Two hundred years ago, when Meriwether Lewis and William Clark began their famed expedition, maps labeled much of the western United States as terra incognita--unknown territory. For today's traveler, terra incognita can be the next state, the next town, even the next neighborhood. But unlike Lewis and Clark, we have a wealth of tools not only to help us get where we're going but to find services--fuel, shelter, and the all-important latte--along the way.
For this review, I looked at four free Web-based mapping tools and five portable GPS navigation devices costing $460 to $600, all of which provide descriptive and graphical guidance in real time. I also tried two PC software packages that offer comprehensive mapping and trip-planning features. These services and products may not always reflect the most recent road changes, but hey--your old paper maps will never update themselves.
The four online mapping sites I tried--Google Local, MapQuest, Windows Live Local, and Yahoo Local Maps--work in fundamentally the same way: You type in starting and ending addresses, and receive a map and written turn-by-turn directions. Every site except MapQuest lets you turn a searched location into a start or end point for directions, via a menu that pops up when you roll your pointer over the location's map marker. The coolest new feature, offered by Google Local and Windows Live Local, is dazzlingly detailed (albeit dated) satellite imagery of the U.S. landscape; using it, I zoomed in on my neighborhood and easily picked out my house.
I tested the sites by evaluating the ease of finding and getting directions to a location, and the accuracy of the directions. I also looked up two recently opened businesses in my neighborhood (Starbucks and Peet's Coffee), a good test of whether each site's points-of-interest database was up-to-date.
To compare the sites, see our chart, "Free Mapping Services Improve Graphics, Features."
Microsoft's Eye in the SkyWindows Live Local (currently in a beta version) impresses on several counts. As with Google Local, a single mouse click lets you switch between a conventional map and a stunning satellite photo with your route superimposed. However, Live Local adds a third option that no other site offers: bird's-eye views. These crisp, low-altitude images taken by plane are available mostly for metropolitan areas. Type in
Other Live Local innovations include a cookie-based scratch pad for retaining locations so you can easily get to them on return visits to the site, and a click-and-drag approach to defining a map area for enlargement. You can also add pushpins to a map by right-clicking on a location, after which you can add a note or get driving directions to (or from) a pin.
The site still needs some work on accuracy, however (not surprising in a beta product). Its mapping software placed a Starbucks at the address of a private home on a residential street. In my test for directions, it chose the faster route--by freeway--to get from point A to point B, but then it routed me through congested city streets on the reverse course.
I evaluated the new beta of Yahoo Local Maps, which uses Adobe's Flash technology. It definitely improves on the original version, with a friendlier interface and better organization. The new site also lets you create routes with multiple stops, a feature that none of its competitors offer.
A 'View traffic on map' option uses colored dots to represent current traffic speeds on major roads and highways, but the feature was not always accurate. In my tests, it indicated that traffic at the toll plaza of the San Francisco/Oakland Bay Bridge was light at a time of day when Web-connected traffic cameras clearly showed a long, slow backup.
The site accurately found specific addresses, but in my test for directions, it pulled the same two-route trick as Windows Live Local did. And while the site's Flash underpinnings support some new tricks (for example, as you mouse over text directions, the corresponding portions of the route are highlighted on the map), they preclude the sort of right-click features found in Windows Live Local.
Points-of-interest listings were up-to-date and nicely organized by distance from the current location. Registered Yahoo users can save favorite locations.
With Google Local, the ever-expanding company adds mapping to its array of no-cost services. A map of North America and Google's usual search field appear on the home page. To find a particular location, you simply type in the address.
Getting directions is easy: You can either enter addresses in the start and end search bars or select a previously searched location as the start point ('From here') or destination ('To here') from the location's pop-up bubble. Most of my test routes worked well; but like the Microsoft and Yahoo sites, it routed me though slow city streets on the return leg of my test course.
Google Local's Satellite and Hybrid (with satellite imagery and superimposed routing graphics) views are its primary attractions. They don't really help with navigation, but they look great.
The business data seemed fairly current: Google Local found relatively new Starbucks and Peet's Coffee shops in my town. Results of my search for "airports near New York," however, were disappointing, producing a collection of travel-related businesses in downtown Manhattan.
Google Local is thin on extras. For instance, it provides no means of directly sending maps to a cell phone (although some Java-enabled handsets and BlackBerry devices can access the service via the beta of a downloadable Google Local for Mobile application), and you can save only one address, a default starting point. But the outer-space views are pretty cool.
