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INTRODUCTION
For a while now, CoPilot
Live has been the most feature-rich GPS Navigation
program for Pocket PCs. However, back in 2004 I was
disappointed with the navigation and mapping quality
of
CoPilot Live 5 in North America. ALK has had over a year to
revamp the software and mapping data for the New York City area in
which I did most of my testing. Have the navigation
capabilities improved? What about the usability?
Read on for the thorough review:
WHAT’S IN THE BOX
ALK offers a few different options for purchasing CoPilot
Live 6. The version here includes a 12-Channel WAAS-enabled
GPS Receiver, car power adapter, power adapter
splitter (so you can charge your Pocket PC at the
same time), vent mount, Quickstart guide, and a two
CD set of software and data maps.
SETUP
Despite the
activation process for CoPilot Live, setup was very easy. You do have to
remember to transfer maps to your device using the "Data Download
Wizard" on the desktop or else CoPilot won’t load.
(desktop images link to higher resolution)
Use the Data Download Wizard to copy map data to
your device. If you’re using a Pocket PC Phone
edition device, you’ll need to use the "Storage Card
Reader" method since copying directly to the Storage
Card in Mobile Device method will likely give you
errors.
Next you can use the wizard to create a specific
map-set that you’d like to copy to your device or
storage card. After you create the set, you have to
come back to this screen and choose the "Download"
button to copy the data to your memory card.
CoPilot Live gives you an excellent selection of map
data set creation tools. You can select an area by
City Radius, rectangular selection area, trip route
corridor, or region. The Trip corridor option is
very useful for long trips where you’ll only need
map data along a certain path.
After you click download, you get to this screen.
You have to add the map sets in the left pane to the
right pane in order to put them on the list of sets
to upload to the memory card. You also have the
options to include all highways, desktop favorites,
as well as a "Quickstart". The Quickstart
feature doesn’t make the program launch faster, it
actually loads the application install files onto
the storage card so that when you insert the storage
card into your device it will automatically install
the application and voice files.
When you click Download, the above screen appears
giving you some options for the Quickstart feature.
You can choose between Windows Mobile 5.0, and Windows
Mobile 2003 for the OS option. For the Speech
option, you can choose Male Text to Speech, Female
Text to Speech, and Wav files. I recommend
the Male TTS option, since the Female TTS option is
more difficult to understand, and the Wav files
option is practically useless in regards to the
amount of information those voice prompts can convey
to the user.
After installing CoPilot Live, you have to enter
your product key.
Then you have to "activate" the software using an
internet connection.
By default, this welcome screen shows up after the
initial splash screen.
Your first step should be the
GPS receiver setup.
You can create a GPS receiver connection manually,
or you can let CoPilot Live automatically detect the
connection.
CoPilot Live even has it’s own interface for
searching for an connecting to Bluetooth GPS
receivers.
HARDWARE
FEATURES
ALK’s new
CoPilot Bluetooth GPS receiver looks exactly the
same as the one that came with previous versions of
CoPilot Live. However, it includes some internal
improvements including a SirfSTAR 3 chipset which
allows it to maintain a GPS satellite fix in more
extreme conditions such as in your pocket or
indoors.
The vent
mount requires that you actually glue a little nob
to the back of your PDA so that it can sit in the
slots of the vent mount. I certainly do not want to
do that, and therefore used my own PDA mount.
Here’s the CoPilot Bluetooth GPS
next to the GlobalSat BT308 Bluetooth GPS and Navigon
Triceiver. The CoPilot Bluetooth GPS is thin and
lightweight; perfect for keeping in a pocket while
on the motorcycle.
One problem that I’ve had with the CoPilot Bluetooth
GPS Receiver is that it seems to have trouble
obtaining a fix while in motion. I drove an hour
from New Haven CT to New York with the CoPilot GPS
Receiver on, but without enough GPS connections to
determine my position.
PROGRAM FEATURES
CoPilot Live 6 Pocket PC has been updated
to support Windows Mobile 5 and is touted as being
compatible with all the latest Windows Mobile 5
devices. Though not quite as fast loading as
iGuidance, CoPilot Live did perform very well on
both my HTC Wizard (i-mate
K-JAM) and HTC Prophet (i-mate
JAMin). Most of the time, it didn’t cause the
system to hang or slow down at all, as other GPS
navigation programs can tend to do when faced with
so much processing requirements.
The
Home screen gives you some initial options that
you’ll want to go through to get started using
CoPilot Live.
CoPilot Live 6 includes a new
Pop-up menu interface in the bottom left corner of
the screen at all times. The large buttons make
accessing these options while driving very easy.
Tapping the "Trip" option, brings you to another
menu screen with more options.
Tapping the "Edit" button on the Trip menu brings
you to the same "Going To…" screen that you would
get to from the Home screen. You can add multiple
stops from this screen.
The "Select Stop" screen gives you plenty of options
for defining a stop. The "Home" and "Work" buttons
can be pre-defined for quick access.
