Co-Pilot Live for iPhone Review
The news that Co-Pilot was heading to the iPhone has been somewhat overshadowed by TomTom’s well covered announcement at WWDC 2009. TomTom also announced a car kit which does all manner of things; hands-free car kit, GPS signal booster and charger. The problem with this kit is that it does too much for the average GPS user and may only suit a small proportion of potential purchasers. Also, I have never had a problem with the GPS antenna on the iPhone and in a test it was quicker to catch a signal than an HTC Touch Pro2 and a Nokia N95. It also holds the signal quite well so the need to boost it seems a little strange from my experience.
ALK has consistently produced smartphone navigation software over the years with solutions for Windows Mobile, Symbian and Android already on the market. The pricing of the Android Co-Pilot solution was a welcome surprise and it is even more pleasing to see that carried through to the iPhone platform. It was one of the few moments in my life when things just did not connect right. I asked ALK what the price would be a few days ago after testing the software and my mind could not quite calculate the product verses price ratio here. It’s like someone offering me a new car for £3000, and I will explain why throughout this article. The pricing is as aggressive as Mr T would be if he woke up in a plane half-way over the Atlantic and found out that you were the one who put him there.
Interface and Features
It wasn’t long ago that I installed Navigon and was vaguely impressed by the experience of using turn-by-turn navigation on the iPhone. This vagueness of impressiveness soon took a wrong turn as the lack of features became apparent. No safety cameras, maps that are not as accurate as I would like and the killer blow- no full post code search. It all works quite well, but requires more manual intervention than I like to employ when planning a journey and definitely when driving.
Testing Co-Pilot on the iPhone for the first time was a completely different experience, and a schizophrenic one at that. That may sound negative, but it is in fact the most pleasing aspect of Co-Pilot on the iPhone; there are so many features that are accessible in an instant through a cleverly laid out set of menus and interface tweaks and this surprised me a great deal. I have always found TomTom to be the easiest GPS software to navigate, but ALK has pulled one out of the hat here and delivered a solution that matches the grace of the iPhone OS perfectly.
When starting up Co-Pilot you are greeted with a voice announcing “Welcome to Co-Pilot Live Professional’ and this gives an indication of the quality of the voices included. A set of icons appear which also indicate the ease of use within. For example, tapping the destination icon brings up 5 more icons; Address, POIs, Pick on Map, Intersection and Coordinates. That’s what you call covering all of the bases.
Tapping My Places brings up Home, Work, Recent and Favourites. There are also options for making a quick stop to the kind of location you may need in a hurry- gas station, restaurant, hotels and vehicle repair. All of the main options are housed in just 2 panels of icons and this makes finding the section you need extremely quick and after only a few minutes you will be flying through the menus.
The Live services are quite comprehensive, but don’t currently include the full set. Fingers crossed for an update in the near future with all of the normal ALK services included.
At the risk of turning this entire review into a list I will simply set aside this paragraph to show what else is included; Detour (alternate route, end detour, avoid roads, clear avoided roads), Plan and edit trips before you leave and include multiple stops, Driving Views (3D, 2D, driver safety, itinerary, 2D next turn), 2D destination, Day Map, Night Map), Save Current Location, Safety Cameras, Lane Assist and POI Alerts, Modes (car, walking, RV, motorcycle, bicycle), Compass. Phew!
There are 6 English voices included which all sound clear and natural when driving and the number of tweaks available gives you the opportunity to make the driving experience fit the way you prefer to the point of perfectionism. You can choose when POIs are displayed and even only have them pop up when you stop. Breadcrumbs can be displayed in walking mode and the turn warnings have check boxes for 2 miles, 1 mile, 500 yards and at turn. You can also choose the warning time in seconds which is something I have not seen before. The same level of customisation is available throughout and you can, for example, choose when to display lane assist with multiple levels at 0.1 mile intervals included, day and night mode can be automatically triggered and a myriad of other options are nestling in the background waiting to be triggered when you need them.
It almost verges on the obsessive at times with the ability to choose exactly what information should display in the info bar and incidentally how many info bars you want; 1, 2 or a looping setup which pops up all of the detail required at different times. Did I mention that you can display speed limit warnings depending on the ‘exact’ speed you are doing and that screen orientation can be landscape, portrait or automatic? OK, I’m going to stop now and move on to the driving experience, but the above does offer a glimpse into a huge set of features and options which make Co-Pilot feel so remarkably complete.
Driving
All of the features in the world mean little if the navigation experience is below par, so let’s look at how Co-Pilot performs in the real world.
Starting up Co-Pilot takes a bit of time- it does pop up instantly, but getting the maps to align with the signal takes 10 seconds or so. This is not a huge problem, but it is very slightly slower than a dedicated GPS unit. Once connected I had no signal issues at all during over 4 hours of driving through 3 different trips.
By the middle of the second trip I started to feel right at home with the interface and the way the maps are displayed on screen- now that I am fully used to the way Co-Pilot works, I would describe the experience as close to effortless. ALK has managed to bring the workings of the software to the front and not buried it in needless settings changes which follows the iPhone philosophy quite well.
