(sponsor)
Alk’s
INTRODUCTION
CoPilot software has been a favorite for many GPS Navigation users for
a long time. It offers many innovative features that no other
navigation software has been able to match. CoPilot Live Pocket
PC 5 raises the bar yet again with a new easier-to-use interface as
well as a number of welcome features.
First of all, let me give you a little lesson in what is important in
GPS Navigation systems, specifically those for Pocket PCs. When
you’re driving any type of moving vehicle what are the two most important
things to do in order to avoid a collision?
- Keep
your eyes on where you’re going. - Keep
your hands on the steering mechanism.
If I’m driving in fast traffic in Manhattan, taking my eyes off the
road for a split second could easily mean disaster. Factor in bad weather,
darkness, and taxi drivers clipping you off within fractions of an inch
and you’ve got even less time to take your eyes off the road. That means, I don’t want to look at a computer screen or a map or anything
other than the environment I am operating my vehicle in.
So given the fact that your hands and eyes need to be used while operating
a vehicle, it’s obvious that the ideal interface for a navigation system
to communicate instructions to the driver is an audio interface.
Keep this in mind when purchasing any type of navigation system.
Ideally the Navigation system would be able to mention landmarks as
well as street turns and distances. It’s a shame that most navigation
system providers (including ALK) do not provide audio samples on their
websites.
On the other hand, if most of your driving does not involve changing
lanes or primarily includes lonely country roads, then perhaps you can
safely read the news and answer text messages while driving. Feel
free to do this while I am not on the road.
Page XII of the CoPilot Live Manual says, "The driver must remain
alert at all times to actual road conditions and obey all posted signs
and traffic regulations. Always keep your hands on the steering wheel
and eyes on the road when driving! While driving, either ask a passenger
to operate CoPilot or pull over to the side of the road when operating
CoPilot on your Pocket PC."
Pocket CoPilot Live 5 has a redesigned interface
WHAT’S
HOT
that makes it look more integrated and easier to use. The buttons
are much more attractive and the GUI uses a nice blue color. CoPilot
Live 5 also now has new 3D map display views with pretty clouds in the
sky and stars after 8pm. The planning features and trip-specific
map generation are must-have features among GPS Navigation systems. CoPilot Live’s internet tracking and communications capabilities have
no competition.
Let’s take a look at what comes in
IN
THE BOX
the box:
- 2 CDs
which include the CoPilot Live Pocket PC 5 software and maps - CoPilot
12 Channel Bluetooth GPS - Vent
clip mount for Pocket PC - Cigarette
lighter adapter power supply - Power
supply splitter so you can power both the Pocket PC and GPS receiver
at the same time.
First you have to install the CoPilot Live
SETUP
software on your desktop computer using the install CDs. The setup
application also installs CoPilot Live onto your Pocket PC connected
through Activesync.
The Desktop application lets you plan trips, interact with remote users,
and download maps to CoPilot Live Pocket PC.
Another
cool feature that you can use the desktop application for is importing
Custom Points of Interest from Outlook or a spreadsheet file such as
Excel.
However,
the Custom POI import feature did not work for me. It gave me
the above error when importing from Outlook, and just plain crashed
when importing the same contacts from Excel.
The Trip Planner dialog is the same as what you’ll see
in the Data Download Wizard, however you can’t transfer a previously
planned trip into the Data Download Wizard. You must re-construct
the trip if you want to transfer it to the Pocket PC.
You have to download some map data to the Pocket PC before you can run
CoPilot Live Pocket PC.
You can create map data for your Pocket PC in three ways: City Radius,
a rectangular Map Area, or a diameter following your specific trip.
The "Trip" Map Data Loader option gives you a selection of
map data that surrounds the route that you will be taking to your destination. In my opinion, this is one of the prime reasons that CoPilot stands
out from other GPS Navigation programs.
After you finish creating a selection of map data, you
actually come back to this screen which is a bit unintuitive since you
were already here. What you really have to do is click the "Download"
button at the bottom in order to upload the previously selected map
data onto your mobile device. This screen does not have any indication
wether or not you have already created a map area selection nor what
that selection was, so it may appear that your previous map area selection
was unsuccessful.
After you click the "Download" button, you will
see a list of Map Data Areas that you previously created. Select
the ones you want to upload to your device and click the arrow pointing
to the right in order to move them into the "Data Included in This
Download" pane. Those maps will be uploaded to your device
when you click the "Download" button at the bottom.
