Tag: travel
Microsoft Streets & Trips 2009
by wid0w on Jul.18, 2009, under Computers, Personal, Software, Technology
I picked up a copy of Streets & Trips 2009 GPS today at Best Buy. My initial thoughts when I got home were that it was a waste of money, because I could not get a GPS signal from my apartment. I figured hell my Blackberry can get a signal, why shouldn’t this little GPS adaptor. I guess it really needs to be outside to get a good signal, it didn’t do that bad in the car either. It came with an extension cable that allows you to move the receiver for better reception, although it doesn’t seem to do that bad attached right to the netbook. The nice thing is that the unit also works with Google Earth so I can get GPS information in there when I am out and about as well. I guess you could say that I really just bought it for the USB GPS receiver, but for $70 I didn’t figure it could be very bad. And it’s not that bad, once it got locked in it held onto at least 6 satellites at a time.
It will make it nice for when I am travelling some place that I need directions to get to. I will just be able to take the netbook with the GPS receiver and have instant navigation. It would also be nice for outdoor excursions, considering the size of the netbook and the GPS receiver, it would not be that much to carry around in a backpack. With the Tetherberry software that I picked up not too long ago, as long as I have cellular data service, then I will have internet access. Figured that I could put the two together for a nice little navigation package. All that would be left would be a mounting kit for the car, but I just don’t think I am going to go that far. Besides it would make everything more visible, the last thing I would want is to draw unnecessary attention to my vehicle. For now it will serve its purpose and since it was not that expensive it will work out great as a starter unit.
Once I have had a chance to really use the Streets & Trips software I will toss another post up to review it. I will also be trying to use the GPS adaptor with other software to see how compatible it is. It definitely works with Google Earth, but I have not had a chance to figure out if there is any other software that it works with. I may try to take it out today and see what other software it works with, I am hoping some of the wireless networking software I got will be able to use it to determine locations for access points.
That’s it for this article, more to come with Street & Trips 2009 GPS.
