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Software Review: Pocket Streets for MS Smartphone
Review of the Microsoft-made mapping program fo Microsoft Smartphones.
Pocket Streets program previously has been available for Pocket PC (and for for Windows XP), but for most users of MS Smarphone this information is irrelevant, because majority of them has no prior experiences with Pocket PC platform.
So what is "Pocket Streets"? It is a stand-alone program, that contains maps of some cities in some countries, together with such information as street names and location of so called "Points of Interest".
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Pocket Streets for MS Smartphone has the following features:
- viewing street maps - you donīt buy each map separetly, but you buy the program ( price: 25 USD + 13% tax if you are buying from EU) and then you can download for free as many maps as you wish:
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...if you use SD card for map storing , then you can practically store on the SD card as many city maps as you would ever need;
- zooming in (press action key - the one, that is located in the middle of cursor keys) and zooming out (press left soft button with the "Zoom Out" label
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- searching for locations:
- find Street Names - searching over names streets, squares, alleys, etc
- find Place Name - you can enter here for example name of the hotel to find
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- Points of Interests :
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... which are places that can be shown on the map on demand (showing of each of them can be switched on and off): ATM and Banks, Auto Services (including fuel stations), Bus Stations (for inter-city traffic, not local), Campgrounds, Civic Halls, Convention Halls, Cultural Attractions, Entertainmet, Hospitals, Hotels, Landmarks, Libraries, Marinas, Park and Rides, Post Offices, Pubs & Nightclubs, Rail & Commuter Stations, Rental Car Agencies, Rest Areas, Restaurants, Schools, Shopping, Sports Facilitites.
- Push Pins - a virtual pins with labels, that allow you to mark places of particular interest for you, like "home", "work", "my supermarket", etc (for an example see push pin "msmobiles" on the first screen shot above)
Advantages:
- you buy one program and download all street maps (for various cities in various countries) for free - some other companies are so evil, that charge you for each map separetly although each such map is using the very same viewing software.
- this program is made by Microsoft:
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... so there exists big community of users of this program (all versions, also those for Pocket PC)
Disadvantages:
- no distance calculation between Push Pins
- scale in yards ony - unit not known and not used in EU
- no possibility to connect to GPS receiver
- not all EU countries covered - Microsoft clearly fails to understand importance of EU as a whole and thus Microsoft still things in an outdated terms of divided Europe, which in fact is no more
- streets are marked as lines and places are marked as points - style used mainly in USA, but in many other countries people get used to marking both of them as areas of various size
- some places are missing among "Points of Interest" (for example: one of our favorite restaurants was not there!) and some places are wrongly cathegorized (for example: certain car rental company in our vicinity is to be found under "Auto Services", although it should be under "Rental Car Agencies")
- searching for names is not perfect and if you type part of the name to be found, the program desnīt find it, but if you type just one letter more the street or place are immediately found!
Conclusions: if part of your job is traveling, then this program is a "must have". Also for non-professional application this program may be worth buying and can give you certainty and confidence, that you can never get lost in some city - if only you have your Microsoft Smartphone with you.
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