CoPilot Live! (7) Review

Introduction ALK Technologies may not be a household name, but I'm sure most of you will be familiar with the CoPilot GPS package. Many O2 Orbit owners out there will have first hand experience of CoPilot 6, the Navigator provided with device. For me, this is my first experience of CoPilot having only previously used TomTom and Mapopolis in the past. I've been more than assured of CoPilot's pedigree by the Orbit owning members of the 4WM team and am eager to see if it can live up to their glowing recommendations. With many aesthetic and functional upgrades this new CoPilot Live release looks exceptional on paper. Can it realise the hype of my peers? Read on to find out!

For your delectation photographs are thumbnails which may be clicked on to load a larger image.
Thanks go out to ALK Technologies for providing us with a review sample.
For more information on CoPilot Live go to ALK Technologies Website

In the box The CoPilot package I received from ALK Technologies was a pre-release review package and so I cannot comment on the final retail packaging. What I did see was a MicroSD card with full SD adapter, a USB memory stick and an SDHC card reader. These were all well finished with CoPilot branding and looked very polished. The SDHC card reader I found particularly useful with individual slots for MicroSD and full size SD. As previously stated I cannot comment on the bundled accessories, suffice to say ALK have stated they will be including their own Bluetooth Receiver, Car Charger, In-Car mount and splitter cable within the final retail boxes, depending on which package you purchase.

Test Hardware As I'm sure you're all aware navigation software, complex as it can be, will often push our trusted devices to their performance limits. To try and determine the effects of this I have tested Copilot on a couple of devices where possible. The majority of the testing will be performed using the following hardware: HTC Touch. Proporta supplied Freedom Bluetooth Keychain GPS reciever. Proporta Alu Leather case for HTC Touch. Proporta magnetic vehicle docking system. Plantronics 655 Bluetooth Headset.

The Touch, while light and compact, is a relatively low powered device, so the HTC Kaiser (Vodafone v1615 variety) was also used to test as a more powerful platform with integrated GPS.

Installation The installation footprint for the CoPilot is: Main Application: 9.4MB Add-ons (voices etc): 80MB Maps: 1.2GB As with most of the GPS packages we've looked, at the software itself can be installed to either the SD card or the internal memory of the device. The other software component of the system, the maps, will need to be installed on your SD format card unless you have a device with a ROM capacity upwards of a gig (SD card it is then!). Installation itself is effortless as the provided MicroSD card auto installs the application on insertion. It doesn't get any easier than that! The CoPilot software is supplied on its media as a generic package that has to be activated using a licence code. This is supplied within the package. Once the code is entered the device will register itself. If you do not have an internet connection on your device you can register over email and enter an activation key that gets provided by return email. Due to the nature of this authentication procedure you can port your CoPilot software easily between both ROM and device upgrades. There are no limits on quantity or frequency of activations and reactivations. Only that just one device can be active at any time. To move your licence to a new device you will only need to enter the licensing applet on the device and deactivate each of your authenticated maps and services. Once this is complete you can install CoPilot on your new/upgraded device and then licence the newly installed copy as you did previously.

Hardware

As previously stated the package I received was a software review package and did not contain any retail GPS accessories. If at a later date the hardware is made available to us I will update the review accordingly.


Software Features

Pocket PC Features:

Voice instructions
Vehicle specific routing profiles
Avoid specific roads
Planning mode to customise routes
2D/3D mapping
Landscape and Portrait support
2D auto zoom to next turn
Night mode
Driver safety screen
Customisable display
Route from Outlook contacts
7 digit postcode search
Waypoints
Automatic route recalculation
Lane change warnings
Route optimisations
POI (Point Of Interest) alerts
Ov2 compatible POI’s
Side of street notification
Text to speech road names and messaging
Voice "skinning"
Automatic BT GPS Setup
Safety camera warnings
Real time traffic warnings

PC Features:

Trip planning
Map preview
Map download
Local POI search
POI management

Web Features:

