lostseason
新手上路
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- 2005-09-10
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1. Voice-Prompted Directions, the most requested feature since S&T 2005 is finally becoming a reality. Now a question remains if we are going to like the voice ;-)
2. Driving Guidance Pane is a new feature and it is supposed to include text-prompted turn-by-turn directions, enlarged arrows indicating where to turn, and distance measurement as drivers get closer to their destination.
3. Dynamic Turn View is another new feature, but I? not clear on what it does. Based on what I? reading it could be what others call ?uto-zoom? but let? wait till we can take the software for a drive before we jump to wrong conclusions about this one.
4. GPS Trail is now supposed to be easier to view (I thought it looked just fine). It will now be color-coded based on how close travelers get to their next destination, and it features an easy-to-see arrow, so travelers always know what direction they are on the map. Hmm, I know some people use GPS Trail at all times, but I personally don? use it. The only time I would think of turning on GPS Trail feature would be if driving in an area with no map coverage and I needed to know how to get back along the same route. But other users may take advantage of these enhancements. Let? hope the S&T 05 crashing issue related to prolonged use of the GPS Trail feature has been fixed.
5. Reroute from Here feature has been modified. If I understand it correctly it will (still) not suggest a new route automatically if you deviate from the originally calculated route, but the feature will somehow notify the user that you are off route and you will have the option to recalculate a new route by a single click of a button. Hmm, I? not sure why they haven? implemented a fully automatic recalculate function, but I want to avoid judging it solely based on reading about it. Again, let? wait for a test drive ;-)
6. Night Map Style should make a lot of people happy. I? looking forward seeing it. Will it automatically change from day color scheme to night color scheme like some navigation products do? I suspect not yet, but we shell discover soon.
7. Mapping Data for the U.S. and Canada now includes more than 5.9 million miles of local, city and highway routable roads and more than 1.8 million points of interest. Hmm, 1.8 million POI? is the same number as in 2005 version, but I do see at least a marginal increase, for example Restaurants: 571, 588 this year (550,000 last year), Gas Stations: 93,574 this year (90,700 last year), etc. The number of routable miles may be a more interesting point to ponder: 5.9 million this year versus 5.4 million last year. That? almost 10% increase. If the numbers are accurate then I wonder where the 10% is coming from? 10% is a lot.
8. Locate Me Lost without the GPS Locator? The new Locate Me technology helps consumers who don? have a GPS Locator determine where they are at that moment by utilizing Wi-Fi hotspots to estimate their location. We will have to see how well this feature works, and perhaps more importantly WHERE it is capable of working. I? like to caution readers not to think they now no longer need a GPS receiver. This is a new technology, the accuracy will not be able to compete with GPS technology, and availability of service will likely be a major stumbling block.
9. The optional GPS receiver (called by Microsoft: GPS Locator) has not changed since a year ago. It is again going to be iGPS-360 by Pharos. For the sake of future purchasers of MS Streets & Trips w/ GPS Locator I hoped Microsoft would include a GPS receiver based on the new SiRFstarIII chipset. The new SiRFstarIII receivers, introduced on the market about a half a year ago, are considerably more sensitive to weak GPS signals than anything on the market previously. The included iGPS-360 is based on older SiRFstarII technology. It works, but if you are willing to spend just a little bit more money, you may buy the best that the technology has to offer today. Luckily Microsoft doesn't use a proprietary protocol, but instead it uses NMEA standard. That means you are not tied to Microsoft's own GPS receiver, but you may select from a very wide variety of GPS receivers as most GPS receivers on the market today do support NMEA protocol.
10. There is no new PocketStreets version. Included with S&T will be (free) PocketStreets 2005 (I see disappointed PDA users.)
The public release day for Streets and Trips 2006 should be in about two weeks. Some time ago I was told it would be October 4th. Some stores report they expect to have it on their shelves as soon as October 3rd, but the documentation I received yesterday indicates October 6th as the day. I? not sure about MS AutoRoute (European Maps). If I recall correctly AR goes on sale a couple of weeks after S&T, so we will have to wait still for more accurate info.