For a number of years, MapQuest virtually owned Web mapping. It's so popular that it has verb status, as in "I mapquested it."
The site has the cold competence of a bank clerk. No maps grace the opening screen; instead, it presents you with one simple text box for finding a place or service, and another for entering the start and end addresses for directions.
In my tests, MapQuest found all the local Starbucks locations but not Peet's Coffee. Still, it has more search options--including search-area radius, cities, and categories--than does Google Local. MapQuest also lets you send maps and directions to your mobile phone, following a fairly painless initial setup; this service costs $4 per month, but that's cheap insurance when you're on the road.
MapQuest did the best job of the four sites when I searched for airports around New York, though the results were more scattershot than I would have liked, including businesses as well as airports. In my local streets and highways test, it selected the correct route. The site uses a browser cookie to save recent searches.
Portable GPS devices are addictive: The ability to quickly find gas stations and other services is a great time-saver.
Like the mapping sites, these devices don't always pick the fastest paths. But they almost always get you there--and if you miss a turn, they quickly calculate a new route. Most of the GPS models I tested store maps on external memory cards, so searches may take longer than they would with the usually pricier hard-drive-based devices. All have touch screens for data entry, speakers for voice directions, and suction-cup windshield mounts.
The Garmin, Lowrance, and TomTom products have built-in rechargeable batteries, so they don't shut down when you turn off the car engine, such as when stopping for fuel. (Units without batteries may have to recalculate routing when you get back on the road and restart them.) You can also connect a battery-powered GPS device to your PC to preload addresses, or to use it when away from power--for example, while hiking.
For a comparison of these portable GPS devices, see our chart, "GPS Systems: More Than Just Maps."
TomTom's Mighty Go 300
Our top pick, TomTom's Go 300, is an impressive package, from its extensive features to its smooth and streamlined maps and menus. At around $600, it's also pricey for an SD Card-based unit--though its built-in Bluetooth may account for part of the higher cost. With a Bluetooth-equipped GSM/GPRS cell phone for connecting to the Internet, the Go 300 can download traffic and weather reports and other data (including comic voices for directions). These TomTom Plus services are free now, but they'll be offered by subscription beginning in 2007, the company says.
TomTom's maps are cleanly designed, the menu system is easy to use, and the unit is replete with extras such as the ability to tie speaker volume to your car's speed. Other pluses are a robust, flexible mounting bracket and a built-in help system.
One annoyance involved searching for points of interest: I couldn't look up a local Home Depot by simply typing in the business name. I had to input the category and go through a long and frustrating search. Fortunately, as you choose a category or address field (such as city or street), the Go 300's dynamic menus display recent entries or selections for that field, which can speed things up.
As a real-time navigator, the Go 300 is capable but not perfect. It delivered turn-by-turn prompts clearly and quickly, but also routed me along a slow path through town in my streets-and-highway test.
The $460 Garmin StreetPilot c330 excels at the basics. Its 3.5-inch color touch screen is big enough for quick and easy reading, but the unit isn't so large that it takes over your dashboard; I wouldn't think twice about stowing it in a suitcase or overnight bag for use during a cross-country trip. Its built-in maps cover the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico, and (like the maps of other units) they are said by the vendor to include several million points of interest.
On startup, the screen confronts you with two big buttons: 'Where to?' drops you into a screen that has six categories, such as Address, Food, Fuel, and Lodging; 'View Map' shows your present location on a digital map, with good accuracy. All of the buttons, including the alphanumeric keys, are of a nice size for quick and accurate touch-screen data entry.
The graphics looked great, and turn-by-turn directions were clear and precise. The product gives you multiple language and voice options; I favored the female voice with the alluring British accent.
The Garmin's screen could be brighter, but a reflective coating makes it readable in bright sun. Address searches proceeded relatively swiftly, but some points-of-interest searches were painfully slow.
Lowrance made a valiant attempt to pack every possible option into its $500 iWay 350c. It's the only device here that has a built-in hard drive (a feature usually found only in more expensive devices), making points-of-interest searches and other data access faster than with flash media-based devices. Other features include an optional QWERTY layout on the alphanumeric entry pad; a trip calculator; and the ability to zoom in on the map by drawing a box with your finger on the 3.5-inch screen. A built-in FM transmitter lets you listen to directions while playing music stored on an SD Card.