There are also options to include the entire US Highway network of maps,
as well as a "Quickstart" package which includes installer
files for CoPilot Live Pocket PC should your device require a hard reset
while on the road. It’s best to keep a backup on your storage
card though since the Quickstart will require re-activation. The
"Available Map Memory" part of this dialog indicates the amount
of free space you have on the selected storage card.
After you’ve uploaded some map data to your Pocket PC, you can start
CoPilot Live Pocket PC.
The Pocket PC application requires activation. You can activate
through Activesync and an internet connection, via email, or over the
phone. This didn’t pose many problems for me since you can usually
reactivate the same device pretty easily after a hard reset. However,
when I deactivated the device to see what happened, it would not let
me reactivate no matter how many times I reinstalled the software. Restoring
from a backup file was the only way to get CoPilot Live back.
Everytime you launch CoPilot Live 5, a splash screen appears and an
audio file plays which says, "Welcome to CoPilot Live". The audio file was cool the first time, but quickly becomes annoying.
After you get passed the splash screen, a nice Welcome screen appears
with a few helpful options for first-time users. You’ll want to
tap the "GPS" button to set up your GPS receiver first.
GPS
Setup
The
GPS Options dialog shows you a quick indication of the status of your
GPS connection as well as gives you access to a few buttons for further
configuring and checking the status of the GPS.
Tapping "Setup GPS" will configure the GPS connection. Be sure
you’ve already paired with your Bluetooth GPS receiver with the Pocket
PC’s native Bluetooth software or else it probably won’t be detected.
The "View Satellites" option, shows the channel numbers, satellite
numbers and signal strength. It does not show the satellite positions
in relation to your position as one might like.
The
GPS Status dialog shows some other information such as your speed, latitude/longitude,
elevation, etc.
Next
you might want to check the Options dialogs to make sure everything
is set up the way you want it.
The
Routing tab in the Options dialog lets you choose between Automobile
and RV for vehicle type. If you choose RV, CoPilot will avoid
roads that are not friendly to such vehicles. There’s also an
option Quickest or Shortest route, and an option to avoid toll roads. There are no options to avoid highways.
The Guidance tab offers display options, as well as how
often a notification should be announced before a turn. Even the 8sec/100ft
options is often not enough notice to merge into the correct lane when
making a turn. This dialog also lets you customize the two lines of
data that display at the bottom of the screen when in Guidance mode.
The
Map tab gives you options for how the map is displayed, as well as a
list of the map data files contained on your Pocket PC.
The
Favorites tab lets you manage a saved list of locations.
The POIs tab lets you turn on Point of Interest alerts. This is
a great feature as it announces the names of upcoming points of interest
as they appear along your route. By tapping a button on the screen,
you can easily re-route to the point of interest if you choose.
PRODUCT
FEATURES
Hardware
The
Bluetooth CoPilot GPS Reciever is the same as the
Socket Communications Bluetooth GPS Reciever. It’s small and
lightweight but doesn’t have a removable battery or the more sensitive
Xtrac2 mode.
The
vent mounting clip that came with CoPilot live required that you attach
a button to the back of your PDA permenantly with adhesive. I
didn’t want to do that, so I attached it to the leather case with an
elastic. It is important that you mount the Pocket PC somewhere
where you can see the screen since you cannot rely on CoPilot Live’s
voice prompts.
Guidance and Planning
The "Going To…" screen lets you add stops and create destinations.
There are a good number of options for entering a stop. I like
the quick access to saved "Home" and "Work" locations.
Choosing the Contact option lets you choose from your contacts database.
Auto-complete works well here.
CoPilot does not recognize that there is an East 97th Street in Manhattan
though. I have to change the search or select the suggested "East
98th Street" in order to continue.
If there’s more than one match, it will give you a list of choices that
will let you narrow down the exact location.
When entering an address as a stop or destination, CoPilot Live offers
suggestions that match the first few letters you type. First you
have to enter a state or zip code, then press Next, then enter a City,
then enter the street address. While the automatic matching feature
is very helpful, this would be much easier if I could just paste the
entire address into a field and CoPilot could automatically recognize
the formatting of the address and search it’s database accordingly.
Also notice how the start menu here is disabled, making it impossible
to check the address against an entry in your calendar or search results
in Internet Explorer.