Itinerary Updates
Real Time Vehicle Tracking
Instant Messaging

Presentation Graphically this latest CoPilot is the best ever. Every aspect of the package is lovely to look at. The 2D view looks good, but the 3 dimensional view looks particularly stunning, having a cell shaded look about it. In the main driving screen you can follow the map well into the distance and still get an indication of how the land lies. It's particularly spectacular in night mode. The icons for the various options in the menu system are also beautifully drawn, and there's a smart hint of glass effect on the buttons too. Both the default day and night themes are attractively and functionally coloured so that every time you glance at the display, and you do only have to glance, it is a pleasure. The display colours are also completely configurable so should you wish to have the roads displayed in shocking pink or a soothing pastel shade, the option is yours. While we're on the subject of the day and night themes, the auto selection feature that sets the theme to match the time of day works seamlessly and is a lovely touch.

The main display screen is well laid out with a good large map display. At the bottom of panel is the menu button which is bright, but a little small. Along side the menu button is the information panel. This information panel can display any one of a selection of information pairs. Examples include Speed & Distance or Altitude & Heading. I would have liked the panel to have been more configurable so as to place the information I preferred in it but this is not the case. There is also a status bar above the information panel showing street names and a small dashboard above that showing wireless connection information. At the top of the screen are two buttons controlling the map zoom. There is one final box that displays the GPS status and the next turn information above the menu button. Generally I thought the driving screen was well laid out and easy to read at a glance. This is a must have for a GPS navigation package, so CoPilot scores big here.

From an Audio perspective CoPilot has a fairly standard feel about it. There are no unusual audio features but the voice implementation is loud and clear. You get a large variety of voices to choose from too, in many different languages. The one issue I did have with the audio is the lack of speed controlled volume. In order to change the volume you have to enter a couple of levels into the menus, and if you swap between urban and motorway driving often you'll find it difficult to find a sound level that fits all scenarios. This means you'll either be straining to hear, drowned out or constantly accessing the device. ALK have informed me that a speed controlled volume feature will be added to the system with an update at a later date.

Ease of Use

With driving laws becoming ever stricter, and for general road user safety, a telling sign of a GPS systems quality is minimal user interaction with the system once the vehicle is in motion. In order to reduce user attention and physical contact with the device to a minimum the menu systems need to be well thought out and the interface graphics easily recognizable at a glance. The majority of the CoPilot 7 menu system follows these guidelines beautifully. The navigation system is one of these, being simple, yet effective. You get many different ways of identifying your destination including Addresses, 7 digit post code searches, favourites, POI’s and mapping coordinates. One of the more unusual and effective methods to plot your destination is by using the contact information stored in your Windows Mobile contacts. As long as your addresses are stored correctly you can simply select the contact and CoPilot will take you right to their door. An excellent feature. I found the keyboard keys using for typing in addresses and post codes etc a little small, but usable, for use in portrait mode, but fine in landscape. With the many different screen sizes available on Pocket PCs you'd find the larger devices easier to use in portrait. Obviously if you have a device with a hardware keyboard the size of the on-screen panel would not be an issue.

To plan your trip you simply need to tap the menu button on the drive screen. You'll then enter the destination menu. From here if you have the address or 7 digit post code you enter this on the keyboard and then next. You'll then see the routing screen, and should the route be acceptable you just hit done again and you'll be returned to the driving screen, route plotted. The screen shots below show this process.



The only issue I had with the menus was the entry into the system itself. ALK have done a great job of keeping on concurrent screen options in the menus to no more than 6 per screen attached to big colourful buttons. Accessing through the system is quickly and easily achieved......once you're into it. It seems bizarre that after having gone to so much trouble with the menu structure and that graphic design that the menu button itself be so small, and why can't you just tap the whole viewable portion of the map and get into the menus? It's a small, but in my view major, oversight. The main "drive" screen of Copilot is well designed, easily customisable, and capable of showing a vast amount of informative and interesting information. The safety view screen that shows your next turning as a full screen information window over the top of the map at certain distances is a great idea, even though personally I preferred the map view.

ALK has bundled a large array of Point Of Interest (POI's) into CoPilot 7 that can be used in two ways. You can select any of the POI to always be displayed on your journeys with an icon placed onto your driving map in real-time as you approach the POI. The second option is to search for nearby POI's of a certain type. For example if you need cash in a hurry you can search by local ATM (cash) machines. Both options work well and certainly for the local areas I tested the software the POI information seemed very current. As with the traffic and safety camera in formation the POI database can be updated from the PC console.

