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fatherof2
1 Posts |
 Posted - 17 déc. 2009 : 22:51:07
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Were you able to get the latest maps from that web site for free?
I also bought CoPilot Live 8 during Thanksgiving sale for $20 and just started to use it on my Touch Pro 2. So the maps are outdated and maybe older than on my old Magellan (2007).
First impressions were OK, but then I realized it did not have text-to-speech and traffic was optional. Exit numbers are not displayed and called out, even though some of them are present in the turn-by turn directions.
I have ran it side-by-side with my Magellan unit and accuracy is good. Signal acquisition is fast. Following directions in multi-lane highway environments is very hard. You have to watch the traffic signs and the unit at the same time.
Let me know if you were able to get the updated map. They want me to buy it for some reason for $25 and the release date for those is Dec. 8.
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qwalls
5 Posts |
Posted - 20 déc. 2009 : 02:14:39
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| I also bought during the Thanksgiving sale, and the December 8 was a free upgrade using CoPilot Central on my PC. |
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jeffcarp94
USA
117 Posts |
Posted - 25 janv. 2010 : 03:34:48
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I wanted to provide some feedback to the group based on my personal experiences with CoPilot Live v8 on Windows Mobile in the US. I have used the app for thousands of drive miles since its initial release. I also subscribe to the Live feature set which includes live search, gas prices, traffic and weather.
My opinion of this app started very, very high. Over time, it has lessened the more I've used it. However, it is still the app that I use. I keep my Garmin 885t at home for business trips for now. I can trust CPL for most of my needs and continue to use it as my solution of choice. However, this has a lot to do with the fact that it runs on my smartphone. It is "good enough" that the benefit of carrying a single device outweighs the limitations of the product.
The UI is just superb. It is really good. I can do almost everything with my finger. The app looks very, very nice also. The maps are not as visually detailed as Navteq on a Garmin (for examples, you don't see bodies of water colored blue), but the app still looks good.
There are a ton of customizable choices. You can set route profiles that allow you to assign your own speed classes for roads. You can set preferences or avoid types of roads. You can plan trips in the software and save those routes. You can create vias in your route. You can detour by removing specific road segments. And the best thing (for me) is that you can import OV2 formatted custom POI files, including proximity alert files. I keep all of my POI's in Google Maps MyMaps. I use TakItWithMe to convert my Google MyMaps to GPX, then convert the GPX file to an OV2 and import it into CPL. I wish CPL would just use the smartphone data connection to subscribe to GeoRSS feeds (ala Dash Navigation) so that I could just subscribe in real time to my Google MyMaps, but no dice on that.
With all of these great features, CPL is still just "OK" for me. For one, the maps are not good. They are old. They contain errors that Navteq fixed over a year ago at least. ALK does have a 45-day MapSure commitment on their website. It states that if you submit map errors to them, they will research and correct the map within 45 days. There have been monthly 1.0 GB updates each month from ALK, as well as some in-app map maintenance updates. However, non of them have fixed 6 updates that I submitted to ALK on November 24, 2009. Another customer says (on Facebook) that his errors submitted on November 9, 2009 also aren't addressed. As I compare my 6 submitted errors, Navteq, TeleAtlas, Google Maps and Rand McNally all have the error correct. ALK trails them all. The maps aren't good and ALK is currently not living up to its 45-day update commitment. ALK, on it's Facebook page, is also not responding to customers asking about why the 45-day update commitment isn't being met.
That brings me to the second issue with ALK that makes this app less than desirable. Many of the features advertised for the product remain vaporware, long past the deadline quoted by ALK. Now, lets be clear. These features are an additional cost. So, it isn't that we paid for the feature and didn't get it. We haven't paid for it yet. However, customers do make purchase decisions based on the features that are advertised as available or "coming soon." Many customers complained about the availability of the Live Services package. Live services was advertised as "coming soon" when the app was first released. In the US, it ended up being over 3 months before it was released. Live Search is great. I love it. Live Traffic, however, is a disaster in its implementation.
