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Microsoft Streets and Trips 2008 | 
| From: Microsoft Software
List Price: $39.95
Buy New: $29.99
You Save: $9.96 (25%)
New (11) Used (1) from $29.99
Rating:  104 reviews
Sales Rank: 26
Format: Cd
Platforms: Windows Xp, Windows Xp Professional, Windows Xp Home Edition
Media: DVD-ROM
Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.2 x 1.3
Legal Disclaimer: Warranty does not cover misuse of product.
MPN: B17-00389
Model: B17-00389
UPC: 882224462938
EAN: 0882224462938
ASIN: B000OV5L40
Release Date: August 20, 2007
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Features:
| • | Over 1.6 million points of interest such as ATMs, hotels, landmarks, and more | | • | Enhanced Keyword search helps you quickly find nearby business and POIs immediately | | • | Customizable trip planning options allow you to plan stops, scenic detours, and more | | • | Navigation Mode lets you estimate drive time before you leave your house | | • | Offers GPS capability (GPS receiver sold separately) |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Microsoft Streets & Trips 2008 gives you accurate driving directions to just about anywhere in the United States and Canada. It gets you where you're going quickly, easily, and without all the guesswork. This comprehensive trip planning software makes route planning a snap.
Amazon.com
You know where you want to go, and Microsoft Streets & Trips 2008 can help you get there. This best-selling travel and map software has been enhanced with several new features that take all the guesswork out of traveling, letting you focus on the sites, instead of the directions. With more than 1.6 million points of interest to choose from, and with updated maps and the most extensive trip planning features you'll find anywhere, Streets & Trips will help you plan your trip, your way. 
Streets & Trips 2008 offers enhanced GPS support. Just plug in a GPS receiver (sold separately) to your laptop, and you have full GPS capability. | 
Which Streets & Trips version is best for you? View comparison chart. | What's New in 2008
Microsoft Streets & Trips 2008 offers the latest available maps of nearly 6 million miles of routable roads and highways throughout the United States and Canada. While you're driving, verbal turn-by-turn directions let you concentrate on the road while the software guides you. Customizable trip planning features allow you to plan multiple stops, find nearby places to visit, calculate drive time, and more. Updated features let you identify one-way streets at a glance, and a robust keyword search lets you quickly find business and other points of interest quickly by entering in single search terms. Do you need a cup of coffee now? Simply type in the word "coffee" and Streets & Maps offers you the nearest coffee houses. Best of all, the search results automatically refresh as you continue to drive, so you will always have the most relevant information at your fingertips. Online or off, Streets & Trips gives you the latest maps that give you the most accurate, detailed door to door directions at your fingertips. You can find current business listings while you're online and then take them with you. In a hurry? You can optimize your travel efficiencies by calculating mileage, time, and expenses in advance, even avoiding delays due to construction by downloading free updates from the Web. An updated navigation mode makes it easier than ever to know where you are, so that you can estimate drive time quickly and precisely, and enhanced customizable trip planning options will help you to plan stops, scenic detours, and fuel stops. You can even add multiple destinations; and quickly alter your route at a moment's notice. Streets & Trips also features enhanced support for your GPS receiver that gives you a new perspective map view that can give you a road view like the one you would see through your windshield, to get a road view like the one you would see through your windshield. And the automatic re-routing feature gets you back on track, even when you miss a turn. (GPS functionality requires a GPS device that supports NMEA 2.0 or later, which is included in Streets & Trips with GPS Locator. As Easy-to-Use as Typing
If you can type, you can take full advantage of the wealth of features Streets & Trips has to offer. To create a route and generate directions, it can't be any easier. You simply type in your starting and ending locations and click on "Get Directions." And voila! Your trips can include side trips and segments, and you can instruct the software to customize your route by telling it what types of roads you want to travel, how quickly you want to get there, and the general area where you want to stop to gas up. Streets & Trips will create your itinerary, down to the precise gas station. Overall you'll have access to over 1.6 million local POIs such as hotels, restaurants, gas stations and even ATMs. And while you're driving, the software can give you verbal turn-by-turn directions that let you concentrate on the road instead of the directions.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 99 more reviews...
Stick with the 2007 version August 29, 2007
S. Session
82 out of 86 found this review helpful
Unless you really need the updated maps, I would not upgrade from Streets and Trips 2007.
* The 2008 version is the first one with a product key that needs to be registered. I assume this means I can no longer sell or give away the old version when I buy the new one. So I won't be upgrading every year anymore.
* After I did the install, it corrupted a dll that Money 2007 uses. I had to reinstall Money to get it working again.
OK software, very poor support August 29, 2007
Dennis Obrien
50 out of 53 found this review helpful
I have had versions of MS streets and trips since they began years ago. I try to upgrade every year or two. I use it on my desktop and two laptops. When I recently upgraded, I was told that was not a problem. When I received the software, and tried to install it, I would not allow me to install it the third time. I called support and was promised they would find a way and get back to me in an hour. Four hours later, I called again, and was told they could not get back to me and had not found how I could install again. I was referred to a supervisor who again told me he would help and get back to me in an hour or two. That was a week ago. I have made repeated calls and e-mails to this person who never gets back to me. I wish I had gone with there competitors this time around. I can no longer recommend Streets and Trips over the compitition.
