CoPilot or Destinator software

I currently have access to CoPilot and TomTom and while CoPilot has a larger Point of interest database, personally I prefer TomTom. I find the map display better and more configurable. It's not perfect though. CoPilot automatically switches from 'driver safety' mode to 'display next turn' mode when you get close while TomTom will only switch when the speed drops below a certain speed.
I have an aquaintance who has Destinator and I am going to have a look and a try in the next few days before I make a final decision.

Interestingly, one of the computer mags recently did a comparison but the only software solution tested was CoPilot Live, theye didn't test Destinator. They did test TomTom but only as a combo unit (TomTom 300) as the Navigator software is not sold here but you can buy it from the States with Australian Maps. In the Mag's article TomTom got the gong.

It generally comes down to wether or not you like the display and interface as they pretty much all use the Sensis/Whereis maps.

Peter

Hi Drew

I currently use Co-Pilot, and find it very good to use. It gets me to where I need to go all the time, and I like the feature of voice direction which means I do not need to look at hte screen all the time.

I find it needs a pretty fast computer to run the software, to make sure the voice commands can be issued quick enough. If you are in an area where you need to do quick turns etc, a fast computer allows the computer to keep up with the voices commands, or you may miss your turn.

Co-pilot fails when the roads on its maps end, so it can not give you any further directions. This is when i switch over to oziexplorer.

Hope this helps

Tony

I have used both TomTom 3,5 and Destinator 3.

TomTom seems to have better routing, with TomTom5 offering options for walking and cycling routes as well as fastest or shortest routes. TomTom also offers better options for choosing your destionation (such as pointing at the map and seems to be better at finding addresses). It also is able to find a route even if you're not on a marked road whereas Destinator will just say it can't find a route.
With TomTom there's also much more usable information on the screen that you can see clearly.

Of the two, no doubt I would pick TomTom5 as the winner.
Oh yeah and being able to have a celebrity voice is good for a laugh too.

Of Destinator or Co-Pilot, I haven't used Co-Pilot so I can't give a fair comparison but I can tell you that Destinator is used worldwide and I'm sure has a heck of a lot more users than Co-Pilot. More users = more sales = more updates.

Whatever you get, don't forget to leave money in the budget for Ozi because if you're going off road none of the voice routing packages will be much use to you (AFAIK)

Drew, have used co-pilot 7 (laptop) and DestinAtor 3 (PDA)

For my money Destinator wins hands down, for 1 reason - Map details and quality. Who gives a $hit whether you get told turn left 300 meters once or twice, if theres no roads on the data base ( co-pilot!) then it aint gunna tell ya jack. - Example - Drove to warnambool with Co-pilot. map data of the ' Bool - Princes highway, and liebig st, - the main drag and that was all. NOTHING else. sure round metro, its not to bad, but then in tassie, stuff all of alot of the whole state.

Then tried Destinator, whole country on an SD card, 170 meg. - first thing i did was check the map of Warnambool - shazam - the whole lot, plus comprehensive points of interest, OK, lets look at Tassie - some backwater track left of nowhere - Wham - there it was, labelled and everything. Damn impressed with the database.

OK, downsides.. the voice directions are "turn left, straight on" etc, where as Co-pilot robotically in an american digital voice pronounces the st name i.e " Turn left 200 meeders May-ron-dough Road (Maroondah h'way!)
Round abouts - a straight through gets called " take second exit" which is just a matter of gettin used to,

Destinator - great 3d view, can crop of much as map as U need,

and the best thing, If your looking for it for a PDA, Ive got a free "trial" copy that doesn't need serial numbers etc, to work for You to "Trial" just incase you decide you like it and want to buy it!!! ( or "trial" it forever!!)

Jarrod.

Ok, Over the last few days I'v tried out Destinator PN, CoPilot 5 and TomTom Navigator 5.

My thoughts....
Maps:
The maps are all basically the same as they all seem to use the WhereIs/Sensis map data. There are differences depending on when the map set was released. For example the Q2 2005 maps for Destinator does not have the housing estate where I live but does have a nearby (newer) one. The TomTom and CoPilot maps are the reverse. They both have my housing estate but not the other. The road that leads to my kids school is not in the Destinator maps (but the road inside the school is, it just doesn't connect to anything), it is in the maps for the other two.

