Delorme Street Atlas 05 quick review

cash_Money · 12-12-2004, 06:28 PM

I just got this software over the weekend and I'm overall very pleased. I can understand how people using a small screen dislike it because of the small tabs required to use it.

I was learly about using this as I've got a laptop that is under spec, I'm using it with a Pentium 200mhz with 64mb of ram.

Overall it preforms fairly well however in urban situations the auto recaluclation of the routes can take to long making me miss my next turn which cascades into several more missed routes and so on. However it's worked great on highway routes and when I'm not missing turns.

The thing that I've found most impressive is the voice control. I've always had a lot of doubt over how effective those apps are but this is truly amazing I tried every command for about 10 minutes and it almost never got it wrong it didn't work as described.

Needless to say this is a big improvement over Streets and Trips 04.

0l33l · 12-12-2004, 06:46 PM

What are the voice commands?

Bugbyte · 12-12-2004, 09:35 PM

Voice Commands
Street Atlas USA® 2005 includes navigation, map, GPS, and Voice tab control commands. Select the Show All Commands check box to view all options, including those which are variations or unavailable.

A blank cell indicates a shortcut key is not available for that spoken command.

Navigation Commands
The following table shows Navigation voice commands and their shortcut keys.

Spoken Command
Key
Response

What is the next turn?
F5
Speaks the next turn name, time to turn, distance to turn, bearing to turn, and turn direction. Displays the Directions subtab in the Route tab.

Next turn.

What's the next turn?

Show (my, the) next turn.
CTRL+F5
Displays current location and next turn. Displays the Directions subtab in the Route tab.

Center on (my, the) next turn.
ALT+F5
Centers map on the next turn. Displays the Directions subtab in the Route tab.

What is the next stop?
F9
Speaks the next stop name, distance to stop, bearing to stop, and time to stop. Displays the Directions subtab in the Route tab.

Next stop.

What's the next stop?

Show (my, the) next stop.
CTRL+F9
Displays current location and next stop. Displays the Directions subtab in the Route tab.

Center on (my, the) next stop.
ALT+F9
Centers map on the next stop. Displays the Directions subtab in the Route tab.

After that.

Speaks the next stop or turn information, depending on the previous spoken direction.

Are we there yet?
F7
Speaks the finish name, time to finish, and distance to finish.

Show (my, the) finish.
CTRL+F7
Displays current location and finish on the map.

Center on (my, the) finish.
ALT+F7
Centers map on the finish. Displays the Directions subtab in the Route tab.

Directions.
CTRL+F8
Speaks the next turn, next stop, finish, name, time, and distance. Displays the Directions subtab in the Route tab.

Where am I?
F8
Speaks current route segment, heading, speed, town, county, and state.

Coordinates.

Speaks the coordinate of your current location.

Shush.
CTRL+E
Silences GPS voice navigation, but does not turn it off.

Be quiet.
Silences GPS voice navigation, but does not turn it off.

(Turn) voice nav on/off.
CTRL+D
Turns voice navigation on or off.

Show (my, the) route.

Displays your route on the map.

Back on Track.

Adds current GPS location as a stop and recalculates the route.

Continue (my, the) route from here.

Adds current location as a stop and recalculates the route.

Show turns.

Activates the Show Turns dialog area in the Route tab.

Show directions.

Activates the Directions subtab in the Route tab.

Map Commands
The following table shows Map voice commands and their shortcut keys.

Spoken Command
Key
Response

Pan (map, the map) left.
ALT+LEFT ARROW
Pans (or scrolls) the map left.

Scroll (map, the map) left.

Pan (map, the map) right.
ALT+RIGHT ARROW
Pans (or scrolls) the map right.

Scroll (map, the map) right.

Pan (map, the map) up.
ALT+UP ARROW
Pans (or scrolls) the map up.

Scroll (map, the map) up.

Pan (map, the map) down.
ALT+DOWN ARROW
Pans (or scrolls) the map down.