Audible commands are given in good time and the previously mentioned settings help with this, but I would like to see a slight change; for example, when approaching a roundabout it will tell me to take the third exit, but I would like to hear “turn right at the next roundabout, take third exit.” How picky am I? To be fair there is a neat display feature which gets over this problem and also shows you the next turn after the one you are about to take. You get two icons which visually indicate the next two turnings (see image) and once you get used to this it is a killer feature.
The display of your current location and the roads is spot on and as clear as it could possibly be. Everything just seems to fit and the interface offers the clearest view I have seen on any system to date. There are a few themes that you can choose from, but as with most developers they tend to pick the best to be the defaults.
The points of interest database is not too bad and I managed to find most of what I was looking for. They will never be complete and there are always instances where something is missing, but it is a useful addition. I couldn’t find a local National Trust location which surprised me, but this is not uncommon and the ability to save my current location means that I now have it loaded for future use.
I can’t write much about the navigation experience because it simply works very well and offers me lots of confidence going forward. Having the traffic service is a must have feature for me, but annoyingly there were no traffic incidents at all on my test trips and so I could not test it properly. If traffic works as well as the rest of the software I will be fully signed up to Co-Pilot for the time being.
Conclusion
The marker has been laid down for TomTom and for the life of me I cannot see how it can compete. IQ Routes is an advantage, but how does it attack an opponent who makes a solution so complete at a price point which is unfathomable.
Co-Pilot Live 8 is ‘spectacularly’ good and it still would be if it cost £60 for the UK version. At £25.99 for the UK version and £59.99 for Europe it is hard to comprehend the value buried in this application. It is the very best satellite navigation solution available on the iPhone at this time, and I suspect it will be in 6 months time as well.
More details are at www.alk.com or the App Store.
[...] It has been released at £25.99; the same price ALK have their Android version in the Android Marketplace, and if you are interested, there is a nice review of it over at PDA-247. [...]
Bought this latest version for my HTC Hero and it is excellent even better than copilot 7 and a lot cheaper. But this version is done all online including installing the maps direct to the memory card. Ie. No postage and DVD costs..
Looks good. Can you play iTunes whilst thus is running? What happens to the audio when instructions are spoken – paused, both spoken at the same time or you miss that section of the iTunes audio?
Looks like my next £26 is spent but I listen to audio books when driving and so the speech issue is of interest.
Sid
Shaun
Couple of questions (maybe obvious answers)
1. What happens when a call comes in when you’re using Co-Pilot? I normally have my iPhone wired headset in the car.
2. In your view, is there a preferred car mount/power cable set up for the iPhone or are they all much of a muchness?
Simon
Which version did you have then? Mine doesn’t say professional on start up, has no traffic.
Simon, Shaun did a review of a holder thing from PDA Hut about a week or two ago. Just ordered one myself as Shaun said it was very good. I think I will be getting this CoPilot thing too. Sounds good.
Cheers Murray – will look in the archives. Probably missed it whilst I was in sunnry Kefalonia!
This does indeed sound impressive…
when do we get a usa version … soon i hope … this sounds good
It’s funny you mention Mr. T because you can get Mr. T as the voice on TomTom. I got it from Navtones that do real celebrity voices for GPS. when the Iphone app is out, I’ll be getting Mr. T as the voice on it for sure. Check it out. I’m sure it’s just navtones.com
Can anyone tell us what happens if you are playing music along with the app? The Navigon turns the music volume down when giving instructions, which is great.
“Can you play iTunes whilst thus is running? What happens to the audio when instructions are spoken – paused, both spoken at the same time or you miss that section of the iTunes audio?”
I JUST TESTED THIS AND COULD NOT GET THE MUSIC TO PLAY IN THE BACKGROUND. I WILL CHECK WITH ALK BECAUSE I DO NOT HAVE THE RELEASE VERSION.
“Simon, Shaun did a review of a holder thing from PDA Hut about a week or two ago.”
http://www.pda-247.com/wordpress/2009/07/pda-hut-iphone-windscreen-cradle-review/
“when do we get a usa version … soon i hope … this sounds good
I WILL CHECK AND LET YOU KNOW WALLY.
“It’s funny you mention Mr. T because you can get Mr. T as the voice on TomTom. I got it from Navtones that do real celebrity voices for GPS. when the Iphone app is out, I’ll be getting Mr. T as the voice on it for sure. Check it out. I’m sure it’s just navtones.com”
YES, AND CELEBRITY VOICES ON SAT NAV ARE FUNNY FOR 3 MINUTES, THEN EVERYONE TURNS THEM OFF:)
“can this be use in my iphone 2G? thx in advance”
I DON’T THINK SO. THE ITUNES PAGE ONLY QUOTES 3G/3GS. I WILL CHECK THOUGH.
“Which version did you have then? Mine doesn’t say professional on start up, has no traffic.”
I HAVE THE SAME VERSION, BUT WITH SOME SMALL DIFFERENCES. PROBABLY BECAUSE IT IS A BETA.
GOOD NEWS! MUSIC WORKS IN THE RELEASED VERSION! INSTRUCTIONS MIX IN NICELY:)
USA VERSION- BE PATIENT, BUT NOT FOR LONG:) HOPEFULLY VERY SOON.
VERY QUICK RESPONSE FROM ALK…
Bought it. Music from your library plays just fine in the background. However, unlike the Navigon app, it doesn’t lower the volume of the music when instructions are given. Perhaps they will add this in an update. Seems great so far, but won’t test it on the road till tomorrow.