The Live web console, while I think it's aimed more at the commercial market has a couple of great features for the private user. Setting up the console is a simple process, you just need to browse to live.alk.com and create a user ID. You then enter your user ID into the Live settings on the device and login on the web site. As long as you have CoPilot started, a GPS lock and an active GPRS connection your location will pop up on the map. Nice, for tracking someone’s progress, but it gets better. From within the Live web console you can send new routes to the device, and locate POI's then route the device to those too, cool. My personal favourite though has to be the message sending application. Ever wanted to communicate with a loved one while driving? How difficult, not to mention illegal, is it to hold an SMS conversation? Well, returning to the focus of less button activity is better for driving concentration the messaging facility allows you to send a message from the console, delivered almost instantaneously, with up to 4 easy to configure responses. My wife and I found the "What time will you be home?" message particularly useful, with the following set up as possible answers "7?, 7:15?, 7:30?, Later", brilliant.

The Traffic information feature picks up potential black spots and can route you around them. With the Traffic feature enabled, you are simply required to plan your route and the Traffic system will go away and check it for roadworks and lane closures etc. I found the roadworks facility to be particularly accurate when compared with the online systems of the AA and the RAC. For those road warriors out there living and driving in and around the major cities this would be an invaluable asset.

One feature included that will appeal to the more rapid amongst us is the Safety Camera notification. The Safety Camera warning system implementation here is a standard image and audible warning system that you can configure from a set distance. The camera database can be kept current with free downloads using the CoPilot Central desktop application. The system uses the now standard OV2 files and so can be used with the third party camera databases such as those hosted on Pocket GPS World.

Along with the excellent web console ALK have bundled CoPilot Central with this latest iteration of the software. CoPilot Central is a PC desktop application that allows you to download program updates, extra maps and plan your routes from the PC. The clever part is that CoPilot Central can combine all three of these facilities. If for example you were planning a road trip from the UK across France to Spain you could plot the route in CoPilot Central, then pay for and download the maps required for the journey. You then put the maps on to your SD card, slot it back into your device and you're good to go. An excellent idea, well implemented. One feature of the CoPilot Central application that could be a real winner is the facility to download feature updates for the application and install them when connected to the PC. This could represent an excellent opportunity for ALK to fine tune CoPilot once it's live and easily update the installations that are already seeing real world action.

Performance The maps supplied with this latest version of CoPilot are the latest 2007 iteration provided by NAVTEQ. This map base seems to be the most common used by the latest generation of GPS software packages. These maps are probably the most up to date reference available for vector mapping. CoPilot includes several different routing profiles ranging from Cars and Motorcycles to pedal cycles and even for pedestrians. These profiles are designed to route you the fastest or shortest route your method of transport can use. For example on foot you'll find footpaths included into the routings and cycle paths become available for the pedal cycle profile. I found generally the mapping and routing information for cars to be accurate and up to date. I had a few issues with the cycle and pedestrian options with some well established local foot paths and cycle paths not being covered. I also found that some times using these profiles roads that should have been used were not, leading to some strange overly long winded routes being suggested. ALK confirmed the routing for both the Pedestrian and Cycle profiles avoids dual carriageways and motorways. Obviously avoiding motorways is a must but in my experience most urban dual carriageways have dedicated foot and or cycle paths set back from them and so become a valid route for the non-road going profiles. From a personal perspective I think this is a mistake, and rather than omitting dual carriageways totally a warning suggesting the format of the road should be enough. As an example if you look at the three images below the first shows the car routing, the second the cycle routing and third the pedestrian route. On the first image I've indicated in pink the actual route I use which incorporates an unmapped footpath. You'll see that my route is not used, because the footpath isn't listed. This is understandable. However, if you look at both the cycle and pedestrian routes they take you miles (literally) out of your way because the car route uses two dual carriageways. If, like me, you have some issues with the default routing profiles you can create your own profiles if you wish. This would allow you get around the foibles of the supplied profiles like the avoidance of the A roads in the cycling and pedestrian profiles.

