Laptop GPS World

Welcome to Laptop GPS World, a new website dedicated to GPS navigation on laptops, TabletPCs, and UMPCs.

My plan is to make this website a valuable source of information for people using (or planning to use) a computer for GPS navigation. Various mapping and GPS navigation software will be thoroughly reviewed here, starting today with the new Microsoft Streets & Trips 2008, and shortly after that followed by iNav iGuidance 4, ALK CoPilot 10, DeLorme Street Atlas 2008, Garmin nRoute, etc.

My hope is that many people will join the forum to share their knowladge and experience with others.

People who have known me from various groups and forums may ask why I'm starting this site instead of continuing my activity at GpsPasSion Forums and other sites. The answer is that I will still continue participating in other on-line communities. This new website is just something I've considered starting for quite a while now. There are several websites about GPS, but none is dedicated solely to people who do GPS navigation on their laptops, TabletPCs, UMPCs, or any other form of Windows XP, or Windows Vista based computer.

Is there a future for GPS navigation on laptops? Only the time will tell. The low price of PNDs (Personal Navigation Devices) makes the all-in-one dedicated units very attractive to the general public. But some of us for various reasons do need laptops in our cars and trucks so we may as well use them for navigation, too. Some of us may find that the laptop is more appropriate for trip planning, or that the keyboard may allow for much faster entering of a distination address than a small touch-screen. The large screen-size is the attraction for some. Police cars, ambulances, fire trucks and others do use laptops for navigation, and I doubt they will switch to anything else any time soon.


Above is a couple of pictures of a law enforcement vehicle equipped with a Windows XP laptop running Microsoft Streets & Trips with S&T Keys add-on. Kevin, thanks for allowing me to take the photos.

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Marvin Hlavac

Laptop GPS software reviews | Stores offering discounts to our members: Semsons & Co. Inc. and Deluo Electronics

Hi Dad, great web-site!!! I see all the hard work payed off!!! ^_^

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Jessica

Nice job setting up the web site, I am impressed. I like what you did with the Review on the home page - is that with vBAdvanced? I think I may learn more from you than vice versa :-)

my forum is at www.mapforums.com - a little history: it was originally a simply QA php script on www.MP2Kmag.com when that site was originally set up in 1999 (check out the Wayback Machine - http://web.archive.org/web/199911042...mappointqa.asp ) , then moved to a phpBB forum for several years starting in 2002, and moved to a separate domain running vBulletin in the middle of last year.

I look forward to visiting your new forum often.

Eric

Jessica, thanks! The site would not be the same without your help, your support, and your honest and constructive criticism ! Thanks!

Eric, yes, you are correct - it's the vBadvanced. I originally meant to have a homepage with a link to the forum, but you mentioned to me that you tried it yourself, and you found it to be "...just another page or hurdle for people to start joining directly in the forum...". So I decided to drop the homepage idea, and instead just have a forum page integrated with one or two announcements. Users may even collapse the news module(s) to have even easier access to the forum without having to scroll down the page .

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Marvin Hlavac

Laptop GPS software reviews | Stores offering discounts to our members: Semsons & Co. Inc. and Deluo Electronics

Marvin,

Great work on the new website. Looks good.
Will this site duplicate the gpspassion forums? Or will it be necessary to follow both?

Glenn

Glenn, that's a good question. I don't really know how things will develop. I will most likely spend a lot of time here now, but I will monitor GpsPasSion Forums, too.

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Marvin Hlavac

Laptop GPS software reviews | Stores offering discounts to our members: Semsons & Co. Inc. and Deluo Electronics

Hey Marvin,

Congratulations on the new site! Looks good. :-)

-mike

Hey Mike !!!

It's great to see you here !!! I saw your posting some three hours ago, but I've been reluctant to start typing while driving at highway speed . Now I finally stopped for a minute just to say hi. I still have another hour and a half to get back home. TTYL.

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Marvin Hlavac

Laptop GPS software reviews | Stores offering discounts to our members: Semsons & Co. Inc. and Deluo Electronics

You mean you look at your laptop while you are driving ???

j/k

Eric

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Map Forums for MapPoint and Virtual Earth

Hey Marvin this is awesome. I followed your bread crumb trail from GpsPasSion to Your new diggs. Congrats on the ST&T Blog recognition and the new site. I registered right away. Thanks for sharing all your knowledge .

TechnoGuy, thanks for your kind words, and welcome to the forum! Also thanks for your entry to the mini-contest »

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Marvin Hlavac

Laptop GPS software reviews | Stores offering discounts to our members: Semsons & Co. Inc. and Deluo Electronics

Thanks for site, Travel in rv, in South Texas right now.Went to computer class yesterday and was told to check out your site. Use s& t 2007 right now but it has a few drawbacks. Enjoyed your review of inav Sure would like to give it a try. Wife is NAVIGATOR. thanks GREG

Greg, welcome to the forum! Say hi to the computer class teacher from me . Good luck in the contest .

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Marvin Hlavac

Laptop GPS software reviews | Stores offering discounts to our members: Semsons & Co. Inc. and Deluo Electronics