You can’t tap the phone number of a POI to call them like you can with the Navigon app. Can’t wait to test this on the road tomorrow though. Looking great so far despite the points I have made.
It’s all good feedback Barry- will pass to ALK.
The main thing for me is trust- to trust a GPS solution is very difficult, but I do with this software and because I drive a lot, this makes it priceless to me.
Thanks for passing these points to ALK for me Shaun. I have been playing around with this, and so far it is far better than the Navigon in terms of finding your Contacts addresses from your Contacts app. It found 2 out of 3 (the Navigon couldn’t find any of them). Regarding favourites, I like how you can not only have a home address, but you can also have a work address too, and both are easy to select when choosing your destination.
You’ve convinced me Shaun.
This plus the holder you reviewed (I think Murray’s going down the same route too).
“USA VERSION- BE PATIENT, BUT NOT FOR LONG:) HOPEFULLY VERY SOON.”
Will you promise to report on PDA 24/7 when it is available for the US?
Thanks!
You’re right Statto…just downloading the app now, takes a while though as it is a biggie. I’m rather excited about this and the windscreen mount I’ve ordered too…think I need to get out more. Hey! I can use the CoPilot software to do that…
@ Murray
Me too – though iTunes crashed half way through first time. Must have been because you’re hogging the bandwidth! Trying again now. Holder on order! That Mr McGill’s got a lot to answer for…
“Will you promise to report on PDA 24/7 when it is available for the US?”
Of course:)
“That Mr McGill’s got a lot to answer for…”
Rarely have I been so confident about a review I have written. I would be amazed if you don’t like it, really would.
Shaun, I have a couple of niggles I don’t like about this app after testing it on the road. They are regarding interruptions and exiting the app.
Firstly, if you load the app and set a route, then decide to change your music playlist for example, you exit the app, do what you want to do, then go back into the app, and it welcomes you with the menu but FORGETS YOUR ROUTE! This isn’t very good at all. There is no excuse for forgetting a route as it is easy for an app to save this information and look for the saved information at startup.
Also, when you have a phone call, on ending the phone call you are returned to the app and IT DOES remember your route. However, you are still welcomed with the menu asking where you want to go. You can see the 3D map behind the menu and can see it is still following a route to your destination, but you have to tap the little cross in the corner of the menu to get rid of it just so you can carry on with your journey.
Basically, if you are interrupted or exit the app, when the app returns it should check to see if a destination has been set- if one has, then it should continue on that route with NO menu appearing, making it more user-friendly and less fiddly while you are on the road.
Please could you please pass that onto ALK?
Tried this out this morning for my journey to work.
Great! Far better than my old Tom Tom mobile set up on the Palm Treo/Centro. Not having a separate receiver is the first plus. The signal was great and quick. Route clear and concise, instructions fine.
Don’t know why but was expecting to see some battery drain after journey (only 25 min) but none as far as I can see.
Well impressed. I’m sure future updates will iron out the niggles that Barry (above) has identified.
[...] “CoPilot Live for iPhone is spectacularly good. It is hard to comprehend the value buried in this application. It is the very best satellite navigation solution available on the iPhone at this time, and I suspect it will be in 6 months time as well.” Read the review in full at http://www.pda-247.com/ [...]
Let’s hope so Statto. I concur that it took me to work with no hassles other than those mentioned above. Clear instructions even over library music being played (although I would like the music volume lowered like the Navigon). And it took the same route as my old TomTom and the Navigon app, which is fine. One other thing I do prefer on the Navigon though (and this is only a minor thing) is how the Navigon gives instructions:
Copilot “Take 3rd exit at roundabout”
Navigon “Please take the 3rd exit at the roundabout”
Like I said, only minor. This is a great app otherwise. After the fiasco that is Navigons attempt at finding addresses from your iPhone Contacts, this app makes it work absolutely perfectly on all my Contacts I have addresses for.
In some ways, this app even betters the TomTom range- Favourites for example, can be selected to navigate to, can be added, and can be edited, all in the same menu. Whereas TomTom forces you to go into settings in order to edit them in a seperate menu.
“One other thing I do prefer on the Navigon though (and this is only a minor thing) is how the Navigon gives instructions:
Copilot “Take 3rd exit at roundabout”
Navigon “Please take the 3rd exit at the roundabout”
THIS IS ONE THING I PREFERRED ABOUT CO-PILOT. I WOULD RATHER HAVE IT KEPT SIMPLE BECAUSE IT MAKES THINGS EASIER. POLITENESS IS NICE, BUT NOT ALWAYS FROM A SMARTPHONE:)
Yes that is a preference thing Shaun, and like I said, it is a minor thing which I am not concerned about at all. I am more concerned about the other issues I raised above though, regarding exiting/interrupting the app (could you contact them about this?)
Thank you for the review by the way- if it wasn’t for this I wouldn’t have bought the app, and I am glad I have done so, regardless of its shortcomings.
