Laptop GPS World

Does anyone who downloaded and installed the update as a free trial version recall if there is a way to buy it online through the program? My memory is failing me and I can't remember. Terry?

...ken...

the update dosnt install 100% right tho, it works but i had a few issues, which is why i was after the proper installer

i think it does take you to their shop, but you cant ship to anywhere other than the US.

i could i guess ASK them

I've been a user of S&T for many years. I recently bought Garmin Mobile PC with their satelite antena. I used to have a Garmin Street Pilot, and liked some of the features it had, so I thought I'd give Mobile PC a try. I had no problems with installation, and the product worked fine. Their gps antenna cord (36 inches long) was to short to reach from my laptop in the front passenger seat to the dash. My microsoft antenna reaches just fine. I played with the software for a couple of days and then returned it as I was not impressed. Mobile PC has three features that I found to be nice:

1) Nearby Fuel Prices
2) Spoken street names
3) Trip data (ie, avg. speed, max speed, time enroute etc...)

These items did not outweigh that which I didn't like about the product. I feel that trip planning in S&T is much easier than with Mobile PC. Navigating around in the program is much easier with S&T (even if I allow for the fact that I'm already familiar with S&T and not familiar with Mobile PC).

Rick D,

I agree with what you are saying. I too have used S&T for many years and think it strength (best I have seen) is its trip planning and easy of use. On one screen you have all the needed capabilities to plan a trip & print maps.

But for navigation and route directions , S&T is just OK. I have only used MPC on a test drive but, was very impressed with its navigation (which is why I bought it.

I have a very long trip planned out west in S&T. I have now set up routes in MPC . Starting to get the hang of using Favorites to set up routes. A little more "difficult" than S&T since you have to move between multiple screens, but it is very manageable and fairly intuitive to use. I use a touch screen LCD connected to my laptop. MPC seems to be very well designed for a touch screen with large buttons.

As far as the GPS cable being short, I use a third party GPS rather than the Garmin and I use a 6" foot extension cable to reach from backseat floor to front windshield. I have had no problems with signal loss.

Hi Rick,

Your reaction is about what one would expect. Streets & Trips began life as a trip planning program. The navigation stuff has just been tacked on more recently. Most people looking for good nav features and less emphasis on the planning stuff will generally be disappointed.

Garmin has a huge line of products that are mainly focussed on navigation. As you discovered, that strong navigation focus can leave the planning stuff a little less satisfying. So someone like you who is looking more for the planning and routing stuff will be generally be a little disappointed.

I'm one who leans towards the Garmin products. I want really good nav performance. Dynamic routing is next, eg. find the nearest burger joint, hotel, whatever and tell me how to get there. Garmin does that stuff really well.

Trip planning and advance route creation are of minimal interest to me. I'm still a paper map kind of guy when it comes to advance planning ... spread them out on the table or the floor and get at it. For the bigger picture of a trip plan, they simply don't make a screen display large enough to satisfy me. I want the whole dang map visible without having to scroll or squint or both.

I don't know if there is a single product that does both perfectly.

...ken...

Ken:

I hear what you are saying. I too like to see the whole trip planned out in front of me which is why I like S&T vs. using the Pioneer Avic Z1 that is in my vehicle. Planning a trip with S&T on a computer is much easier than using a purpose built gps unit like my Pioneer. When I had my Garmin Street Pilot, they provided the best of both worlds - I could plan my trip on my laptop, then easily transfer the route to the Garmin unit.

I've never been a big user of Dynamic routing. My hotel is usually pre-arranged, and is a destination on my trip plan. As for restaurants, I usually just start scoping those out when I'm nearing my destination.

S&T is very close to making me a satisfied customer. I'll be a happy camper once they add:
1) actual street names to their guidance instead of just telling me to turn left or right
2) distance to destination (next turn, state line, and final destination) vs. the current useless time to destination based on who knows what speed on their slider bar
3) trip statistics
4) remote control to run some basic functions like zoom in and out, repeat current voice direction, switch day/night mode, etc...
5) via functionality to shape the route how I want to go. I currently have to add Waypoints to shape the route and the program keeps wanting to route me back to a Waypoint that I just passed. I get sick of having to delete them while driving.

