Comments on: App Review: CoPilot Live [Navigation]

By: Phil

Phil — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 23:16:12 +0000

I am running the copilot v8 on my Hero and haven’t seen most of the issues listed above. I guess I am lucky. I have had it crash a couple of times but expect it was related to low memory. I do wish they would get the contacts issue fixed. I use is al the time and it gets me where I need to go. The older version I used on my WM6 phone was real bad about routing me around my elbow to get to my thumb. I recently did the 2.x update on the phone and unfortunately everything slowed down including copilot. If you have the Hero make sure you really need the update before you load it. It has made a major change in the way the phone operates, mostly slower.

By: frosty

frosty — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 19:55:36 +0000

Downloaded this app(moderators look away now) off a torrent. I’m in the UK near London and its routed through congestion zones in London,used the lorry function( drive an 18 t lorry). Plus used in France last weekend; Not a single crash or lock up. Work supplies me with a pioneer gps and to put it bluntly this works better. Might even consider buying it:P

By: J. Gary Ellison

J. Gary Ellison — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 02:00:34 +0000

I just purchased Copilot 8 a few days ago. The interface is good, though sometimes it seems like you are going through several menus to get to what you want. I have a few criticisms:
1. It sometimes routes you THROUGH a major city using minor routes instead of the interstate or bypass.
2. The POI’s (points of interest) are quite incomplete. When searching for a well known POI, it simply is not listed, so you have to type in the address or intersection.
3. My own business address is not listed: 1802 is, but not 1803.
4. A major problem is volume control. Since I use this on a PDA, I also pipe my music into the car stereo system. Copilot 8 has no independent volume control and its own volume is set for several decibels higher than the media player, so if I turn the music up enough to hear it well, Copilot will blast me out with turn instructions! Yet, it can be muted and the media player will still work. So while I purchased this for the voiced instructions, I turn them off if I am listening to music because there are simply far too loud. This seems like an easy fix, especially since you can mute it. Why can you mute it but not lower it? ALK needs to fix this!

By: davix

davix — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 16:21:27 +0000

people dont get a android or droid has those phones just gets you more problems. ger windows phones as they are more better and fastee……

By: tony

tony — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 13:02:06 +0000

if you want to throw your money away then buy this peice of crap. if you have a problem then don’t even think about wasting your time emailing or calling these morons. my only hope is that the garbage that run this operation find themselves on the street very soon.alk are scum, copilot is crap and my only hope is that the trading standards contact i have puts this crowd out of business.
buy a tomtom, get an atlas or roll your window down and ask someone just DON’T GIVE YOUR MONEY TO ALK !!!!!!

By: Art

Art — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 18:44:53 +0000

I purchased coPilot right after getting my Droid! This was on Nov 7th and it hasn’t worked yet!! It always, after taking forever to load, not there when i try to use it. I did establish contact with them and was told how & where to get the US map & put it on my laptop (mac). Following that I connected to my laptop & cut & pasted it into /copilot/save directory, as directed! When unpacking the map file I get “one or more files could not be unpacked. The corrupted files will be deleted” followed by “No maps currently installed” I’m about at my whits end concerning this piece of crap!!!
Art

By: gary

gary — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 10:35:50 +0000

I’ve downladed the usa maps for 4 hours directly to g1 via wifi, but afterwards it still does not save, pls help

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 19:49:38 +0000

You know you can use it in those first 24 hours too, right Jake? Or are you just a troll?

By: Jake

Jake — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:03:29 +0000

I purchased and used this app for a few days. To make it easy on anyone considering… Don’t! This has to be the worst GPS available. It seems to want to send you 10 miles out of your way everywhere you go. It crashes every 10 minutes and the interface looks like a kid designed it. It has a lot of nice features which make it seem nice, but don’t be fooled… They never work. I’d feel like I got ripped off if I spent .99 on this app. Needless to say, there is no word to describe how upset I am that I lost $34.99. And of top of all that… Their customer service is prompt to reply and say your S.O.L. Its as close to a scam as you can get. They know you wont cancel in the first 24 hours, cause you haven’t even received your activation code to try it out yet. They wait till the “refund period” is over then send it your way so you can experience the garbage app. Hope this is helpful to anyone thinking of buying this. Wait for something better…

By: Breon

Breon — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 21:59:58 +0000

Great discussion!
Regarding my Home Screen, it’s some OpenHome theme. I’m not sure which one. I don’t use my G1 much anymore.

