Pocket PC Thoughts: Delorme Street Atlas USA 2008 Reviewed

Need For A Change
I've used Pharos Ostia since I first started doing any sort of GPS work on my Pocket PC. It came with my first receiver, and I've bought upgrades so I can always download the latest version and maps. Ostia is a great on-device navigational tool, but it really suffers when you're trying to map over long distances. If I'm planning on driving from Cleveland to North Carolina, I cannot simply plug in both destinations and map - Pharos breaks up the map files into too many small chunks and can't open them on the fly fast enough to map me through. It fails, miserably. I could download maps that are purely highway maps, but it annoys me that I'd have to do that when I already have the maps for all fo the states / regions in question on my storage card!

Now don't get me wrong, Ostia is nice for around the city types of things, or when travelling to a far-away city that I'm going to be walking around in and need to find the nearest drug store, eatery, subway station, etc.... But sometimes I just wish I could take the route I plan on Mapquest or Yahoo! or Google, draw a loose border around to give me leeway, and export the whole mess to my Pocket PC. That way I can have my route over long distances, and have enough wiggle room to navigate away from serious trouble.

While browsing through my local Target discount store, I found Delorme's Street Atlas USA 2008 DVD set. It was affordable, and it seemed to offer what I wanted. I grabbed a copy and was impressed enough that I wanted to share my experiences with the readers here and elsewhere. Now I'm not prefacing this review by saying that this software is the best thing since sliced bread, but I will say that for the price, you really can't complain.

The Desktop Component
Most of the mapping takes place on the desktop side. Upon loading up the software, you're presented with a fairly average map & splash screen, however you'll notice that the right side, top, and bottom are littered with options.


Figure 1: No awards for color schemes here! Brown backgrounds? Yuck!.

So it looks a little utilitarian, and it won't win a design award for prettiest GUI for sure, but it's fairly powerful and somewhat intuitive. For example, when you want to zoom in, you simply click and drag your mouse around an area


Figure 2: Drawing a zoom box.

However zooming out is a bit more strange. You actually click and hold your mouse and drag to the upper left. A little series of black steps appears and the farther you drag up, the higher the step you climb, the more of the map you zoom out to. Not exactly what I would have designed (personally I'd rather have the map slowly zoom out while I drag, and stay put wherever I release!).

Delorme includes the ability to draw directly on the map, which can be useful if you want to create a printout with certain spots highlighted. You can also display multiple routes on one map and toggle them as you'd like (good for planning out a vacation around a unfamiliar city - map everything before hand and bring up one day's routes at the same time, to see if you can re-order your schedule so you're travelling unnecessarily). You can also get a simple measurement of any two points, something I've been yearning for in the popular online map tools. Sometimes I just need to know how far it is from here to there, as the bird flies (or the Jon walks).


Figure 3: How far is it from the freeway to the mall?


Figure 4: 8 Miles by car! Hmm, perhaps it would be faster to just take the surface streets.

Delorme obviously didn't think too much about UI design, so thankfully they included a pop-up tip help system. Normally I despise these sorts of things, but in this case, it's actually pretty helpful. Especially when clicking on a tool that the icon doesn't give any real indication what to do with.


Figure 5: A popup tip.

Finally, Delorme includes one feature I haven't seen in other packages. Normally GPS mapping software can talk to you and tell you where you're at, but Delorme can actually be spoken to! Voice command lets you keep your eyes on the road and speak what you'd like to your laptop, and then you can quickly glance and safely go on your way or just listen to the response. For those who don't do all of their driving GPS use with a handheld (e.g. those who have laptop mounts and do a SERIOUS amount of driving), this ability would make for a nice lean setup - GPS receiver, laptop with built-in mic, and away you go.


Figure 6: Voice Command options.

The desktop software included is functional, and will do many things you can't get from mapping online. However, it isn't the easiest on the eyes, but that's a fairly minor complaint. Now let's move into using your Pocket PC!