Win free Streets & Trips 2008 with Connected Services (Donated by Microsoft)

I'm in ... maybe its I travel all the time.. I am on the road about every week and get lucky sometimes and get home for a weekend so if I would happen to win it I can garentee it will be used a lot ... thanks for the chance .. Johnny

It is almost spring travel time for me and all the connected features would sure make life easier while traveling.

I have been a Streets and Trips user for many years and have become dependent on it for planning trips and as my chief map source while on trips. Unfortunately, S&T 2008 stopped working after a week or so and I have been unable to make it work again in spite of hours of Microsoft Tech Support help.

If I win, don't bother to send me a new S&T 2008, it won't work. Instead send me some assurance that S&T 2009 will work, and if you can do that, how about a patch for S&T 2008?

For now I will stick with S&T 2006. It works!

This summer I am going on a 4 week trip throughout the USA with my granddaughter. I have had access to look at S&T 2007 and love it. If I win S&T it will be used as a teaching tool for my granddaughter creating a photo blog. Having a GPS and S&T will allow us to plan where we are going to go and help keep track of our experiences to share with family and friends. Last but not least I will not get lost. If I do I'll have S&T too save the day!

Leaving from Westcoast to Eastcoast from North to South. Traveling to see the USA. Visiting many National Parks and small towns.

Although I have been crazy about maps for years, I still can get lost in my own back yard. No sense of direction and I get turned around in minutes.

My first GPS was one of those yellow things from Delorme that took 3-5 minutes to initialize every time you turned it on. I used it in BC with a Phillips Velo 500 PDA using maps from Teletype (the only PDA map provider at the time with BC roads) and Delorme Street Atlas on a laptop in Washington.

Next was a Garmin eMap and then a Garmin SPIII with which I travelled extensively. When that forgot how to read data cards several years ago, I tried a Garmin cfQue on My Axim X5. Unfortunately that was a real piece of junk (the cfQue, that is). I got a Garmin GPS 10 and use it with a Toshiba E800 with a Bluetooth cf card.The only problem is if I try to use routing the Toshiba locks up at inopportune times.

I got an ASUS UMPC last year and tried iNav on it. Love the layout and simplicity (especially V4) but the device is cumbersome and I am not impressed with the built-in Sirfstar III chip (the GPS10 obtains lock 10 times as fast - could be location in the vehicle though). Also Navteq doesn't yet know where Ladysmith BC is. Garmin Canada maps V4 (DMTI) does but hasn't been updated in years and nRoute isn't UMPC friendly (Garmin says they have no plans to offer a UMPC version). Delorme, since they added Canada knows Ladysmith too but finds addresses by block (clumsy).I haven't really tried it on the UMPC as I haven't been on a long trip for over a year.

I have used Streets & Trips since it came out. Unfortunately, it changed to Navteq after V11 and lost local information. S&T claims to be UMPC friendly (a 2007 copy shipped the ASUS) but I don't see it.

Looking at the latest maps on the Garmin site leads me to believe Navteq has finally resolved this oversight and I may see local data on later units. I would buy the latest Garmin maps but they now limit them to one device.
Maybe I'll get a nuvi 750 when I can spare $500; or maybe a new IPAQ 210 for the GPS 10.If you are going to pay that much money, it should do more than help you find addresses and tell you how inaccurate your speedo is!

I also have a Garmin GPS 18 serial which my son-in-law uses on his boat with an old Dell laptop and some weird nautical GPS software.

Terry

Boy I would sure love to win that fancy new S&T you have there, especially since I'm better at computin' than I am navigatin'. If I win and they send it to me I will lower myself to asking for directions home to go get it...

I stumbled across this thread while researching GPS options for my newly acquired Samsung Q1U UMPC. I have resisted the temptation for years to buy a GPS nav unit, due to my inability to purchase any technology that has less than every available feature. I feared that a purchase of a $700 Garmin unit or something would depreciate in my eyes as soon as some new feature was implemented in a future unit (let completely alone my inability to afford one). Anyways back to the topic at hand, I still have a copy of Streets & Trips 2004 (from back in the day) and it is all but useless now. I have been running off paper printouts from Google Maps for the last few years which is fine for point-to-point directions, but as I am sure you can all relate to: I actively avoid, if not fear, exploring or finding a restaurant in the vicinity of my destination due to inherent concern of not being able to find my way back to roads that I have return directions for. Now that I have my UMPC, I can finally have a near-as-makes-no-difference fully upgradeable GPS unit. I would love to get my hands on Streets & Trips 2008 and realize the potential awesomeness my UMPC has locked away behind its disappointingly underpowered processor. Please help this broke college student (pardon the sad but true cliche) turn his barely usable computer into a fantastic GPS nav unit.

I'm using MS S&T 2006 and have found it very usefully on trips where the roads and highway don't make sense, like Los Angeles and San Francisco. Here simple directions are hard to follow.

