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Dave
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Joined: Sep 10, 2003
Posts: 6460
Location: UK
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 Posted: Thu Sep 23, 2004 2:06 pm Post subject: REVIEW COMMENTS: CoPilot Live SmartPhone |
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 ALK is a name you have heard a lot about recently from PocketGPSWorld.com. As many of you will recall, we have had three World Exclusive Reviews including the Laptop 7 Review, PPC5 Europe and PPC5 North America. This review adds a fourth World Exclusive Review of the Windows SmartPhone Edition.
ALK have been listening to it's customers and Technical Evangelists like ourselves and the jump from version 4 to version 5 on the Pocket PC is quite a large one and it's good to see those same new features passed across to the new Windows SmartPhone edition.
For anyone that has previously used the Pocket PC version, you will feel right at home, everything is exactly where you would expect it, although the odd menu is different to tailor it more to the Windows SmartPhone Edition screen size and operability, other than that everything is pretty much how you would expect it.
CoPilot Live SmartPhone Edition will be available in two different bundles. The first being the straight Software version which includes a pre-loaded 128mb SD card with UK maps and a PC CD for £135 and the second bundle will include this and the CoPilot Bluetooth GPS Receiver for £220.
The full review is available here.
 
 
Last edited by Dave on Sat Sep 25, 2004 8:37 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Skippy
Pocket GPS Verifier
Joined: 24/06/2003 00:22:12
Posts: 2946
Location: Escaped to the Antipodies! 36.83°S 174.75°E
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| Posted: Thu Sep 23, 2004 3:27 pm Post subject: |
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Good review, Dave. I think I will buy Co-Pilot.
| Quote: | | Bundles with Orange C500 are already been listed by some retailers at around £450 for an all-inclusive product. |
Note that this is a pay-as-you-go option. If you are willing to sign a 12 month contract @ £15 / month then Orange will give you a SPV C500 Smartphone for free with 120 x-net minutes and 30 text messages included. Which is nice. :D |
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Dave
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Joined: Sep 10, 2003
Posts: 6460
Location: UK
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| Posted: Thu Sep 23, 2004 3:47 pm Post subject: |
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| That's correct, you can get away with £15 or more contract. You don't have to have GPRS, GPRS is only needed for Live or Traffic (which will be available end of October). |
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spillers
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Joined: Dec 30, 2003
Posts: 16
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| Posted: Thu Sep 23, 2004 5:09 pm Post subject: |
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| How does it compare to the TOMTOM Mobile?? |
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clawrence
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Joined: Jun 25, 2004
Posts: 4
Location: USA
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| Posted: Thu Sep 23, 2004 7:04 pm Post subject: |
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| It's nice that we are seeing ALK and Tom Tom coming out with programs for the smart phone but, what about the P900? Earlier in the year you said that Tom Tom was coming out with a P900 program in Q3. Gate 5 (http://www.gate5.net/products/) released a program for the smart phone this month but pushed back the release for the P900. Is there going to be any programs for the P900? Any insight you can offer will be appreciated. |
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paulmk
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Joined: 18/08/2003 13:08:57
Posts: 33
Location: United Kingdom
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| Posted: Thu Sep 23, 2004 11:29 pm Post subject: Bluetooth Sessions |
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Hi Dave
Sound very interesting and i have SPV C500 on its way to me just now...however i cannot get it for free via the orange online shop for the 12 month £15 contract...its costs £80 with a £50 credit to your call bill.
Question is do you know if the phone can have two bluetooth sessions running simultaneously eg with a BT GPS and BT Car Kit.
cheers
Paul |
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stuartm
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Joined: 21/03/2003 10:37:20
Posts: 116
Location: Barkham
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| Posted: Fri Sep 24, 2004 11:00 am Post subject: |
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| The C500 uses the reduced size SD card, do ALK intend to bring out a version in this format? |
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Talkingbollox
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Joined: 14/10/2002 15:11:34
Posts: 439
Location: United Kingdom
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| Posted: Fri Sep 24, 2004 11:07 am Post subject: |
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Dave
I would also be interested in the mounting options you used for the phone in your set up. For example, do you have a dedicated carkit with radio mute? Where the phone was mounted etc.
Cheers |
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Darren
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Joined: 11/07/2002 14:36:40
Posts: 23848
Location: Hampshire, UK
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| Posted: Fri Sep 24, 2004 11:30 am Post subject: |
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There are currently no dedicated carkits for the E200 or C500, I use a Brodit holder for the E200 coupled with a 12v charger. Bluetooth carkits are anotherv possibility such as the Parrot range.
