NaviGadget

Many new cars come with GPS navigation systems. But what if you don’t have one? Adding it might not be practical-perhaps you drive more than one vehicle, travel and rent often, or just don’t want an expensive piece of electronics permanently and visibly stuck to your dash. Today’s smartphones and PDAs are powerful enough to do the same job, with a little help from software and a pocketable GPS receiver. CoPilot Live by ALK Technologies is a complete GPS navigation system for Bluetooth-ready handhelds, which provides on-the-go routing with voice prompts.

Package Contents

The CoPilot Live system is available in a variety of different configurations, with versions tailored for Windows Mobile Smartphones, Pocket PCs, laptops, and the Treo 700W. The software is available by itself or with a Bluetooth GPS receiver, and bundles are available that also include a 1GB memory card for map storage. The package I evaluated is the Smartphone version with GPS receiver; I used it with an iMate SP5m Windows Mobile 5 Smartphone.

Software

The CoPilot Live software for handhelds has two parts: an application for your PDA or smartphone that handles in-car navigation, and a map downloader for your Windows desktop. The handheld software is the most important part of this package, so I’ll cover it first. Please note that I only reviewed the Windows Mobile Smartphone version; the others should have the same features but a somewhat different user interface.

The CoPilot smartphone application is a complete navigation system; the only thing you have to use the desktop for is downloading maps, and if you have a large enough memory card (1GB or more) you probably only need to do that once. On a smartphone it is somewhat cumbersome to enter addresses to search for (it’s much easier on a Pocket PC, I’m sure) but you can bookmark your favorite locations and use addresses from your contacts as well. Once you’ve entered a destination, CoPilot will figure out a route.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, April 20th, 2006 at 8:23 am and is filed under bluetooth, gps navigation, reviews, software. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.