when the application starts. I know that this feature will make many people very happy!

Finally, the 3-D Navigation mode, which was actually introduced last year, works great this year, and this is a nice new feature that I really like and that will also pleasantly surprise a lot of people.

Lastly, for all the over the road truck drivers out there and RVers that use Microsoft Streets & Trips and I know that there are a lot of you out there, I've recently found a new add-on product for Microsoft Streets & Trips that adds all the Truck Stops, Rest Areas, Parking Areas, Turnpike Service Plazas, Wal-Mart Supercenters, Weigh Stations, etc. Everything an over the road truck driver needs! Also with this add-on you can even check your routes for Low Clearances and Restricted Routes. It's called the Truck Stops Plus template and it is available at www.truckstopsplus.com. You got to get it! This product is amazingly accurate and it will just simply make your job and life a whole lot easier. If you use Microsoft Streets and Trips to drive over the road, this product is simply a must have and I can't recommend it highly enough!

Anyway for trip planning, routing, and street navigation Microsoft Streets & Trips simply can't be beat. It's not only the cheapest product of its kind on the market; it is by far the best!

Great.....but
This is my third update of the Streets and Trips. Although I have not been able to thoroughly go through all the updates and changes, I wanted to let you in on something that happened when I loaded it.

First, it takes FOREVER to load as the maps take up a good bit of memory. Once I loaded it and then started my Outlook, a pop-up box appeared that said something like "Microsoft Streets and Trips Add-In for Outlook did not load properly. Do you want to uninstall this Add-In?" Shocked that there would be an add-in for Outlook in the first place, I clicked on "Yes." However, this ended up preventing my Outlook from opening at all.

I called Microsoft Streets & Trips support and at first they told me the Outlook Add-In was necessary due to "user feedback" and then he said he was mistaken -- there IS NO Add-In in the 2009 version of Streets & Trips. They apparently had it in the 2008 version but it was removed for 2009. (My last version was 2006.) He then said I was mistaken -- there is no Add-In. I asked him how I'd even know about it at all if I never had the 2008 version.

He was able to help get Outlook working properly again, but I question whether there was a glitch in the 2008 Outlook Add-In which has not been removed in the 2009 version, even though they say it has.

Play close attention when you load this program.