CoPilot Live for iPhone review
Aug 26, 2009 gps navigation, reviews, software
We have already announced the CoPilot Live for iPhone a while ago, and even recently here but never had a chance to talk about its performance.
There’s a review of it here which says it is really really worth the £25 in the UK. The app is just super easy to use, every thing works the way it is supposed to, and the maps and ETA estimates were dead on.
I’d heartily recommend this App based on basic usage, and I’d suspect the more advanced features will be good too…
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August 26th, 2009 at 11:16 pm
Could you share the routing profile settings that you have to generate accurate routing and ETAs? I agree it’s the best application for turn-by-turn, except as the community is experiencing, it’s pretty impossible to get it to route accurately or give reliable ETAs, and that’s a major flaw!
August 27th, 2009 at 3:58 am
Here’s a caveat for you folks looking at buying this software:
No, wait. First I’m going to say that I have CoPilot Live and I like it. There’s a lot of good stuff going on here, and I feel like it was definitely worth the $35, without question.
OK, now the warning: in the United Kingdom, ALK uses Navteq maps. In the United STATES, however, ALK uses their own map database. I’m not saying the ALK database isn’t as “good” as Navteq (I’ve found places near me where both databases have holes, and I’d say it’s about even), but what it DOES mean is that some of the features you will find in the UK version, which (as far as I know) are based on data found in the mapset (lane guidance, realistic street signs, speed limits, etc) are NOT found in the US version of the software. This could also be the reason why reviewers seem to be happy with ETA’s in the UK, but folks (including myself) have issues with ETA’s in the US.
With the being said, and to answer Bruce, here’s what I did to my profile which gives me a fairly accurate ETA in the big cities and on the highway: I have it set to Favor both Freeways and Divided Highways. Freeways are set to 65mph and Divided Highways are set to 55mph. Like I said this gives me fairly accurate times up near the cities (DC/Baltimore). I will say that down where I actually live, in the stix, the ETA’s are still extremely conservative, but I’ve only found one provider that gives me good ETA’s (Garmin). All others generally tell me trips around here will take ~50% longer than they actually do (and that’s including Google Maps, Yahoo, TomTom, it’s everything).
Looking forward to the supposedly “coming soon” update with updated maps. I’m crossing my fingers that what they actually mean is that they are standardizing to Navteq so we can get those missing features, but I won’t hold my breath. Still, overall pretty good software.
September 8th, 2009 at 3:10 pm
I can confirm that the EU version is working cool with the NAVTEQ data.
Check out my lengthy review here;
CoPilot VS TomTom