Tech Review

I purchased Microsoft Streets and Trips for my trip to Oklahoma and found it to be an invaluable tool, saving me from a tight spot on a couple of occasions when I strayed from my route for food or to take a break.

Having a GPS map on your laptop has some advantages over one that stays in your car. First, you can plan routes on your laptop during stops and, second, you can use map data from the program in other programs like Excel or Word. Figuring out how much money you're going to spend on gas and easier calculations of time factors such as breaks are also important and more difficult on the car-only ones.

Microsoft Streets and Trips 2007 with GPS Locator [DVD]

Good:

1. The GPS works very well. I bought a power inverter for my car so that I could connect my laptop and attached the GPS tracker to my windshield. It never lost its signal. It even worked inside a hotel where I stayed.

2. While driving, the program has a bar at the bottom that progresses from one side of the screen to the other to give you an idea when you have to do something like merge or turn. I connected the laptop audio to the car stereo to hear it better.

3. Most of the restaurants and hotels seem to be up to date. The database contained several very small eating establishments. I'm afraid to ask Streets and Trips about pawn shops in Lawton, however, as I wouldn't want to overload my computer (just kidding).

4. The route planner can be customized by adjusting the speed at which you wish to drive and how often you wish to take breaks. The slider bars for your planned speed won't, however, give you the speed in MPH as the slider bars just let you go from relatively fast to relatively slow. It could be a legal or safety thing.

5. Streets and Trips let's you export data to Pocket Streets. I've used PS before and have found it useful.

6. Drivetime Zones by which you can see how far, using the various roads at your disposal, you can travel in a certain amount of time.

7. You can find your location using GPS or WiFi.

8. You can save maps to HTML for use in web sites or blogs.

9. One can buy a Bluetooth adapter from Pharos to use with a PDA or laptop.

Pharos Bluetooth Dock for Microsoft and Pharos GPS-500

Drawbacks:

1. The interface seems to be a little behind the times. Nothing specific; just an impression.

2. People used to Google Earth may be disappointed by the detail in the map.

3. Pocket Streets is not included in Streets and Trips 2007.

4. You can't specify the speed at which you want to drive. You just have a slider with no speed indication.

4. This isn't really a knock on the product so much as a knock on using your computer as your GPS. I placed my computer on the passenger seat. Not an ideal placement as it fell off the seat during a hard stop once. It's a much better setup if somebody held the computer or if you can mount it somehow.

**update**

I changed the fact that a Bluetooth adapter is now available. I also figured out how to reroute from current position. Version 2008 is also available.

Microsoft Streets and Trips 2008 with GPS

Streets and Trips 2008