Microsoft Streets and Trips 2008 with GPS [OLD VERSION]

This product was exactly as advertised. Installing and setting up the GPS worked easily as well. The GPS was also recognized by some surveying software I had, so no problems there. If you want a GPS computer system, or even just some good offline USA map software, this product is for you.

Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R2VN7RH6EBIBOD My husband raved about his TomTom GPS for about a year. Before our vacation last month, he decided to get a newer Microsoft "Streets & Trips" for our mini-laptop. The TomTom would tell us to turn (on the back roads in the Rocky Mountains), but the road wasn't there. The "Streets & Trips" 2008 with GPS worked great. I was fairly competent with it after a short time. I acted as a navigator while he tried to negotiate tight turns & large rocks on our backwoods journies. When we needed to know something about the area where we were, just click "FIND", & usually it answered what you needed to know. Whether your on the Interstate, or on a road with rocks as big as a car seat, S& T is the way to go!
I found this version on Amazon.com really cheap.
This is one of my first experiences buying from Amazon, & was worried. No problem, quick shipping, right price, all went well. Very satisied.

Bought it when it was the new version. Great GPS for my laptop. Only bad this is that you can't upgrade once you have it. I have to buy the 2009 version vs just paying for a software update. Poor planning on Microsoft's part.

I bought this to use for an extended driving trip, much of which was spent in a city where I did not know my way around. I would have preferred to buy the 2009 version, which has some important improvements, but the display requirements for that were more than my Acer One netbook could handle.

The GPS system worked fine on the basics, with accurate turn directions. (Voice directions in 2008 version do not include street name, just "Turn left in X distance".)

I had my netbook open on a cooler in the footwell of the front passenger seat and could glance at the screen. This is not as safe or convenient as a dash-mounted GPS. The screen display shows your position in the center of the screen, so it shows more of the streets behind you than you need and not as many streets ahead as you would like.

The software includes a 1-year free subscription to a service that displays semi-real time traffic conditions in some major metro areas. It was not working in Las Vegas, but helped me avoid a major traffic jam in LA.

Overall, nowhere near as good as a dedicated GPS system, but a good way to get GPS functionality at a very low price if you can't justify the expense of a dedicated GPS unit.

this is not worth the money. The timing is off. It starts telling you your off route when you are not....