The data comes from Inrix and I've found the data to be fantastic. It appears to be Inrix's complete feed: all markets and all primary and secondary roads in those markets. I can't think of any other GPS app or PND in the US that has all of the Inrix feed. The problem is what CPL does (or doesn't do) with the traffic feed data. The CPL app DOES NOT take the traffic information available in its own app, into account when calculating a route or displaying the ETA! The app shows you traffic on your route, representing it by a nice bar on the right hand side of the screen that represents each incident on your route and the distance the incident is from you. You can click on any of the incident icons and read the text data for the incident from Inrix. The incidents are even color coded for their severity. For example, you can click on the red traffic icon and see that the flow on the 101 in San Jose is 25 / mph. However, CPL doesn't take that 25 mph flow rate and adjust the ETA. The ETA remains like the app doesn't know a thing about traffic. You can detour around the traffic, but it does you no good. The app doesn't take known traffic into account on the suggested route either, so you have no idea whether the alternate route is better or not. It only shows you the difference in miles and time as is you were driving the speed limits. This implementation of traffic is inexcusable and ALK should be embarrassed by it.
ALK advertised Text-To-Speech and Voice Command as features "coming soon" when the app was released. Later last year, they changed the delivery time to "Q4 2009." Their website, today, STILL says "Q4 2009" for the delivery. Three weeks ago, ALK, on their Facebook page said that TTS was "imminent." It is still not available. Voice Command hasn't even been mentioned by ALK, despite their webpage still showing it as coming Q4 2009.
So, what I'd say is that we have an app that has the best UI I've used. It has lots of great features. It has many customizable options. It has the best traffic data feed I've seen. However, ALK's maps are poor and they aren't living up to their 45-day update commitment. Their traffic implementation is a total waste of the great data feed they have. And they haven't delivered on promised time frames for new features.
The app has a ton of potential that it isn't currently living up to. |
Nav experience: Garmin SP III, SP 2710, SP 2730, Garmin i5, Garmin c330, Garmin 760, Garmin 885T, Dash Navigation, TeleNav for Sprint, TomTom 740 Live, CoPilot Live v8, Navigon for Android, Navigon for iPad, Google Navigation, Waze, Garmin Nuvi 3490LMT, Garmin 3590LMT, TomTom for Android, Rand McNally 7725LM |
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jeffcarp94
USA
117 Posts |
Posted - 26 janv. 2010 : 13:44:09
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| Update: After posting this review, ALK posted to Facebook two nights ago (Sunday night in the US), that TTS had passed final testing on Friday and would be posted tomorrow (Monday). It is now Tuesday and we have no TTS available and no word from ALK when it will be available. |
Nav experience: Garmin SP III, SP 2710, SP 2730, Garmin i5, Garmin c330, Garmin 760, Garmin 885T, Dash Navigation, TeleNav for Sprint, TomTom 740 Live, CoPilot Live v8, Navigon for Android, Navigon for iPad, Google Navigation, Waze, Garmin Nuvi 3490LMT, Garmin 3590LMT, TomTom for Android, Rand McNally 7725LM |
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jeffcarp94
USA
117 Posts |
Posted - 05 févr. 2010 : 14:21:21
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Just wanted to further follow up on my experiences with ALK. ALK's main place of interaction with customers is Facebook. My post above does contain some criticism of ALK's product. It also contains some praise. I, and others, have been posting to ALK's Facebook page, airing the same complaints that are aired above. Today, I find that I have been banned from ALK's Facebook page. Just a heads up if you are considering this product, the type of people you are dealing with. Apparently they find it best to try to silence their critics rather than address their complaints.
Still no TTS and now ALK has pulled all mention of it from their website. |
Nav experience: Garmin SP III, SP 2710, SP 2730, Garmin i5, Garmin c330, Garmin 760, Garmin 885T, Dash Navigation, TeleNav for Sprint, TomTom 740 Live, CoPilot Live v8, Navigon for Android, Navigon for iPad, Google Navigation, Waze, Garmin Nuvi 3490LMT, Garmin 3590LMT, TomTom for Android, Rand McNally 7725LM |
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TimW
311 Posts |
Posted - 05 févr. 2010 : 18:04:52
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| Thanks for the detailed info. I was tempted by the price. I could deal with delays or quirks, but banning you for requesting customer service, on a subscription based feature set you've already paid for? I'll pass. Oops, guess I'm preemptively banned on their FB :) |
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jeffcarp94
USA
117 Posts |
Posted - 05 févr. 2010 : 19:11:02
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| TimW - just to be totally clear.....Customers have not paid for TTS yet. It is an add-on that would be paid for when released. The problem is, when CPL was released in August 2009, ALK advertised TTS as "coming soon." Later that fall, they changed it to "Q4 2009." That remained on their website into late January when TTS was completely removed from their website all together. Though we haven't paid for it, customers do make purchasing decisions based on what ALK represents is coming (if they choose to do so, which they did). This goes beyond "requesting customer service." The complaints on their Facebook page were fairly rampant (before they scrubbed the posts) demanding ALK make a public statement about where TTS is at, why it is delayed and why it was removed from the website. ALK's own staff, on 4 different occasions posted to Facebook that TTS was coming "imminently" in one case. Then on a Sunday, they said it passed testing on Friday and would be released Monday. That was about 3 weeks ago. |
Nav experience: Garmin SP III, SP 2710, SP 2730, Garmin i5, Garmin c330, Garmin 760, Garmin 885T, Dash Navigation, TeleNav for Sprint, TomTom 740 Live, CoPilot Live v8, Navigon for Android, Navigon for iPad, Google Navigation, Waze, Garmin Nuvi 3490LMT, Garmin 3590LMT, TomTom for Android, Rand McNally 7725LM |
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jeffcarp94
USA
117 Posts |
Posted - 06 févr. 2010 : 17:58:35
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Last night, ALK released TTS in the US for Windows Mobile. They ended up providing it for free, which was a nice surprise. In a few tests today, it seems to work pretty well. The voices are a little more robotic than their non-TTS voices, but for free, I can't complain about that.