_________________
Darren Griffin |
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Dave
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Joined: Sep 10, 2003
Posts: 6460
Location: UK
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| Posted: Fri Sep 24, 2004 11:37 am Post subject: |
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| spillers wrote: | | How does it compare to the TOMTOM Mobile?? |
Very well. The main difference between TomTom and CoPilot on the SmartPhone is TomTom still have their graphical menu system compared to CoPilot that uses a text menu system. Coupled with the more accurate NAVTEQ maps in CoPilot compared to TeleAtlas's maps in TomTom.
| clawrence wrote: | | It's nice that we are seeing ALK and Tom Tom coming out with programs for the smart phone but, what about the P900? Earlier in the year you said that Tom Tom was coming out with a P900 program in Q3. Gate 5 (http://www.gate5.net/products/) released a program for the smart phone this month but pushed back the release for the P900. Is there going to be any programs for the P900? Any insight you can offer will be appreciated. |
Not sure what's happening re TomTom on this front. ALK don't have a version available for Symbian phones yet, only Windows based SmartPhones, but they are looking into this.
| paulmk wrote: | | Sound very interesting and i have SPV C500 on its way to me just now...however i cannot get it for free via the orange online shop for the 12 month £15 contract...its costs £80 with a £50 credit to your call bill. |
Yes, that's true. If you want the phone for free you need to be paying £25 a month on contract, anything less than this I think the phone goes up to £80.
| paulmk wrote: | | Question is do you know if the phone can have two bluetooth sessions running simultaneously eg with a BT GPS and BT Car Kit. |
I'm not sure, I've manually toggled them to be honest, I'll have to try it on the E200. They are different profiles, so in theory they should work but I know a lot of phones have this probel.
| stuartm wrote: | | The C500 uses the reduced size SD card, do ALK intend to bring out a version in this format? |
Pre-installed to SD ? I would suspect so, although I haven't had clarification on this yet. Most people in Europe will be going for the C500, so it would be silly not to (IMO).
| Talkingbollox wrote: | | I would also be interested in the mounting options you used for the phone in your set up. For example, do you have a dedicated carkit with radio mute? Where the phone was mounted etc. |
I'm using a standard mobile phone suction mount which we reviewed earlier. No car kits are available, the C500 has a mini-USB socket, the E200 however does have an XDAII style connector so in theory you could get away with a car kit for the XDAII on the SPV E200. TBH, you really don't need a car kit, audio on the E200 (haven't got my C500 yet) is very loud in-car, even on the motorway with the radio up. The only thing on the C500 that is lacking is a car charger accessory, but I believe you can get away with a standard USB cig charger plug and a USB to mini-USB cable for the C500. |
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stuartm
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Joined: 21/03/2003 10:37:20
Posts: 116
Location: Barkham
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| Posted: Fri Sep 24, 2004 11:46 am Post subject: |
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| Dave wrote: | | The only thing on the C500 that is lacking is a car charger accessory, but I believe you can get away with a standard USB cig charger plug and a USB to mini-USB cable for the C500. |
I've tried that and it doesn't work.
The charging light doesn't come on until ActiveSync gets to a "Connecting ..." state so it may be that it somehow enables the charging circuitry on the phone. |
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njsb
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Joined: Aug 27, 2004
Posts: 27
Location: Leicestershire
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| Posted: Fri Sep 24, 2004 8:22 pm Post subject: |
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| stuartm wrote: | | The C500 uses the reduced size SD card, do ALK intend to bring out a version in this format? |
CoPilot Smartphone Quick Start comes on a 128MB mini SD card - the card that the C500 uses, the package also contains an adapter to use it in a normal SD Card socket.
Blank mini SD cards can be bought from www.ebuyer.co.uk for 256Mb - £27.61 or 512Mb - £64.64 prices include Vat and Free Delivery. The cards are made by Kingmax, the same brand as supplied by CoPilot with the Quickstart.
As Dave said in the review, literally insert the supplied CoPilot QuickStart Card, it auto installs the software and away you go.
Received my package tonight and installed in a few minutes.
njsb
_________________
Orange SanFransisco Smart phone
CoPilot 8 for Smartphone |
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Dave
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Joined: Sep 10, 2003
Posts: 6460
Location: UK
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| Posted: Sat Sep 25, 2004 8:35 am Post subject: |
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I can confirm that all QuickStart cards now shipping are mini-SD.
CoPilot Live SmartPhone Software Pack - £135 inc vat RRP
Includes Software, mini-SD, SD Adaptor
CoPilot Live SmartPhone GPS Pack - £219 inc vat RRP
Includes Software, mini-SD, SD Adaptor, CoPilot BT GPS, Car Charger for GPS, Vent Mount Kit |
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gstenson
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Joined: 23/10/2002 09:53:59
Posts: 267
Location: Lincolnshire, UK
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| Posted: Sat Sep 25, 2004 9:48 am Post subject: |
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| Dave wrote: | I can confirm that all QuickStart cards now shipping are mini-SD.
CoPilot Live SmartPhone Software Pack - £135 inc vat RRP
Includes Software, mini-SD, SD Adaptor |
Is this the UK map only? Thanks |
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pug
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Joined: Apr 23, 2004
Posts: 22
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| Posted: Sat Sep 25, 2004 1:23 pm Post subject: |
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Will the software work on the E200, with the TomTom BT GPS unit. I already have one of these ?
Steve |
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