Copilot Live for South Africa, on Android
So, the Soccer World Cup is in full swing, and if you're visiting from abroad you may have trouble finding your way around. The folks over at ALK Technologies were nice enough to provide me with a copy of Copilot Live 8, with the South African maps, for the Android platform, to review. So if you haven't landed in good old Zud Afrika yet, you may seriously want to consider giving Copilot Live a go, because, as cool as Google Streetview is, we haven't been graced with Google Navigation over here just quite yet.
Minnaar has scooped me over at his blog (after Copilot Live got us to the Net Prophet conference safe and sound, his interest was probably piqued), so be sure to get over there and give his very thorough review a read.
I'm not going to run through all the features as Minnaar did (you can also find the list of features here - and there is a veritable smörgåsbord of features, to rival even the most complicated dedicated GPSrs out there). I've used the software on an off for the past month, so I'll give you a quick rundown on real world use, and the experience specific to the Android platform.
Now, you may recoil when you first look at the price, but keep in mind that it's a damn sight cheaper than a dedicated GPSr. There's also the added benefit of not having to carry around yet another gadget (which can be lost or stolen).
I'm not sure whether the application runs native code, but one of the first things I noticed is that the interface can be a bit sluggish. Not unusable, though. The good news is that there's a noticeable increase in responsiveness when jumping to Android 2.1 from 1.5. I can also say that I've recently used one of the newer dedicated automotive GPSrs on the market, and the interface responsiveness of Copilot Live is pretty much on par.
The South African mapset's coverage is very complete. Apart from myriad points of interest - you'll find anything you can think of, bar a shebeen or two ;) - even most of the backroads are present and named. Even our little gated community is fully mapped. Copilot even managed to guide me to a lesser-known wine farm, or three, without any problems. Routing is good, and recalculation is lightning-quick. The interface is relatively intuitive, but could use a little bit of work (I still haven't figured out, for example, how to stop navigation once I reach my destination). On the whole, however, I'd wholly recommend buying a copy of CoPilot Live (with whatever mapset you may need), before you even think of buying a dedicated automotive GPSr.
You can ask anyone in the Android world, and they would say that Copilot Live beats any other navigation software out there, hands down (even Google Navigation). Apart from the very complete mapsets and massive POI database, there's the added benefit of having offline maps. Multitasking works as well as expected, and receiving a call doesn't mean that you'll have to start navigation all over again. Loading times and in-app response times are quick (most of the time, quicker than any dedicated GPSr I've worked with). Battery drain isn't worse than with any other application that uses the GPS (and you can also keep it powered up via a car charger). So yes, my experiences are consistent with the rest of the Android community. No other Android application (at the moment, anyway), comes close to the navigation experience that Copilot Live gives you.
So, my conclusion? If you have an Android phone and you're looking for a thorough, complete navigational experience...spend the money on something like Copilot Live and a mount for your phone, before you spend it on a dedicated GPSr.
Read more: http://www.alk.eu.com/copilot/android/