They also released a new map update. I find improvements in the map in my area, some of which are things that I submitted. Don't know if it is a direct result of them responding to submissions, or if it is just part of the evolutionary map update process. Either way, I am pleased with that update as well.
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Nav experience: Garmin SP III, SP 2710, SP 2730, Garmin i5, Garmin c330, Garmin 760, Garmin 885T, Dash Navigation, TeleNav for Sprint, TomTom 740 Live, CoPilot Live v8, Navigon for Android, Navigon for iPad, Google Navigation, Waze, Garmin Nuvi 3490LMT, Garmin 3590LMT, TomTom for Android, Rand McNally 7725LM |
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rem
USA
197 Posts |
Posted - 24 févr. 2010 : 06:25:37
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Great info jeff, I still use CPL all the time despite it's limitations, I have been periodically checking for updates and just checked today to see the new updates. Downloading everything now, had to uninstall the PC app as there is a bug that prevents auto updating of the app. Once that was done the Phone app installed and the map is downloading now. Most PDA GPS TTS is robotic and resource hoggish, iNav does a hibrid that uses "canned" speech for everything except the actual street name. This keeps things snappier but sounds odd to hear two different voices. Hopefully ALK did a decent job, they certainly took their time.
Very sad to hear that they can't handle any critical comments in public. This reminds me of iNav who pulled out of this forum rather than communicate openly with the community. I dumped them when they went the software locked to memory card and never looked back. ALK has a very well written app that does have a ton of potential, let's hope they keep at it!
Edit, the S/W seems to have downloaded, I see a new Prog Icon but can't see anything that indicates TTS is present??
I downloaded the current map 1.6Gb Feb 5 and it shows the download progress for about 20 min, then extracts and seems to load to the SD, but the file size is still 1.02 Gb, the same size as before so I don't know if the map is really downloading. I've just deleted the map from the phone and PC and am re-downloading to see what happens then.
All in all, the auto checking and updates have been a bit frustrating cause they just aren't behaving as expected.
Frak, after I deleted the NA Map from the PC and Phone, it downloaded the new map with the new 1.63Gb size.....and blew away all my favorites, just great. Still can't see anything on the TTS, WTF? maybe it just works?? There is a greyed out speech key in settings but it's non-functional. |
Edited by - rem on 24 févr. 2010 08:45:05 |
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jeffcarp94
USA
117 Posts |
Posted - 25 févr. 2010 : 01:39:51
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| Technically, the map update didn't remove your favorites. What did happen is a bonehead move by ALK and it is the second time since the product was released that they've done it. The issue is, that they keep changing the name of the maps between "NorthAmerica" and "North America." Your favorites are stored within the map's folder structure. When they change the name like that, the map update isn't an update anymore. It is a second map install. You have both on your card now. Your favorites are still there, but in the old folder structure. They aren't copied to the new folder structure. You may actually still be using your old maps in the program depending on which map is selected in your settings. I personally notified ALK the first time they did this and they said they'd pass it on. Now they made the same mistake again. You can manually copy your personal files/folders to the new map folder structure and it will work fine. |
Nav experience: Garmin SP III, SP 2710, SP 2730, Garmin i5, Garmin c330, Garmin 760, Garmin 885T, Dash Navigation, TeleNav for Sprint, TomTom 740 Live, CoPilot Live v8, Navigon for Android, Navigon for iPad, Google Navigation, Waze, Garmin Nuvi 3490LMT, Garmin 3590LMT, TomTom for Android, Rand McNally 7725LM |
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rem
USA
197 Posts |
Posted - 25 févr. 2010 : 04:55:23
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Thanks Jeff, I had seen the exact issue with the map naming and two map copies last time and I too reported it to tech support. This time the app appeared to download but was not recognized by the PC app until I deleted the old file and I had forgotten to check the map naming again. I could have possibly been able to save my favorites after all, but they are long gone now. BTW, Tech support told me that favorites are not saved between versions but they may not know about this naming issue, still.
