Street Atlas USA 2003

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Summary: Long time user in Connecticut
Review: I agree completely with user from Cleveland. Delorme took a fabulous interface (Version 8.0 / 9.0) and completely ruined it. This is the one piece of software that I have never failed to upgrade immediately since the program's introduction years ago. For the first time, I am sorry that I did. SA 2003 is much slower, the Windows interface is gone, and the graphics quality is degraded. This is change for the sake of change, without regard to a previously very loyal user base. It's hard for me to understand Delorme's thinking with this one.
Like Cleveland, I have reinstalled a previous version.

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Summary: Horrible, horrrible, ....
Review: I bought the whole bundle including the GPS reveiver, USB adapter, and the software. It was very freaky. I just got it to work less than three times. Every time, it worked and stopped without reason. The most error messages are something like "Can not initialize Find tab!". I had contacted Delorme customer service, searched all the useful information online, done all I was told, and finally it just simply does't work any more.

Look like Delorme's qulity control is really poor. The same is the knowlegde of their customer support. Stay away if you can.

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Summary: interface needs improvement, but great overall
Review: I can sympathize with the comments about the interface being non-intuitive. Stuff like creating a new route: there's the name field and a new button -- which do you do first? (Click new then "rename" the route.) Then there areas where all this new power they've given the user is not fully developed (for instance, what draw layer is this mapnote on? can't "correct" a built-in street name, some created roads don't seem to be routable, and all created roads are the same type [side street, I believe]). But overall, I think it's a great product.

Locally, while they still don't have all our side streets, they have added some and improved the geographic accuracy of others. And not withstanding the comments above, I love the flexibility to have multiple routes and drawing layers associated with one or more map files. (Editing road options, adding roads, etc., would be very difficult with the old everything-in-one-file method if you had more than 1 or 2 map files to update.)

I also have not seen any CPU problems with the GPS enabled. My laptop is only 850 MHz, and I can let Street Atlas do its tracking while watching a DVD (without any special hardware) at the same time without any impact on the playback or any excessive CPU usage. I've also used it on even slower hardware (400 MHz), although without much GPS tracking, and haven't noticed any sluggishness. My GPS is a Garmin eTrex, so possibly the disappointing performance is limited to "dumber" GPSes -- I'm not sure how much smarts DeLorme's Earthmate receiver has built-in.

I'm sure there are simpler street mapping programs out there, but if you're looking for a powerful and extendible program -- and don't mind learning your way around a few holes in the interface -- Street Atlas USA 2003 should be high on your list of choices.

Rating:
Summary: Not a leading product
Review: I decided to purchase Street Atlas 2003 because of my frutstration with GPS tracking in Microsoft's Streets & Trips 2002 (which updates position only every 15 secs). The GPS tracking capabilities of Delorme's product looked good. However, I was disappointed in the mapping quality compared to Microsoft's product. For example, Street Atlas shows my home location (based on address) at the end of my street - not acceptable. Microsoft's product is more accurate in pinpointing the location of an address. The quality of the maps was also disappointing. The user interface is non standard and non-intuitive. The requirement to have the CD in the laptop in order to see maps is not acceptable. Note that Delorme offers a 30-day money back guarantee, which I appreciate. I will take advantage of it.

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Summary: I'm very glad to have purchased this.
Review: I don't understand where all the whining is coming from, this software is great. I'm manager of a courier company in the DC metropolitan area, and I work with maps and routing every day. I bought this to play around with, and have found the door to door directions to be even better than what I find online. Some of the information, such as streets in neighborhoods built last year, is lacking, but that's to be expected, and you can add your own to the database as needed.
I have mine on an old 500MHz laptop, with microphone and Etrex GPS connected, and it runs without a hitch. The program will tell you where you are, each turn in a route you've created, and how to get back on track if you detour. It responds very well to voice commands, so you don't even need to have the computer accessible while you're driving. I wish all of my drivers could have such a simple setup in their car.
As to the "new" interface that has brought on so many complaints, yes, that's too bad that people have to learn something new once in a while, but get over it and appreciate how much this software does for the price, and quit ruining it for others.

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Summary: Buggy on Windows 2000, Slow on 98 - 9.0 MUCH Better
Review: I first installed this on a W2K computer and got blank screens while the hard disk churned, lines and lines of file copy messages, etc. When it actually installed I couldn't get it to search.

On 98, I did get it to search, but it was so slow, I thought I was doing it wrong so I tried several different things and it was still extremely slow. In Streets & Trips, I searched for 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue (no more information and got a list within a second or two). In Street Atlas, I gave it Washington, DC, too and I got an update on all the zip codes it was searching. .... I bought Street Atlas 9.0 today to compare. It was on sale ... and it isn't bad. I really like the one-way street markers.

Oh yeah, the interface. I have worked with lots of different types of software (DOS, Windows, Mainframe) over the years and I would say that this interface is one of the top 5 WORST.

Rating:
Summary: Lost Respect
Review: I have been using Street Atlas since version 2 or 3. SA 2003 is a disaster. I feel like I'm running software on a 386 machine, although its a 1.3 ghz P4. I sometimes have to perform an End Task on the program because it's not responding. What was Delorme thinking? I don't understand how they can release such a flawed product. Earlier versions and Streets and Trips has much better interface(100X). Maps Take seconds to refresh..sometimes it sits there for 10 - 20 seconds before responding. With the speed of todays computers you shouldn't have to wait around for screens to update. I am extremley disappointed. I read the other reviews here and bought it anyway...that was a mistake. Delorme should take this off the market and address the performance issues with this product before re-releasing it.

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Summary: Street Atlas USA 2003 has lost it!
Review: I have been using various Delorme products for years. With SA USA 2003, Delorme has regressed in the ease of use of their products. Everything about this program can be said in one word, "klutzy".

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Summary: The new UI is much better for laptops with touchscreen inter
Review: I have not used the previous versions, but in my opinion, the new UI will support much better laptops with touchscreen interface. I think that this is the right direction for the product. I am not impressed with the accuracy of the maps, but I can live with it.

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Summary: Big step backward for Delorme
Review: I have owned multiple version of Street Atlas by Delorme, and many of their other products. Street Altas 2003 is a big step backward. They are attempting to merge the 3-D Topo Map program format into Street Atlas and failed on first pass. The maps are not attractive to the eye, the scanning and zooming is much slower, and the controls clumsier. The points of interest are hard to find, uni-dimensional by class of point of interest, the drawing of the route to the point of interest is full of errors, and locating the point of interest once selected is difficult. In earlier versions, the points of interest were located easily by icons and rapidly explained with a right click or pointing, to include the point of interest phone number. The routing program is goofy, and missing the "stick to interstate" feature, resulting in bizarre routing on slow, back roads. Delorme, you bombed on this one and I want my money back.