Where do you want to go? You probably know, but do you know how to get there? The CoPilot Live app can help in ways that you’d need other apps to assist. A route that’s optimized for time. One that suggests places to eat or gas up along the way. An interface that lets you stay inside the app while you take advantage of Wikipedia place entries or Facebook Places. Even traffic updates, for just a little extra each month. Like under a buck.
But the thing that sets this nav app apart is that you’re not buying maps to use it. There are no in-app $49 purchases for North American roads. CoPilot is sold with maps included and free updates How’s that possible? Well for one thing, they do their own maps, instead of paying a third party. Then there’s the company background: they sell truck fleet software and have for 25 years. You don’t have to care about how CoPilot does its business but you’ll want them to keep up with those free maps. Nav apps can get expensive in several ways
But before we look at that, let’s do a discount dance. Until the end of this week the CoPilot app is $9.95, the iPad version $14.95. Discounts a-plenty here in Macworld week. Even at the regular prices this app looks like it can lead you to better value for nav.
You have to watch out for the hidden costs in nav apps. If your maps are free, are you sucking down piles of data through your data plan? Not with CoPilot. Are you paying for updates to those maps? A larger business can afford that kind of thing, but wouldn’t you rather be spending that on entertaining clients, or just a better bed on the road?
Doing your own maps makes the fixed cost of CoPilot Live sustainable. You will probably care more about being able to drag your route dynamically on the screen, or routes for optimal gas consumption. Or locating waypoints through several resources. All without leaving the app. You care about that because at the heart of it, using this kind of app happens on the road, while you move at 55 MPH. You use the app in bed, too, to plan the next day’s travels.
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