The guys from CoPilot have recently launched their latest iPhone app offering in the form of “CoPilot Live South Africa” (iTunes Link). The app, which costs $54.99 on the app store, is full of features, and has a distinct World Cup feel to it, including POI’s for the gates at each World Cup Venue. Very cool !
Here is a bit of info from the CoPilot team:
Today we are releasing our South Africa apps and maps, just in time for the build-up to the tournament. Available for iPhone, Android smartphones and Windows Phones, CoPilot Live South Africa can help fans find their way with confidence wherever they need to go, whether to the hotel, airport or the game. Thousands of useful points of interest are also pre-installed, including the locations of ATMs, hotels, restaurants, bars, car hire offices and airports. It can even provide directions to specific gates at tournament stadiums.
On the road, CoPilot Live’s advanced guidance features make it easy to see where to go, with 2D and 3D map views, lane assistance display and speed limit indicator.
I have been playing with the app over the last couple of days, and I am mighty impressed. The user interface of the app is simple to use, the colours of the maps are easy to see, and the voice navigation is also brilliant. Overall, the app is smooth and slick. For me the biggest thing with an iPhone app is the interface, as it has to be easy enough to use when driving. The CoPilot app definitely does this hands down. I’m looking forward to using this app more and more.
Check out this video from the guys at CoPilot demoing the app.
Here is the feature list about the app:
FULL-FEATURED SAT NAV NAVIGATION ON YOUR iPHONE:
- Turn-by-turn voice directions door to door
- Clear 3D and 2D driving views with speed-variable zoom and street names
- Navigate to a house number, street, address book contact or one of thousands of points of interest
- Lane indicator display and CoPilot ClearTurn™ provide easy-to-follow directions at complex junctions
- Adjustable speed limit warnings
- Multiple-stop trips, waypoints and pre-trip planning
- Guidance in tunnels and underpasses
- Huge range of customization options
DETAILED STREET MAPS
- Street maps of South Africa stored on your iPhone.
- Thousands of pre-loaded points of interest, including hotels, restaurants, car hire locations, ATMs and football stadiums
iPHONE INTEGRATION
- SmartCall remembers your destination after a phone call
- Dial or navigate to any POI (Point of Interest) displayed on the map by tapping on-screen
- Portrait/landscape display auto-switching and pinch to zoom the map
- Access iPod music controls from in-app
LIVE SERVICES (requires a mobile Internet connection)
- LiveLink™ location sharing: let others see where you are at all times, Live on an internet map. You can also keep track of your CoPilot friends, live on-screen in CoPilot!
- Live weather info for your location/destination
- Facebook status updates: share your location, destination and what you are listening to
Right, so now for the cool part :) I have 3 copies of the CoPilot South Africa app worth $54.99 to give away. To enter the competition, you need to do one of the following:
a) Retweet this post using the retweet button on the top right of this post.
b) Comment on the post using the comments below.
c) Write a blog post about the launch of CoPilot, and by linking back to this post you will be entered.This will gain you an extra 5 entries to the competition :)
The competition closes on Monday the 24th May 2010 at 12pm. The draw will be a random draw using Random.org. Good luck :)
42 replies on “CoPilot Live South Africa iPhone App review”
Looks awesome. But… Overpriced perhaps?
That looks pretty good. Can you enter lat/long coordinates?
Sounds like a great app. Really would love to get it.
CoPilot North America Sells for $19.99. Italia for $24.99.
$54.99? Really? … http://apptrackr.org/ folks.
How big is the app in terms of MB including maps?
This may come as a shock to some people, but not all apps are going to sell for $0.99.
This appears to be one of the cheapest turn by turn navigation apps on the store, compared to Tom Tom and Navigon which go for around $80
Does the iPhone version download data as you go, or are the maps all installed up front? I’m interested in the data usage for day to day driving.
I understand that the South African version has to be more expensive as the market is going to be much smaller than the US/Italian version. We don’t expect to go to Italy and pay the same for a fillet steak as we do here!
I think that this looks like a great application. Good timing for the release too as I’m sure that plenty of SWC visitors will use it!
Pick me, pick me!!
Its about 170MB. I cant see anything about Long/Lat.
@Nico.. Yeah i agree totally. Just sucks how its seemingly priced that way for the WorldCup – will most likely drop shortly after.
Wonder if an iPad version will follow? Would love to try it out!
A fillet steak? Bad example.
The maps are usually the reason for the high costs. Developed countries like the states and italy have had Sat Nav for longer and have a larger user base to pay for the all the map updates.
Ahh. Thanks Ballsy.
@Craig There may be some truth to the WC influence on the price.
However, I think it’s more likely that the price is steep because GIS data for SA is a lot more expensive compared to other countries.
[…] this neat little application has conveniently been released pre-Fifa World Cup South […]
The maps are built into the app, so it doesn’t use up data, unless you use the live services like weather etc.