POI (Point of Interest):
All three seem to have fairly comprehensive lists of points of interest and speed cameras etc. Accessing them varies from product to product. I couldn't, in my limited time, work out how to get the alerts in destinator to actually say "Speed Camera" instead of "Favorites Alert" but apparently there is a way. TomTom beeps and flashes an icon for Speed cameras while CoPilot blocks the whole screen with a visual alert that you need to dismiss (it auto dismisses after a while) and audio alert (Beep).

Navigation:
Basically they all work as advertised (See Accuracy below). Sometimes they pick really strange routes though. I suspect they start with the shortest route and work out how long it will take and then search for longer routes that take less time. But there must be a cut off as the routes I use in my area often are not picked, yet if forced to go that way thay all agree that it takes less time than the route they pick. CoPilot deserves a special mention here as when you go outside the Metro areas it often produces travel times nearly double what it actually takes.

Accuracy:
Here I'm talking about the ability to trust that what it shows on the screen is where you actually are. CoPilot and TomTom have always worked reliably for me. Not so Destinator. I have found three areas that I drive through regularly where Destinator COMPLETELY loses the plot and tell you that you are driving through trees, down the street that runs beside the freeway, down some other street nearby etc. Just from this fact alone I won't buy the current version.

Special Features:
Only one that I can think of and that is that Destinator maps contain speed limit info and can produce an "Over the Speed Limit" warning. This sounds good but I live semi-rural and the data in my area is so inaccurate I turned it off.

Interface:
Personal preference here, of course. I find the Destinator interface quite useful as there are buttons (Which fade when not in use) on the main screen to access useful information and functions. The other two require you to tap the screen and enter the menu systems to alter what is displayed. All three can show info panels containing useful info like current speed, distance to destination, time to destination, current location etc. These areas obviously take up real estate so the more info the less map. Destinator shows the most map generally followed by TomTom and Copilot bringing up the rear with large areas permanently allocated to other info.

Safety:
TomTom and Destinator both show warnings when starting up about use while moving etc. You can disable the warning in Destinator but not TomTom.
TomTom and Copilot have (optional) driver safety modes that blank the screen with a next turn information sign when moving over a certain speed so you can't get distracted by the map while moving. All three can automatically zoom in and out while moving so the map zooms in as you slow and out as you accelerate. CoPilot is the most flexible here with Destination and Next turn modes where the map will zoom to display as much detail as possible while keeping these items on screen. TomTom is the least flexible as you cannot disable automatic zooming.

Displays:
Personally I find the TomTom map display the nicest and clearest to view. it also updates more smoothly than the others. On my iPaq hx4700, Destinator is noticeably jerky, CoPilot less so and TomTom reasonably smooth.

Verbal prompts:
CoPilot and Destinator both have Text to speech so they can actually use street names in their voice prompts. TomTom can't but does have the widest variety of voices to use and you can add voices from people such as John Cleese, Joanna Lumley, Michael Caine, Homer Simpson etc. A bit of a gimmick as most voices become irritating quickly (Especially Yoda).

Availability:
Both CoPilot and Destinator are widely available but for some reason TomTom Navigator for PDA's is not imported in to Australia. If you want TomTom you either have to import it yourself (with Australian Maps) or purchase the TomTom Go 300/500 which are all in one units. Map updates are unclear. I would hope there would be updates but it is likely that whichever one you choose there will be a cost.

My personal preference is that I will now go and buy a copy of TomTom from overseas (I already own CoPilot and borrowed a friends unit with Destinator on it). If you want screen shots I can produce some or do a Google search for reviews they usually have some.

All of my testing was performed on an HP iPaq hx4700 with a 1GB SD card to hold all of the packages at once and connected to a Haicom serial port SIRF Xtrac II GPS with an external antenna mounted on the roof of the car.

Peter

thanks for that Peter .. a most comprehensive reply. Actually, i purchased Destinator as part of a hx4700 / BT338 bundle just yesterday so will have to live with Destinator for the immediate term!!