From a GPS navigation performance perspective, in general, CoPilot ran very well during my tests with the low powered CPU, external GPS combination of the HTC Touch. Navigating through the internal menus was swift and with no noticeable lag. I clocked the in use memory footprint at start-up at 5.25MB, increasing to 10.5MB once a lock had been established and a test route entered. I timed the GPS lock from a cold start at 5pm in the evening and under clear skies. The lock itself from program start-up to location identification from the bench in my garden was 56 seconds. I also tried using the device for other applications whilst CoPilot is running and found the device responded reasonably well for tasks like searching the web and reading email. There was some lag, but it was definitely usable. The last performance test and possibly the important for my own use is how the device handles incoming and outgoing calls while the GPS navigation system is active. To this end I tested incoming and outgoing calls by default using the handset itself and in a hands free fashion using a Bluetooth headset (Plantronics 855). Making out going calls with the handset was reasonably seamless with the GPS running and although the screen update of the caller ID is a little jerky for incoming calls it was satisfactory. The Bluetooth headset also performed well, although the only lockup of the software I received while testing was when I received and incoming call, an SMS and an email at almost the same time. CoPilot stayed open, but hung. Like I said earlier though, this was once from many hours of testing.

Value ALK have stated the retail package will come in 3 flavours: 1) Software & Storage card. Includes a DVD, 1GB Micro SD (with Mini and SD card adapters), single region map licence (£79.99). 2) Full Bluetooth kit. Includes everything in 1) + Bluetooth Receiver, Car Charger, In-Car mount and splitter cable (£149.99). 3) GPS Kit (for devices with integrated GPS) Includes everything in 1) + Car Charger, In-Car mount and splitter cable (99.99). ALK have let me know that both O2 and T-Mobile will continue to bundle CoPilot with their devices, and the new version will ship from 1st November 2007. Obviously when this is available from O2 and T-Mobile will be down to the provider. You'll also be able to pick up CoPilot with new devices from Carphone Warehouse. ALK also stated that existing customers will be entitled to substantial discounts on the upgrade. They are quoting the new version of the software + preloaded 1GB storage card for £49.99. If you also decide to add the Traffic Service to your package as well, you will need to find an additional £34.99, although this is valid for 2 years. Fleetcentre multi-vehicle tracking (for business use) will cost you £15 per vehicle per month. Fortunately, there's a silver lining tucked away too, with the Live tracking facility coming to you free (although you still have to pay for your data). My favourite price! As GPS systems go, CoPilot is firmly in the middle of the price scale. There are some cheaper and some more expensive packages available. If, when the hardware is released, it is as polished as the software it will be a very good package at a very reasonable price. As is, the software is priced competitively enough to make it an attractive proposition indeed.

Pros & Cons

Pros	Cons
Lovely graphics in both day and night modes.	Confusing default Pedestrian/Cycling routing preferences.
Great distance detail in 3D view.	No speed controlled volume (to be added later).
Good safety view screen.	Menu button too small on touchscreen devices.
Easy to install and licence.	Keyboard tight in portrait mode on smaller devices.
Large selection of provided POI's.	Some confusion with house numbers.
Uses OV2 standard camera DB files.
Nice tracking and message sending web application.
Good desktop application.
Easy access to satellite diagnostics.
Attractive pricing options.

4WM Rating 88%

Conclusion From the moment you lay your hands on the packaging it's apparent that ALK have produced a very slick product. CoPilot is very well designed, beautiful to look at and very attractively priced, even with the extra cost of the Traffic service. The web and PC consoles add two extra dimensions to what is already a very full featured Satellite Navigation system. It's true that CoPilot is not without a few routing issues, especially within the different vehicle profiles, but if I had to get lost in the middle of nowhere with just my car and my Touch? I'd want to have CoPilot 7 on my MicroSD card. Note: Although the CoPilot package reviewed here was a pre-release version I have been informed that the issues highlighted will not be changed in the retail release. ALK have assured me that they are dedicated to responding to customer feedback and that once they have researched the above issues they have the facility to address these in a later update. That said, these are minor faults and feature omissions that really don't detract from the CoPilot experience.