If you choose the "Address" option, you still have
to go through this lengthy process of entering the
address; State or Zip first, then City, then street
name and number. While it is nice that CoPilot
quickly offers possible matches to the information
you enter, I would MUCH rather have the capability
to just paste an address copied out of Internet
Explorer or whatnot, then let the software
interpolate and search for that address just like
all those mapping websites can do: Local.live.com,
mappoint.msn.com, maps.google.com.
The "Contact Name" option gives you a great way to
search for a specific person in your contacts list.
Also not the large button keyboard. This is actually
a regular Windows Mobile software input method that
CoPilot just accesses when it needs to. You can’t
switch to different SIPs when this is active unless
you
download the update which enables this.
Sometimes CoPilot doesn’t switch to this SIP by
itself though and all I get is the default keyboard
SIP which is naturally difficult to use with a
finger. Anyway, after you select a contact,
you can choose which address of theirs that you’d
like to navigate to.
Then it shows a list of possible matches to the
Contact’s address you selected in the previous
screen. Why can’t it do this with a pasted address,
I don’t know.
The "Find a POI" screen is a bit difficult to use.
You have to use those little up/down arrow buttons
to scroll through the options. You can’t see them
all at once.
The options for finding a POI in the area are very
useful however. The "Along current route" option is
not available until after you’ve created a route by
choosing the "Start Driving" button on the trip
screen.
Next you’ll get a list of POI’s along with their
distance from your current location. The Expand
button gets more results from a wider distance.
You can also enter latitude and longitude
coordinates for a stop. There’s no way to access
other applications while you’re in this screen
though, so forget about copy and pasting coordinates
from another application.
Another nice feature is the ability to load a saved
trip.
After you’ve set up your destinations and tap the
"Start Driving" button, CoPilot comes to the
Navigation screen. The purple dot is me, and since
it’s round that means I’m not moving. The green
highlight is where I’m supposed to go. You can see
some big (+) and (-) buttons that allow you to zoom.
Pressing the menu button and then "View" button
gives you some viewing options.
The 3D view is pretty with nice clouds above the
horizon.
The Safety view shows big text and icons and
occasionally switches to the map view when
appropriate.
The "Where am I" view shows the top view of the
navigation centered around your location.
The Itinerary view shows each turn and the distance
you stay on the road for.
If you press the detour button on the menu, CoPilot
will calculate a new route. The avoided route
appears in blue.
The new "Live" features are entirely web based
as opposed to being built into the desktop
application (in addition to the previous web based
interface). You can send messages to the mobile
users with easy one-finger push button answer
buttons.
The message appears instantly on the mobile device
provided you have the Live features setup correctly
and are connected to the internet.
If you have text to speech installed CoPilot will
read this message aloud to you.
You can also send new stops to append to the mobile
user’s routes via the CoPilot Live web interface.
The mobile user receives the above message and is
allowed to accept or decline the new stop.
SETTINGS
The
Settings screen gives you access to all the
important preferences. All of the Settings dialogs
have been redesigned for easy one-finger usage.
Here’s the
Map Settings screen.
The
Guidance Settings let you control how often you’re
notified of upcoming turns.
Routing settings are useful for avoiding toll roads,
etc.
If you choose the Advanced routing options, you can
create profiles specific to a set of options. I
created one for bicycling that avoids all highways.
In the
POIs Alerts settings area you can turn on a great
feature which will notify you of points of interests
that appear ahead of you along your route. This is
much more advanced than other GPS navigation systems
that only show POI’s within a certain radius.
The
Language & Speech settings let you change the
language or voice for the voice prompts. If you’re
using the text-to-speech feature, the male voice is
much more intelligible than the female one.
The
GPS Settings screen is important for setting up a
GPS receiver, playing back a track, and checking the
status.
GPS Status shows some important information about
your GPS receiver.
The "View
Satellites" screen shows the signal strength for
each satellite you’re connected to.
The
Track playback settings screen lets you play a GPS
track that you may have recorded.
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HELP SUPPORT
The ALK website has some support options including a
frequently asked questions page as well as a section
to download program updates. There’s also a
toll-free phone number and email
contact form that you can use to ask questions.
There’s another number for support inquiries along
with other
contact methods for different problems.
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
software requires a Pocket PC running Windows Mobile
2003, or Windows Mobile 5. The Bluetooth GPS
Receiver requires a Pocket PC with Bluetooth.
edition) or Windows Mobile 5
Storage RAM
Program RAM
required (32 MB minimum) for Pocket PCs with 32
MB device memory
memory card recommended for Pocket PCs with 64
MB memory
Requirements
In order to transfer map data to your Pocket PC, you
must first install CoPilot Live on a personal
computer that can connect to your Pocket PC via
ActiveSync. For Pocket PC Phone edition devices
you’ll probably need a separate card reader.