The "Saved Trip" option lets you open a previously configured
trip itinerary that may have been exported from the desktop part of
the software or saved through CoPilot Live Pocket PC itself.
The "Point of Interest" search works quite well.
Except it’s missing a few pizza places. The Expand button will
give you more results that are further away.
You can also enter a stop in terms of Latitude and Longitude.
After you enter your destination, and tap "Start Driving",
Copilot shows a map with the path to your destination highlighted in
green.
A few seconds later, the buttons and menus disappear from the interface.
The buttons
at the top let you change certain options. An excerpt from the manual
explains them perfectly.
The second icon brings up a menu for displaying different modes of information.
The
3D view of the Guidance mode shows stars in the sky after 8pm and clouds
during the day. I prefer this view, but CoPilot doesn’t remember my
preference between sessions.
When a Point of Interest appears along your route, the above notification
appears and the text-to-speech engine reads the information to you (if
installed). I like this feature a lot.
If you place the Pocket PC on the dashboard, you can see the reflection
in the window at night. This could help let you keep your eyes
on the road while driving… as long as you can read backwards and upside
down. A nice feature for future versions would be the ability
to re-orient the screen for projecting the navigational maps and instructions
against a windshield.
There are
three other modes that you can use CoPilot Live in besides Guidance
mode. Navigating Mode will only show you your position on the
map as you movie. It won’t give turn instructions or voice prompts.
If it was easier to switch modes, this would be a good work-around for
the lack of a mute button. Walking Mode shows distance and straight
direction line to your destination. Pay attention to where you’re walking
though, it could guide you through private property or electric fences.
Planning Mode lets you view static maps and generate directions without
connecting a GPS receiver. Trips created in Planning Mode can
be saved and then loaded in any
mode at a later.
Live
Internet Tracking
The Live Internet Tracking feature in CoPilot Live is unique to this
software. It allows you to collaborate with family members at the base
station while your driving or let your friends track your location through
a website.
If you choose the "Live" option from the Welcome screen or
the Tools menu, you’ll be able to set up your Pocket PC for live internet
tracking and communications.
If you
want to send tracking numbers to other people so that they can see your
position and interact with CoPilot Live through the ALK website, you’ll
have to sign up for an account at
http://live.alk.com. The online account doesn’t cost anything
extra, but you have to enter your product number. After you create
an account, you can enter the information into the Live Options Login
tab dialog. Since I’m using an iMate Pocket PC Phone Edition,
enabling the Live Communications was as simple as turning on a checkbox
in the Live Options dialog. CoPilot Live used my existing GPRS
connection to connect to it’s servers.
There’s also an "Access Passes" button in the Connection Tab
of the Live Options. If you tap that, you’ll be able to send tracking
numbers to your friends’ email addresses which will allow them to track
you through the ALK website. However, since the Start menu is disabled,
you’ll have to try to remember and retype the email addresses. Optionally, you can quit CoPilot Live, go to your Contacts, Copy and
email address, relaunch CoPilot Live, go to the Access Passes area and
paste the email address into the correct field.
You can also use the desktop application to track remote CoPilot Live
users. The desktop software doesn’t seem to receive the coordinates
from the Pocket PC Client right away, it should show up after the next
location upload interval.
If you send an access pass to your friend, when they log in with their
tracking number, they’ll see this web based interface. The icons
next to the name of the remote user allow you to send a new trip itinerary
or send a text message.
The Stop Builder window lets you send new stops to a remote user.
The Send Message window lets you type a text message to a remote user,
and from 1 to 4 response that you can also specify.
The Desktop version of the messaging application is a bit more advanced.
The
message appears instantly on the Pocket PC and the remote user can easily
respond by tapping the preset answer button of his choice. The
Bubble icon in the upper left uses the text-to-speech engine to read
the message to you. The second icon sends a "Defer"
response to the sender. The third icon requests more info, and
the fourth deletes the message.
The ALK website has some support options
HELP
SUPPORT
including a frequently asked questions page. I had emailed them
anonymously a couple times with questions about their product months
ago. I never received a response. After receiving the product,
I had further issues that I attempted to contact ALK about via email…
and I still never received a response.
There’s also a support page for activating and deactivating the product. When I tried this site before, it returned a .NET specific error, however
it seems to be working today.
The CoPilot Live software requires a Pocket
SYSTEM
REQUIREMENTS
PC running Windows Mobile 2003, or Pocket PC 2002. The Bluetooth
GPS Receiver requires a Pocket PC with Bluetooth.
