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Magellan USA 3-D Mapsend Topo Software | List Price: $149.99
Discount Price: $29.99
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Brand: Thales
Binding: Electronics
Features: - Note:Please read description for more info.
Good $10 program, not very good for $149 [Posted on 2008-02-19]
As a $9.95 promotional addition to my $49 eXplorist 500LE North America, it was a very good bargain. If I had paid the $200 list price for the eXplorist 500LE and found out I had to pay another $149 for this software and $99 for DirectRoute AND that the software purchase is locked to one GPS only, I would have been furious. As it stands, I seriously doubt that I would buy the DirectRoute software since I have a "real" driving GPS (Garmin C330) and pressing the 500LE into "Street Pilot" service would not be smart.
Now to the software. You must read the Readme.txt's to see that there is a patch that you MUST use to convert the maps before you load it onto the eXplorist units. I found that once I connected the USB cable *properly* to my 500LE, communications were automatic and a breeze. With an internet connection, the registration of the GPS, purchase of the Mapsend software and activation were seamless.
Topo information is great, 3D views are faster than Google Earth, but a little more limited and downloading the converted map sections are very easy.
As others stated, no trail information is on the software which makes this useless as a planning tool for hiking unless you have a real USGS topo map available. Now if you had your own trail information and this software, it would be great. That's what I intend to do for my hikes. It's too bad that I would not be able to make plans for a hike without the addition of a USGS topo map. That's what I thought I was getting when I purchased this.
Please don't waste you money [Posted on 2008-03-22]
Their is very little detail and almost no backroads inc with this software, if you check out google earth or maps you will find 10 times more info and their not even selling you a product its their free. Its a crying shame that this company is still in business with the poor excuse for support and software design and usability.
Dissatisfied [Posted on 2008-07-08]
Just a heads up to those considering map send. I have an older version but the same issue may still exist for the new versions. Do your research.
1) The product "requires" the final disc (#3) to be in the cdrom drive to use this software. This sort of defeats the purpose of having a large disk on your notebook. This "feature" means that you will need to take your notebook and disc with you on vaction as opposed to just your notebook. Poor design and user unfriendly. I'm sure it is done for software piracy reasons but it goes beyond acceptability. JMO You will want a larger SD disk to store more maps to avoid 'bug'.
2) Haven't gotten it to work correctly yet with Vista even though I have downloaded their driver and followed the driver installation procedures. I can see the unit as a new device but I still cannot use the native fuctions for uploading maps to the unit. :-(
Personally, I'd rather pay a bit more and get software and a GPS that work more seemlessly.
Not happy [Posted on 2008-11-01]
I ordered this product after already having tried two of them. A number of years ago ?) I purchased it and tried to install it on my laptop with no success. Thales sent me another and it failed again on my laptop but part of it did install on my desktop. Useless to me since I don't travel with my desktop. I read a year ago or so that they had problems with the initial disk. I have a new computer with Vista instead of XP which the other two had. I decided to order again to see if it would work. When I received it I noticed that it was the same as the first two so I have not even installed it or even opened it. I had assumed that if it was on the market it had been fixed with regard to the previous problem. NOT. Since I threw the first away like I was instructed by Thales I have two copies one still unopened. If anyone wants them let me know. No charge, just for what they were worth initially. Nothing. P.S.: What I was able to use on the second one I liked.
Best service ever. [Posted on 2008-11-16]
The best service I have ever had on the internet. The order was mixed up and would have been late for my trip, called and it was sent overnite at no charge.
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