Microsoft Streets & Trips 2005 (With GPS)
I saw my friend Bob Palmer a few weeks ago, and he showed me his latest purchase at the time- a Garmin in-car GPS. While I wasn't ready for the $700 price tag, I could cough up $90 for MS Streets & Trips. With my new gadget in hand, I went on a plane/rental car trip with no directions - only the addresses of the hotels and course sites- a major leap of faith for me.
Once I hit the Alamo rental car counter, I went to the car du jour (a Buick Century), loaded the bags, and booted the PC. I then ran MS streets and trips, and
The GPS did amazingly well- I usually was locked on to 5+ satellites, and it did a good job of matching the speed on the speedometer (e.g. the speed computed by the GPS matched the speed on the dashboard). I did, however have some issues.
1. While braking, the GPS unit frequently flew off the dash into the floorboard. This cut off my map reference on the pc. Unfortunately, this occurred while lost in let's just say 'an area of downtown which has not experienced a renewal'. I suppose every trip needs some adventure....
2. The driving directions did not filter out the seedier parts of cities (or even offer advice). My route was concentrated with miles of driving through neighborhoods littered with abandoned buildings and young men loitering on the sidewalk. Needless to say, I was concerned for my life. I'm glad my wife didn't do this testing....
I also tested the GPS in the McDonalds parking lot near my home. This parking lot has lots of mature trees, so I didn't have a good signal. According to the GPS, my elevation changed 50 feet during my morning breakfast...... (Really, I thought I was sitting still!!!)
Bottom line: nice toy, watch the directions. You might end up in a place where you're yelling, "There's no place like home!).
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