Just want to provide an overall opinion of it now I have used it, including points I have mentioned in previous comments:
Main things I like:
- large buttons in the menu
- easy to use
- adding Contacts addresses works much better than the Navigon app
- tapping a POI on the map while driving gives you the info (although you can’t call them yet)
- plenty of options including different voices and map colours
- auto day/night colours (unlike Navigon)
- stores work address as well as home address for easy access (in My Places, you have Home, Work, Recent, or Favourites listed)
- easy full post code search
- multiple stops available on one trip, which you can plan before you head off
Things I’d like to see in an update:
- speed cameras (already promised)
- when returning from a phone call, don’t display the menu if it is still on a planned route
- when you exit and return to the app, it should remember a planned route if there is one
- lower volume of library music if playing when direction instructions are to be given (like the Navigon)
- allow the user to tap a phone number of a POI to phone that number. Phone numbers are displayed atm, but they don’t do anything
Some of these missing features are very important and should be addressed asap, such as forgetting the route when exiting the app. But overall, this has many more options than the Navigon, is easy to use, and with another update it will better the Navigon. As it stands, they are both good in different ways, as the Navigon has speed cameras, lowers music volume when needed, allows you to call a POI, and remembers the route when exiting, as well as not displaying the menu after a phone call.
I will be very interested to see how these two apps better themselves through their future updates. One things for certain, with the price of the TomTom app likely to be double, they can shove it.
Very interested in buying this but before I do I was wondering how accurate is the GPS positioning compared to the built in Google Maps app?
Google maps is sometimes spot on and other times way off!
Many Thanks
@Ken
Only used it on my journey to work this morning but it looked pretty spot on to me
How come CP8 is avilable in the App Store but no sign of it on ALK’s website?
D’oh. Scratch that last post. Was looking at the US .com site. Donkey!
I wasn’t as impressed with this app on the way home as I was on the way to work this morning. Basically, there was a couple of times I went round a roundabout, and it thought I’d turned off early when in fact I hadn’t, and it was giving me instructions to turn around while I was still on my way round. Then when I came off the roundabout it corrected itself, but it shouldn’t do this- the Navigon doesn’t.
Also, the Navigon found me a nice little shortcut through some side roads instead of waiting at some main traffic lights. The Copilot took me to the lights.
Finally, there is a point where I need to cross the road by turning right then immediately left. The Navigon says “Please turn right then immediately turn left”. The Copilot just told me to turn right and nothing more, even though the route was the same on the map.
Other than that, there was one improvement over the Navigon. There is a point on my journey where I drive down a dual carriageway which runs alongside the motorway. The Navigon stupidly moves me onto the motorway sometimes, thinking I am on there instead, then moves me back. Likewise, when I was on that part of the motorway once, it moved my location to the dual carriageway! The Copilot kept me on the correct road all the way down it. This is something the Navigon can easily fix with a bit of artificial intelligence.
I am glad I have given this app 4 instead of 5 in iTunes. It is great, but needs some work to be perfect.
Apparently there are route options for “Shortest” “Quickest” etc, but I can’t find them anywhere in the menu. Can somebody tell me where they are please?
Route Profiles don’t work properly. You can create one route profile (where you set it to favour motorways, choose a vehicle for that profile, avoid toll roads etc etc), then when you create another with different settings and go back to the first, the first ones settings have been changed to the second profile you created. If you change them back, the second profile has then changed to how you set the first! It seems it can only handle one lot of settings even though you are supposed to be able to have multiple profiles.
Still can’t find the fabled option for shortest or quickest route
Barry – the shortest/quickest route option can be found by going to
menu -> destination -> (pick any) eg contact -> set up the details for your selection.
You will arrive at a “confirm destination” screen with a green “go” bar. Below that on the right is “show route” Select that and it will give you quickest/shortest/avoid expressways/economic options plus an avoid tolls option.
Hope that helps!
Thanks Priscilla. I thought it would be in the settings somewhere and didn’t think to check “show route”.
Hmm. Again, not too impressed now I have gone down to my mums using this. It was ok all the way till I reached my mums house. I reach a crossroads which I have to turn left at, then her house is on the right a couple of hundred yards down that road. I have set her address as a favourite in the exact spot it should be along that road.
What happens is when I get to the crossroads, instead of it telling me to turn left to go down her road, it simply says I have reached my destination BEFORE I even turn down that road and am at the crossroads!! The map clearly shows the crossroads, but the purple line that follows your route bends round it instead of following the road itself, and to tell me I have reached my destination before I am even on that road is unacceptable.
I haven’t had this issue with the Navigon. I therefore trust the Navigon a lot more than this Copilot app at the moment, and shall stick to the Navigon until an update comes out. The more I test this app out on the road, the more I get the feeling it was rushed out. I may have to knock my iTunes review down to a 3.
Bought the EU version, but it doesn’t seem to want to route to most places (seems to distance related). Also, noticed that the app has been removed from the App store. Looks as though I will have to find an alternative sat nav for my travels to France next week.
HI all,
Is there quick way of clearing the route, I cant seem to find it!
Rgds
Help! Audio instructions on Co Pilot 8 work fine until my ignition in turned on with my Griffin iTrip Auto Pilot plugged in. Then I get no audio through my iPhone (with radio off) or through the car’s speakers (with radio on). Music plays fine. All other aspects of the program work fine. Any suggestions?