- Pocket
PC 2002 or Windows MobileTM 2003 (first or second edition) - 5M -
7M Storage RAM - 6M -
15M Program RAM - CF card
required (32 MB minimum) for Pocket PCs with 32 MB device memory - CF or
SD memory card recommended for Pocket PCs with 64 MB memory
Desktop/Laptop
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.
- Windows
98, 2000, ME, XP, NT 4.0 or later - 400
MHz processor or better - 128M
RAM - 16x
CD-ROM - 225M
available HD space
BUGS
AND WISHES
The screen toggle hardware button doesn’t
Pocket
PC software
work when CoPilot Live is running on my iMate Pocket PC Phone with ROM
version 1.72. This is a very big problem for me, since forcing
the screen on can make for unintentional screen taps while the PDA is
in a pocket. It’s best to keep the Pocket PC inside a pocket when
using the navigation system with open-air vehicles such as motorcycles
and bicycles. Using CoPilot Live with it’s screen on all the time,
I only get about 3-4 hours of usage… using another GPS navigation
system with the screen off gives me closer to 6 hours of operation.
If you’re going to use CoPilot Live mounted in an enclosed vehicle while
attached to a power supply at all times, then this is not so much of
a problem. Heck the Suspend/Power button won’t even work while
CoPilot is running. If Alk is reading this, when I choose to turn
the device off or shut the screen off, it should do so. I don’t
want software that forces my Pocket PC to function improperly. Oddly,
if I downgrade my ROM to an older version 1.60, the screen toggle and
suspend modes actually work. Your results may vary.
The CoPilot Live disables the Start menu and Title bar in most situations.
It disables the Start menu in all situations actually. Why?
Perhaps to give the user more area on the screen to read the maps.
Well, as I said earlier, you should not be looking at the screen while
driving, and you shouldn’t have to. But this disabling of the
Start menu also makes it so you can’t access any other applications
while running CoPilot Live. So say you needed to look up an address
in Internet Explorer and copy/paste it into CoPilot Live (as I often
need to do), this would be virtually impossible without access to the
Start menu to switch applications. It is my opinion that no third
party application should ever disable native operating system functions.
This is a huge no-no in terms of system usability.
The manual recommends setting the system volume to it’s highest level
in order to hear the voice prompts properly. I find that this causes
a huge amount of scratching and pops when playing voice instructions
through my car stereo (while also playing music through Windows Media
Player.) A lower volume works better.
Driving instructions are often inaccurate and seem to recalculate at
odd intervals. For example, I’ll look at the route CoPilot calculates
before beginning my trip.. as I follow the initial route, CoPilot will
change it’s mine and point me in a different direction even though I
was still following it’s original recommended route. Even when
I drive to work, it will say "In one mile, turn left onto Main
Street." Then a little while later it will say, "Just
ahead, turn left onto Clinton Street, then turn right." After
I pass Clinton Street, it will then say, "Just ahead, turn left
onto Main Street." Why did it change it’s mind while I was
following the original route? Another time this happened, I was
driving through the Bronx. CoPilot Live told me to get off at
a specific exit. Just as I was taking that exit, it changed it’s
mind. Of course this was too late. Then I was on the Bruckner
elevated expressway, and it was telling me to turn left despite there
being a divider there. Luckily I had a passenger with me who could
attempt to interpret the directions on screen while I drove. She
found that it wanted us to turn around, so we got off of the expressway
and onto Bruckner Blvd. so as to get back on the highway in the other
direction. The CoPilot software directed us to backstreets, but
then told us to turn left down a one way street the wrong way.
This combined with the unintelligible female text to speech software
was not helpful at all. I ended up using MapQuest instead.
Actually, every time I use the CoPilot Live 5 software it ends up directing
me the wrong way down a one way street. My passengers quickly
get violently upset at this and clamor to have my old software back.
For example, it told me to take the Madison Ave bridge exit off of the
Deegan expressway, even though normally we take the 3rd Ave bridge when
heading into the Village. The turn CoPilot directed us to was
a one-way street the wrong way, so I ended up having to go to the opposite
direction and then downtown a ways in order to get onto the FDR.
