Overview
One great thing about writing for AppAdvice is that you, our readers, help us do a better job. Recently I wrote a review for MobileNavigator and a reader pointed out CoPilot Live as a possible alternative to MobileNavigator. I agreed that CoPilot Live was worth a look, especially since it had a similar feature set as MobileNavigator and was nearly one third the price.
In my previous review, I more or less held up MobileNavigator as THE navigation app to beat on the App Store. With such a drastically lower price, CoPilot Live could position itself to be a serious competitor, but for that to happen, it has to have a great, well-implemented feature set. So is MobileNavigator’s status safe for now? Is CoPilot Live a legitimate competitor? Not really. Let’s see why.
Features
• Text-to-speech and turn-by-turn voice directions
• Maps of USA and Canada stored on the iPhone
• 3D/2D driving views with speed-variable zooming
• Ability to navigate to address book contacts
• Portrait/landscape mode
• Option to detour and choose an alternate route
• Route optimizer
• Tap to dial a POI directly on screen
• Pre-trip planning and preview
• Auto day/night mode
• Live weather for your location/destination
• RV mode provides guidance for larger vehicles
The Breakdown
I want to tell you that CoPilot Live is an amazing app and that, for $35, is a great bargain and should be considered before you buy one of the more expensive navigation apps on the App Store. I want to be able to say that, but I just can’t. CoPilot Live is a clunky, if not confusing, navigation app. Menus are arranged illogically and the UI doesn’t even adhere to the sleek, intuitive look and feel of the iPhone.
Worst of all, the first time I took this app on the road to test it out, it got me stone cold lost! A friend had recently moved houses, so I input his address with no other knowledge of the area and set out. Not only did CoPilot Live fail to alert me to my approaching turn into my friend’s neighborhood, but it never mentioned that I had passed my turn or that it was recalculating a new route. When I finally began to question where it was taking me, I discovered I was 6 miles past my destination! Since I had to delete MobileNavigator to make room for CoPilot Live, I pulled out the trusty Garmin to get me back on track. Had I not given up on it, CoPilot Live would have continued to lead me in the wrong direction. Who knows where I would have ended up!
But before I make you think that CoPilot Live isn’t even worthy of being called a navigation app, let me be clear. CoPilot Live is a navigation app that would most likely get you to your destination were you to use it. That said, I’m not really satisfied with “most likely.” Not only that, but if developers decide to bring an app to a slick, intuitive, user-friendly device like the iPhone, then your app had darned well better be slick, intuitive and user-friendly too. It should also adhere to the look and feel of the iPhone’s UI.
Now, before I roast CoPilot Live in the furnace of my scorn, let’s have a look at a few of the things CoPilot Live gets right…or right-ish, at least.
The Good
CoPilot Live has most of the basic features you would expect from a navigation app on the iPhone. The common theme among them all is that they are very poorly implemented which is almost unforgivable on a device as cool as the iPhone. For the sake of brevity, I won’t list all the reasons why these good things are also kind of bad. Instead, let’s just take them at face value.
CoPilot Live has iPod integration, which is virtually mandatory for a navigation app on the iPhone. It also has text-to-speech that allows it to pronounce street names. It also has a few other handy features like the ability to tap on a POI to call it. It also works in both landscape and portrait mode and does a few other basics like showing the next turn.
One feature that CoPilot Live deserves credit for is the route planner and trip optimizer. If you typically use a feature like this, you would likely appreciate knowing it’s available on CoPilot Live. I also like the fact that CoPilot Live stores the maps on the phone itself. I realize that not everyone is a fan of this model, but as I said in my review for MobileNavigator, I’m not going to trust AT&T’s data coverage if I’m ever stranded in the boonies. I want the maps on the device, even if it does take up a little over a gig of space to do it. So CoPilot Live does get it right as far as this is concerned.
The Bad
Overall, the look and feel of this app is slow and unnatural to the typical feel of the iPhone. For example, rather than swiping left or right to go to other pages in menus, CoPilot Live has left/right buttons to tap. I dare even go so far as to say that the layout of these menus is illogical and counter-intuitive. Rather than drilling down into folders or menus in a logical form, CoPilot Live’s menus are just all over the place. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gotten lost in the menus with no idea how to get back out to the map view.
And if I wanted to change a view or setting, I was usually only successful in doing so after just flipping through until I happened onto whatever I was looking for. I’m a fairly gadget savvy soul, friends, so for me to say that means something. Sure, I figured it out, but my point is that users shouldn’t have to. Things should just make sense, which isn’t the case with CoPilot Live.