Any word/hope about a Down Under version? Not a huge market down here compared to EU/US, but still. What we’ve got so far is Sygic & Navigon it seems. No word on this one yet. And it looks better than either of those options (not too sure about the TomTom cradle version yet; I use an FM transmitter/charger to listen to my music on the go and I’m not sure how the cradle is going to handle that…)
Thanks,
Sfsj
While the interface that ALK designed is phenomenal (as I’ve used it years ago on a PDA) the North American version of this product will disappoint as per usual. The maps on the North American version are created in-house and are not the NAVTEQ ones found in the UK version.
I’ve just bought and installed it on my iPhone but I’ve got a strange problem. The only way I get any voice prompts is if I’ve got my iPhone iPod app running, i.e. I’m playing music at the same time as running CoPilot. The display of navigation is fine, excellent even but I just don’t get any sounds at all. I can’t even get any voices from the voice selection test bit.
Anyone able to comment or help with this undocumented feature? Have I missed something in set up of my iPhone or CoPilot?
That’s odd Andrew. Have you tried re-installing the app? Perhaps something went wrong with the installation. After that, if you still have the same issue, I would contact them on their support site if I were you.
Just bought this yesterday and agree with some of the niggles listed above but have one more. Ever since I’ve installed it my battery life is awful. I don’t mean that it drains it badly when using co-pilot, just generally!
This morning I took the iphone off charge, turned it on (I shut it down overnight when it’s charging), haven’t used co-pilot at all, haven’t used the phone, haven’t used safari, have only checked a couple of emails and in 2 hours it’s already down to 80%! Normally under the same circumstances I wouldn’t even notice a drop in the battery.
Is anyone else having similar problems?
Have you got location services set to on? That can cause a real drag. The software should make no difference when not open.
Thanks for the suggestion Barry. I’ve just tried this and unfortunately it makes no difference. Still no sound from CoPilot unless the iPod app is already running. I posted the question here just in case I’d missd something obvious as ALK’s support desk was closed when I was trying CoPilot for the first time. I’ve already contacted ALK with details of this problem and they’re looking into it.
I’d already applied the latest security update from Apple before I bought CoPilot. If it turns out to be a conflict between the security update and CoPilot then that is a major pain.
It looks like a great SatNav application, the graphics work perfectly and are very clear, but without the voice prompts/warnings it isn’t all that much use.
Hopefully ALK can sort this out quite quickly. they’ve got my number and I’ll update this post whenever I hear from them.
Andrew
I’ve just checked and it’s dropped 10% in the last 30 minutes!
I usually have wifi, location services and 3G all turned on and get the thck end of 24 hours normally. Just turned them all off to see how the next half hour/hour goes..
Next step will be to delete co-pilot and turn everything back on and see if I get back to normal battery usage… sigh
Been trying different combinations of things on and off over the last few hours and it does seem that the battery lasts longer when location services is turned off… But this problem is only happening since co-pilot was installed.. Maybe the app has something running in the background which means that when you start up the app properly, it can show your location quickly?
Going to try it again tomorrow with co-pilot uninstalled and everything else the same to see how that goes…
Does anybody know if I can use this app with a bluetooth car kit.
I would like to use the car kit speaker for the voice based directions?
well i did it … after all the research and reading … i bought the mobile navigon for the iphone 3gs and am very pleased with it … i used it with my garmin nuvi 760 and they both did equally well the ability to use contacts was important … i read everything you guys and gals wrote about the gps and truly appreciate every comment …
thank you shaun for all you do for us
wally
OK – here’s the update folks.
There is nothing at all wrong with the CoPilot software (in fact it’s really very, very good – better than Tom Tom which I used to run on an XDA Stellar) ………. The problem was with the user i.e. me.
I had bought a new case for my iPhone and had failed to notice that in putting the case on my iPhone I had in fact switched the phone off. I only noticed when I was killing time at an airport last night and realised that I had no sounds on any other apps on my iPhone. My stupid,and basic error. (which is what I thought, I’m not an expert on the iPhone)
Having resolved my stupidity, I used CoPilot to navigate me home from the airport and it works a dream. Great annoucements with the 2 mile, then 1 mile, then 500 yards countdown to junctions. I had used it earlier in the day to successfuly navigate around South Wales – right out into the valleys.
Thanks to all who made suggestions – next time we’ll start with the simple tech support questions: “Is it switched on?”
I’ve found GPS performance in Co-Pilot to be pretty bad tbh. My 3GS sits two inches from my windscreen so has a clear view of the sky and maps works great (though not particularly great for car nav). But Co-pilot regularly loses the position and sometimes takes minutes to find it again. Even when it does it’s jerky at best.
If you check out the comments in the app store (and avoid the 5 star ‘OMG it’s amazing’ ones), it’s a common thing and strangely people that have the issue with Co-Pilot say Navigon works much better.
Co-pilot say that improved GPS performance will be coming in the next update so clearly they are aware of it too. Lets hope this improves things because at the moment it proved pretty useless on a 300 mile business trip I went on last week.
Update from me…
I’m a numpty…lol
Turns out that one of my email accounts was failing constantly (only found this out when Outlook wouldn’t connect) and on the iPhone, instead of bombing out with an error, or even bombing out without an error, it was just CONSTANTLY retrying the server… so even with wifi and 3g turned off it was still using GPRS or whatever constantly…
I’ve turned off that email account until I can sort it out and I can report all is well…
CO-PILOT IS NOT DRAINING MY BATTERY, apologies to all who were reading my rants!
