Streets and Trips GPS and Connected Services for the Holidays

<p>I was in the Microsoft Company store getting some XBOX stuff for holiday gifts yesterday and saw a bunch of people in line ahead of me with <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/streets/default.mspx" target="_blank">Streets and Trips</a> (known as <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/streets/ProductDetails.aspx?pid=003" target="_blank">Autoroute</a> in Europe), presumably for the same reason :-) Streets and Trips is the top selling mapping and trip planning software and indeed makes a great gift as it comes in three flavors and prices. The software only version retails for under 40 bucks at places line <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw/002-9073400-4863213?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=streets+and+trips" target="_blank">Amazon</a>, <a href="http://www.buy.com/retail/searchresults.asp?search_store=2&querytype=soft&qu=streets+and+trips&loc=105&display=col&dclksa=1" target="_blank">Buy</a>, <a href="http://www.circuitcity.com/ccd/Search.do?c=1&searchType=user&keyword=streets+and+trips&searchSection=20012961|Computers+%26+Office&go.x=16&go.y=9" target="_blank">Circuit City</a>, or <a href="http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp;jsessionid=4UXNW3WZRCXQJKC4D3DFAFI?_dy ncharset=ISO-8859-1&id=pcat17071&type=page&st=streets+and+trips&sc=Global&cp=1&nrp=15&sp=&qp=&list=n&iht=y&usc=All+Categories&ks=960" target="_blank">Best Buy</a>. The packages with <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/streets/ProductDetails.aspx?pid=001&active_tab=Features" target="_blank">GPS</a> and <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/streets/ProductDetails.aspx?pid=004&active_tab=Features" target="_blank">Connected Services</a> are even better values, typically retailing for 75 and 120 dollars respectively. <p>The GPS device is super small, but very sensitive as it's based on the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SiRFstar_III" target="_blank">SIRF III</a> technology from <a href="http://www.sirf.com/products/gps_chip2.html" target="_blank">SiRF</a>. It outputs standard NMEA so it works with any other GPS software you might have and is easy to hack against to build your own apps. <p>The <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/streets/ProductDetails.aspx?pid=004" target="_blank">Streets and Trips Connected Services package</a> contains the same great GPS device but also includes a MSN Direct (Spot) receiver allowing it to have traffic updates and gas price information sent over FM. very slick as it doesn't require a network connection. A number of Navigation systems are beginning to include support for MSN Direct such as the <a href="http://www.msndirect.com/NavigationDevicesGeneric.aspx" target="_blank"><strong>Garmin Nuvi and Garmin Street Pilot</strong></a>. <p>The Nuvi 680<br><a href="https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?pID=8579#" target="_blank"><img style="border-right:0px;border-top:0px;border-left:0px;border-bottom:0px" height=275 alt=image src="http://byfiles.storage.msn.com/y1pTcqBXnZTBA8yrmEyY4ukXC36dt8wXTWud6gg-fMdeWjrC0wasLjPt0_XgBdp75rrQ7A1eo87iDQ?PARTNER=WRI TER" width=335 border=0></a> <p>Streets and Trips 'Night View'<br><a href="http://www.microsoft.com/streets/ProductDetails.aspx?pid=001&active_tab=Features" target="_blank"><img style="border-right:0px;border-top:0px;border-left:0px;border-bottom:0px" height=299 alt=image src="http://byfiles.storage.msn.com/y1pTcqBXnZTBA91cfyt4nwpofHMFirayloTeAhXCyAG_Fiyd_V qhDpFcVY6ATEAr2a5enrWEbE7qJY?PARTNER=WRITER" width=394 border=0></a> <p>Streets and Trips GPS device<br><img style="border-right:0px;border-top:0px;border-left:0px;border-bottom:0px" height=302 alt=image src="http://byfiles.storage.msn.com/y1pTcqBXnZTBA9F2Z_IkEYy07meiA2PXp7ADNbiBvC43t7a5S1 UamVaDU42P1-MXiQ5dovKpCYcNcI?PARTNER=WRITER" width=229 border=0> <p>* <p> <div style="padding-right:0px;display:inline;padding-left:0px;float:none;padding-bottom:0px;margin:0px;padding-top:0px">Technorati tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Streets and Trips" rel=tag>Streets and Trips</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Holiday Gifts" rel=tag>Holiday Gifts</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Garmin" rel=tag>Garmin</a></div><img src="http://c.services.spaces.live.com/CollectionWebService/c.gif?cid=3151506992847969176&page=RSS%3a+Streets+and+Trips+GPS+and+Connected+Se rvices+for+the+Holidays&referrer=" width="1px" height="1px" border="0" alt=""><img style="position:absolute" alt="" width="0px" height="0px" src="http://c.live.com/c.gif?NC=31263&NA=1149&PI=73329&RF=&DI=3919&PS=85545&TP=virtualearth.spaces.live.com&GT1=virtualearth">

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