I think the app is fairly priced giving the high GIS costs in SA. Every year Garmap releases updates for the Garmin GPS’s and then you pay over R300 for each update. Most of the iPhone apps include this in updates.
@Nico yes you can enter co-ords. There are also loads mor POI’s in this app.
Out of all the GPS Apps I have used, this one def ranks near the top.
Thanks for the great & detailed review.Wonder in a head to head shootout with TomTom if CoPilot will win.
@Marc, cool. I have two really big complaints about the Tom Tom app. One is no support for lat/long and the other is that you can’t pan the map while it’s giving you directions. As soon as you touch the map it brings up a menu, very irritating. Does CoPilot allow you to pan and zoom?
@Nico, Yip, you can pan and zoom on the map. The zoom is controlled by buttons, and can pan by touching. Settings are bought up by a dedicated button
Hi all, I work for ALK, editor of CoPilot Live. To answer to some of your questions: lat/long is supported in Menu>Destination>Coordinates.
The maps are stored on the phone so need to download data at every turn. We provide free updates of the app quite often to introduce new features or fix issues.
If you want to have a look, we got great videos on Youtube with CoPilot South Africa : http://www.youtube.com/copilotlive#p/a/u/0/jy34nADKL-E
Hi Helene.
Why so pricey ;)
@Craig we rely on map providers and have quite expensive licence fees in South Africa. We’d like to be able to operate the same pricing as in Europe but we would loose money. In the USA, we got our own maps that we’ve been collecting for years so that’s why it’s even cheaper…
Nah I understand. Cool app. Looking forward to being one of the winners. :)
@Helene Thanks for the feedback! Love how you engage with the market and seriously considering replacing Tom Tom with CoPilot.
I use my GPS for a pretty specific purpose. For me it is of the utmost importance that I’m able to see where I am (preferably the nearest corner) within a second or two. Tom Tom does a really stupid zooming thing and does not show enough street names around my immediate location to be able to actually use it. Judging by the videos, CoPilot does this really well. It would be great if the hint at the top of the screen could display the street I’m on and the direction I’m heading in.
You should think about using In App Purchases as a means of providing a free demo app. While, it looks like I would actually love this app, I still need to sleep over buying it for $50, especially since I’ve already burned my fingers on the Tom Tom app.
Oh wait, it looks like it does actually display the direction
@Nico: CoPilot is very customisable. You can have it display a compass in the top right (just underneath the +Zoom button) and the bar at the very bottom can be configured to display different info, such as the current road (the yellow text always lets you know which road you’ll be turning onto).
Here’s a quick example: http://yfrog.com/5acpsa002p
Hope that helps.
Awesome looking User Interface. Would definitely try it so as to have one less device to schlepp around
Looks like a fantastic app! I’ve never had to use a GPS before, only made use of my Mobile Maps app and it is a tad limited.
Would love to give this app a whirl on my trip up to the Kruger next week – I’m hoping I somehow get picked to win it rather than have to fork out the $54 *waves goodbye to iTunes credit*
3D view looks good!
The graphics in the first screenshot look pretty impressive… The rest of them look pretty darn bright (neon), but then again, maybe that’s good if you need to glance over at the display and take your eyes off the road for a second or two.
If I wanted to add maps for another continent would I have to download another version of the program or would it run in CoPilot?
@Andrew unfortunately you won’t be able to upgrade to another continent through CoPilot on the iPhone as the OS doesn’t allow us to do so. You will need to buy another CoPilot and it will appear as 2 different products on your iPhone. On Windows Mobile and Android it’s possible to upgrade to additional maps though.
Sounds like the business…Would love to get it!
this app looks cool!
Looks like the best option for Sat Nav (iphone)
Looks tops. I want a free one to compare to my tomtom!
Looks good…My only question would be what it would do to my battery life that is already struggling with the built-in maps app… but will probably get this!
Darn awesome. I’ve spent time looking through the various GPS options available on iPhones as buying a decent GPS costs a small fortune, so seeing an application like this with so many features makes me feel that it’s definitely a option to consider.
Here’s to winning! ;)
Nice to see some alternatives to TomTom out there, especially for the African market which is mostly overlooked or considered too expensive or not viable.
Hey Everybody.
The winners have been chosen and thanks to Random.org, the following people were selected.
Alan Ball, Andrew Smith & Byron Rode
Thanks again to everyone who entered !!! Keep an eye out for some more cool giveaways coming soon ;)
Hi Y’all,
I bought this cool app last month online at ALK cost me about R360, awesome, installed it on my HTC HD2. went to Sun City the other day. The maps are up to date… All i need right now are POI’s for speed camera’s. The app however shows you the speed limit for the current road… nice…
[…] and I am really impressed. I have covered a couple of the South African GPS apps, including NDrive, CoPilot & Navigon […]