bob332

for anybody interested i just wanted to give you a very small review and my opinions.

i recently picked up a holux gps236 bt receiver and iguidance 3. i have been using a friends microsoft sirf based gps mouse and s&t 2k7. since the holux is bluetooth i ordered a bt dongle for the laptop and i have a siements sx66 pda/phone with bt built in.

since the old gps mouse was usb powered the laptop was always needed so of course i had the entire program, but now with the bt gps i figured i would test out the pda functionality of the programs since i figured this would be a somewhat neutered program compared to the full version.

with my testing, although not scientific i can give my opinions, and my opinion is that microsoft better do something with their pda support as i can't understand why they stop it with 2k7 when pdas are becoming so widespread, but that is for another argument.

to be honest, i have used s&t 2k6 and 2k7 with the laptop and the pda version of iguidance 3 is much better than either one of the full versions of s&t. auto re-route, which i can't understand why it wasn't put into place with 2k7 is very good in iguidance v3. the voice commands are very good and not annoying at all.

to be honest you can't compare the pda versions, s&t is extremely archaic compared to iguidance and i find it even better than the gps system in a friends $80,000 bmw. i am simply amazed at the quality of the program. if you are looking for a setup as i was just recently, look no further than iguidance, hands down.

with s&t you can only load up a very small portion of a city, with iguidance you can load entire states, or if you have enough memory card space you could do the entire north america. for this beginning testing i just loaded my state (AZ) and have found the maps of iguidance to be very good.

i guidance is a bit more finicky about addresses when looking up from the contacts of the pda, this is one are where microsoft did a bit better. one example is that i have a friend that live in litchfield park, and for some reason when the data was put into the phone, the city was listed as litchfield - s&t had no problems with this where iguidance said there was no address. this was my error so i am not holding the software accountable for this, it is that i have to look this hard to find an issue.

as far as the holxu gps236 - excellent piece of equipment. i have a jeep liberty and i just turn it on, put it in the center console drink holders and get 7/11 satellites easily. when zoomed in fully i can see on the pda when my wife moves over just 1 lane, this was not the case with the older gps (again, i would say the holux has more than enough accuracy for anything i will do). when in my condo the old gps would put me about 20' away from my actual area, out on the road ( i thought i had some type of "click onto road" but this was not the case) where the new one puts me in my computer office, easily within 5' of where i am actually at.

with the prices for these products to be so close, don't even waste your time with s&t - it is years behind iguidance. good job to them :) the pda version is so good i have not even tried out the full blown laptop version, not that i would need anything else. looks like s&t will be getting uninstalled, what a waste of $$$

in the next day or two i will take out the laptop and see what the full blown version adds, if anything that the pda version cuts out

hope this helps somebody out ;)

jaimelobo

Not sure what you mean by the price being close, S&T is way cheaper than iGuidance. I think the new version 2007 (which I don't think has a PPC version anymore) is <$40 retail. With store deals/rebates it probably can be had for <$20.

The last version (with a PPC version) could be found free many times (after rebates/deals). I've never seen iGuidance on much of a sale, it seems to be around $100.

However, you are correct S&T (PPC) is very limited compared to iGuidance, but the laptop version is a great program; it recalculates the route or can reverse to take you back, just takes one click (agreed, not quite automatic). The online construction updates and and being able to easily add Pushpins/POIs are both an advantage over iGuidance.and when you factor in the price, I don't think you can beat it (for the laptop).

Don't get me wrong, I love IG3 for my Axim, but I think S&T is nicer for the laptop when the situation warrants its use.

__________________
- James
"I speak Spanish to God, French to women, English to men, and Japanese to my horse." --Buckaroo Banzai

bob332

Originally Posted by jaimelobo

Not sure what you mean by the price being close, S&T is way cheaper than iGuidance. I think the new version 2007 (which I don't think has a PPC version anymore) is <$40 retail. With store deals/rebates it probably can be had for <$20. The last version (with a PPC version) could be found free many times (after rebates/deals). I've never seen iGuidance on much of a sale, it seems to be around $100. However, you are correct S&T (PPC) is very limited compared to iGuidance, but the laptop version is a great program; it recalculates the route or can reverse to take you back, just takes one click (agreed, not quite automatic). The online construction updates and and being able to easily add Pushpins/POIs are both an advantage over iGuidance.and when you factor in the price, I don't think you can beat it (for the laptop). Don't get me wrong, I love IG3 for my Axim, but I think S&T is nicer for the laptop when the situation warrants its use.

sorry about that, you are correct, for some reason i remember the prices being closer....my bad