2000, ME, XP
processor or better
HD space
BUGS AND WISHES
While the mapping and navigation seems to have been
much improved over the previous version, I still
experience a few one-way street navigation problems
as well just inaccurate map data. For example, in
the Bronx today, we came to the end of a street
where CoPilot’s directions were to go straight and
bear left. Well, straight was a huge barrier wall
separating us from the Cross Bronx Expressway, and
left was a one way street going towards the right
with a sign that said "All traffic" and an arrow
pointing to the right. I had another one-way
wrong-way incident in Poughkeepsie, but in both
cases CoPilot was able to recalculate an alternate
route. And CoPilot Live 6 wasn’t nearly as bad as
version 5. At any rate, the map data is certainly
not ready for autonomous vehicles.
Many of the things that did not work well in CoPilot
Live 5 seem to be grayed out or disabled in this
version. For example, importing custom places from
Outlook is no longer available. Also the Female TTS
voice prompt option is not available in the initial
install either. In the CoPilot Live 6 update that
you download from the support website, it seems the
ability to include TTS options in the Quickstart
files has been removed as well. Instead, the
Quickstart files install 3 different TTS voices and
11 WAV file sets, thus taking up more of your
precious memory.
Sometimes you can get stuck with the CoPilot
Keyboard remaining set even after you quit the
application. The CoPilot keyboard takes up the lower
menu bar area as well, which means there is no way
at all to switch it to your preferred software input
method. I had to do a soft reset to get mine back to
normal. Other times, the CoPilot keyboard won’t show
up at all. Only the default keyboard SIP will show.
Since the CoPilot program also hijacks the lower
menu bar in Windows Mobile 5, you have no way of
changing they SIP once you’re in CoPilot Live. The
6.0.1.24 version does let you specify a default SIP
in the settings, but this is of no help when it does
not load the SIP method specified there.
Like I said before, the Bluetooth GPS receiver can
have problems obtaining a fix while in motion. Once
it does obtain a fix, it’s very good at maintaining
it, but I really dislike having to stop and wait for
the green light to start blinking before I can get
some navigating instructions from the software.
Maybe this is just an isolated incident with the GPS
receiver that I received.
As for wishes, I wish the "Windows Mobile 5 support"
included support for the softkey menus. I also wish
I could access Media Player and other applications
without quitting CoPilot Live. Most of the hardware
buttons are disabled when CoPilot is running, but
the Phone icon is not. So in order to access Media
Player, I have to press the phone icon to switch to
the phone program, then the windows button to access
the Start menu, and then scroll down to Media
Player. Ideally, I would be able to press the "OK"
button and have CoPilot minimize so that Media
Player would show up right behind it. It seems the
left/right hardware buttons on the D-Pad often don’t
work while CoPilot is running even if it is not in
the foreground as well.
PURCHASING
CoPilot Live with US maps can be purchased directly
from
ALK Technologies. It’s available in several
configurations including Software Only for $199,
Software with Bluetooth GPS for $299, Software with
1Gb SD card for $299, or Software with 1Gb SD card
and Bluetooth GPS for $399. You can add regional
European map data for an additional $99, or the
entire European map data set for $179. Canadian map
data is an additional $49. ALK is also offering a
CoPilot Live 6 Treo 700w Edition for the same price
as the Pocket PC version. I imagine this is just a
repackaging that targets Palm Treo 700w users since
the Treo 700w is a Pocket PC. There are also
versions for Windows Mobile Smartphone Edition and
Windows Laptop users, all available for additional
charges. You can also find CoPilot Live for about
$189 at
BuyGPSNow.com.
PROS
interface
processor devices
Speech announces POIs along route, incoming
messages, and side-of-street for destinations
improved over previous versions
GPS receiver has SirfSTAR III chipset
GPS receiver is small & lightweight
CONS
difficult to switch to other applications in order
to reference other data or access Media Player
lot of storage space
North America
Occasionally directs driver down a "Do Not Enter"
street
make use of Windows Mobile 5.0 soft key hardware
buttons
GPS receiver can have trouble finding a fix while in
motion
Value
Ease
of Use
Features
Overall
OVERALL IMPRESSION
feature-rich GPS Navigation software I have
tried to date. Though the $200 price tag is a bit
expensive when most competing GPS Navigation
programs are closer to the $100 range… with all
the great features CoPilot Live offers, it’s worth
the price. However, I would expect the mapping data
to be much closer to flawless. Albeit, the
mapping data has seen some significant improvements
since the previous version, there are still some
frustrating issues as mentioned in the bugs and
wishes section. I am extremely grateful that they
added side-of-street destination notification in the
text-to-speech voice prompts. This is a very
important feature. On the other hand, I hate how the
software takes up my entire screen and doesn’t let
me switch to other applications like the calendar or
Windows Media Player. CoPilot doesn’t have
independent volume control, but the volume is
perfectly comfortable to use and understand while
playing music in Media Player. Combined with the
excellent usability, GUI design improvements, and
precisely informative text-to-speech voice prompts,
CoPilot Live 6 is sure to remain my primary
navigator.
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