The other day we filmed a quick video review of the TomTom iPhone app and many readers were keen to let us know about the CoPilot Live iPhone app that only costs £26. We already knew about the CoPilot app but before we did a video review we wanted to find out a bit more about its incoming updates. ALK invited us over for an exclusive video interview about its iPhone app and gave us a sneak peek at the new and improved version, coming to an iPhone near you soon.
One of the things that annoys us about the current CoPilot app is that unlike the TomTom app it doesn’t warn you of speed cameras, and it’s also annoying that if you receive a call the app doesn’t restart automatically when you’ve hung up. As you will see in the video, these two issues will be solved by the free update that will hopefully be made available in the next few weeks.
Neither the TomTom app nor the CoPilot app feature live traffic updates but ALK mentions it as an incoming feature in its app description, so we were keen to see it in action. ALK will be offering live traffic updates among other live services, such as a petrol prices, as a premium update. The update will cost around £20 bringing the overall price of the app to around £45, which is closer to TomTom’s £60 price tag.
If TomTom offers live traffic updates for free then the £60 might seem less expensive but TomTom refused to comment on how it plans to roll out future features. TomTom was keen to shout about its upcoming windscreen mount though that features a built-in GPS receiver to strengthen the iPhone’s GPS capabilities, a loudspeaker for listening to music and making hands-free calls, and charges the iPhone at the same time.
Interestingly the TomTom dashboard mount will apparently work with any sat-nav app so ALK pointed out that it will make sure CoPilot works with it. After seeing the updated CoPilot app we think it’s great. We still like the TomTom app a lot and think parts of the interface are easier to navigate than CoPilot’s offering. What’s really going to make a difference to us is if TomTom charges a lot for live traffic updates, in which case we’ll be forced to recommend CoPilot as the less slick but much less expensive alternative that still offers lots of features.
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