INTRODUCTION

    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? 

1. Keep your eyes on where you're going.
2. 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."

WHAT'S HOT

IN 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.

SETUP

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.

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.

HELP SUPPORT

     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. 

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

• 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

Pocket PC software

     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

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

OVERALL IMPRESSION