GPS in Europe - Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Czech Rep, Hung

[bimmian]

I will be in Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Czech Rep, Hungary and a few others soon

I would like to know if there is any good, inexpensive (free?) map software available for my device.

I currently have Osita GPS with a Pharos GPS reciever that works well. I have the Canadian maps only.

I installed pocket streets that came with Streets and Trips, which seems to work fine with the free maps the MS has available on their website, but these maps are only for metro cities, and only for some of the countries.

Suggestions are appreciated.

Thanks
Ian

[griffog]

No free solutions available I'm afraid, lots of good solutions although the Czech Republic and Hungary lack coverage. CoPilot and Navman are good pan-European Options. See our website for reviews and more.

[Chop!]

I will be in Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Czech Rep, Hungary and a few others soon

I would like to know if there is any good, inexpensive (free?) map software available for my device.

I currently have Osita GPS with a Pharos GPS reciever that works well. I have the Canadian maps only.

I installed pocket streets that came with Streets and Trips, which seems to work fine with the free maps the MS has available on their website, but these maps are only for metro cities, and only for some of the countries.

Suggestions are appreciated.



Thanks
Ian

Hi Ian,

I have been using TomTom navigator 2 & now 3 in all of Western Europe it is expensive, on 9 cd's and you have to buy it with one country which is then repeated when you buy the western Europe maps seperately! Rip off or what?!

It does not cover Hungary & Czech, for this you need the older TomTom Routeplanner, this will give you map view only (no Navigator) but will show your GPS position on the map.

I found pocket streets to be very difficult to use & to keep track on my position & used TomTom's older city mapping progam (sorry, forgot the name) before I got Navigator 3
I also use MS Autoroute 2004 with a seperate GPS receiver as it is very good to be able to spot if she is going to try to send me in some crazy direction!
I hope this helps, Safe travelling! 8)

[pt-1]

Go to www.mapopolis.com
They do all their Maps for a 11 day trial time. Plan this installation around your holiday and download all the maps.

There you go..... !

[Scoi]

Use EMULE or KAZAA or EDONKEY to download software as Tom Tom!!!

It isn't legal but ....

Davide

:P

[griffog]

That's right, it isn't legal and will not only reduce the profits of the developers but curtial the devlopement of new features and products and result in ever more complicated registration and protection measures being implemented in future releases.

The unlicensed versions also have no access to service patches and services such as TomTom Traffic. If you can afford an XDA and a GPS receiver then you can afford the cost of the licensed software!

[Scoi]

it's true but i think that some programs in so expensive!

it's not right to pay, for example, 500€ to buy a computer and to spend 600€ to buy windows xp pro+ office!

if the softwarehouse reduce the price, the people buy original sofware to have support!!

davide

[griffog]

Microsoft are a whole different case, I'm not attempting to defend their software costs but then there are plenty of alternatives that are just as good such as OpenOffice etc.

With GPS it's not a fair comparison, they pay huge licence fees to the map data providers (Navteq and TeleAtlas) and have much smaller potential sales than MS would. Besided a PocketPC costs anywhere from £200+, the GPS another £100+ yet the software on it's own in TomTom's case is less than £100.

[PDAFan]

There is good coverage of Czech Repubilc and Hungary in Destinator (which is a Canadian software by Paradigm). I have used only the Hungarian version but it has street maps of all Hungarian roads and all city streets as well.

[bimmian]

Thanks for all your input everyone, it is appreciated.
I will check out some of the softwares mentioned here.
Ian

[michael321in]

Detailed road map of Germany is available here

Free downloadable detailed road map of Germany (http://uselessdiaries.blogspot.com/2008/03/download-free-bangalore-map.html)