Hello Folks,
With Google and Mapquest printing out B/W maps for biz trips has become almost useless. Prints only half a page, lettering fuzzy, street outlines next to invisible.
Does anyone know a better map service that prints _legible_ maps without nonsensical fluff and bonbon colors around them?
-- Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com/
I use Microsoft!!! Streets 2010, plus I travel with a Garmin Nuvi. ...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, CTO | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona 85048 Skype: Contacts Only | |
| Voice:(480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |
I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food.
Yes, yes, some day I might buy a GPS. But it's one more gizmo to carry. And I don't want to have the laptop sitting in the passenger seat. It used to be so easy, Google maps .. print one side airport to client or home to client, other side for the local map ... done. No more, they broke it :-(
-- Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com/
Well, you could always update your "phone only" phone to a smartphone -- they pretty much all have GPS these days. (Although unfortunately most mapping programs for smartphones -- include the quite good and free Google maps/nav -- rely on data connections, which you'd probably not want to pay for. Ironically, with somewhat older smartphones, there were various packages with the maps on SD cards or whatever, since data plans weren't as common and the transfer rate was slower...)
I suspect that you've very much in the minority of people who'd still use the functionality, unfortunately. I'd second Jim's suggestion to use Microsoft Streets & Trips or Delorme Street Atlas USA (they just released their 2012 edition last month). (I think Street Atlas USA will print up to 13"x19" in the regular edition -- many years ago it would happily print, e.g., E-sized plots, but apparently someone realized that many businesses were making such plots for their own commercial purposes, so they purposely restricted the next version to only be able to print up to 13"x19" in the "regular consumer"-licensed version of the software.)
---Joel
Delorme? Not web-based but ...
I used the Delorme Street Atlas products back in the ancient days before GPS was available. The current product is pretty affordable (and it can talk to a GPS!) and has been polished over the years.
The routing is flexible and you can print a one-pager, or "individual strip-map" AAA-style, turns, etc. Pretty customizable as well as readable/useable. "Map-style" colors.
I (slightly) miss the geeky days of strapping the laptop into the passenger seat and plugging in the old serial-port Earthmate GPS. Ahhh, those were the days...
-- Rich Webb Norfolk, VA
My cell phone beats any dedicated GPS I've ever used. Even very recent streets are in there.
I have DeLorme Street Atlas for my laptop (and netbook). I updated it once, from 2008 to 2011. There are streets that were there in 2007 that still aren't in the 2011 version, like the one I live on.
...crap.
But, contrary to their claims, it's *way* out of date. It's useless for subdivisions that have gone in over the last five to seven years. I give it two thumbs down.
Delorme has a BlueTooth attached GPS. Two thumbs down on it, too. OTOH, my smart phone is fantastic. I bought SWMBO (and can't read maps) a GPS a few years ago. It's about to be replaced by her cell phone and a windshield mount.
I just use google maps. what bits don't you want?
-- ?? 100% natural --- Posted via news://freenews.netfront.net/ - Complaints to news@netfront.net
I'll second using the smartphone. However, coverage is always an issue. I ran into a couple trying to use an Iphone in the backcountry, perplexed that it stopped working. Hey, it's on AT&T people. Worse yet, it is an iphone.
Those Garmin Nuvi with life time maps are fine. Or a Tom Tom. What you don't want to do is have to buy maps every few years. The database price is obscene.
Print to a graphic file format and convert to B&W *there* -- instead of letting MS and your printer decide how to map colors, scale (or NOT scale! ) the image, etc.
I like SnagIt! as a screen capture/"printer" utility.
When I'm looking for directions, I use a GPS *as* a virtual map. Some don't scroll properly, though. Works regardless of "network" access, etc. And, lets me listen to my MP3's, etc.
*Very* useful in that I can just type in a destination and have it find it for me (I don't use the navigation features, though. Too annoying).And, reasonably affordable (I think I now have 6? of them that I have bought or inherited along the way). Don't trust the maps, though.
*All* of them think there is a back way out of our subdivision. There isn't! :-/ (IIRC, google suffers from the same delusion)OTOH, when I have to prepare a route for someone else to follow, I resort to google maps (though I often have to coerce it to show the route *I* want to take, not the route that it *thinks* I should take). Then, print to a "capture" device before ultimately routing to a PDF (that I can mail to someone).
I use Verizon for good reason. A cell phone isn't much use if it can't find a tower. I refuse to pay the iTax, too.
Delorme runs about $50/yr, but isn't worth $.50. Updates aren't.
Probably varies by region; around here it's pretty up to date. Have you provided them any feedback on the new or changed streets?
I long ago moved from the original serial-port model to the newer (at the time) USB-connected model. Nowadays it's the smartphone and a vent mount, though.
However, there isn't one ideal, complete solution. I love the Waze smartphone app; the real-time, cooperative traffic notification is great. OTOH, the stand-alone Garmin GPS doesn't need cell connectivity and has handy features like the "intersection view." And, the Delorme gives one a much larger screen and more options. The days of the "laptop in the seat" have passed but Street Atlas would probably rock on a tablet PC with the right dashboard holder.