CoPilot Live also has a button for “Live Traffic” but it is disabled by default and I have no clue how to turn it on because there is no explanation for why it was disabled in the first place. Is there a subscription? Is it an in-app purchase? Users are left to wonder. After some Googling, I discovered that traffic is a premium service available for purchase on ALK’s website for $20, but there is no way to purchase it from the app itself, which also makes no sense, seeing as how Apple has allowed in-app purchases for precisely these types of features.
iPod integration is a must-have for any iPhone navigation app to be taken seriously. Until last week’s update, CoPilot Live did not have this critical feature. It currently does allow for iPod integration, but again, the user interface is clunky and looks like the UI of a cheap, third party mp3 player. It does not allow for fast forwarding, rewinding or scrubbing through tracks. The track progress bar also moves every 5-7 seconds or so as opposed to constantly showing the progress of the track as it plays. I know this is a minor issue, but it contributes to the overall feel of a slow, backwards UI scheme.
Lastly, I have to mention the speech voice. Voice. As in, there’s only one. If you want CoPilot Live to speak street names, there’s only one voice that does it and it’s a very mechanical, monotone computer voice. If you are okay with “turn left” instead of “turn left on Main Street” then there is a huge selection of two other voices to choose from: a man and a woman voice. Granted, they sound far less mechanical, but again, it makes me wonder how quickly the developers just rushed this app to the App Store.
The Verdict
Currently, it would seem that as far as navigation apps go, you pay for what you get. If higher quality navigation apps like MobileNavigator or TomTom cost around $90, then you can get one-third the quality at one-third the price by purchasing CoPilot Live for $35. CoPilot Live seems like it is not quite ready for prime time. Granted, the beauty of the iPhone format is that all the developers have to do is release an update, but CoPilot Live needs more than just an update or two before it’s ready to compete on the same level with more serious navigation apps.
If you are in dire need of a navigation app on your iPhone, but you really balk at the $90 price tag of other navigation apps, then CoPilot Live might be the app for you. But before you say “oh that’s me!” and rush off to purchase it, consider that it may be less frustrating to just purchase a higher quality app from the start than to fumble with one like CoPilot Live that just isn’t as good. But if quality of execution or UI really doesn’t bother you and you just want something that works for far less money, then CoPilot Live may be your best option. Just remember that I cautioned you first.
Our Rating
CoPilot Live North America
- Developer: ALK Technologies, Ltd.
- Category: Navigation
- Released: 09/29/2009
(currently 8.0.0.618)
(currently 29.99)
Although you have some valid points, i think you have been biased. When driving you don’t need to fast forward a song, cause you should be concentrating on the road. Why you don’t mention Safety View which CoPilot offers? and others don’t? Or ability to create Routing Profile and set which roads you prefer , not just fast, short or whatever?
You also don’t mention LiveLink which is great when my friends driving to the same place and i can see where they are?
I don’t find CoPilot to be slow, in fact i see Navigator sluggish time to time. I think there is improvement from UI point of view for CoPilot, however it was very easy for me to use because it is the same interface as for Windows Mobile or Android.
The buttons are large and while it is mounted to the windscreen i can easily perform operations like changing the Information Bar with a touch of the button. I would say In-Car friendly UI.
You do make a valid point about the maps, but CoPilot launched MapSure to improve it, where they promise to add missing place in 45 days, again you don’t mention it here.
So it seems to be that you haven’t spend enough time looking into the application but rushed into making assumption.
Since launch, ALK developers have listened and delivered many features we have been asking for, what has TomTom, Navigon or AT&T have done in the past few month?
ramzez,
First of all, thanks for reading and thanks for sharing your thoughts. I can appreciate your passion for CoPilot Live. However, I’m not sure you proved your case that my opinion about CoPilot Live is somehow a biased one. I simply think CoPilot Live is poorly executed, especially when compared to the competition. Other AppAdvice staffers agree with me and I’m sure readers will too.
Obviously, most navigation apps have a lot of features, and different navigation apps have certain features that make them distinct from other navigation apps. But there are a several key features that should be present and well implemented on any navigation app in order for it to be considered on the same level as the competition.
These key features are the ones I chose to focus on in my review because they are the most common features users want before they spend their hard earned cash on an app. If CoPilot Live can’t deliver basic features well, then I think users will just become as frustrated with CoPilot Live as I was during the two weeks I tested it.
At any rate, now that you have brought up some of these secondary features, readers are aware. I guess if I am biased at all, I am biased in favor of high quality apps that work with the sleek UI of the iPhone, rather than in spite of it. CoPilot Live just doesn’t get the job done enough to earn my $35, but I’m glad you enjoy it and thanks for reading!
You contradict yourself, if you were only looking at basics, that showing track progress every 5-7 seconds is not something an average joe really wants while driving somewhere.
lack of in-app purchase which is funny is not something TomTom, iGo, Sygic, Giviko is offering yet as well.
So basically, you didn’t like the UI and gave it less then 2 stars, only because it is not Apple UI. However, have you actually tried using it while navigating? Can you count number of clicks you need to perform to view Itinerary on TomTom ? and how quick it is actually to come back to map view from any menu? or while handling a wheel what is easier to press a button or to swipe?
Yes there are pitfalls, of course no software is perfect, but in my personal opinion 1.5 star for the UI which is quite easy to operate and click through may not be perfect but it deserves at least 3 stars, because if you look at the stand alone units they are using big buttons.
