Acer 8.9" Intel Atom Processor for Streets & Trips?

I've just had a look at a small Acer notebook ("Acer Inspire One") which I think might be a good S&T replacement for my old Thinkpad. It is available furthermore with a solid state "hard drive" (in 8 or 16 GBytes).

It has however no optical drive which brings me to my first concern - how to load S&T 2007? Would copying the S&T installation DVD to a SD memory card (it has a card reader) work, or does the install program expect to access the DVD drive?

I also wonder about the screen size (only 8.9") and, screen brightness for this unit (can't find any screen brightness info).

The SS hard drive is interesting but I wonder how fast it is compared to a HDD (it is also available with a 120 or 150 GB HD).

All-in-all a pretty neat little machine IMO. If anyone has any experience with it I would appreciate comments. BTW it also comes with XP which is good IMO.

Edit: The screen resolution is 1024 x 600 (rather than the more usual 1024 x 768). Would this cause screen truncation at the top or bottom with S&T??

Streets & Trips 2007 installs fine from a network drive; it should also install fine from a memory card. That having been said, USB DVD drives can be had for $20-40 on eBay. You can use one for more than just S&T.

S&T 2007 system requirements specify 800x600 resolution. It is 2009 and above that specifies 1024x768. Practically, however, I haven't heard of many complaints with truncation. The loss of vertical space is a concern, especially in navigation view. This is why Tablets are so much better-suited to S&T than clamshell laptops -- in portrait mode, the map ends up about square.

SSDs provide a tremendous improvement in read speed in benchmarks, but only provide a slight performance boost in normal use. This boost will be even milder for S&T because fewer random reads are done. If you're prone to dropping your laptop and want something durable with no moving parts, you may want an SSD. Otherwise, I wouldn't bother.

Personally, I'm not buying a netbook until (1) a touchscreen one comes out (2) Windows 7 comes out. I will not run XP anymore as a primary OS.

I have the Aspire one running S&T as well. Use one of those ide-usb adapter (around $17) linked up to one of the int dvd rom of your main pc. I can also use it to play dvd as well.

Not much you can do about resolution as it is the max.

SSD should be faster than HD I believe

Daniel

Thanks gents for the replies.

dtong22, thanks for mentioning the USB-IDE adaptor - I had not realized they existed. Also, how well does S&T run on your Acer? Do you have the SDD or HDD version? Does the 600 vert res affect the display? Do you find the screen to be large enough?

Any additional info would be appreciated.....

You could download Streets & Trips 2009 trial version, and then use the activation code from the boxed version that you buy. So in fact no DVD would be required at all in this case.

600 resolution is 600 resolution. Not much you can do about it. You will get used to it if you shrink the horizontal to make it more square like.

I find it large enough mainly in comparison with my Asus Mypal 636 gps screen of 3.5". You feel like watching movies when operating the map in motion in the night time . They are addictive I can tell you particularly when my wife is doing the driving

I have the HDD version. But you can have 2 pcs of 16 G sd cards. I just got a piece of class 6 16 G at US$38. For a gps fellow like me I would have around 2.5 G each for the maps of iGuidance , iGuidance Europe, Garmin CNNA 2009. I would still have a lot left for other stuff. Unless if you load up movies or heavy graphic stuff , you will be more than fine


Daniel

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1871517&CatId=3770

That is like US$16
And you can use it as an ext dvd or recorder.


Daniel

That would work Marvin but I'm inclined to stick with 2007 (with maps from my 2008 DVD which I can't use directly as I lost the activation code). I have also modified the Keys script to skip the nag message and can't recall now how I did it. Anyhow, I seem to recall the new Keys version only operates with Vista (?) and the Acer notebook in question comes with XP.

BTW, I've also added the 2009 maps to 2007 and they appear to work so maybe I'll purchase a 2009 activation for that purpose.

lforbes said:
S&T Keys 2009 version is working under windows XP. This is the OS version i used to debug it. I don't even have Vista system with S&T installed, so i don't know how good it is working with Vista...

The S&T Keys 2007 version available under my post signature is also tested under windows XP and working very well...

What nag screen are you talking about: there are no nag screen at all? Take care not to use a version of S&T Keys built for a specific S&T year to make it run with a different version of microsoft S&T. You will get a lot of bugs and possible hang. Each version of S&T Keys is designed to work with a single version of S&T...

I am running two separate GPS programs on my Windows Acer Aspire One. More than enough brightness of the screen. And both programs run just fine.
However I have had a few problems with the USP connected GPS receiver. With my last laptop, I had the reciever Velcro'd to the laptop lid. Worked fine and got a fix almost imediately. I set up the AA1 the same way and could not get a fix. Turns out with my unit, Pharos 500, the reciever must be at least 12 inches away from any part of the Acer. Then and only then will it get a 'fix'.
Once I figured this out, its been a joy to use.

Iforbes- i noticed than you stated that you were using S&T 2009 maps with the 2007 version of S&T - could you possibly explain how you accompolished this- i would also like to be able to use the 2009 maps with the 2007 program

Maybe nag is not the correct name for it but it's the "Safety Warning" I'm referring to.

That's encouraging - may I ask if you have the HD or SDD version and if the 600 vertical resolution truncates any of the screen or causes any other issues (it sounds like it does not). Also, how do you load the s/w in the absence of an optical drive?

Ok I am to try to use iGuidance 3 & Garmin CNNA09 together the former one with bt gps .
I guess I need to turn off the voice directional commands then. Otherwise it will be very confusing.
My usb gps (for Garmin) has a cable linked up to Aspire One (around 4 ft on the dashboard). Zero issue at all

Daniel

Not wanting to encourage software piracy, this is for those who have or will pay for S&T 09.

Copy all files from the 09 "Data" directory except Movie Theaters and Z ALL PROD.

Paste into the 07 Data directory (with overwrite all). Note: If you copy the entire 09 directory, 09 when launched tries to access the CD drive for some reason.

I have the hard drive. I look forward to the day when SSD rules but they are not fast enough yet.

No problem with the 600 vertical resolution on either GPS program. Small problem with one set up screen in VLC media player.
Also I use a small USB portable DVD burner ( $50) for loading programs.

On a hunch I tried that yesterday. It works even for 06 version which is what I have. Checked out a couple of place. Confirmed that it is 09 data


Daniel

lforbes said:
Ok i can see now. You can simply bypass this screen by pressing "A" on your keyboard when you are starting gps navigation. I hesitate myself to add a S&T Keys function to automatically bypass what you are calling a nag screen ("Safety Warning"), because it is a security measure, and if it is causing an accident in any way, i don't want to take the responsability of this kind of situation ...

OK I can understand that. A question though - I've been away from this forum for a while so have not been following current events but it looks like you may now be taking care of S&T Keys support rather than Marvin. Is that the case (not that it matters a whole lot - just wondering)??

Yes, and we all can thank MisterMoonlight for that.

I didn't have much free time for that, and MisterMoonlight started to modify older S&T Keys version to accommodate the new version of Streets & Trips 2009. He added some new functionality there, too. He is doing much better job at it than I would be able to.

Marvin said:

C'mon Marvin, don't have a so poor opinion of yourself . You are the guy who started it all. I'm just taking the flag now for a while... like in the olympic games, they are carrying the flame from cities to cities, you were the first, Toyfountain was another one, i am the next one to carry it now...

I downloaded S&T 2009 into my HP Mini 1035NR. It took over 8 hours! but it works great with the additional S&T Hotkeys and my blootooth GPS receiver.