To Antony above, yesterday I did 250 miles on Co-pilot and it was 100% perfect..
Just wondering what type of car you’ve got and if the windscreen is heat-reflecting? Cos if it is, it’ll have a high metal content (kind of like Pyrex glass) and I seem to remember people with proper sat navs often had to use an external GPS antenna mounted on the rear window..
It tends to be the high end cars that have these screens (bmw/merc/jag/lexus etc but I’m sure they’ll be getting more popular!)
The North American version is out. Does it use NAVTEQ maps? If not, is this a good thing or a bad thing or?
Does CoPilot for iPhone have text-to-speech?
I really want to get it, but with my been a biker, there is one feature it has to have in order to be any use. Avoid motor ways, cause everyone knows that A roads are the only way to go on a bike. Motor ways are just to boring. So if someone can tell me for sure that this thing has an ‘avoid motor ways’ function, I’ll get it today!
I have had a real issue with this, and am also not very happy with their customer support in attempting to solve it. Basically, I set my mums address as a favourite, which happens to be after I turn left at a crossroads. Yet when I went there, the route ignored the crossroads, and cut across the field to the left to get to the favourite location. When I reached the crossroads, instead of telling me to turn left, it simply told me I had reached my destination! I asked ALK about this, and they told me the map could be out of date or I need to set my favourite by zooming in on the road and making sure the road is selected. I responded by saying the map IS up to date as the crossroad is clearly there on the map (I showed them a screenshot to prove it) and I had selected the road itself as a favourite, they said I needed to not only tap the road, but to also make sure the road name appears and not the longitude and latitude, then marked the question as solved! When its marked as solved, that means you can no longer respond, and I hadn’t finished. I was very angry at this point, as they effectively cut me off- it’s like putting the phone down on me in the middle of a phone call.
Basically, I did tap the road itself after that (which for some strange reason doesn’t come up with the road name unless you tap slightly above it!) and selected it as a favourite, only for the favourite to be labelled the road before the crossroads- not the one I selected!!! This clearly shows there is an issue with this software recognising this particular road my favourite is on, and ALK are not accepting it is their fault. I had to start another question on their support site to let them know of the road not accepting, and am awaiting a response.
I like the fact that they do actually respond, but I don’t like how they can simply mark a question as solved and cut you off. It should be down to the person asking the question.
All I can say is I am SO glad I bought the Navigon app- something I have put my trust in as IT WORKS.
@Brian: No, it doesn’t.
[...] recent review of Co-Pilot for the iPhone caused a fair degree of discussion on 247 and the following comments sum [...]
[...] CoPilot GPS Live navigation app comes to the iPhone – geeks.com Co-Pilot Live for iPhone Review – PDA 247 [...]
I have downloaded copilot to my iphone and everytime I open this up it asks for my email and password which i have done. once ive clicked ok it goes back to the apps menu – can anyone help what am I doing wrong?
Have you tried rebooting your device and trying again Adam?
yeah Ive tried that I am a bit stuck in what to do – its driving me mad
Have you asked ALK? I can ask them if you like- do you mind if I pass on your email address?
No you can ask them if you like – do you need my email address or do you have it?
Brilliant, you’ve reviewed a different version to what’s available in the app store. Maybe you should review the app store version and you’ll probably share most people’s views on here.
My gripes with it are:
- it doesn’t announce a turn that’s within 500 yards of the previous instruction.
- crashes mid route
- it tells you to “keep left” rather than exit the motorway.
- approaching the M6 exit on the M1 says “keep right”. Doesn’t sound quite like how you leave a motorway to me.
I hope you have the future version of this software as it sounds like we’ll all be as happy as you.
I reviewed a beta version which was about 2 weeks older than the release version. It does have some differences though so I will take a look at the release version and see how I get on.
I also have CoPilot (EU version) and Navigon (UK) and am disappointed with the GPS fix on CoPilot and with ALK Support.
Good:
Loading time
User Interface
Ease of use
Live services
Quick Route calculation
Bad:
EU version disappeared from iTunes the day after I bought it
Calculate Route is strange
Live Link doesn’t work unless you establish an internet connection (not Wifi) before loading CoPilot
GPS performance
No Safety Cameras
While driving it thinks I’m on the road parallel to the carriageway I’m actually on, so all turn guidance is completely wrong. The voice instructions come too late, and the options for this are not clear on how to tune them. “Left turn ahead” is not an instruction to me, it’s an advanced warning. But it seems no, that was the turn I was supposed to take.
It made me drive past my right turn, go straight on, round the roundabout (doing a full u-turn) and then left.
I’m aware there is an update planned, but I’ve expressed my concerns over this App, my device is mounted on the windscreen, and it was a clear day, but GPS fix was awful. I’ve had one good day of use, but over a week of poor performance.
ALK Support blame the device, refuse to accept any of the Live link issues as it works on their two devices, and are now not responding at all to my latest questions. TomTom designed a device with built-in GPS, and ALK see this as an excuse not to look into the GPS issues and assume it’s an iPhone limitation.
Google Maps tracks me better than this apps, and so does Navigon.
I really want to like CoPilot as it has potential,best UI and best features compared to TomTom and Navigon, but with this version, it’s just not up to scratch.