Also, What kind of the iPhone integration you didn’t like? For example Tomtom when i listen to my Pioneer car stereo which is iPhone compatible just pauses music, and the only way to bring it back is to click play, you have to do each time instruction is spoken. Yes, I understand that CoPilot plays at the same time (which is what happens when standalone units talks while you playing music), however i believe it will be addressed.
It remember destination you put if you had incoming call, it can call POI, it uses iPhone keyboard (NDrive and iGo doesn’t), it let’s you use iPod UI for selecting songs. Why it is again only 2 stars???
That’s why i think your review is biased. Because if you really look into it this software deserves 4 stars. And the only reason I am saying this because i drove with TomTom and my friend has Navigon and seen how it works. And then i got CoPilot which is not perfect yet, but is really makes your phone like a Stand alone GPS unit.
Was this ‘review’ written by a MobileNavigator employee…?
I don’t think it’s a MobileNavigator employee but I also think that Copilot is tailored to Power users and not the avarage Joe that does not know how to use a GPS.
I have no problems with CoPilot, in fact I bought it and find it really usefull and more powerfull than others.
But I think that Copilot could have help themselves and some users by making their software more user friendly. Ex: Enabling the fewer settings option by default, run some sort of “Fist time user help” wizard when you start the app for the first time, enable the mapshare update at startup by default instead of having to go find it and also setting up the TTS by default as well as it seems a lot of poeple cannot find the option or are just not curious enough to figure it out. Also the UK female voice is a lot better than the US male one… and the mapshare is a good idea…
Featurewise, I think Copilot is a lot better than TOMTOM and the developers really do listen to feedbacks (not like TOMTOM of Igo nowhere….) and have already issued about 4 updates to the software, each time adding new features…
I never had an issue with the maps (YET…) but did find some places that it did not have and a quick trip to the mapshare website fixed it…
Also if poeple would read the description for the software, they would see that the in-app purchase of live traffic is coming soon…
sounds like ramzez works for/ is paid by CoPilot. There was nothing in this review that said that CoPilot wasn’t a good app, only that we tend to think our users will lean toward Navigon, as it’s a much more user friendly and intuitive interface.
I have used both of the apps, and have no bias in this case (neither does Hayden I assure you), I find faults with all of the navigation apps currently available, and I’m still waiting for one that compares with my dedicated garmin unit. However here is my OPINION in this particular matter. CoPilot is difficult to use, it’s got a ton of features, most of which the average person will never know even exist. It takes a lot of learning, or fiddling to find how to do simple tasks. Navigon is not marketed toward these “power users”. It’s simple, a few buttons is all there are to choose from. It does a great job getting you from point A to point B in a beautifully displayed map environment. I 100% agree with the reviewer that the average iPhone and GPS users will want to pick up Navigon and leave CoPilot alone. However I will say that I current use CoPilot for optimizing my routes, and then I take the optimized route and reenter it into navigon, it’s a feature that only CoPilot has provided thus far.
Thanks for a good app reviews for CoPilot Live. I was looking for some authentic reviews of this app. But in my opinion, its quite expensive. I have a concern about this app what about the map updates in future?
Does it really take 5-7 seconds to update it’s position?
That is a very long time, I could be 2 blocks past my
destination by then.
Bill,
No, CoPilot does not take that long to update or show your position on the map. When I mentioned that in my review, I was saying that when using the iPod, there is a progress indicator that shows your progress in a song, and that progress indicator does not update it’s position in the song constantly as it would in the default iPod app. Rather, the progress indicator “skips” every five or seven seconds to show that the song is playing. Does that make sense? Basically, the UI in CoPilot’s iPod integration looks/behaves poorly. Hope that clears that up for you.
I was just about to purchase copilot. This is a great review and the comments helped a lot. I still don’t know whether I want to buy a tomtom or the copilot. From what I gathered from ur review, the major problem that you find with this app is the many settings that only a “power user” can figure out. That’s no problem with me whatsoever. I’m more worried about the gps itself. Does it update fast when you miss a turn? And how accurate is the turn by turn directions (when it says 300ft away, is it really 300ft away)?
Paul,
Unless I’m mistaken, the GPS functionality is dependent more on the iPhone itself than the app that uses it. The iPhone won’t give you the constant, dead-on accuracy that you will get from a dedicated GPS unit, but in my experience, it’s comparable. That said, turns should usually be fairly accurate in terms of stating distance until you should turn. What is very different from app to app is this: if you miss a turn, how will the app reroute you? In using CoPilot, I was very unimpressed with its ability to reroute or let me know I missed a turn.
As I said in my review and in the comments, I think if you buy a more expensive nav app, it will be worth the extra money you’ll pay.
I have Copilot 8 running on a XDA Polaris and find the app ok…it’s got me to every destination so far without much trouble here in the UK but it did do what was noted in the first review that it did not inform me that I had reached my destination and did not warn me to turn around like my Tomtom 1 does. Apart from that I think the review is a little harsh on the app but one mans cup of tea is another man’s poison.