Microsoft discontinuing Streets & Trips

[tcfjr]

From this article on winbeta.org:

Microsoft will be discontinuing two of its mapping services, MapPoint, and Streets & Trips. Both the services snagged their last updates, and are now headed towards their retirement. The demise of the said mapping services comes in favor of Microsoft’s premium mapping product, Bing Maps.
Launched in 2002, MapPoint -- which was previously known as MapPoint .NET -- allowed users to view, edit and integrate maps into other applications including Microsoft Office. While the service was intended for business users, it competes in the low-end geographic information system (GIS) market. The company had also acquired Vexcel, Vicinity Corporation, GeoTango, and several other mapping services to enhance the features of MapPoint.

Microsoft Streets & Trips, on the other hand, is a mapping software which is a subset of MapPoint. The service offered several features, chief among them is route planning.

Microsoft has yet to go public with a press release announcing the retirement of these two mapping services, but the Redmond giant has quietly mentioned the fate on both the services' websites. "Today we announce the end of another era, the discontinuation of Microsoft Streets & Trips. We so appreciate the support of our dedicated users over the years," Microsoft stated.

Both the services will be available for purchase till the end of 2014. Whereas, the online support for Streets & Trips will end next Monday, July 14, 2014.

And from Microsoft itself:

We so appreciate the support of our dedicated users over the years. It was a tough decision to discontinue Microsoft’s favorite mapping software products. The retirement of these products will not affect software already installed. Current users may continue to use Microsoft AutoRoute, Microsoft Streets & Trips and Microsoft MapPoint to plan their travel adventures and will have onlinesupport until at least July 2015.

 

[mcatrophy]

When the topic title summary came up on my iPad, it said "Microsoft discontinuing ..."

.

I was getting all excited

. Then I clicked on it

.

Never used Microsoft for mapping (and for very little else since I retired).

 

[Hudson]

sad to see this great product being discontinued and perhaps time to stock up on the last version. S&T was far easier to plan routes with than Garmin's products, although Basecamp was improved over Mapsource. The export feature was not perfect, and would have liked to seen a tighter integration with third party GPS units, but overall a solid product.

This seems to be a sign of larger shifts to mobile devices and integrated map apps. Personally, I much prefer a dedicated GPS device and map planning software to anything offered via an app. For basic driving from a to b, an app is ok so long as you have cell coverage, but for any serious riding, S&T and a good motorcycle GPS is essential.

 

[maggot]

I used S and T for a move across Canada in 2008. It worked great but a "regular" GPS and a gps in the phone has made everything else obsolete.

 

[Top_Speed1]

Not as disappointing as Googlemaps dropping export to device (Garmin). Forced me to learn the much more bulky/clumsy hair pulling BaseCamp.

MS has dropped support for Windows XP as well.

Crap, the sky is falling

 

[Twigg]

I used S and T for a move across Canada in 2008. It worked great but a "regular" GPS and a gps in the phone has made everything else obsolete.

Not even close

GPS on a phone is great for casual and emergency use, but for serious planning and navigating it is not ready for primetime. It will be a few years yet.

 

[Ignacio]

It worked great but a "regular" GPS and a gps in the phone has made everything else obsolete.

I totally disagree. If anything that move with "apps" has highlighted the depth of features that S&T that is absent in many apps. S&T was a multi-tasker that performed many different functions of a variety of apps, each more deeply, and almost all more quickly.

Yes, GoogleMaps on an iPhone will get you from Point A to Point B, but it won't get you also to Point C, D, and through to Z. It won't conveniently also let you play with scenarios of going to A, D, F, and M-R, easily reverse the multi-point route, color code and rename pushpins easily for recognition later after you upload to the GPS, find you a list of roadside attractions in a 32 mile circle when you're 50 miles from the nearest cell phone tower offline, and myriad other things.

A good Garmin GPS could do some of that, but not nearly as quickly nor provide as much information as a good sized laptop screen.

S&T is dead. Long live S&T.

 

[dudeckp]

Only thing I know S&T did better than anything else was "drive time" radius. Used it every time I went house/apartment hunting. I just gave away the MS USB GPS dongle that came with the app (11? years ago) to a buddy playing with Arduino/RPi projects.

 

[101stpathfinder]

Sure!

I FINALLY start using and like using this and

now they discontinue it. Didn't know how to use this during the IBR last year, but used it to plan the 5 & Dime rally and found it to be a nice tool.

Guess I'll retire with the program...

 

[Twigg]

Sure!I FINALLY start using and like using this and

now they discontinue it. Didn't know how to use this during the IBR last year, but used it to plan the 5 & Dime rally and found it to be a nice tool.

Guess I'll retire with the program...

For Rally Planning, Streets and Trips always had one fatal flaw, even though it was good in other areas.

It never had the ability to keep more than one route onscreen at once.

BaseCamp is superb for this. You can load your waypoints, then use the "Route" tool to rapidly sketch out three or for likely routes. Yo can then look at the properties of each, and add and subtract at will.

 

[Ignacio]

For Rally Planning, Streets and Trips always had one fatal flaw, even though it was good in other areas.
It never had the ability to keep more than one route onscreen at once.

BaseCamp is superb for this. You can load your waypoints, then use the "Route" tool to rapidly sketch out three or for likely routes. Yo can then look at the properties of each, and add and subtract at will.

I agree this one thing sucks. Too bad BaseCamp sucks at about 5 or more other things compared to S&T.

 

[lonerider]

Bummer, I use Streets and Trips a good bit; I'll be sorry to see it go.

 

[Biquer]

Boo! The only decent thing MS has ever produced.

I have the 2013 version and I will use it for as long as I can.

Basecamp is not good!

 

[huron52]

I have a 2005 version of streets and trips .... I may have to buy the latest I always liked it .... I found it easier to figure a route in S&T then plot it into map source.

 

[Jack D]

I too am sad to see any stand-alone (no internet connection required) mapping program go away. Contrary to Microsoft, Garmin and Google's beliefs there are many times that a usable interconnect connection is not available. I include Garmin because in Basecamp when you try to find something even with the mapset on your computer it will always remind you that you have no internet connection.

 

[Tyler]

I shared this on my FB page and one of my LD moto friends shared this re importing Google maps data:

In Google Earth or Maps, save the file as a .kml or kmz file. Keep it handy where you can find it again. Lets call it RskyBusiness.kmz Open Garmin BaseCamp. Make a new list for your Google stuff. Import the file RskyBusiness.kmz into BaseCamp. Connect your GPS to your computer. Drag and drop RskyBusiness to your GPS in BaseCamp.

 

[Tyler]

Another suggestion: TyretoTravel

 

[Hudson]

Just downloaded the last copy. Still works great, wish they would continue but the universe of people that still map their routes on a pc is shrinking...

 

[Hudson]

There is a bug that may not yet be fixed in 2013 edition. When you export a route in S&T to a GPX file, then try to open in basecamp so you can create a Garmin file to send to your GPS, you get an error. The fault seems to be S&T inserting a field that Basecamp can't decode.

The fix is to download and install gpsbabel, a shareware app. Be sure you click on the right download, and not a link that will install crapware on your PC.

Open this program, and import the GPX file that you created using S&T. Choose "GPS XML for both the input and output file formats. Then save the file using gpsbabel, which strips out the errant fields and now you can open in basecamp, save as a Garmin file and send to your Garmin GPS.

GPSBabel has other uses too, including converting Google and other formats, so it's worth having. Runs on Macs and Linux too.

An extra annoying step, but still worth using S&T. Hope they fix the bug soon, which isn't present in prior S&T versions.