-- Rich Webb Norfolk, VA
Not cheap - but I think you would find it very difficult to beat this setup:
1) Garmin Montana 650t (GPS, with topo & 5MP camera) 2) City Navigator North America, either on DVD or MicroSD chip 3) Vehicle mount, which includes power supply & audio amp/speaker for turn-by-turnNow, with this setup, you can do everything the Nuvi can (and a whole lot more). You can download gigabytes worth of Google Earth high resolution imagery and use that as a layer on your GPS. The streets print over top of this layer - highly visible! It's easier to overlay GE layers with a $39 subscription via Birdseye, but you can do it manually too if you don't mind a few hassles. With the City Navigator data, you can get lat/lon, address, phone #, etc.. for practically anywhere and "go to" them as a waypoint (technically, a Point Of Interest). With turn-by-turn, of course. You can even search for nearby Chinese Buffets if you like. Very power search engine.
You can even download Darth Vader or Homer Simpson as your "voice", or even teach it to use your own voice for the turn-by-turn, if you're so inclined.
You can use the Montana without the vehicle mount, but it will just beep instead of talking to you, unless you use headphones.
A $100 Nuvi might work just as well for you, but you only live once. I've used plenty of GPS's over the years, and I can't think of a single instance where the Garmin Montana wouldn't be able to do what I needed. I was just in Costa Rica for example, and after loading the Google Earth overlays (and even foregoing the turn-by-turn data), it was really helpful. I might have sprung for the turn-by-turn but I was only in country for a week.
All told, the Montana solution will set you back about $800. But it will likely be the last time you will ever have to worry about this problem.
-mpm
It's not by region. I've found these problems all over the East (South and North). Right now I'm looking to buy a house in Georgia. Something like
10-15% of them have addresses that Delorme can't find. I haven't found one yet that GoogleEarth or my Cell phone (which uses Google's services) can't locate. No, I haven't contacted them, and I won't be sending them any more of my money, either. It's not just one street they're missing, it's everything newer than about 2006. My current street isn't even in the 2011 edition and the first house in the subdivision was built in 2005.We both just got smart phones. At work they have the Internet locked down so tight it's useless. I (usually) get great 4G reception at my desk, so...
Just get a built-in GPS unit. 8" displays aren't uncommon and they'll be getting bigger. Fast.
I thought about buying a tablet but I'm not so sold on Android. I have it on my smart phone so the only thing a tablet gives me is a larger screen and a kludge for connectivity (through my cell phone) or more $$ going out each month. X86 tablets are way too expensive, so I'm holding on that one.
That would bump my cell costs by about 20dB, from $5 to around $50/mo, and probably require being tethered to a contract. Rather interesting was when a bigshot corporate guy with his expensive phone couldn't get a connection, zero bars, and he had to use my cheapo phone which had crystal-clear connection.
Maybe I go back to maps and compass. Or celestial navigation :-)
According to Keith MS may be the better deal. Or maybe I should only have clients in pristine backcountry areas that are easy to find with map and compass :-)
-- Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com/
I want it to be like it used to be until about a couple years ago: Print the map on the whole page, and most of all have street outlines visible. There's just no contrast in those things anymore.
-- Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com/
Yikes! Ok, if I go into the wilderness expedition business I'll consider it :-)
That depends on where you have to go. You might have to buy it all over again, along with four new hub caps and some other things that they took.
-- Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com/
I dropped deLorme for Microsoft Streets because deLorme was years behind on new construction.
Next time I venture out I will pack only the dash stand for my GPS in my checked luggage, and squeeze the GPS into my laptop case.
That snow storm in Rochester at midnight with only paper maps (*) was a scary event. Fortunately the car rental guy suggested 4WD at
+$20/day, and I said, "No, too much". He then said +$5 and I said, "Sold" ;-)(*) Fortunately my SOP is a stack of maps, overview, then zooms of all major junctions, then further zoom at hotel location. ...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, CTO | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona 85048 Skype: Contacts Only | |
| Voice:(480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |
I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food.
This isn't adequate? It's from Mapquest...
Newsgroups: alt.binaries.schematics.electronic Subject: Map to Joerg's Neighborhood - JoergsNeighborhood.pdf Date: Sat, 25 Feb 2012 09:57:54 -0700 Message-ID: ...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, CTO | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona 85048 Skype: Contacts Only | |
| Voice:(480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |
I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food.
Done from "Streets", black & white...
Newsgroups: alt.binaries.schematics.electronic Subject: Re: Map to Joerg's Neighborhood - JoergsNeighborhood.pdf - JoergsNeighborhood_MS.pdf Date: Sat, 25 Feb 2012 10:15:13 -0700 Message-ID: ...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, CTO | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona 85048 Skype: Contacts Only | |
| Voice:(480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |
I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food.
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