[anon(64661)]

We all know that there are MANY GPS programs out there, and a lot of them work on our Blackberry's. If any of you have tried ALK's CoPilot, then you know it is an extremely full featured excellent program. I ran CoPilot Laptop 9 for about a year. Many of us have been waiting for a version that would work on our Blackberry's and the time is almost here.

I just spoke to ALK and they plan to make a download available in late May which will give us CoPilot Live (7 I think) for our Blackberry's and it will be free for 6 months.

I used this program on a T-Mobile Dash and, if the phone wouldn't have sucked so bad, it would have been great. But I returned the Dash and got a Blackberry and have been waiting for CoPilot ever since.

By the way, I will be using it with my Freedom Keychain GPS 2000 which is excellent!

[dcscott]

This is great news. I'll keep checking their website but if you see it becoming available I'd appreciate your posting here. I'm anxious to give this a try.

[patrick.waugh]

Got an RSS feed URL or website?

[dcscott]

I don't have enough posts to put the URL up but if you Google "copilot live7" you'll find their site.

[brothamoveson]

Cant wait to check it out.

[sdl2]

wwwDOTalkDOTcom is their web site

[dcscott]

So what exactly does "late May" mean. I want to try this out so bad I can hardly sleep at night. Will this month never end.....

[sdl2]

I called ALK last week. They said that it is "almost ready". Also they said that it would not be a stand alone pay one time software. It will be subscription based with map downloads from the internet. This is a major change from how they first advertised it.

This is probably one of my biggest frustrations with having a BB. I can't find a stand alone GPS software that just installs onto my BB without having to have an always on internet connection. I wish there was something like TomTom for BB.

[dcscott]

Subscription based...NOT! That would kill it for me. The one time charge approach was what I found appealing. If they go the subscription route then I might as well go back to Telenav.

[anon(64661)]

CoPilot Live 7 is available from blackberry [dot] alk [dot] com

[slovak]

It is currently available for the BB's with a 6 month trial. The only thing I dislike about it so far is that it does not have turn by turn audibles like Telenav, or current gas prices, plus it does not lock onto a sattelite like Telenav does. I can lock a gps signal with Telenav inside my house, and Copilot sometimes does not even lock when I go outside unless I drive a few miles from my house. I dislike Telenav for the simple reason that they claim to update their maps every 3 months, yet a few main roads in my area have been closed for more than 6 months now and it fails to reckognize them as closed, plus the gas prices featurs is supposed to be updated every 3 hours( was on phone with their tech support this weekend), but it fails to update the gas prices only every 2 weeks, so that's not wort the $9.95 a month imo, but the ability to lock instantly to a gps signal is a plus, and their support in second to none imo, very friendly tech support people. Copilot on the other hand has tech support that is less that desireable.

[holvey]

Does anyone have a stand alone GPS in their car? How often do you buy the $75 updated maps DVD. I am going to go with Garmin, $99 flat rate, updates maps via web at no charge. I can understand having a monthly charge because it costs money to update those maps. But on the other hand, $10 a month seems like a lot. Life span of a map I would put at 2 years. Shoot, if I am driving across country, I still plan out my trip on my trusty 1999 Rand McNally, and that costs $20. I think for telenav, or copilot, or garmin the max that I would pay for would be $5 a month.

[FF22]

I have a TomTom. I was entitled to one free map upgrade. I don't think it did much in my area. Frankly, map details and updates lag the real world, especially in fast growing areas. There are reports of missing data for even places where nothing has changed. It is a lot of data to amass and keep current.

I recently went to a new Cabela store and it was not in google maps or elsewhere and it has been opened since Nov last year. A nice farmer's field still shows!

So, if you use it for major trips and major urban areas where little changes, no problem. If you are looking for new subdivisions where friends live or you sell door-to-door, updates are probably important but still don't expect last month's subdivision to appear for a year or so.

[jeffh]

...The only thing I dislike about it so far is that it does not have turn by turn audibles like Telenav...

I use CoPilot with my Freedom Keychain 2000 GPS. CoPilot speaks with a lovely female English accent. It says things like "In .3 miles, turn left." and "Turn Right." It does not speak the street names. Is that what you're referring to?