And the winners are...
Well the results are in for our CoPilot Live Australasia competition – yet again we were absolutely flooded with entries so a big thank you to all who entered and congratulations to those that won. Before we announce the winners, let’s take a look at the questions and the correct answers:
1. In which city did we test out CoPilot Live?
Answer: Christchurch
2. What is the name of the service within CoPilot that gives you the weather at your destination?
Answer: Live Services
3. According to our ‘About’ page, what two things are we fanatical about here at iPhonewzealand?
Answer: iPhone and New Zealand
4. Which VOIP app do we consider to be an App Store Essential?
Answer: Skype
And the winners are:
1. Stephenb
2. Moviemichael
3. Kevo
Users have been emailed their redemption codes
Not a winner? Why not pick up a copy from the appstore instead.
– CoPilot Live
well done you three. colour me jealous
(cosmo has made 15 comments)
Fantastic. Thanks very much for another great competition. Look forward to giving it a go and comparing it to TomTom.
(stephenb has made 3 comments)
Wow – Xmas has come early this year – I really look forward to getting this application and getting told we to go (at least this one I can switch off)
Thanks to iphonenewzealand
(kevo has made 2 comments)
sorry that should have been “where” to go
(kevo has made 2 comments)
Thanks thanks thanks! I was tempted to purchase this and do some comparisons with Sygic but now I can go ahead and do it for free. Truly a great site!
I used it on my drive in to work today and I’ll post my feelings about it here in a few minutes.
(moviemichael has made 49 comments)
Well as promise here are my feelings about the CoPilot Live Australasia, specifically in comparison to Sygic’s offering.
In general the program has a lot of neat features that I hope Sygic (and TomTom) take on board as, in my opinion, there is no perfect iPhone New Zealand GPS app. I really like the UI on the CoPilot Live app, it feels much more refined than the Sygic app. You can move the map around by running your finger along the map, similar to the native iPhone maps application, which I really liked. The menus are pretty well organized and easy to navigate. The only obvious little thing is that when the screen is rotated it takes a moment for the resolution to adjust, minor but stands out with the overall polish of the app’s UI.
The voice navigation function is definitely lacking in comparison to Sygic’s app. Although there are lots of voices, American, English and Australian no kiwi is offered. The Sygic app has the ability to pronounce the names of streets which is incredibly helpful although the pronunciation of Māori words is cringeworthy (I would hope that they would make a database that just has a marker for Te Reo words as the pronunciation is so consistent). That ability to hear the street name, as skewed as it can be at times, is really helpful. CoPilot doesn’t have this offering though the website does mention that it may be an add-on offered to certain regions. The voices offered seem a little lower quality than the Sygic, they always seemed to me, even when turned down low, to be peeking or scratchy. The volume, for me, was also too loud to have the voice turned on with music or podcasts.
One feature I liked about the Sygic app was that it momentarily paused your music or podcast when directions were spoken. CoPilot Live just speaks the audio over the top, loudly, with no pause and, as far as I could tell, no dimming of the music. This doesn’t work for podcasts where you can miss important things and I’d definitely prefer the pause of Sygic. Hopefully CoPilot will add a feature, or better yet, a toggle to suit the user’s preference. One final thing that I did like about the spoken directions with CoPilot was that it allows you to choose how often the voice alerts you so that you can toggle off the 2km, 1km, 500m and right now notifications and only get the ones you want. Sygic all too often felt like it was being too informative jumping in to my podcasts several times in a minute to let me know a turn was coming up and then to turn. Hopefully both companies will learn from each other’s products and make adjustments.
The maps themselves seem really nice and the Points of Information seem much more fleshed out and easy to see then Sygic. The GPS lock seems to be slightly quicker but not really noticeable. I did feel like the Sygic app had slightly better sense of where I was and how far to my destination, telling me how long to stay on a road and telling me to turn when the road name stays the same but veers greatly, as roads do in New Zealand. On the motorway coming in Auckland I felt like I might have taken the wrong exit with this app if I didn’t know my way already, something solved by the Sygic app announcing exit numbers. I am a little worried of this app “nickle and dime-ing” me on small upgrades that should come bundled, like the spoken place names and such.
Ultimately I wish that there was a perfect blend between the Sygic with it’s spoken directions being the right volume, being able to say street names and generally seeming to have a better sense of where I was going; and the CoPilot Live with it’s nicer map interface and UI, greater amount of control in the settings menu and wealth of Points of Interest. I think for now I’ll swap off between the CoPilot for short trips around Auckland and as a walking map where I don’t need voice directions and Sygic for longer trips where I want to listen to music, audiobooks and podcasts.
Thanks again for this iphonewzealand!
(moviemichael has made 49 comments)