Alk Technologies Launch CoPilot for MS Smartphone

Demon · Occasional Visitor Joined: Sep 04, 2004 Posts: 3

On the C500 front.. BT is fine.. the stack appears robust.. don't know where your information comes from, but so far its BT reliability is way in excess of my HP2210..

As for Copilot Live Smartphone.. been trying it for a day (got a review version from ALK)
Coming from TOMTOM (PocketPC) I have my reservations to its usefulness, my negative points so far
1. Menu's are just text, and hard to read on the move
2. Inputting destinations is not as easy as the review indicates, for example, I haven't found a way of just browsing via a map, and selecting a destination based on this.. you can get to a map view, and move it around/zoom in, but there is no menu cursor or menu option to "Set as destination". So if you can get near the place, then switch to the MAP view, you can't then set a point from this view
3. The Postcodes are next to useless, as with TOMTOM..
4. Favourites are just added automatically whenever you select a new address. So to pre-enter you favs, you need to pretend to plan a trip, entering all the places.. but this list soon gets out of hand, as all the daily places you nav to keep filling it up, so its a case of tidying it up all the time. A good example is entering your home or place of work. To do this, you have to plana trip, put in the address of your work or home as a stop, then this goes back to the trip planning screen. You then need to add another stop, select favourites, then from the favourites list, select your work address which now appears, press menu->Set as work, then select this address.. this seems to much hassle..
5. The 3D view is just not as useful as TOMTOM, the map stays fixed for a few seconds, whilst the cursor moves up the road, when it gets to about halfway up the screen, it redraws the next 3D view, with the cursor back to the bottom of the screen.. compared to TOMTOM, which has a 3d view which updates live, and shows you the view you can see out the car window, co-pilot's implementation is a nicety, but I think the 2D view works better.
6. Safety screen directions are good, but directions when the 3d map is on are poor.. the awkward redraw and lack of roundabout symbols showing the exit relative to your entry point made me change lanes in a hurry too often. However, switching to the safety view is better, but then no map..
7. The Bluetooth setup screen, needs some confirmation of communnication with the BT GPS.. it was hard at first to know if it is communication, as the emtac unit supplied is faulty, it just won't commicate to the Phone, my trusty fortuna however worked fine..

SO far thats about it.. I appreciate this is very critical.. at the end of the day, this software does navigate, the maps are OK, the directions are just about adequate, and its graphics are better then Mapopolis..

I am now looking forward to trialling TOMTOM smartphone..

Darren · Posted: Sat Sep 18, 2004 7:44 pm Post subject:

The C500 BT issues relate to TomTom Mobile.

1. Menus should not be accessed or read on the move but I have indicated that TomTom handle this better. And we haven't released a review yet so what 'review' are you referring to?

2. You are correct, you cannot browse to a map location and set this as a destination, we have discussed this with ALK and they are working on it.

3. Agreed

4. Agreed.

5. 3D view is pretty much useless in all the apps I have seen, it may 'look' better but it is often at the expense of detail and fov.

6. I disagree here, IMHO ALK's Safety Screen implementation is excellent and makes the prosepct of navigation on a Smartphone a realistic option given the much smaller screen estate. CoPilot's spoken instructions are alos concise.

7. I partly agree although the guide says that if the UTC time is incrementing on the GPS Setup Screen then communication is established.
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Darren Griffin

Demon · Occasional Visitor Joined: Sep 04, 2004 Posts: 3

On the C500 BT front, I've been using Mapopolis, and co-pilot flawlessly with BT GPS, so I can therefore assume if TOMTOM are having trouble, it is the TOMTOM software, not the phone?? (and possibly why they don't list the C500 as a compatible model yet?).

As for the other points I made, of course, this was only my view, I use sat-nav a lot, with the travelling I do, its mainly new customers, whom I've never been to before, and also have a few favourites that I like to keep constant, so If I'm near a friends/relatives house while on a trip, I can quickly navigate there if I finish early.

I apologise if my comments seem harsh, and I think I was confusing the PocketPC review about easy address entry. oops Smile

and having used co-pilot for a few days was starting to get frustrated at not being able to easily use the software, plus the emtac BT GPS they sent was not working either, and it took me 2 hours to realise this, after much messing around.

As for the other points..
1. In reality menu's will be accessed on the move for many reasons.. perhaps not the safest thing to do, but its responsible to ensure if this happens, the drivers attention is not averted for longer then is necessary.. And looking at TOMTOM's larger Icons based menu, this does seem more user friendly, although I haven't tried it yet.
2. As it turns out neither does mapopolis easily.. I just hope TOMTOM does, and that ALK do.. I appreciate and understand the limitations of address entry, but I am still appalled at all these sat-nav options.. if a third party can do a TOMTOM full postcode add on that works amazingly well, that ALK/TOMTOM can't implement this as well.. I would pay more for this feature if postcode databases cost money!

5. I disagree on this.. TOMTOM's 3D aspect seems almost spot on, perhaps its just me, but I find the view, almost exactly the same FOV as looking out the windscreen. I have many a time been on unfamiliar roads, and find TOMTOM's view a real help in knowing whether the approaching blind bend tightens or opens up.. I am not alone in this either. I admit that perhaps this is used to increase the average speed on journeys where you just want to get home, although we do generally adhere to
speed limits, seeing the road ahead in realtime seems a useful driver aid. All my colleagues using TOMTOM comment on the 3D view, and in one way or another they prefer it to 2D..

6. My intention was to praise the safety screen layout, especially as it shows the correct roundabout symbols, etc, something very necessary when navigating in busy places.. My comment was really that TOMTOM uses these roundabout symbols and shows the 3D map at the same time, Co-pilot for some reason only shows straight on /left/right arrows and the map, or, if put in safety screen mode, does show a much better interpretation of directions. I know screen real estate is a premium, and would like to try tomtom MOBILE to see if this is workable or not.

7. Using the UTC time incrementing is a valid way of checking comms I agree, but they really need to improve this part of the software, and some sort of satellite map, etc to show how many satellites are in view, and how many locked seems great for diagnostics.. sometimes in bad areas of reception, its hard to know if the GPS is at fault, or the software unless enough information is conveyed to you.

Please don't think I am too against Co-pilot, and want a much more competitive product to TOMTOM, as in certain areas of TOMTOM, such as their BT implementation leave a lot to be desired.. with customer support coming into it, something like co-pilot taking the lead would certainly make TOMTOM more responsive..

Darren · Posted: Sun Sep 19, 2004 5:05 pm Post subject:

Thanks for your comments which are welcomed.

TomTom has always stood out from its competitors because it has a superb UI which can be navigated by anyone without reference to a manual or previous experience. CoPilot has always been a more 'technical' product and as you have observed this has carried over to the Smartphone version. I agree that its menu structure needs to be improved but both TomTom and CoPilot have strengths and weaknesses.

We will be bringing in depth reviews of both products to the site shortly and hopefully this will highlight the Pros and Cons of both products.
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Darren Griffin

Dave · Posted: Sun Sep 19, 2004 5:07 pm Post subject:

gstenson · Posted: Wed Sep 22, 2004 9:19 am Post subject:

Anyone seen CoPilot Smartphone for sale yet? TT Mobile is available here http://www.totalpda.co.uk/Tomtom-Mobile.aspx for £169+VAT.

Thanks

Dave · Posted: Thu Sep 23, 2004 7:12 am Post subject:

It started shipping on Tuesday to retailers, we also have a review that hopefully will be released later today :D

stuartm · Posted: Wed Sep 29, 2004 1:38 pm Post subject:

Dave · Posted: Wed Sep 29, 2004 9:23 pm Post subject:

Oh christ, TomTom are going to start hating me! Embarassed

stuartm · Posted: Thu Sep 30, 2004 9:04 am Post subject:

We still love you. It's entirely there own fault, they don't have the foresight to do what ALK have done and provide the software in a format that can be used in both standard and reduced size SD cards, they've gone backwards by not supporting the Ken tax or Traffic, I don't trust them to play nicely with other BT devices and for a company whose entire reason for existence is navigation I have no faith in their ability to deal with anything but the simplest of GPS configurations.

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