Unfortunately, the iWay has a couple of difficult-to-ignore flaws. In my Mazda Miata, with its stiff suspension, the iWay's gooseneck windshield mount jiggled so badly that map reading was impossible most of the time. (This was not a problem in my softer-riding Toyota pickup.) Also, while the deeply layered menus are fairly well organized, entering street and business names took longer and felt more complicated than with other units.
The iWay generally provided accurate directions, although on one trip the map showed one thing and the voice prompt described another. Resetting to factory defaults seemed to correct the problem.
Magellan's $600 RoadMate 360 is unique in a couple of ways. Most obviously, it has an array of hardware buttons, which might appeal to some people. The buttons add bulk, however, and they didn't perform significantly better than the well-designed touch-screen controls on devices such as the Garmin and TomTom.
I found the RoadMate's screen bright and easy to read in any light. It's the only model I tried that stores custom settings for three different users--ideal for shared use by family members. And it has my favorite data-entry system: As you begin selecting letters to fill in a data field--for the street name or city, for example--the RoadMate grays out the ones that would form an entry not found in its database. This helps minimize mistyped names and speeds up data entry.
The RoadMate's points-of-interest database was sensibly organized, though not completely up-to-date: It identified a local Starbucks quickly, but no Peet's Coffee.
The accuracy of the product's real-time navigation was about average for the units I looked at, as it got me from point to point efficiently in most cases. In one instance, however, it made me go around the block to get onto the San Francisco/Oakland Bay Bridge, when a simple left turn would have sufficed. The device also seemed a little slow to calculate new directions when I drifted off track.
This was the only unit in the group that lacked a 3D map view showing what the route ahead looks like from a hundred feet or so off the ground. Many drivers prefer the 3D perspective for navigating.
Finally, like the iWay, the RoadMate has a gooseneck mount that caused the device to jiggle on rough pavement.
I've owned half a dozen MP3 players over the past few years, so the built-in digital music player in Fine Digital's $500 (street) FineDrive 400 GPS device caught my attention immediately.
My verdict after using this product: Its digital music capability is not a good reason to buy it. Unlike the Lowrance iWay, the FineDrive can't simultaneously play music and provide voice directions. And while the product works well enough as a navigation aide, some design shortcomings limit its usefulness.
Looking up addresses and services was relatively easy, but even on the 4-inch display (the largest in this group), the on-screen alphanumeric keys were too small to permit accurate typing with my largish fingers. That might be why the device comes with a small plastic stylus; unfortunately, there's nowhere to store it.
With visual cues and a speaker for loud, clear voice prompts, the FineDrive's turn-by-turn navigation got me everywhere I wanted to go, though one of the routes it directed me on was a much slower path than I'd normally take. Also, my position on the digital map seemed a bit behind my true location, a lag that was especially noticeable when I passed through intersections. Finally, the map graphics, while perfectly readable, seemed a bit cruder than those of competing devices.
The FineDrive 400 comes with an SD Card preloaded with maps of the 48 contiguous states and Canada, including millions of points of interest, a windshield suction-cup mount, and a power cable that plugs into your car's cigarette lighter. The unit's color LCD touch screen is bright and easy to read.
With cell phones, personal digital assistants, and digital music players already cluttering your pockets or purse, adding a portable GPS may seem like inviting device overload. But you might not need a new gadget.
If you own a Windows Mobile- or Palm-based handheld (or a PDA-phone hybrid such as a Treo), you can buy kits such as Delorme's Earthmate GPS Blue Logger, Palm's GPS Navigator, Pharos's Pocket GPS Navigator, or TomTom's Navigator 5, which include mapping software and a Bluetooth GPS receiver, for $150 to $300. A cheaper option for Windows Mobile PDAs with a CompactFlash slot is Pharos's $140 Pocket GPS Receiver.
Garmin, Hewlett-Packard, and Pharos also have PDAs with built-in GPS that generally go for $425 to $600 (less for models without mapping software--but then you'll want to buy your own). Garmin's iQue line includes Windows Mobile and Palm OS models; HP and Pharos offer only Windows Mobile-based PDAs.
Given how many cell phones have integrated music players and cameras, you'd think that more of them would come with built-in GPS receivers. If you own one of the few that have GPS, you typically must pay a subscription fee to access mapping data from a server, and frequent map and direction downloads could eat into your airtime minutes.
Verizon, for example, charges $10 a month for its VS Navigator application-and-phone (Motorola V325) combo.
For outdoorsy people, Nextel's GPS-equipped BlackBerry (7520 or 7100i) and Trimble Navigation's Trimble Outdoors service provide street maps and topographical charts. (Trimble's site lists other GPS-equipped phones the service supports.)
