DeLorme Earthmate GPS for Laptops

Using DeLorme's Street Atlas USA 2005 mapping software and a bright yellow GPS dongle, the DeLorme is full of detail and is easy to control using only your laptop's touchpad, although the interface requires some getting used to.

After acquiring a signal, you can create a route by typing in the street address, followed by the ZIP code. Anything else confuses the system, which ends up offering all sorts of possible addresses, none of them correct. But, unlike the Garmin system, DeLorme automatically tacked “Street” and “Avenue” onto incomplete street names, so the user wouldn't have to guess.

After acquiring a signal, we were able to create a turn-by-turn itinerary to our destination. Oddly, when we tried the mapping software without the GPS unit enabled, we were initially only able to create a straight-line route between two locations. While perfect for airplanes, this route was useless in our small car. The good news is that it's easy to turn off this feature.

The voice system uses Microsoft's speech-generation technology and allows you to choose from three synthesized voices. Each of these voices are approximately the same and sound like sick robots, so the pleasure factor just isn't there. However, they were sufficient for our purposes and were only slightly worse than the CoPilot voices.

Initial acquisition took about 8 minutes, and we were back on track quickly when we moved through tunnels and under bridges.

While superior to the Garmin solution, the DeLorme graphical user interface is also difficult to use. Upon startup, we were shown a full set of odd tabs and a map of the U.S. Once we acquired a signal, we were able to see our exact location and then began our route. The turns were correct and always logical. Ultimately, this software package seems perfect for someone who likes to view the entire map, complete with detours, and plan trips accordingly.

Street Atlas USA supports basic voice recognition, and you can completely control the map with your voice, including zooming, panning, and accessing the GPS status. Whether we were in a loud car or a quiet room, however, the DeLorme didn't pick up our commands very quickly and required two or three tries in each environment.

Setting up our trip destination was difficult and the voice recognition was borderline problematic. During the course of the trip, the microphone picked up background noise and translated it into, "Pan up," and, "Pan down," which moved the map into the Atlantic Ocean. While we maintained our route and turn-by-turn directions, the fact that we appeared to be traveling somewhere off the coast of Newfoundland was a bit disconcerting.

Ultimately, this system is best suited for users who like to create and read maps as they travel. However, it's not intuitive enough for the casual GPS user.