2. Driving Guidance Pane is a new feature and it is supposed to include text-prompted turn-by-turn directions, enlarged arrows indicating where to turn, and distance measurement as drivers get closer to their destination.
3. Dynamic Turn View is another new feature, but I? not clear on what it does. Based on what I? reading it could be what others call ?uto-zoom? but let? wait till we can take the software for a drive before we jump to wrong conclusions about this one.
4. GPS Trail is now supposed to be easier to view (I thought it looked just fine). It will now be color-coded based on how close travelers get to their next destination, and it features an easy-to-see arrow, so travelers always know what direction they are on the map. Hmm, I know some people use GPS Trail at all times, but I personally don? use it. The only time I would think of turning on GPS Trail feature would be if driving in an area with no map coverage and I needed to know how to get back along the same route. But other users may take advantage of these enhancements. Let? hope the S&T 05 crashing issue related to prolonged use of the GPS Trail feature has been fixed.
5. Reroute from Here feature has been modified. If I understand it correctly it will (still) not suggest a new route automatically if you deviate from the originally calculated route, but the feature will somehow notify the user that you are off route and you will have the option to recalculate a new route by a single click of a button. Hmm, I? not sure why they haven? implemented a fully automatic recalculate function, but I want to avoid judging it solely based on reading about it. Again, let? wait for a test drive ;-)
6. Night Map Style should make a lot of people happy. I? looking forward seeing it. Will it automatically change from day color scheme to night color scheme like some navigation products do? I suspect not yet, but we shell discover soon.
7. Mapping Data for the U.S. and Canada now includes more than 5.9 million miles of local, city and highway routable roads and more than 1.8 million points of interest. Hmm, 1.8 million POI? is the same number as in 2005 version, but I do see at least a marginal increase, for example Restaurants: 571, 588 this year (550,000 last year), Gas Stations: 93,574 this year (90,700 last year), etc. The number of routable miles may be a more interesting point to ponder: 5.9 million this year versus 5.4 million last year. That? almost 10% increase. If the numbers are accurate then I wonder where the 10% is coming from? 10% is a lot.
8. Locate Me Lost without the GPS Locator? The new Locate Me technology helps consumers who don? have a GPS Locator determine where they are at that moment by utilizing Wi-Fi hotspots to estimate their location. We will have to see how well this feature works, and perhaps more importantly WHERE it is capable of working. I? like to caution readers not to think they now no longer need a GPS receiver. This is a new technology, the accuracy will not be able to compete with GPS technology, and availability of service will likely be a major stumbling block.
9. The optional GPS receiver (called by Microsoft: GPS Locator) has not changed since a year ago. It is again going to be iGPS-360 by Pharos. For the sake of future purchasers of MS Streets & Trips w/ GPS Locator I hoped Microsoft would include a GPS receiver based on the new SiRFstarIII chipset. The new SiRFstarIII receivers, introduced on the market about a half a year ago, are considerably more sensitive to weak GPS signals than anything on the market previously. The included iGPS-360 is based on older SiRFstarII technology. It works, but if you are willing to spend just a little bit more money, you may buy the best that the technology has to offer today. Luckily Microsoft doesn't use a proprietary protocol, but instead it uses NMEA standard. That means you are not tied to Microsoft's own GPS receiver, but you may select from a very wide variety of GPS receivers as most GPS receivers on the market today do support NMEA protocol.
10. There is no new PocketStreets version. Included with S&T will be (free) PocketStreets 2005 (I see disappointed PDA users.)
The public release day for Streets and Trips 2006 should be in about two weeks. Some time ago I was told it would be October 4th. Some stores report they expect to have it on their shelves as soon as October 3rd, but the documentation I received yesterday indicates October 6th as the day. I? not sure about MS AutoRoute (European Maps). If I recall correctly AR goes on sale a couple of weeks after S&T, so we will have to wait still for more accurate info.
