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"Gigantic waste of time & money!!!"
Version: RouteBuddy 3.3
Pros
Pretty map.
Cons
Where do I begin?
1. Address search is cumbersome, unreliable, and anti-user friendly.
2. A huge memory hog! Zooming in & out, and map refresh takes as much as 4gb of RAM on my brand new Macbook Pro!
3. It's extremely SLOW!
4. On-the-fly routing is nearly impossible because of #2 & #3 above.
5. Dropping waypoints and creating POI's is ridiculously difficult because you can't just drop a marker and then route to it, you have to find the exact location first, then mark it, then save it, and only then can you route to it. But again, see #2 & #3 above.
6. The software is $60 + $40 for the North American map--WAY OVERPRICED!
7. LOUSY support, only one guy named Neil.
8. NO REFUNDS! I will have to have my credit card company reject the payment!Summary
I wasted $40 and countless hours trying to figure out how to make RouteBuddy work--and it was all for nothing.
Don't make the same mistake. -
"Good software connected to a bad business model."
Version: RouteBuddy 2.6
Pros
Interface was smooth, and the ability to create routes was relatively intuitive.
Cons
The need to buy road maps from their online store for exorbitant prices is absurd.
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"Working sweet for me"
Version: RouteBuddy 2.2
Summary
This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.
2.1.1 was a good update. No problems with RouteBuddy 2.2 on 10.4 or 10.5 for me. All I want are more features for geocaching like smart folders and a track tool. -
"Works quite well"
Version: RouteBuddy 1.4
Summary
This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.
I use this software to guide me to various jobs, some more than 100 miles away and it does the job admirably. When I first purchased the program, it was nothing more than a map to me (as my GPS wasn't supported and the routing functions were basically non existent) The developers have done a wonderful job at improving all aspects of the program (including speed) on a consistent basis. The only issue I have now is with the find function not finding certain streets, but I suspect that feature will also continue to improve and before long will be a non-issue. -
"It works, but it is slow and clumbersome"
Version: RouteBuddy 1.2.1
Summary
This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.
I have tested RouteBuddy for several weeks, trying to use the software to plan my holiday. In short:
The software works, and is OK on the route (version 1.2 allows address search, although it is poorly implemented), and the fact that it automatically connected to my BlueTooth GPS (the basic BlueTooth connection had been established through the Mac OS X BlueTooth Control Panel), was really neat.
BUT... it's damn slow on a PBG4, zooming is extremely slow when you zoom to near-max, it takes a lot of space and occasionally it crashes.
On the plus-side, it allows nice GPS integration with Google Earth / Google Maps.
When at home I use it for giving me a GPS position for Google Earth/Maps, not for route planning, as getting the data from Google Earth/Maps mostly is faster than waiting for the program to render the data.
When "on the move", it's nice to see where I am. And that works quite well. Basically, it's more a "position on a map" program me than a navigation program. Version 1.2 contains basic routeplanning (and with a bit of playing around I can even add addresses found in the address search...if I've turned them into way points first)...but if I have planned a route, it is confusing that the route does not adapt when I drive "wrong".
It works, and it is probably the best option which you can buy for Mac OS X today (assuming that Route 66 is no longer available - I cannot find the software)....but there's still a long way to Prime Time, and I would personally not buy loose BlueTooth GPS just to work with RouteBuddy.
/Sune - Denmark -
"Not there..."
Version: RouteBuddy 1.1.3
Summary
This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.
I purchased RouteBuddy last year when it was new. I had high hopes for it, based upon the advertising, but it's definitely "not there" yet.
Before I go into the program, itself, it should be said that unless one has the latest and most powerful laptop (Intel Mac), you had better forget about even trying it. I had a new laptop at the time, just purchased a few months prior to getting RouteBuddy (G4 14" iBook, 1.42 MHz, 512 MB RAM). It was extremely slow, so slow that it was basically impossible to use. It took 5-10 minutes to even open up the basic starting document with a map showing. Everytime the map was moved on the page, it would take another 5-10 minutes to redraw it with the new map. It took 14 GB of space to place the map file on the iBook hard drive. I had to just about trash everything that I really wanted on my iBook just to try the program out. So, unless you've got the "greateast and latest" laptop -- forget it, it's not going to work in a practical sense (unless you like waiting 30 minutes to get a couple of "points" on the map).
As far as finding addresses, "no can do". You have to know where something is on the map and navigate to it, by moving the map to the location. The problem is, you don't always know where something is. As far as "routing" a course to a destination, well, at first, the program put me on the wrong side of the freeways, going into exit ramps instead of entrance ramps and basically driving on whatever side of the road that the program wanted. I reported it and it was said that it was going to be fixed. Don't know if it has been, because I can barely get the program to run. It takes me, basically, all day, just to test something out (so you can guess I hardly use it, at all).
Besides driving on the wrong side of the road, the program does not automatically put you on main streets to get to your destination, but rather, runs you around in back neighborhoods and almost around in circles to get somewhere. It doesn't make any sense at all.
I thought that "Route 66" was an absolutely terrible program and nothing could get worse. Well, I was wrong, unfortunately. Perhaps things will get better -- but -- it's got a *long ways* to go before it even matches "up to" Route 66 (and that's terrible to say).
Things are not "Mac intuitive" either. Like, for instance, deleting a "waypoint" -- I would figure that one would just select it and select "Delete" from the Edit Menu or perhaps the "Cut" from the Menu (works in a lot of other Mac applications) or "Command-X" would normaly work, too. But, no -- none of that worked. I hunted and hunted before I found out that you hit the "Delete Key" to delete it. What is that? -- from the Windows world??!! If it was from the "Mac World" at least it would be "Command-Delete" instead of just plain "Delete" (besides the fact that *nothing* else would work besides just that one thing). And..., can you "restore" if you accidently hit just the "Delete" key -- no, not that I know of. It might be there, but no one is saying. At least, if it were "Command-Delete" it would be harder to accidently do. And then, you would think that "Command-Z" would work, too. But, nope, no way! Like I said -- *totally* un-Mac-like!
And there are a *lot* of other "non-Mac-intuitive" parts to it. So, I'm not sure what "world" these programmers come from. Perhaps they're from the "geeky, command-line, type-it" world of the Windows and/or Linux people -- I don't know. They're sure not "Mac-types" or they would have known that, for sure (plus a whole lot of other "Mac" types of things).
I would advise them to *adhere* to the standard and well-known and true and tried "Mac-interface" and the "Mac-standard" of doing things, if they intend to create a "Mac program".
So, as I said -- it's got a "long ways to go" and "it's not there yet."
I hope we do get some kind of good mapping, routing and driving program, that can run on *normal* laptops and be "Mac-like". We sure need it. But, the way it looks now, the only alternative is to go for Parallels Desktop and get a good "Windows" mapping program. At least they know how to make them work and work right.
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