The new update for Europe is out;
8.0.0.373
Testing it right now.
[...] Co-Pilot Live for iPhone Review [...]
Just brought Co Pilot for Iphone, First of all i was in awe of the app, but further tests have really given concern and as most people have written there is a ‘trust issue’ with the app. Don’t get me wrong though if you didn’t have your stand alone unit this will fill in just fine. THe only problem i really have with it is the ammount of time you lose gps connection and the unit hangs untill you turn the app off and on again. Other annoyances are the fact that you can’t seamlessly interact between phone and iPod mode. Yesterday i travelled brow Essex to Reading with relative ease, going back lost connection a few times but nothingh of note. Then i used it again this morning from Essex to London and it was off more than on?! I do place the iphone in my centre console in my Mercedes C Class, probably will work better on a window mounted sucker? Any Way i would suggest this unit as a back up unit, and it has put me off buying an expensive app like tom tom due to these niggles.
Hi there,
I’m contemplating buying co-pilot. Is it £26 flat rate all inclusive or do you have to pay subscription charges?
Also, is it any good for countryside? I live in London but my parents are in the sticks.
Thank you.
Hi all.
I have a new (10th November)Orange iPhone.
Downloaded CoPilot and intial trial was very succesful. It appears to be superior to my Garmin!
My problem is that CoPilot seems to have hijacked my Outlook contacts from the iPhone contacts app into the CoPilots contacts, leaving me with a blank list of contacts on the Iphone. I have tried re-syncing, re-set and restore. I have removed and re-installed Itunes, all to no avail.
Som y contacts are all listed in CoPilot, but not in the Iphone contacts folder.
i have just this morning emailed Alk customer support for advice!
Cheers and Beers.
Terry in Sunderland
Great review and I think that co-pilot is the one to have but does anyone know of co-pilot will work with the tomtom cradle?
“Great review and I think that co-pilot is the one to have but does anyone know of co-pilot will work with the tomtom cradle?”
@Sean:
In a YouTube video review of the TomTom cradle, the reviewer said it does indeed work with other sat nav software such as Navigon and CoPilot. In fact, he proved it by dong so in the video review. So you’re good to go
I have had Co-Pilot installed on my iphone 3g for a week now and must say I am regretting my purchase.
Moving from a WInMO device with Tom Tom to iphone forced me to buy a new satnav package. Reading a couple of great reviews and being wowed by the aggressive pricing of the Co-pilot, I decided to take the plunge.
My high hopes bolstered by an impressive presentation were soon dashed by discovering the limitations of the software. I can no longer display the current time, travel time remaining, ETA, current speed and speed limit simultaniously. I can only select 2 things to display or loop through a limited selection.
The GPS performance has let me down repeatedly on trials (luckily on familiar roads), for example, when I reach turn marker points slowly in traffic, the software thinks I have stopped and displays me as stationary even when I have passed the turn marker by upto half a mile. If I decide to veer off the selected route, the software gets confused and will continue to show me on its selected route for upto half a minute, then hang for another half a minute until it works out where I am. It has occasionally thought I have missed a turn and recalculated a different route when I am still approaching the original turn.
The current speed is not real time. It appears to calculate it over an average over a 20 second window. This means I can accelerate from standstill upto 40mph and it thinks I am doing 5mph. Then If I start to break and slow down it thinks I am speeding up. This is not currently a major problem as the speed camera warnings are not working yet. Even if they were, I could not trust the device to warn me against breaking a speed limit.
I hope the GPS issues are not device related so they can be fixed with software updates. Incidently, I mount the iphone to the windscreen to get the best satelite reception without having to fit an external GPS receiver.
I really want to like this software, but until the GPS issues are fixed I am having to use my old phone for satnav which works perfectly.
[...] and it works very well indeed. I have been lucky enough to be using the service since I first reviewed Co-Pilot for the iPhone and it has not let me down [...]
I have got the app 8.00514 for a week now, I have moved from windows phone + tomtom + traffic to this one with live traffic add on.
1st of all, the traffic most of the time not connecting to the service, and hardly notice it never changed it’s routes (even the traffic is very bad) TOMTOM used to take me different way to work almost everyday, saving me at least 20 mins each way to work every day. Traffic on this is nothing compare with the tomtom one.
BTW, if you want to see where the traffic is on the map, it’s joke.
2ndly, whenever you have a call, the app exits, and when you finish the call, the app starts again, and you will be lost …. windows phone can do 20 things at the same time, this one does one thing at a time sadly.
3rdly, fuel prices are way out, I went to add some fuel yesterday, you guessed what happened, I went to the most expensive one but this app seems to believe it’s the cheapest one around.
it’s a joke, and NO NO NO everyone……
DO NOT BUY FOR ANDROID. Their DRM is horrible – legit (£30) purchase wont activate on Milestone, says trial over. They ignore support emails (2 sent and ignored for 2 weeks and counting…). Phoned them up on an expensive 0871 number, and after being on hold for 10 mins, they said they would email me the ’solution’, but didnt bother. Shame, because when it works the actual product is very good, but its killed by the DRM. Next step is to initiate a chargeback from my credit card. Error is “Activation Unsuccessful”
@George Styles The error message ‘trial over’ only displays on a pirated version of the software I believe. The DRM allows you to deactivate and move to a different device should you decide to upgrade, so it’s perfectly reasonable.