Scroll (map, the map) down.

Zoom in.
ALT+PAGE DOWN
Zooms in one level.

Zoom in 1 time.

Zoom out.
ALT+PAGE UP
Zooms out one level.

Zoom out 1 time.

Zoom in <1–x> times.

Zooms in the specified number of levels.

Zoom out <1–x> times.

Zooms out the specified number of levels.

Zoom level <2–x>.

Zooms to specified level.

Previous Map.

Displays the previous map.

Go back.

GPS Commands
The following table shows GPS voice commands and their shortcut keys.

Spoken Command
Key
Response

Start (my, the) GPS.
CTRL+G
Starts GPS tracking.

Stop (my, the) GPS.
Stops GPS tracking.

GPS Status.

Displays the GPS Status subtab.

Monitor GPS.

Displays the GPS Monitor subtab.

Center (my, the) on GPS.
CTRL+W
Recenters the map on the current GPS location.

Stop Centering on (my, the) GPS
Stop Center on (my, the) GPS
Stops the map from recentering on your current GPS location.

Clear GPS.

Clears the GPS "bread crumb trail" from the map.

(Turn) Autorotate Map On/Off.

Turns automatic map rotation on/off.

Voice Tab Commands
The following table shows Voice Tab voice commands and the response.

Spoken Command
Response

What can I say?
Displays the Monitor dialog box.

More commands.
Displays next page of voice commands.

Again.
Repeats your last spoken direction.

rando · 12-12-2004, 09:35 PM

I used to use the '04 version. I don't recall all of the commands but here's a few.

Where am I?
Zoom in/out.
Zoom in/out n times.
What's the next turn? (tells you what the next turn is and how far away)
Again (repeats last command)
Are we there yet? (tells you how far away you are from your destination and estimates when you will arrive)
Shush (or was it Be quiet! ... I can't remember).
GPS Status (turned the GPS status display on/off)

a bunch of others that weren't too useful

EDIT: Doh ... he beat me to it!

0l33l · 12-12-2004, 09:41 PM

I should have most of these commands working with d3 when the newer SDK comes out

Bugbyte · 12-12-2004, 09:41 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by cash_Money

Overall it preforms fairly well however in urban situations the auto recaluclation of the routes can take to long making me miss my next turn which cascades into several more missed routes and so on.

Look under the GPS tab and click on the "Options" button. You can set the threshold for recalculating the "Off route" option. For city, you can set it to be much closer (say 200 feet) than for highway.

I agree that this is pretty decent software. It definitely gets the job done and has lot of POI's as well. I've been using it in 640X480 due to screen limitations and even so, if you use the tab manager to reduce the number of things on the tabs, you can do pretty well with it.

What kind of microphone are you using? I've been wanting to interface with it but haven't researched options yet.

cash_Money · 12-13-2004, 07:17 PM

I gave it some more testing today and I'm starting to question how acurate the database is. After a few odd routing selection on my way home from work which is a 2 hour driver over interstate,and state hiways. One other thing I don't like is the fact if you are staying on the same road but the road changes names as often happens on highways as they merge into each other it will consider that a turn or action required.

I'm using the standard mic on the laptop however I'm looking for something better with noise canceling as my little car has a lot of windnoise and engine noise and the cabin is quite loud when traveling on the freeway.

Any reccomendations for a good mic?

0l33l · 12-13-2004, 07:31 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by cash_Money

I gave it some more testing today and I'm starting to question how acurate the database is. After a few odd routing selection on my way home from work which is a 2 hour driver over interstate,and state hiways. One other thing I don't like is the fact if you are staying on the same road but the road changes names as often happens on highways as they merge into each other it will consider that a turn or action required.

I'm using the standard mic on the laptop however I'm looking for something better with noise canceling as my little car has a lot of windnoise and engine noise and the cabin is quite loud when traveling on the freeway.

Any reccomendations for a good mic?

I love my logtech. Others love theirs too