Hello everyone, been lurking here a while and felt I might have something to contribute to this thread. I recently bought Copilot live 7 (after reading Bartmanekul's review) - rather than mess about trying to copy Garmin XT on to my 8gb Sandisk card. Must say I've been a little disappointed by some aspects - and reasonably impressed by others.
I learned belatedly that the version I bought did not come with the Symbian installation files. This meant that my
n95-1 simply refused to see it after I copied it on to my memory card - or, indeed, even when I inserted the 1GB card supplied in the manufacturer's pack.
Furthermore Copilot Central, the PC/laptop-based element of the system refused to recognise my phone when connected, so I was unable to download any maps. This all took place a few weeks ago, so forgive me if my recollection is a bit jumbled. But, in short, it took a couple of calls to the makers ALK before I was a) directed to a patch to download the Symbian files and b) instructed how to make Copilot Central work with my phone. Seems to involve Data Transfer Mode - if you can get your
n95 to switch to that.
(In fairness, I can't criticise ALK's staff, they were extremely helpful and efficient. But it was still disappointing to have to go through that rigmarol to get Copilot up and running.)
Once I did, it quickly became apparent that it was a lot slower to "lock on" than Nokia Maps, which I had previously tried out. Only last week was I informed by ALK that this discrepancy was due to the fact that, while Nokia Maps uses a-gps, Copilot apparently doesn't. I'm told they are working on a fix for this but, in the words of the chap I spoke to, it may not happen until the next version is released. The result, of course, is that when you emerge from a tunnel or car park, Copilot can take several minutes to "determine your current position" and therefore establish your next turn - by which time, you might easily have driven a mile and a half in the wrong direction!
Other problems have included the bear right issue and, disturbingly, (very rare) episodes where the screen has directed me to turn right and the voice to turn left. Also had several incidents where my phone has restarted while using Copilot - although I'm now informed that could be either a conflict with my Nokia bluetooth handsfree or, more likely, a RAM issue on the phone. Furthermore there have been one or two "interesting" route selections - and late instructions . . including the "turn left" command which is invariably issued 100 yards after I've steered into my own street!
But against all that, the general operating system is reasonably simple and reliable - Copilot has already got me out of a few unknown backstreets and back on to the straight and narrow. And it seems generally to be pretty good at what it does - if you're prepared to wait for it to "lock on". I thought seriously at one point about returning Copilot for a refund, but it seems to have settled down a bit now - and I'm getting to quite like it. Whether I fully trust it yet is a different matter. And that has to be a worry with sat-nav.
Linear Mode