Hi,
I can assure u its legit – from app store. Google have agreed to refund me. I will re-purchase if and when ALK remove this horrible DRM.
Their support is also awful – they take 2-3 weeks to answer emails. As I said, avoid.
g
Hi I installed this app 2 days ago and I can’t get any sound unless the iPod utility is on, I reinstalled it and still the same prob, have checked all the settings and I have sounds and music on all other apps. Can anyone help, am regretting not getting navmii now.,
[...] 6 months ago I reviewed Co-Pilot Live for iPhone and was more than impressed with the product. It was a beta build which [...]
Been using this for a couple of weeks now, quite impressed. HOWEVER, is there any way of using it without location services and 3G switched on? I am a pay as you go user and this batters my credit everytime CoPilot starts up, including after a call has been received! Any ideas really welcome. Thanks all.
I asked ALK how often the CoPilot failed (information that any user would want in order to know whether it is safe to rely upon the product or not). As a safety advisory to other CoPilot users, I posted ALK’s response on Facebook that the failure rate of CoPilot ”is not available to customers”.
I promptly received this message from ALK: ”…having reviewed your comments on Facebook and with our own internal team, we believe the best course of action would be to provide you with a full refund on your purchase…”. Since I haven’t asked for a refund, ALK’s message feels to me remarkably like being shown to the nearest exit for asking about CoPilot’s safety record.
@ Edward – i found it failed 100% of the time, as it wouldnt believe it was activated. ALK ignored my emails for weeks, and eventually i got Google to refund me (i bought through android market). A great piece of software ruined by cruddy DRM. Pirate copy runs fine though
Thanks for your comments, George.
As I look around the web for other ALK customers in my search for CoPilot tech support, I find hundreds of other users who have simply been ignored by ALK. Many have NEVER received a response from ALK customer support; others are just disgusted by the canned responses they *did* receive.
I think you called it correctly: pretty good product ruined by the people who sell it.
Do not buy this software, save yourself from being ripped off. I purchased this to use on my Android phone, on D.V.D. and from day one it has not worked properly. It installs correctly and then five minutes after working properly declares that I have no maps.
ALK Support is laughable, I submitted a report request on a Monday and didn’t get a reply until the following Monday and from the content of the reply it was clear that they had not read my email. This has since happened several times, each time asking me a question I had already answered in my previous email to them. The final straw came when they are now telling me that I should have bought a Windows Mobile version and that it was my fault.
Avoid this company like the plague
Its such a shame – the actual software is actually best in class – i used an older version for years on my old winmob phone, and IMMEDIATELY bought it for my Milestone just before last xmas.
It activated, but couldnt see the GPS on the milestone (despite being on the market), and i emailed ALK. I got an email back 3 weeks later saying there was an update, and thanks for waiting, so i installed it, which was where my troubles began.
After the update, it said it wasnt activated, and made me enter my google market receipt number and email, then said activation failed. I emailed ALK, and heard nothing for 2 weeks, then finally they suggested i uninstalled, wiped the SD card and re-installed, which i did, and it didnt fix the problem. I emailed them again and again, and they just ignored my email. They also ignored emails requesting a refund, and told me on the phone that it was impossible to do a refund on the google marketplace.
I emailed Google, who refunded my marketplace price, but didnt seem to tell ALK or remove it from my download list (it still shows up as purchased on the marketplace app).
I would buy it again in a flash if ALK removed the DRM. Part of my problem is what if ALK go out of business? id lose my software if i needed to reinstall if their activation servers disappeared (as opposed to the current situation of them being there but broken). At the moment, the software is leased, and not purchased, and should be sold as such. Hell, if it had activated properly, i would probably not get in a fix over it.
Thankfully the pirate bay has a better version that doesnt require activating… i tried to go legit on this, but ALK wouldnt let me.
I also purchased the WinMob version and an upgrade. That activated without any hassle, so i feel ALK have been compensated for my usage.
The other issue is that EVERY other piece of software i buy on the android marketplace is good to install on ANY android device i own that is logged into my gmail account. It seems that ALK dont follow that rule either.
Bad, bad DRM – hurts legitimate customers, but the pirates get a better version, for free… go compete with that ALK!
George
Can anyone help me please?
Been using this for a couple of weeks now, quite impressed. HOWEVER, is there any way of using it without location services and 3G switched on? I am a pay as you go user and this batters my credit everytime CoPilot starts up, including after a call has been received! Any ideas really welcome. Thanks all.
Dave
gonna get the european version of this but also plan to travel to usa and use there… do i have to buy extra maps or do i have to buy u.s version as well??
will i be charged roaming fees for gps use in usa?
Don’t know if it a fault with my iPhone but it takes forever to pick up a signal, and will loose it after maybe 1/2 mile then take another lifetime to pick up a signal again.
Today drove from Howden to knaresbrough didn’t get a signal until York then lost it and got another signal 100 m from destination then lost it before parking up. Not impressed
[...] Co-Pilot Live review [...]
Got tom-tom and co-pilot on my iphone. Started with tom-tom but now only using co-pilot. Why? I like to get there without being stuffed around and sent in the wrong direction, costing me a half hour or more. Co-Pilot wins.
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