Recently I’ve been trying out a few app’s as I’ve said in a previous post for the iPhone. I have also updated my OS to the new ISO4. As I said in that post, some apps impressed me and well others, oustanded me they got the development time!. I know, that’s just my opinion but here it is. The apps I disliked the most were the free ones (nothing decent is free after all) but from what I’ve seen very few free apps tend to be of any use in that category anyway. They seem more… gimmicky!. The ‘download and try and quickly become bored and uninstall types’. Currently I have a mixture of both that I’ve tried and sometimes use.

I have been after a sat nav now for quite some time and after borrowing other peoples and comparing prices on units and was still undecided in buying, thinking they would come down in price gradually and it was just a matter of holding out. One of the most popular models, with good alround reviews seems to be the TomTom1. Most here in the UK are priced around the £100+ mark with additional subscriptions. Although I use one occasionally, I didn’t have the usage to justify buying one myself, so hence my intrepedation.

After seeing the Co-pilot in the App Store I’ll be honest, initially, I was wary. It was an app after all attached to my phone which I couldn’t separate from the phone to use independently, so no one else could say borrow it and of course I’d need a kit for the car. All costs. My thoughts were it was too cheap (just under £20 for version 7). What about updates, cameras and additional maps and other add-on features costs?. How much would they be?. Easy answer, nothing. I downloaded it and have to say, I’m very glad I did!. It’s no different in any way, shape or form than the usual sat nav you can buy. Plus it has some other good features, including, allowing you to connect to your music whilst using the app (shown in the video below), allowing you to connect to Facebook and update your location, much like the Forsquare app does. You can also find places of interest and of course, places in an emergency like a conventional sat nav can but there’s also the option of calling the place (hospital, doctors, garage, restaurant or say places of interest) once you’ve found it in the listings!. After all this it’s a phone primarilyl. I have used the app many times and each time it works well and does exactly what it claims to – it’s even updated itself recently (with traffic cameras updates) and that’s where I thought the issue would be in that there would be undoutedly, an additional fee. There isn’t but there is a new version, improved version 8. Version 7 is fine though. I honestly couldn’t recommened it enough (no they are not paying me). The UK version (all I need) is available on the iPhone, iPad & the Android. For price alone it’s great and functionality is nothing short of what any user would expect from a sat nav with some little extras. Thus far no gripes!. Very cheap, useful and very easy to use for under £20!. What more could you ask for?.

Here’s a demo video of it being used…

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