Another time in Milford, CT, CoPilot Live directed me onto a highway
using the off-ramp going in the wrong direction. Just the other
night in Mount Vernon, CoPilot directed me down one-way streets the
wrong way 3 times in less than a 20 minute time period. That’s 3 different
one-way streets, not the same one! Even if I actually take my
eyes off the road and pay attention to the map display on the screen,
CoPilot Live tends to be about a block off of my actually location on
more than one occasion.
Another problem with the navigation system is that
it often does not give enough notice for you to
make a turn. For example, if I’m going west on
the Cross County Parkway, and "bear right" on the
exit for the Sprain Parkway, just after you take
that exit there’s a fork for North or South. CoPilot Live doesn’t tell me which way to go until
after I’ve made the turn (this was using the Female
WAV files). When turns are in such close
proximity to each other, the voice prompts should
signify this in one sentence such as: "Take the next
exit, then bear right onto Sprain Parkway North."
Then there’s the issue with reaching a destination.
Often, once you’ve passed your destination, CoPilot
Live will assume you’ve reached your destination.
When I was on the motorcycle in Connecticut for a
weekend, I was stopping for lunch at a friend’s
house in Milford. CoPilot told me to go down
West Main street, which I did. My destination
was on Old Town Street. I noticed the sign
for Old Town street as I was driving down West Main
St. CoPilot did not tell me to turn, but after
I passed the street where my destination was
located, it announced that it would now continue on
to my second destination in Wethersfield.
WHAT?! I didn’t get to my first destination
yet! I stopped.. turned around, went down the
correct street, and looked at the house numbers
until I found the correct destination. I had
to do the same thing when finding my third
destination that day, but that incident was more to
blame on CoPilot’s inability to tell me what side of
the street the house was on (and it stopped helping
after I passed it by mistake.)
The Text to Speech voices also like
to preface every command with "Just ahead."
This phrase is completely useless and meaningless to
me. Just tell me what to do and how far I need
to go to do it!
CoPilot Live 5 tends to quit when it’s
not connected to a GPS receiver on my iMate Pocket
PC Phone Eidtion with ROM 1.72. I’ve also
seen the software hang, and it has caused hard
resets of my iMate Pocket PC Phone Edition 2003
device a number of times. Usually this happens
when you’re already late and don’t know exactly
where you’re going. This does seem to be fixed
by the 5.0.1.22 upgrade available on the ALK
website, however.
Guidance mode doesn’t remember my preferred mapping
display options between sessions.
Desktop Software
Importing custom places from Outlook or Excel does not work.
You can’t upload a previously created trip to the
Pocket PC. You must recreate the trip
itinerary in the Data Upload Wizard.
Bluetooth GPS receiver
The receiver does not have a removable
battery. It would be nice if it had a more
secure mounting system as well. I would like
to see slots on the sides instead of just the small
lanyard hole at one end. Support for Xtrac version 2
would be nice as well.
PURCHASING
CoPilot Live with US maps can be purchased directly from ALK
Technologies. It’s available in several configurations customized
to individual Pocket PCs. European versions are available from ALKs European
website and an Australian version from their,
Australian site. There’s also a competitive
upgrade offer where you can get a big discount if you trade in a
competing
product.
PROS
- Much
better looking than previous versions - Easier to
input destinations - Live
web-based tracking and instant messaging - Trip
planning on desktop with route-radius map creation
capabilities
Text-to-speech pronounces street names- Point of
Interests can be announced along your route
CONS
- Doesn’t
provide accurate routing (goes down one-way streets
the wrong way) - Female Text to
Speech Voice is poor quality and difficult to
understand - Screen
Toggle and power functions disabled on certain
Pocket PCs - Start Menu
disabled (can’t access other applications) - Audible
instructions don’t lower Media Player volume (no
independent volume control) - Product
activation
While CoPilot Live Pocket PC 5
OVERALL
IMPRESSION
offers many improvements over previous versions, the
most important things (audio prompts and accurate
navigation) are sorely lacking. I have gotten
lost more often using CoPilot Live than by using
printed driving instructions from Microsoft Streets
& Trips or by going the way I know. I
cannot recommend using this if you plan on
driving in the Greater New York area. CoPilot Live
Pocket PC 5 works much better in less populated
areas such as upstate NY and CT, yet still makes
mistakes on occasion. This is very
disappointing since CoPilot Live offers so many
other excellent features. Was I expecting too
much to think that CoPilot Live could help me
navigate the streets in my car? Does CoPilot
Live work better in other areas? Feel free to
click below to discuss
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