Text-to-speech and voice guidance are two different things. CoPilot offers voice guidance on all Android versions (“turn left” “take exit”). Text-to-speech is available on 1.6 and above. This will actually read the street names, exit numbers, and any other information coded into the map for that location.

As with any other nav app, CoPilot is an (very) inexpensive ALTERNATIVE to purchasing a GPS unit. I would have to say that it includes all of the features of a basic GPS unit and then some. I’ve had issues with map accuracy on my Magellan. Heck, there are plenty of issues with Google Maps.

With regards to performance, a Garmin GPS unit is built for one thing, and it does it great. CoPilot will run fine and a G1 and certainly better on a Hero. But your mobile is doing all sorts of stuff in the background. Mine is checking Gmail, Twitter, backing up data to the cloud, and jumping from cell tower to tower trying to maintain a connection. I haven’t seen any app, as intense as CoPilot run flawlessly 100% of the time.

By: Vladimir Kelman

Vladimir Kelman — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:44:49 +0000

I own this application and use it with my Android Dev Phone 1 (HTC Dream) for a couple of months. I never had specialized GPS units.

CoPilot is a good and useful application. has very nice and easy to read navigational maps. Route re-calculation is fast, even on HTC Dream. It worth its money.

I think, the biggest drawbacks are bad work of touch screen with CoPilot and a lack of integration with Android (cannot use Android contacts, click on address in Gmail Message to get it into CoPilot, etc.

It is quite big, about 14 MB or so, so I’m often getting “not enough space” notification when try to install updates.

An interface isn’t most intuitive, you cannot edit favorite addresses, just delete old ones and add new. Still, it’s good enough overall.

It was several times when it updated its maps for those two months I own it. Maps updates are free. Maps are accurate (in USA East Coast area.)

CoPilot Central software is pretty bad (I’m an experienced Web developer and understand usability issues.) It is far from being intuitive. It tries to get you buying a map, despite the fact you already bought one with CoPilot (CoPilot itself does not do it; obviously there is not enough integration between CoPilot on your phone and CoPilot Central on your PC.

Different voices in various languages are available.

I tried to use it together with Android Music Player (start player first, then start CoPilot) and route everything to my cars FM radio through Motorola Bluetooth device. Results are not reliable… looks like it’s possible, but maybe HTC Dream just doesn’t have enough resources for running two apps at the same time.

It crashes sometimes, loses GPS sometimes. Not often, though.

During voice calls it mutes itself, if I’m not mistaken. So, you cannot speak and use it at the same time.

It would be handy to be able to hide/minimize it but still hear voice command.

Screen is never turns OFF, while CoPilot is active and not minimized. That’s good.

GUI is slow / not responsive. Touch screen of my phone, which normally works fine, is almost not working with CoPilot. You need to press it hard again and again… very bad and dangerous if you are driving at that time. May force you to stop just to push a button on screen.

By: David

David — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 15:51:50 +0000

I second pretty much everything that Ian has said above (except the crashing – I haven’t experienced that). There have been several times when it’s given me a route that takes me ten miles or so on surface streets that run nearly parallel to a freeway…I can only guess that’s because it under-estimates the time it will take to go that way. The volume issue with the voice is *very* annoying…I’ve also taken to turning off the voice so that it doesn’t blast me while I’m listening to podcasts over Bluetooth.

I also second his opinion on the review itself…seems that the user played with the application for five minutes or so and wrote a review. Does anyone read this stuff before it gets posted?

By: mario

mario — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 14:27:04 +0000

dont forget if you take picture with gps coordinates on it and load it on co pilot it navigates there!!!!

By: Simon

Simon — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:09:46 +0000

Real mixed comments… buy my two-pence.

- Has really good POI searching (e.g. search nearby) and gets relevant places over data (e.g. not just ‘supermarket’, but specific brands, like Tesco, Sainsburys, Asda, etc.)

- Is dead cheap for a Sat-Nav; I given away my dedicated unit now (well sold it), cos this is all I need.

- Route timing is pretty poor, but over-estimates, rather than under-estimates (I can normally knock about 10 mins per hour driving, but I do drive fast).

By: maennel

maennel — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 10:23:29 +0000

Hi,

As far as I know AndNav2 also allows to store maps on the SD storage. That app hasn’t been mentioned yet and, in my opinion, is worth it. So, check it out… ;)