| | |  | Language & Travel | Home » » » Delorme Street Atlas USA '09 Plus | | | | | | | Description: | | A powerful mapping tools allowing businesses and advanced mapping enthusiasts to visualize their own data on renowned DeLorme maps. It provides the functionality of the regular version plus giving you the ability to import and geo-locate your own text files from Microsoft Excel, ACT! and other database programs. | | | Product Details: | | | Product Length:
| 3.15 inches | | Product Width:
| 2.36 inches | | Product Height:
| 0.79 inches | | Product Weight:
| 0.4 pounds | | Package Length:
| 7.5 inches | | Package Width:
| 5.3 inches | | Package Height:
| 2.0 inches | | Package Weight:
| 0.45 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 15 reviews |
| | | System Requirements: | | | Platform:
| Windows Vista / Windows XP | | Media:
| DVD-ROM | | Item Quantity:
| 1 |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
 ( 15 customer reviews )
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 19 found the following review helpful:
 Best in-vehicle navigationMay 17, 2008
By K. Conover
"kconover"
If you just want a GPS to throw on your dashboard to say "turn right" or "turn left" then don't bother reading any further.
Over the years, I've done a lot of navigation, whether in a car, on foot in the mountains, or in a cave. Sometimes this is done in the context of a search, a rescue, or a disaster. (Indeed, I can say with assurance that Street Atlas USA has made a major contribution - very, very major, though I'm not at liberty to disclose details - to the response to Katrina and to the four-hurricane summer before that.)
Handheld GPS units are great - I have a Garmin GPS60CSx and very happy with it for navigating while on a trail or bushwhacking. Even if just hung by its cord from the rearview mirror (just wrap the cord around behind the mirror a few times, just like a "tree wrap" anchor for a static rope for rappelling or rescue work, the friction will hold it in place) it tracks quite well. And, you can connect view the USB cable to a laptop.
To connect to the laptop via USB, however, I prefer the iGPS offered by Maptech ([...]) - indeed, I have one permanently attached to the roof of my Land Rover, with the USB cable coming out of the dash.
While expensive mobile GPS units with a graphical screen are all the rage now, and I've used some of the better ones (which usually means Garmin), there is no comparison to using a laptop as the "GPS unit." The screen is bigger, so you can see enough of the map to actually get a feel for the area. This situational awareness is what makes using a laptop and Street Atlas navigation, as opposed to what you get with most GPS units, which is just directions.
And, if you use a product like Street Atlas (the best, compared for example to Microsoft Streets and Trips), you have a great deal of flexibility - once you get comfortable with it (I recommend using it frequently), your wife who's driving can say "we'll be passing Bridgeport in an hour, I've got a taste for Indian food" and you can find a Indian restaurant a few miles off the highway, and easily navigate to it and back to the highway again. And, if you use Street Atlas in your car regularly, you have the _confidence_ to get off the highway and wander through back streets in Bridgeport. It also means you can, before you leave, spend a few minutes reviewing the route and tweaking with a few "vias" to use those shortcuts you have learnt or heard about from others. I even use my laptop/Street Atlas to plan my days full of errands. (On the other hand I live in Pittsburgh, which is certainly not for the navigationally-challenged; it's a 3D maze, and as people here say, "there are at least 6 ways to get from A to B, they all are complicated, they all take the same time, and at least three - but who knows which three - are under construction.)
I admit that this is a lot easier with a small and light laptop - I have a Panasonic CF-W5 - but doable with a larger one as well. Indeed, I've been doing this with about five generations of laptop now. With the ultralight laptop, though, I just put five little bits of sticky hook Velcro on the bottom of the laptop and covered the top of the jottodesk with 2" pile Velcro. I just place the laptop on the Jottodesk and it sticks, no need for any straps. This even worked fine a couple of weeks when - on a nice dry evening - I picked a different route back home from the annual meeting of the Appalachian Search and Rescue Conference and spent 30-45' in four-wheel low on what, on the map (not just Street Atlas's!) like a normal West Virgina county road. (Remind me not to take that "shortcut" again.)
Get a Jottodesk (jottodesk.com) and mount it in your vehicle. Slap an iGPS magmount USB GPSon the roof, plug the laptop into a car-power adapter (I use an iGo Juice 70) and get a laptop hood (I got mine from [...] but you can find what looks similar on Amazon - Kantek-Adjustable-Monitor-Visor-Screens)
If you're really industrious, get some nonsticky Velcro or mounting-style cable ties, and mount your power supply under the Jottodesk, and you can even wire in a 12V illuminated toggle switch from Radio Shack on the front to control the power supply.
Oh, and if I forgot to mention - if Street Atlas weren't so good, I wouldn't have spent so much effort either mounting the laptop in my truck (my wife's Outback also has its own Jottodesk) or using Street Atlas all the time. Street Atlas certainly isn't perfect - they could use a dose of user interaction design expertise from cooper.com or Google. But still, for navigating as opposed to following directions, there is nothing better than Street Atlas on a Jottodesk in your car.
The only reason it doesn't get a full 5 stars - despite it being the best option for in-vehicle navigation right now - is that Delorme really, really needs to spiff up their user interaction design with more drag-and-drop, integrating the Address Book into the main program design, and the like. Still, highly recommended.
6 of 6 found the following review helpful:
 This is not a TomTom.Jun 03, 2008
By David Parsons
This is not a program that you use to go to the store and back. Go buy a TomTom. You have to learn to use this program properly. I use this program to route delivery trucks, calculate mileage and to travel. This product is great for the delivery driver, RV'ers, outside sales people and over the road drivers. You can track and save multiple routes. It allows you to arrange stops in the order that you want. Stops can be put in the most direct route with either the fastest travel time or shortest mileage. There is A GPS log that shows the actual route or routes that were taken. Must purchase a GPS unit to use this feature. Delorme sells a few. I highly recommend it. Every route and every log can be saved.
3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
 DissapointedFeb 12, 2009
By N8_s
"NetDevr"
I purchsed this software for a series of trips I had been planning to take. The interface is cumbersome and difficult to use on the PC, however once learned can be very good for generating maps. The Handheld software is practically useless. The software is slow and rarely finds what youre looking for unless it is a well known address. The search, plan, find destination is cumbersone as well and I also tried this on 2 different handhelds, both Windows mobile 6: both locked up several times , (one and HTC Titan2, the other Axim x51V) and once a GPS fix was verified there was no quick way to plot or save the existing location. As for Delorme support: forget it. the Best possible reference is the forums, and the typical response is "It's not our fault". I used to use the old delorme software exclusively--now I will not buy another one of their products.
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
AgencySep 02, 2008
By H. Scheil Jr.
"cortney"
We are an insurance agency and are using this product for our agents. All of the agents have had nothing but good things to say about this software. It has opened alot of doors for them.
4 of 5 found the following review helpful:
Street Atlas Pluss 2009Jul 08, 2008
By J. Lindner
As with any software, the true value and appreciation of its capacity depends on what the primary application is used for. I purchased this software because I enjoy making custom maps of my own creation. This software is able to process the information I want to map and then create a map for me. I do not own GPS equipment so at this time I cannot really say how well this software performs as a GPS interface.
Street Atlas also comes with the ability to download aerial photos which really do not do muych more than add dimension to a map. There are other sites on line that offer aerial photos so this is not really a strong selling point for Street Atlas 2009. But I do plan to continue creating my custom maps if for no other reason than I enjoy doing them, and Street Atlas 2009 ought to be able to meet my needs.
See all 15 customer reviews on Amazon.com
| | |
|