I'm planning a trip to Europe and want to know "Can you get European maps for MS S&T or do you need to buy the entire European version AutoRoute?"

ghaue, welcome to Laptop GPS World. Yes, you'd need to buy AutoRoute for that purpose - there is no way to use MS AutoRoute map data within MS Streets & Trips (even though the two programs are so very similar).

We used Microsoft AutoRoute on our European vacation a few years ago, and it worked perfectly.

Hi,
I`ve never used this program before but have several friends that have it, as a matter of fact I just bougth a laptop and I have intention of installing this program as soon as Ican get it. This seems to be a graet way of getting the program, Dont you think? byeee

It's great to know this contest. I'm considering MS S&T as I'm planning to turn my eee pc into a gps navigation unit. In fact, that's one of the main reason I purchased the eee pc. I've had some experience with earlier MS mappoint, but 5 years ago it simply wasn't good enough for real navigation assistant. Not mentioning the fact that most laptops aren't shock resistant.

Given the small storage space on eee, S&T may be the best fit.

I have both MS Streets and Trips and CoPilot. I like both of them, and use both.

I will be using this product for pleasure. My husband will be using this product to arrive at his destination. In my younger days on my day off from work I would became with a cup of coffee at a restaurant studying over a map to determine my destination. When I was finished I would fold up the map and off on my motorcycle adventure for the day. If needed I would check the map if I was unsure of where I would end up.

My husband is a construction worker. He worked for a builder in a large city for several years. I joined him at work on several occasions. On the days I joined him, he usually ended up needing to visit the builders office. The first visit we got off the exit and proceeded south for about 1 mile. Headed west for about 1 mile (passing some beautiful homes that he had worked on). Turned north for about 1 mile, and ended up at the builders office.

We took this route each time. I ventured to introduce a new route for the next time and he agreed. When we exited the interstate we headed west for about 1 mile. He was amazed at how close the office actually was.

As we are out and about on any adventure he usually asks if we should turn left. It has become "code" now that if he thinks we should be turning left, we just automatically turn right and head on our way to the destination. …this is why we will be using this product. When he will be out on new job sites this will become an essential tool.


We have not entered into the GPS field as of yet. Based on the reviews that always came up when we googled “laptop gps review”, I found this product to have the least amount of negatives for the laptop. Marvin’s reviews have been very informative as well as his colleagues. Thank you for having this forum for those of us never having treaded before.

Hello everyone. I enjoyed reading everyones response so I thought I would share my story as well.

Microsoft Streets and Trips 2008 seems like a great product that would suite me very well. I am only in second year engineering but I was just offered a summer job with an oil company. I am very excited at this opportunity because it will be great experience for me, and the pay is great too. However, the catch is that I have to move out for the summer and go live in a very small town (population 40), completely by myself. I come from a big city, so this is will be new for me.

This will be the first time I have ever driven such a long distance by myself and to a remote place that I have never been before. Being only 19, I cannot consider myself as a professional driver compared to some of you because I still have alot to learn. I am a bit nervous that maybe I will miss an exit or something like that, then be completely lost! I wish I could just pick up a paper map like my dad and be able to go anywhere perfectly, but realistically I am no where near that good. Also, my cell phone probably wont work out there, so I am completely on my own if anything happens. Having a GPS assisted navigation unit by my side this summer will be immensely helpful for me compared to if I had to find my way around with a traditional paper map. It would also be much safer since I can keep my eyes on the road more often by listening to the voice prompt and not have to juggle my paper map in between my legs while trying to keep my car going straight at 100km/h. Not only will Streets and Trips help to better prevent me from getting lost, but it could probably help me get back on my way in the event that I do get lost. I could install Microsoft Street and Trips 2008 onto my laptop, plug the laptop into my car, and it could aid me in navigation. Not only will the GPS unit help me on my drive up to this small town (which I have never seen before), but it will be very useful once in town if I ever need to find a place to fill up, buy groceries, or stuff like that. During work, I will be going to remote oil sites by myself in the company's truck. Having a GPS unit in this situation would also very helpful for obvious reasons. Perhaps it can save me from getting lost then having my boss yell at me!

I have tried iGuidance 4 as well as Destinator, but those programs seem a bit too simple and featureless compared to Microsoft Streets and Trips. I love how Microsoft Streets and Trips has more features than I could ever use compared to these other two programs, such as the wifi based location finder, the better route planning system, distance measurement, etc... It even has more features than Google Maps! The professional looking and customizable map is also a nice touch. When it comes to navigating new roads, common sense is still the most important, but I feel like I can rely on Streets and Trips when I need it. For example, on a trip to Vancouver with my family, we were lost for about 30 minutes circling a poorly mapped area trying to find my aunt's house. So remembering that I had Streets and Trips (an old version) installed on my laptop (no gps reciever though), I simply typed in the address and we realized that the house was just 5 minutes away!

Not only would Microsoft Streets and Trips be suited for me, but I think it would be very well suited to other drivers as well. Having any GPS device/software is terrific upgrade over a traditional paper map, but I prefer Streets and Trips for its abundant features.

Thanks for reading and good luck to everyone else in this thread.