CoPilot Live
by Jason Norment
Sep 2, 2010 7:01 AM –
Install
CoPilot Live is a fully-featured GPS system for your Android device. It includes turn-by-turn directions, live traffic, local gas prices, various route options, and more.
Price: $19.99 – $59.99
We’re giving away 2 full licenses of CoPilot Live (North America) at random to those who comment below! Contest ends on Sunday, October 12th, 2010. The CoPilot Live Contest has ended! Thank you for all that have participated. See the winner annoucement here.
(Tested using an HTC Evo running Android 2.2)
Pros & Cons:
Pros
- Maps are downloaded directly onto your SD card so navigation features work even without a wireless connection as long as GPS in enabled
- Multi-stop trips
- Lane assist eliminates confusion in unfamiliar multi-lane high traffic areas
- Additional maps are available for other countries such as Europe, UK, Australia, and more
- Route recalculation is quick and seamless
Cons
- HUGE download. The North America region download for this app is almost 2GB stored to your SD card
- No voice search feature. One of the most used functions on my Evo with the 2.2 upgrade.
Features:
CoPilot Live is a great app for anyone who finds themselves using GPS navigation often. This, of course, coming from someone who uses Google Maps often, having the offline capability was a huge plus! CoPilot sets itself apart from other navigation softwares by simply offering many services you would normally find only on a dedicated GPS device. Even better, you have more than one voice to choose from rather than the standard TTS voice (which on long trips can get annoying and causes use of the mute button) your given using Google Maps. This application is available on Android, iPhone, iPad and Windows Mobile. On your desktop, you can customize a variety of features for CoPilot Live using the free Windows software called CoPilot Central, also available from ALK.
There are several versions you can buy of this app (All available in the Android Market): North America, South Africa, UK + Ireland, Europe, and Australia. Using this app I only tested the North American maps in their most current form.
Key Features:
- Accurate navigation to either house number or street level
- Quick re-routing when needed. I’m no longer nervous about missing a turn! Pre-loaded maps allows on the SD this to be possible.
- Several different views for navigation to choose from (2D, 3D, and Driver Safety)
- Enhancements such as speed limit indicator and lane indicator display just makes using this app that much safer
- Works in either landscape or portrait mode
- Thousands of POIs available for North America (almost too much to handle!)
- Share location via SMS. Cool feature to let your loved ones know where you are.
- Navigation available either by car, motorcycle, bicycle, RV, or walking. (I only tested the car method but feel free to send me a motorcycle or RV!)
- Download maps for several areas on one SD card
- Live Services (see below)
Live Services:
CoPilot offers a variety of different premium services that requires a data connection. Not all services are available in all areas. These are:
- Live Weather: Choice of local weather, at destination, or in another city (either Fahrenheit or Celsius). Provided you with current and 5-day outlook including highs & lows with weather conditions for the day. Clicking any of the 5 days will send you externally to AccuWeather’s websites.
- LiveLink: I was unfortunate enough not to get to try this out but it sounds very interesting. In theory, you would share you location with others either via their CoPilot Live application on-screen or via email to others through the CoPilot LiveLink website. I could see this being very useful amongst a group of travellers, only if everyone had the same application installed.
- Live Traffic: Shows any traffic-related incident in the area. Throughout my usage, I typically found construction as the items it provided me with. It separates this in two formats: via Map or via list of major highways effected. You can choose to automatically avoid the incident or select it manually.
- Live Fuel Prices: Shows the prices of nearby gas stations. Great information but no way to change whether the information is sorted by price or distance without going into the settings. Does allow you to be specific on the grade of fuel and the search radius.
- Live Local Search: Find different items of interest either nearby or in another city. Google Search SPOILS me so I was not impressed with the functionality of this feature. Area of improvement for sure.
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CoPilot Live Start Screen
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CoPilot Live Turn-by-Turn Map Navigation
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CoPilot Live Choose Language
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CoPilot Live Turn-by-Turn Map Directions
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CoPilot Live Traffic Listing
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CoPilot Live Turn-by-Turn Map Directions
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CoPilot Live Battery Alert
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CoPilot Live Settings Menu 2
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CoPilot Live Settings Menu 3
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CoPilot Live Quick Stop
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CoPilot Live Menu 2
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CoPilot Live Menu 3
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CoPilot Live Map Styles
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CoPilot Live Services
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CoPilot Live Detour
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CoPilot Live Turn-by-Turn Map Directions
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CoPilot Live Turn-by-Turn Map Directions
Usefulness:
CoPilot is great for those who do a lot of traveling. This application feels like it wasn’t designed for just your average trip across town, however, it could easily be used for any destination no matter how far away it may be. Offline usage is a huge advantage and makes traveling in areas with limited cellular signal much easier. The additional services that CoPilot offers makes trips less of a headache and more enjoyable for you and your family.
Ease of Use:
Being used to Google Maps, this app takes on a different approach to how to use navigation software. It resembles a dedicated GPS device heavily so if your used to that platform, this should be a breeze.
Frequently Used:
If you need directions to an unfamiliar area, want up-to-date information on your common routes, or plan or traveling further than your own internal-brain-navigation can handle, this will be used often. Even though I know the route to work, I used it everyday just to keep updated on traffic.
Interface:
All icons and text is large and easily readable on the screen. Menus are a bit excessive at times but that can be viewed from a positive and negative standpoint. Lots of options and settings means lots of way to customize your experience with this app.
Battery Life (Updated):
This was one of my main concerns with this app (and all GPS nav apps for that matter). I’m happy to report that battery life with this application was minimal! During most trips, I saw about half the battery usage I normally see using Google Maps or Sprint Navigation. I guess it makes a big difference to not be connected to the internet the entire time. In fact, a couple of times I used this application turning my mobile internet off completely and had no issues aside from not being able to use Live Services. Very pleased with this app’s battery usage!
Tags:
Android App,
Android Apps,
AndroidTapp.com App Review,
cell phone GPS,
COPILOT LIVE GPS,
CoPilot Live North America,
gas prices,
GPS,
Maps,
Traffic and Maps,
Turn by Turn Directions
Categorised in: Apps Blog, Travel
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