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	AutoRoute 2004 Microsoft ( 05 September, 2003 ) Software Our Price : £ 39.99 Prices subject to change. usually dispatched within 24 hours.

Autoroute 2004

Well once again this years version comes around and there are useful benefits to be had by upgrading. I have to admit I was surprised that the latest version didnt come on DVD. Microsoft have missed a great opportunity to add lots of features in with their product such as country and city features and photos. Anyway on to the product as it stands: Firstly support for most GPS NMEA receivers is excellent and the one I tried worked straight away. The annoying 15 second update is gone and the 1 second update gives a better idea of where the car (or antenna) actually is. I would say that there are a couple of foibles still here. 1) The auto centre should update sooner than it does as it leaves an uncertainty during update. 2) Why oh why is there not an option for direction of travel upwards rather then North upwards. This would make in-car navigation much easier. Next: Map detail is much improved with several of the countries much better served with extra improvements. France still lacks good coverage in the country for smaller places but the towns have improved. Germany, Belgium and the Alpine countries have improved considerably though. One way arrows on the streets and roads help. More points of interests and types are an added benefit, including ATM machines (although only in the UK). Why no campsites though? The drive time zone is a nice feature but not really that useful. Otherwise the front end useage is very familiar to everyone that has used the previous versions. 900Mb ensures that you can install it onto your PC and support for Pocket PC is handy if your PDA works on this O/S. I wish that MS had just went a bit further and made it a complete package for info, photos and features. Why no facility for through the year updates and better web links would really help. Internet map sites are handy but overall though I would heartily recommend this as a super tool to have on your machine.

Microsoft Autoroute 2004 - Major New Roads Missing!!!

I have just upgraded from Autoroute 2001 to Autoroute 2004 in order to get the benefit of new road information not included in my previous version. To my astonoishment, on installing Autoroute 2004, I found that most of the roads I was hoping would now be included were not there. This included the new M6 toll (yes, the one that has been under construction for the last 3 years and opened at the end of 2003!!) and a number of significant new road and residential developments in my local area. There is a small amount of additional information and more post codes found that were not previously but not worth upgrading for. The look and feel of the software is almost identical to Autoroute 2001 (and presumably 2002 & 2003) with no significant change of functionality other than some new GPS related gizmos I dont use.

Excellent value

Im very pleased with the options and data available with this package. My main hope is that map providers in some European countries (especially Eastern Europe) will make data available to Microsoft to extend the functionality. Ive worked on software projects that require lots of third party data like this, and sadly its frequently not available in a form that is high quality, usable and cheap enough to place into a mass-market package. This is very much the case in Australia where data-owners wont join up with decent software creators (like Microsoft) to create a viable market for consumer mapping and travel products.