Sprint customers with selected Sanyo phones and Garmin's free Mobile Manager application can pay $10 a month to download turn-by-turn voice directions (text costs less). Cingular supports iPaq models hw6510 and hw6515, Windows Mobile PDA-phone hybrids with integrated GPS receivers; however, you must buy mapping software separately.
PC Software for Road-TrippersFor a quick dash from point A to point B, a printout from an online mapping site is all you need. But when wanderlust strikes and you're eager to take a lengthy road trip, desktop mapping software packages can ably assist you with a whole vacation's worth of planning, including drive times for specific routes and interesting sites along the way.
The two Windows mapping apps I looked at--Microsoft's Streets & Trips 2006 and Delorme's Earthmate GPS LT 20 with Street Atlas 2006 USA--offer distinct advantages you can't get from Web-based mapping services, most notably access to maps, directions, and points-of-interest information whether you are connected to the Internet or not.
For a fraction of what you'd pay for a portable GPS navigation system, you can buy either PC application bundled with a small GPS receiver that connects to your laptop via USB and turns it into a real-time navigation device. And you'll have a nicer display, too: A map is certain to look better on a full-size notebook screen than on the comparatively puny 3.5- or 4-inch displays of most portable GPS units. (Both applications are also available without a bundled GPS receiver, which significantly lowers the cost.)
That said, fussing with your notebook while driving solo can be downright dangerous--especially if the notebook keeps dropping into sleep mode. As in-car navigation systems, these products are okay for backup, but I would not recommend relying on them.
Along with assessing their performance as real-time navigation systems, I evaluated these packages on the accuracy and ease of use of their routing features, as well as the range of their trip-planning and annotation tools.
Microsoft's Quick and Simple MappingMicrosoft's $100 Streets & Trips 2006 with GPS Locator is quite a bit simpler to use than the Delorme software. Once you become familiar with the icons in the toolbar, getting directions and finding services is relatively fast and easy. Click on 'Find Nearby Places', and a well-organized list of service and location categories (restaurants, ATMs, museums) pops up. Choose the ones that interest you, and you'll see a category-specific icon for each place on the map.
The procedure for adding or removing categories for display is a bit cumbersome, however. It's a bit annoying that you cannot simply type in "Starbucks" and have all local Starbucks shops appear on the map. Also, the data probably isn't as complete as that of online mapping services: I found a relatively new neighborhood Peet's Coffee using Google Local and Yahoo Local Maps, but the shop was missing in Streets & Trips 2006. On the plus side, searches seem lightning-fast.
Streets & Trips gives you a few interesting tools for planning your driving vacation. You can specify the times of day you wish to drive (which the software then uses in its calculations), obtain travel time and trip cost estimates (including gas), and get construction alerts along your planned route.
You can also save your trip details as a Web page--to toss up on your road-trip blog, for instance. But I found no way to save favorite locations or addresses, and the updated construction-info wizard that is supposed to pull the latest reports from the Web failed to note that the San Francisco/Oakland Bay Bridge exit near
The small GPS receiver's USB cable measures 6 feet, long enough to reach comfortably from the dash to a notebook in the front seat. Directions were generally good: In my test the software created the best route from point A to point B and back again. But the in-car navigation capability was disappointing, as poor voice prompts and the lack of automatic redirection after a wrong turn (a standard feature in most GPS navigation systems) put me off course.
Delorme's $90 Earthmate GPS LT 20 with Street Atlas 2006 USA offers far more mapping tools than Streets & Trips does. For example, you can wander with a handheld GPS unit and then download your tracks (GPS-recorded logs of your route) and waypoints into a Street Atlas map. The kit also supports voice command on a PC equipped with a microphone. I could tell the software to zoom in or out on a map; pan right, left, up, or down; and much more.
A well-organized and nicely labeled tab system makes for rapid and intuitive movement between mapping tasks. Its interface is simpler overall than that of Streets & Trips, but using some of the more advanced features can be a challenge, as can saving map files and routes.
Entering businesses and addresses for searching was painless, but the results of my search for local Starbucks and Peet's Coffee shops were a mixed bag: Peet's appeared, but half the Starbucks in town were missing.
There's also a MapShare option to post your maps and directions online. As with Streets & Trips, however, in-car navigation was disappointing: The GPS track was disconcertingly off to the side of the road, and it seemed to recalculate directions (when I missed a turn) slowly.
Tracey Capen