I actually had to call ALK because the TTS was not there. They almost would not speak with me as their policy is free voice support for 60 days, after that only web support is available. They sent me instructions to delete CPL from the phone, then download the new TTS version from a link in the email, then copy it onto the SD card and over write the existing files and re-install the app. Then buy and activate TTS.
I then had to go to the ALK site and buy (zero $) the TTS application. It requires your CoPilot8 key of which mine was not accepted. I had to get the phone app up and running, then de-activate CPL, then re-activate on-line. Once that was done, the TTS app in the store accepted my product key (it was the same number).
So it's done finally and I tried a test run. I chose a female Brittish voice (from all of the many included voices there are only a couple of TTS voices, denoted with an astrisk). I'd say that the voice is better and more fluid than iGuidance so I'm pretty happy now.
So all of the automated updates and downloaders for CPL look good, but in this pass they were very rough leading to pretty much a manual re-install of everything. Hopefully next round will be smoother.
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shepard
USA
1 Posts |
Posted - 05 mars 2010 : 01:58:03
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quote:
NO NEED TO QUOTE A MESSAGE DIRECTLY ABOVE YOURS, MAKES THE FORUMS EASIER TO READ, THANKS ;-) GPSPASSION TEAM
 I purchased a Rightway GPS400 and it had copilot live 7.0 on it with alk maps. The maps are actually at least 7 years old for the United States. I had my house built 6 years ago and our church was built 7 years ago in different cities and neither are on their maps. Our sub-division isnt even on their maps. |
Shepard |
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jeffcarp94
USA
117 Posts |
Posted - 05 mars 2010 : 14:09:32
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| They are releasing monthly map updates with v8. The maps with v8 are much more current than before. |
Nav experience: Garmin SP III, SP 2710, SP 2730, Garmin i5, Garmin c330, Garmin 760, Garmin 885T, Dash Navigation, TeleNav for Sprint, TomTom 740 Live, CoPilot Live v8, Navigon for Android, Navigon for iPad, Google Navigation, Waze, Garmin Nuvi 3490LMT, Garmin 3590LMT, TomTom for Android, Rand McNally 7725LM |
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rem
USA
197 Posts |
Posted - 09 mars 2010 : 03:30:22
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Update, the update that added TTS also had a new US map and the file was significantly larger 1.6Gb vs 1.02Gb and it seems more up to date in my area in Southern California.
I really like the TTS and do think it's one of the best PPC implementations. It only has a couple of TTS voices, I prefer the female (less robotic sounding), it's Brittish English. The only annoying quirk is that it calls transition ramps "Slip Roads??" "Take slip road to...." rather than "Take off-ramp to...) and it says this a lot so it's becoming more annoying.
Also, the this new updated (TTS) prog is a bit less stable. More than once the app opens with no map displayed, or "no GPS detected", or leaves the "calculating route bar" at the bottom of the screen, or opens with the old route still set. To clear I have to exit the prog, soft reset, and then try again which usually works.
I preferred the previous version's stability, it always opened clean and ready for a new route. |
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larryc
USA
224 Posts |
Posted - 28 mars 2010 : 04:21:26
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I think it's worth mentioning that when I purchased Copilot back in November, TTS was "coming soon", but was going to be a premium add-on. Now that it's out, they did make it free, which is a nice perk!
That being said, I just installed it and I'm not sure it's quite right. I only see one TTS voice (Frank).
It sounds like the live traffic services are not worth it if they won't re-route you around traffic.
Has anyone tried the gas price search?
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Mio Moov 500 / Google Nav Android / Copilot 8 Android |
Edited by - larryc on 28 mars 2010 05:00:52 |
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[TOPIC] ALK CoPilot GPS v8 USA for Windows Mobile