 Streets and Trips Tripped October 17, 2007
W. J. Eisner (Short Hills, NJ...USA)
50 out of 52 found this review helpful
I've used S&T for many years, updating every year or two as useful new features were added. I updated to the 2008 version to get updated maps. After a lengthy install process, I found that MS had "updated" my street address out of existence. I live along a major road in Essex County in a substantial NJ Township with a 20K+ population and my street address and those of my neighbors had always shown up in prior versions of S&T. S&T 2008 not only elminated my street address but all street addresses on nearby major roads (i.e. those appearing in yellow). Other street addresses are shown. I did not have the time and inclination to see if this problem exists for street addresses in other areas of NJ or in other states. This fault in mapping street addresses makes this program untrustworthy and, essentially, useless.
When I called MS Technical support to see if I'd missed an option that would enable it to show street addresses on major roads, I was told that there was no such option and that another company provided the mapping technology and that I could provide map feedback about the error. He offered a refund but I will be able to return it to the place I bought it.
At this point, I've removed this new software garbage from my machine and reinstalled the old version. Now that Google Earth and other free mapping software exists and good GPS devices are readily available at decent prices, the need to pay for updated versions of S&T, especially dismally executed updates like this inexcusible 2008 version, makes no sense.
 Still the Fastest Interface, Still Lacking Connectivity February 19, 2008
Patrick S. Pope (Chicago, IL)
23 out of 23 found this review helpful
Having purchased the latest release of Streets and Trips for each of the past seven years, I have been generally quite happy with the product. Streets and Trips 2008 is a very slight improvement over the 2007 version with updated map data. As with previous versions, I am happy with the speed and accuracy of the product and still somewhat disappointed there is no real-time map data updating or dynamic point-of-interest data available for purchase.
To evaluate the merits of the product like this, it is very important to understand that the actual data for the maps is not created by Microsoft. It would be foolish to fault them for the lack of a new street or an incorrectly marked highway exist. Map data creation and refinement is a multi-billion dollar industry provided by companies like Chicago-based Navteq, which recently was acquired by Nokia for $8 billion dollars. These companies create the data, often with initial information from the government, refine it, and then sell it to other entities like Microsoft, Garmin and Ford.
People often ask why would one pay for map software when web-based applications are provided by services like Mapquest for free. The answer is that there are several reasons to consider this product over "free" alternatives. These include:
1) SPEED ....
Streets and Trips is incredibly fast and does not require an Internet connection. This is great for road warriors who are on the go and need to determine their destination in airports and on airplanes.
2) FLEXIBILITY...
Streets and Trips allows you to change cosmetic items like font size and map style. Maps can also be saved as files for future access and modification. So, even if you need to map a local trip like a home shopping outing, you can map out your travels in granular detail. As you research your house hunting treks, your saved map can be updated with your new finds. Additionally, you can draw on top of the map and various notations.
3) NO ADVERTISEMENTS & WASTED INK...
Unlike Mapquest, there is no extraneous information on printed maps. You can control what appears on the paper.
4) POWER USER FUNCTIONALITY...
Streets and Trips contains features found on sophisticated logistics software. For example, there is a route optimization function that identifies the most efficient route based on a collection of stops. Also, you can adjust the estimated driving speed for different segment based on your particular knowledge of the roads (i.e. slower for rush hour). Oddly, Microsoft took away specific driving speeds in mph for different types of roads starting in 2007, which I feel was a huge mistake. Rather, there are sliders that say "slower-average-faster".
But there are downsides...
While there is some there is connectivity with the outside world in this version of Streets and Trips, it is limited. Basically, it does provide updated construction information over the Internet for free. In the "connected services" version of Streets and Trips, you can obtain traffic and gas price information through a MSN direct, which obtains data through an FM receiver. Such connectivity is for navigation on the go. Yet, this doesn't make any sense as Streets and Trips can't be safely used as an in-vehicle navigation device. Even on a PDA or ultramobile PC, the proper touchscreen interface is not available. Moreover, there are so many well-designed PND (personal navigation devices) such as Dash's networked PND (i.e. the PND actually uploads the subscriber's speed and location), that Microsoft has no hope of competing in this market.
So, where does this leave Streets and Trips 2008? It is about halfway to where it needs to be. I am sure the concept of dynamically updated map and point-of-interest data hasn't escaped Microsoft engineers. The question still remains as to how they can provide this valuable information at price point where the average consumer will pay for it.
Still pretty lame, and now it has #%$^%& activation August 29, 2007
Keith (Las Vegas NV)
18 out of 22 found this review helpful
I didn't think much of the 2007 version of Streets & Trips (see review). It had a lot of mapping errors and a disappointingly low number of POIs.
Well, the 2008 version is basically more of the same. OK, some errors are now fixed, and they now claim 1.6 million POIs. Folks, this is still a LAME number. To even have a chance of claiming "full" coverage of the US requires a minimum of 5-6 million, which is what you will find in any real navigation system.
So, while it will plot a course that will get you there, it won't even begin to show you all the places along the way.
The final insult is that now it has the onerous Microsoft activation scheme added. I change computers more often than most people, so this is a real nuisance to me.
So, I'm still waiting for something with a user interface like this, but with 4 or 5 times the POIs. I'm not holding my breath.
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