TOPO! National Geographic USGS Topographic Maps, Colorado
by National Geographic
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List Price: Category: Software See more product details and other editions |
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Software Reviews of TOPO! National Geographic USGS Topographic Maps, Colorado
Customer Review: Mac version poorly supported, implemented, documented
Summary: 2 Stars
I have three of the states series products (CO, AZ, and TX) as well as their early "Region series" which went back many years. The quality of the product has deteriorated with every subsequent release. It's as if they do little or no testing for the Mac versions. I run the most recent software version (4.50) on my intel macbook as well as my old G4 tower. There are numerous bugs/problems as well as huge gaps and inconsistencies in their "documentation." Their new website support for Mac tells the user to "Click the left mouse button." (The old website support site was probably five or six years out of date.) Forget trying to edit or view tracklog info. The waypoint/route/notes pane doesn't have tracks. There is something called "Trail Chart." What is it? Who knows, every time I click on it TOPO! crashes.
The only thing this product has going for it is a reasonably nice looking seamless interface, but it is way overpriced for that. I am going to start relying on a much more well-supported product, namely MacGPS pro.
Customer Review: Good idea that falls Short
Summary: 2 Stars
I had high hopes that this software would be very helpful in mapping out weekend hikes. Much to my regret, it falls far short. I can overlook the poor interface. I knew going into this that I could not download the maps to my Garmin. I wanted only to be able to plot out hikes, print out the paper maps, and transfer the route to the Garmin. All this works to a degree, with the map quality limiting the plotting. Unfortunately the quality of the maps falls short of usable. The map data is too small to use until blown up past level 5. At this point it starts getting fuzzy and blurs badly. I guess that I should have realized that a raster map when blown up too far, starts degrading badly.
The worst part was that when I asked for assistance on this problem, I traded a few emails with a support person at the product website, and then when my questions got specific and I supplied him with samples, I no longer heard from him. He just quit replying.
I will be asking for an RMA. Too bad - It sounded like a great product, but did not live up to expectations.
Customer Review: Amazon Price is Weird?
Summary: 3 Stars
this product (CA version) is listed for $149 at Amazon and at $99 at the National Geographic website and at REI. What's up with that? 50% over the MSRP? Customer Review: Worst user interface that I've ever seen
Summary: 1 Stars
TOPO! has the worst user interface ever created. It doesn't follow the standard user interface designed by Apple, Adobe, and Microsoft.
- There's no hand tool to move around the map--rather you have to move your cursor to the edge of the screen and click to push the map around. Hard to control and creates lots of cursor movement
- The tool to draw routes is hard to control
Customer Review: Horrible UI, slow, and crash-prone
Summary: 1 Stars
Do not waste your money on this horrible software. Even on a 2.4 GHz, 2 GB RAM MacBook Pro, it staggers to run. It takes an average of 20 seconds just to change zoom levels and pans incredibly slowly. Try drawing a route and half the time the whole thing freezes and crashes and you have to start over. I'll say it again - DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY!