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July/Aug 2004
Evaluation: Co Pilot Live for Pocket PC
PDA-based navigation system ALK Technologies Our impression CoPilot Live 5 is a GPS navigation application for Pocket PC devices from US company ALK technologies. In its home territory ALK is best-known for its truck routing and scheduling systems, and CoPilot was originally part of its now rebranded TravRoute product range. 
New features for version 5 of the system include route planning, route avoidance, points of interest and optional traffic congestion notification. It incorporates Navteq's 2004 map data set, so can claim to be the first navigation system for Pocket PCs to incorporate the M6 road toll data. CoPilot Live 5 comes in two versions. If your Pocket PC device already has GPS capability, you can buy a software-only package costing around £110, which comprises an application disk and a data disk containing digital maps of Europe. The full package, costing around £240, also includes a GPS receiver with in-vehicle power adapter and mounting kit. The latest GPS receiver is Bluetooth-enabled, but also comes with a wired connection in case your PDA doesn't have Bluetooth connectivity Quick and easy setup is a claim made by any self-respecting hardware and software vendor these days, but CoPilot does do exactly what it says on the box. You can install the application in two ways. If your PDA has an expandable memory slot, the Quick Start storage card will automatically load the application and map data on to the PDA. If your PDA doesn't have the appropriate slot, you need to hook it up to your PC and load the data via the desktop application and ActiveSync. ActiveSync is also necessary if you want to upgrade points of interest on map data files later. By default, CoPilot stores the data-rich map files on a flash card memory to avoid eating into the limited memory of PDAs. The application first asks you which map data sets you want to download. Once you have selected an area, CoPilot then usefully tells you both how much space is available for data storage on the storage card or PDA, and how much space the map data you requested will take up. You can adjust the size of the map or area to take up less or more space, and, memory permitting, you can download data for other regions where you travel most. This saves you swamping the PDA memory with map data you will rarely if ever need. CoPilot is generally sold with a single-country or area licence. CoPilot prompts you to select a region as part of the activation process, and once selected it cannot be changed. If you want to add other countries, you need to buy an additional licence. What about updating map data at regular intervals? ALK plans to do this using a process similar to topping up pay-as-you-go mobile phones, although details and prices have yet to be announced. CoPilot comes with a dashboard mounting kit that secures the device in the air vent. I'm not a fan of these brackets because they are fiddly and prone to come off. Having said that, I had no problems with the one supplied by ALK. If you're considering using the device in a van or light truck, vibration would also become an issue, and it might be worth investing in a more permanent mounting solution. The very compact and light GPS receiver is Bluetooth-enabled and powered by lithium-ion batteries, recharged via the cigarette lighter. Three LED lights indicate signal, Bluetooth connectivity and charging status. There are two non-slip strips on the bottom, so it can sit easily on the dashboard. There is also a slot for a carry strap if you want to use it out of the car, although actually it's small enough to slip into a pocket. CoPilot Live 5 has several features to speed up route-planning and navigation. You only need to enter your starting point the first time you use it to speed up the GPS initialisation process. After that the unit automatically calculates your starting point, usually taking less than a minute to get a position fix. Navigation During the setup process, you get the choice of text-to-speech TTS files or pre-recorded WAV files for the voice turn-by-turn instructions. The WAV files use less space on the Pocket PC but the downside is that you get less street-level detail in turn-by-turn driving instructions. The developers of CoPilot Live 5 have clearly thought hard about how and when users are going to use CoPliot and for which journeys, with the result that it is extremely easy to use. You can pre-enter and save regular destination points including work and home; save journeys; and import addresses from the Contacts file in Pocket PC. The route planning facility allows you to enter multiple stops - much quicker then entering separate journeys - and you can change the starting point and compare journey times. You can also tell CoPilot to compare routes, and to avoid toll roads and the London congestion charging zone. The display on CoPilot 5 Live is impressive. There are two versions - Driver Safety and Passenger. The Driver Safety screen shows maps only when you approach a turn or are travelling slower than 10mph. Outside those parameters, you get voice instructions only and on-screen messages about next turn, distance to next turn, current road, nearest town and estimated time to next stop. This is especially helpful - it prevents any risk of being distracted by a pretty map when you should be looking at the road ahead. You can toggle between screens, so you can do a visual check at critical points if you don't fully understand the voice instructions. CoPilot maximises use of the relatively small PDA screen by hiding the toolbar. You can call it up by tapping your finger on the screen. The useful Nightmode option changes the colour of the display to make it more easily visible when driving at night. You can also select a 3D map option, which I didn't find particularly helpful, but does seem to be a feature demanded by customers. More helpful, perhaps is the optional real-time traffic information facility, which requires a GSM- or GPRS-enabled phone. Our verdict If you already own a PDA, CoPilot Live 5 offers the sort of navigation experience usually found on much more expensive systems. It even has a walking mode. It's easy to set up, it's very intuitive, it seems to give helpful and accurate driving instructions - and I definitely don't want to give mine back! System requirements PDA
PC
GPS Receiver
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