Laptop GPS World

S&T Team writes: "... In the future, I will be blogging about what we've been working on for Streets & Trips 2009 such as the much needed enhancements in the User Interface to make the application easier to use, additions to the MSN Direct Services for the Connected Services edition, and improvement to the search functionality, just to name a few ..."

This may actually be the very first time I have read someone from Microsoft publicly admit Streets & Trips needs enhancements in the User Interface to make the application easier to use . That to me indicates they might have already done some worthwhile improvements to the UI for the next version of Microsoft Streets and Trips 2009. Now can someone with very good eyes look at the above picture and spot anything new on the Beta S&T 2009 ? Hey, lady, move away a bit .

Read the story at the S&T Team blog: http://streetsandtrips.spaces.live.c...D203!435.entry

Edit: Review & 60-day free trial download at: Streets and Trips 2009

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Marvin Hlavac

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

I hope they mention what action they are taking to ensure that the problem with S&T 2008 dieing after a time does not occur with 2009. If they know how to fix the problem on 2009 then hopefully they will issue a patch for S&T2008.

Just came across this post in an unrelated search. Thought I'd bump it up to the top given the recent speculation over S&T 2009's release date.

Looks like the plan to blog about UI improvements blogging plan fell through. Ah well, some teams at Microsoft just have a culture of being less communicative than others.

I, for one, will be very disappointed if the maps don't look at least as good as the ones on Live Maps, given that they both derive from the Mappoint rendering engine. It's been three years since Live Maps first debuted as Virtual Earth. Paradoxically, the rich client now looks far plainer than the web site.

I didn't actually believe they would really blog about upcoming features, but it would be nice. New features of a not-yet-released version of Streets & Trips have seldom (never?) been publicly talked about by Microsoft prior to the release date .

A little bit unrelated, but some time ago I came across a web site, taoyue.com, which may or may not be yours. It seems that you(?) work (or worked in the past) for Microsoft (in a department not related to Streets & Trips). Perhaps you will be the first one of us who will have access the the 2009 version .

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Marvin Hlavac

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

Microsoft gets a lot of flack every time it ends up cutting a feature that's already been announced. However, plenty of other teams at Microsoft blog about features in upcoming products when those features are pretty solid. Take a look at IEBlog, for example. Granted, Internet Explorer releases public betas, while Streets & Trips doesn't. This gives them a lot more leeway from the PR folks about what they can talk about.

I am indeed the Tao Yue of taoyue.com. There are a couple dozen other Tao Yue's (different characters, but same Romanization), but most of them are in China so you won't run into them too much on English-language websites.

I am no longer employed by Microsoft. I never had any access to S&T prerelease versions when I was at Microsoft, but I did get about a one-month jump on the boxed product by getting access to it right at RTM like every other Microsoft employee. However, today I no longer have that access. Actually, I think the lack of public betas (not necessarily public as in "available to everyone", but at least available on Microsoft Connect to those who apply and qualify) is a weakness in their testing strategy.

Yeah, while MS Streets and Trips is an excellent application for you, me, and thousands of others, it isn't high on the importance list for Microsoft - understandably so, since they have products which generate much more revenue, but its a pity nevertheless .

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Marvin Hlavac

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

If Microsoft was serious about making a good mapping program I think it would be better than other programs. However, since this isn't the case I'll use it with more programs.

Any idea when they release Microsoft Streets and Trips 2009? I already enjoy for some time DeLorme 's Street Atlas 2009 (and I like it). I'm buying those two programs every year, for many years now. DeLorme is my nav system, ST is planning tool and place where I look for addresses if I have no Internet access. I'm a trucker and those programs are very helpful for me.

I also made big mistake buying ALK CoPilot 11. It really sucks. Program stinks and a customer service at ALK stinks even more. And CoPilot costs several times more then ST or DeLorme. That's my last try I gave Co Pilot. I liked 2003 version, liked little less CoPilot 8, but I hate CoPilot 11. Don't waste your money on that one.

polonus, it looks like you have already found your answer about the release date of Microsoft Streets and Trips 2009. By the way, it's interesting that several professional truck drivers have already mentioned in this forum that they prefer software such as Microsoft Streets and Trips, or DeLorme Street Atlas, which don't do large vehicle routing, to a software program, ALK CoPilot 11, which targets drivers of large vehicles(!). But I guess that's a topic for ALK CoPilot forum .

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Marvin Hlavac

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