So you want to go from 34.08' degrees North latitude, 118.37' degrees West longitude to 36.23' degrees West longitude, 117.14' degrees West longitude. You could get out your map, mark off the 10 East to 15 North, then either follow that a few hundred miles to Baker, where you would split off to the 127 North and follow that in. Or you could split off the 15 to the 395 North, follow that up to China Lake, and turn north on the 178 going up past Trona...

Street Atlas 2004 is not the software I would recommend. DeLorme makes a great piece of hardware but whomever thought of bundling this software needs to re-examine their thought processes.

The PC interface is clunky. By that I mean There are way too many features that are unexplained unless you intend reading every help file and every bulletin posted on the DeLorme site. Creating a map is fairly easy, however, I could not for the life of me get the map to synch with my ipaq. I had to manually drag/drop the files into the right folders in order to get the map into the PPC.

Another big problem with the PC interface is the fact that the buttons do not have a hover over feature that allows you to know what they do. I'm not a big help file guy most of the time. I like to play with the software to make it work...I consider having to sift through pages to find out how to do something simple like set a route more daunting than just being able to do it. This software makes you use the manuals/help files by it's very design. This is contrary to what I consider good software design; it's not intuitive. And I sure don't want to have to play with it on the road, air, boat, or anywhere else I happen to need GPS.

Great, it has a technical WOW factor and alot of built in features. Problem, the features do not have usability factor. In aircraft (and in some autos), a prime factor in design is ergonomics. If you buy an older Mercedes you will find all is right where it should be. In an aircraft a flap lever looks and feels like a flap. No mistaking it even in the dark. Street Atlas needs an ergonomics makeover. Perhaps they should take a look at the ease with which maps are transferred in "other software". There's plenty of it out in the market;

Routis for instance is very easy to use. most users do not want to have to dig through a maze of dropdowns, buttons and checkboxes just to use their software.

Getting past the soapbox on usability and looking towards functionality on the PPC: Once the software was loaded it took quite a few emails back and forth with my contacts to figure out how to get the Street Atlas software to recognize the bluetooth unit. I would open the manager and connect close the manager and open the software just like with other Bluetooth devices expecting it to work after I set it up. I tried every port I had including ports that were supposedly being used by other devices; also different speeds and protocols. No matter what I did the Bluetooth connection would fade the minute I hit the connect button. Turns out the Ipaq 5455 Bluetooth manager has to remain open otherwise the connection will drop. Unacceptable. This needs to be resolved.

Once the software is up and running there are many more problems...way too many for this writing. things like not being able to re-write your route, not letting you save your searches, you can't do address lookups among many other problems.

Frankly I'll take the DeLorme Earthmate unit with Bluetooth everytime. Street Atlas software needs a complete workover though. The developers need a reality check on simplicity/elegance of design. .

I would have listed the pros and cons on this software but frankly, I think I've said enough. If you are still interested you can find more information, and make a purchase (I highly recomend the DeLorme unit, not the software) HERE