September 7, 2005

Street Atlas 2006 USA (**** out of four) is a terrific help for anyone planning a road trip anywhere in the United States or Canada. This newest version of an already superior mapping and trip planning program now includes mapping for more than 268,000 additional roads and more than 4 million Points of Interest that include GPS data for the more than 90 national lodging, restaurant, gasoline and retail chains. Also new is the AVOID Routing feature that allows you to block out areas in your mapping which you wish to bypass. A new Address Book can import your contacts from Outlook and allows you to locate and create routes to and from your contacts. A new auto zoom, used with GPS tracking, provides easier viewing of complex intersections. An EZ-Nav toolbar allows for quick screen access to important functions, and user-defined keyboard shortcuts make in-vehicle use a snap. Voice prompts are now available for the PDA version. All this in addition to the wealth of features already in the program.

Street Atlas 2006 USA gives you the ability to do address-to-address routing using the program’s more than six million streets, many showing their dual labeling, such as Main Street, Rt. 44. You can even draw in new streets, which then become part of the routable street database. Another feature designed to insure accuracy in routing is that highway interchanges have been matched to aerial photos, a DeLorme exclusive. A new searchable truck/RV service stop listing includes information about fuel, food, and special services. There are more than 4 million updated keyword-searchable places of interest, most with contact info included to help you find nearby gas stations, food, lodging, shopping, entertainment, hospitals and more. Using the Radar feature, you’ll get a listing of places of interest at a specified radius from the center of the displayed map or from your GPS position. A click adds any of these places to your route as a stop or destination.

Map display is wonderfully uncluttered and yet pinpoints all the streets and places of interest and info you need. A three-way split screen shows a small wide-area map to help give you the big picture and a medium scale map for the area around the main map, while the main map contains all the details. There are 16 levels of zoom to help pinpoint these details. GPS tracking functions even in the split screen mode. You can show more than one route at a time on your maps--very convenient for comparing routes.

Load Street Atlas 2006 USA on a laptop, attach the optional tiny DeLorme Earthmate LT-20 or other compatible GPS receiver, and you have an invaluable resource for anyone who travels for business or pleasure, across town or across country.

To display a route, just type in your starting location and destination, and the program creates a custom set of directions and maps for your trip. The directions are amazingly complete, with route numbers, street names, turns, distance, and estimated travel time for each segment and for the entire trip. You can view all the information on screen and/or print it to take with you.

The program shows a large screen display of the map pinpointing your location and directions. If you stray from your route, the program offers to re-route you back on track. Want more? You can opt to have the directions spoken to you as well, informing you of upcoming turns and more. A special feature of GPS tracking is the choice of a high contrast display, which we found very easy to read even in bright light; it features directions (in an extra large font), with large curved arrows to indicate turns, distance and estimated time to the next two turns.

Or you can use Street Atlas 2006 USA and GPS receiver in a simple tracking mode to log your trip, long or short, for later playback and/or study. In either routing or tracking mode, a "bread crumb trail" shows your travels. Street Atlas 2006 USA can understand your voice commands (needs microphone connected to your laptop). Voice commands such as "What is the next stop?" "Zoom in (or out)," "Be quiet," "Stop GPS," and that all-important, "Where am I?" will get you the requested info or action. Customize your trip by adding stops along the way as well as your driving preferences for speed, fuel stops, start and stop time for each day, length of stay at each stop, and other details. You can also use the Handheld edition of Street Atlas 2006 USA with a Pocket PC and Palm OS PDAs or Smartphones and download route directions and/or maps from your computer.

Street Atlas 2006 USA goes far beyond Internet mapping Web sites in detail of information, ease of use and offering many additional features. We use it often and wouldn’t travel without it.

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