Rick

Rick,

You can still do that with Mobile PC. You were using Mapsource for the trip planning and then transferring from Mapsource to the Street Pilot. You can do it exactly the same way with Mapsource and Mobile PC. There are a couple of other threads here that describe it, but you already know how to do it. When you select TRANSFER > SEND TO DEVICE in Mapsource, you just select "Mobile PC" in the device dropdown list instead of "Street Pilot".

Mobile PC does that, with two of the voices (Anna and Mary).

Mobile PC does that.

Mobile PC does that with a comprehensive trip meter.

I'm not sure what you mean by "remote control".

Mobile PC does that. Or you can do it more easily in Mapsource if you are doing advance planning.

Sounds like you might want to give Mobile PC a re-think since you are already familiar with everything you want to do from your Garmin days with Mapsource and Street Pilot. Your wish list sounds like, "I want my Street Pilot back but built into my laptop." That's pretty much what you get with Mapsource and Mobile PC ... except the Mobile PC interface is a little more like a Nuvi than a Street Pilot, I think.

If you want to give it another whirl, all you have to do is dust off your old Mapsource CD and install it. Then download the latest version from Garmin (only the latest version recognizes Mobile PC as a "device"), install it and you're in business. You only need to install your original Mapsource because the updates won't install unless they find an existing version already installed.

...ken...

S&T for printing daily maps for a multi-day trip and MapSource - Mobile PC for following that route, finding nearby attractions and making on the fly changes is a winning combination as it was in the days of the Street Pilot.

The only unfortunate piece that Garmin left out is providing a copy of CNNA NT 2009 for MapSource with Mobile PC. When you load MapSource, make sure to load whatever latest version of unlocked maps you have.

Terry

Thanks for the info Ken. I guess I didn't make myself clear in my message. I meant to say that I'd be a happy camper if S&T added those features to their current product. Even without changes, I still like S&T better than Mobile PC, and they are both better than Mapsource was/is.

The remote control thing is something I haven't seen yet, but I believe would be fairly easy to develop by those smarter than me. As I said before, I use S&T running on my laptop for my gps needs on a trip. It is a bit cumbersome to have to search for the cntrl key and the - key to press at the same time to zoom out; or cntrl key and + key to zoom in; or the F11 key to go to full screen; or the F9 (I think) key to toggle day/night mode; or the space bar to repeat last guidance direction. Now, do all that at night, in traffic, and in an unfamiliar area. My car stereos have long had wireless remote controls to operate things like volume, channel selection, track forward/back, etc... Why couldn't someone develop a Bluetooth remote control to handle the basic functions I described for S&T? They already have that type of remote for operating multi-media programs on your laptop, so I don't think it should be much of a stretch to do it for S&T.

Rick D., thanks for letting us know you don't like Garmin Mobile PC. This perfectly illustrates that there is no such a thing as a bad program or a good program. Any GPS navigation software program a user may for what ever reason either like or dislike. It's very much a personal preference, and it's not necessarily always related to a limitation of the disliked product.

By the way, Rick D., see if you could benefit from some of the functions found in S&T Keys - Hotkeys for Microsoft Streets & Trips.

__________________
Marvin Hlavac

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

Rick D.,
The reason no-one is developing a Bluetooth remote to do those finicky things in Streets and Trips is the limited audience. There are routing programs out now that will perform most or all of the functions you want with one key press, automatically, or using a button on a touch screen.

Terry

There is a program called GPSGate that allows this.

Testing so far shows Mobile PC will not find virtual comm ports generated by GPS Gate, either Garmin or NMEA. If you have updated information, we're all ears.

Terry

Haven't tried it with Garmin. It does work with S&T, SA, and CoPilot. Wonder what is the snag with Garmin?

I tested the newest GPS Gate version 2.6 without success with Garmin Mobile PC. I submitted a support ticket.

__________________
Marvin Hlavac

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