Rating  - PDA software can't even find street addresses!
First, I'm a computer geek and should otherwise know what I'm doing with software. I have purchased several DeLorme products before, including Topo USA twice (great software!) and the non-handheld version of Street Atlas.
But, this handheld Street Atlas for my Palm TX is just horrendous, especially the PDA side of the software (the desktop software is annoying but somewhat tolerable - but I only bought this for its PDA installation). It took me a while to figure out that I needed to select areas of the map to export and to then export them. Bizarre interface, but I did manage to get the maps into the PDA. Although the maps on the PDA look rather ugly... just lines and dots... not pretty like Google Maps or Microsoft MapPoint. So far, I can live with that.
What makes the PDA software useless is that it won't find a simple street address (or partial street address) no matter what I do. I would expect any decent mapping software to be able to find a road that exported to the map. There is a "Find" feature, which defaults to "Fuzzy Find", and all that does is show me completely unrelated entries in other Palm applications... it shows me entries in my TODO list, my Contacts, my Calendar and other apps (all completely unrelated to the street I'm trying to search for), plus it'll show me various unrelated businesses (that probably aren't even on the street I'm searching for). But, no streets!!
The only way I can figure out to find streets is to scroll around, zoom in/out until I happen to see the street name on the tiny map. This is nearly impossible if I'm not well familiar with the area. Even paper maps have a chart that lets me look up a street and I'll be told what grid square its in. The desktop app also can readily find a street. So, why not the PDA software? (Yes, the streets I search for are in the exported map.)
I'm not even bothering trying any other features, not unless Find works.
Rating  - Powerful but complicate, Not very user friendly
For your info. I am a computer nerd for the last 10 years. I have never had a "consumer based" software that I need to read instructions for for the last decade. This software is so complicated that I can't even figure out how to zoom in/out on the PDA version without going thru the Manual. But once I have it figure out, I have to say this is 1 of the most powerful GPS software by far. Here is how I rate this software.
Easy of use 0 stars
User interface 0 stars
Usefulness 5 stars
Extra info 5 stars
intergration with Contact list (on PDA) 5 stars
voice routing 4 stars.
Keep in mind that if you are looking for a device strictely for GPS only. I will still recommand a STANDALONG device. Those stand along device such as Roadmate from Magellan or any other standlong device is still a winner for day to day navigation. But If you want a software base GPS with lot of extra and possibility of upgrade in the future(like add topo map) then This is for you.
The map format is harder to read then Microsoft Street and Trip handheld (but unfortunately MS Street does not have the ability to calculate route on PDA and nor does it have voice )
Rating - Hopeless and horrible on a PDA
It's possible to stumble around on this software when it's installed on a desktop/laptop, but just try to export maps to a PDA. The interface is clumsy, confusing and completely unintuitive. As a streets/trips map for use with a PDA and a GPS, it is a terrible choice and you will struggle with it forever. The interface on this software is about the worst I've seen on a PC in 15 or so years.
Rating  - Still not a good product.
This is the third or fourth version of Street Atlas USA Handheld I've bought. On each of the prior occasions I gave up trying to use it with a variety of PDAs. One more time I thought since DeLorme boasted of the major revision they'd made.
Not really. It is still a stinkeroo.
It installs easily to a Palm device and earlier versions installed easily to Windows CE. And it works nicely with a non-DeLorme Blutetooth GPS.
But it is useless on a PDA. Maps are shown in 2D view only and they are simply thin lines across the screen. Street names even in the optional large font size are still unreadable unless you focus intensely. The highest zoom setting still covers too much area while the lowest zoom settings result in such crowded data that your route is lost.
The second weakest feature is trying to find a location. DeLorme forces you through a convoluted procedure. And finding an address seems to take forever.
The absolute worst feature is trying to create a route on the PDA. It is frustrating, time consuming and, in my experience, almost never works.
Finally, DeLorme's map information is incorrect and doesn't seem to be updated. The 2004 version didn't note that the street I live on is one-way and it constantly routed me going the wrong way. It sill does.
Actually using the product is a nightmare. The representation of your GPS location on the Palm TX's 320 x 480 screen is so tiny as to be invisible, virtually impossible to quickly see in a moving vehicle. Not a good situation. The display does not stay centered. One moment your GPS locator is squarely in the center of the screen. The next, it is at the top of the screen. Then the bottom or the sides. There is no uniformity.
The product allows you to set waypoints in order to customize your route. You literally have to do that on the computer rather than the PDA, because the PDA maps are simply too cumbersome to work with. You can do a reverse route on the PDA. Wouldn't you expect that if you simply reverse the route you created, that the waypoints you inserted would be considered? Logic says yes; DeLorme says no. Recalculating a route took almost 15 minutes on the Palm and resulted in a hodgepodge of side streets being included. Since I didn't follow the recommended (and very strange) reverse route, the program simply stopped posting the GPS location to the map. Apparently if you aren't following a pre-determined route, you are out of luck.
I'm finished with DeLorme. Never again.
Jerry
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Customer Reviews for Delorme Mapping,AO-007513-101,019916006686,0019916006686,B0009YN1GM, |
