Archive for September 19th, 2009

By September 19, 2009 Read More →

Vodafone’s twitter exploits

cd8e63bd2c41ba2e039a9249a2740c9e  With O2 customers receiving free SMS alerts from Twitter, it’s understandable that Vodafone wants to offer a perk for Twitter users. We’re not sure that the "first interactive real time top 40 for music lovers" is the way forward, however.

Vodafone commissioned developer Ben Marsh to "create a live top 40 chart of what people are listening to on Twitter, to promote the Vodafone Music store", he wrote on his blog. Using the #RealTimeTop40 hashtag, Twitter users can enter the artist and song they’re listening to and then check out www.realtimetop40.com to view what the most listened-to songs are right now.

It’s not exclusive to Vodafone customers, however if you want to purchase one of the songs currently riding high on the chart, you’ll have to be a paid-up customer to do so.

If Vodafone created an app for mobile phones we can see more use out of this scheme, but for now it’s just another way for Twitter users to pat themselves on the back that they all have such terrific musical taste. If Patrick Swayze’s ‘She’s Like The Wind’ can be considered taste.

Link: Real Time Top 40

[Source T3]

Posted in: Phones
By September 19, 2009 Read More →

B2B dealers slam O2 delays

28790B2B dealers connecting O2 are experiencing "unacceptable" delays of up to a week to action dealer requests, including new contracts. A number of dealers claim the current SLA (service level agreement) for O2, is experiencing delays of between four to five days, from the standard 24 hours  stated by O2, with all actions requested via email.The delays are affecting new connections being processed, upgrades and tariff changes, which are typically completed within 24 hours.Dealers claim the delays are unacceptable as the standard of the O2 customer experience from their customers is being put in to question,  with customers being left frustrated and inconvenienced by the network.
It is understood the situation will be resolved over the weekend. One O2 dealer said: "I am having to apologise to my customers, particularly those who are signing up for new connections. The delays don’t reflect well on the network, but it’s us that look bad. Another said: "Some of my requests made last week are only now going  
through. That is not acceptable. I appreciate they may be busy, but that’s not any fault of ours."
O2 was unavailable for comment.

[Source Mobilenews]

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Posted in: Phones
By September 19, 2009 Read More →

CoPilot Live 8 Review

Introduction:

CoPilot has been around for some years now and so I thought I would test out there latest version and compare it with some other mobile navigation applications. The big question though is will it be as good as TomTom?

CoPilot Live 8 Review

CoPilot Live 8

I have been using sat nav since the very first TomTom was released, and I still cringe when I think that I paid over £500 for that first one!

Over the last few years I have used three TomTom stand alone devices, TomTom navigator and Nav n Go IGO8 on a Windows Mobile Device. Due to my job I spend on average five hours a day driving and each day to a different location, so I thought I would be the perfect person to give CoPilot a decent review.

Key Features:

  • Lane Guidance at junctions
  • Guidance in tunnels
  • Turn after turn indicator (display shows next two turns)
  • Speed limit alerts
  • POI’s
  • Live traffic information (subscription required)
  • Live search
  • Livelink location sharing
  • Weather
  • Fuel prices

Highlights:

  • Superb Map Display
  • Big selection of features

Lowlights:

  • Non QWERTY Keyboard
  • Rather Complicated Volume Controls

CoPilot Live 8 Review:

I downloaded Copilot for my winmo device and at £25.99 for the UK & Ireland map CoPilot Live 8 is an absolute bargain. The new TomTom version for the iphone is £59.99 so lets see if the cheaper option is better than the trusted market leader.

At present CoPilot is available for Windows Mobile, Iphone and Android devices. With the surge of Android devices creeping onto the market CoPilot will cover a huge number of handsets over the next twelve months.

Turning the CoPilot on for the first time I was pleasantly surprised how colourful the software was. Initially you are greeted with a small menu overlaying the map to enable quick navigation.

Launch Menu

CoPilot launch menu

As you will see in the picture above this menu allows for easy access to My Places, Settings, Mode (driving, walking etc) as well as Destination which dives straight into navigating to a new location.

The “My Places” option gives you a choice of four options for quick access to your favourite and recent destinations and using this section was smooth and simple.

My Places

My Places

Selecting “Destination” from the initial menu is where you enter a new location and this is where it gets a little tricky! As you will see in the picture below there are several options here but the “Address” one will be the most commonly used.

Selecting Destination

Selecting “Destination”

Actually entering the address on CoPilot has been a little disappointing, although if you have not used sat nav before you will not have the same frustration that I do. That frustration is that the input keypad on CoPilot is not QWERTY and there is no option (that I can find) to change it. I use a QWERTY keypad on not only my computers but also on my phone and having to then use something different takes me a hell of a lot longer to enter the text. All other sat nav software I have tried, including some free ones that use a data connection, have either a standard QWERTY key pad or at least the option of one.

Key Pad

CoPilot Key Pad

As with all the other sat nav’s available CoPilot lets you change most options, such as map styles/colours, map display and points of interest.

POIs Map Styles

POI’s & Map Styles

The POI’s were as good as on TomTom and the Safety alerts were just as reliable. You will see above there is a speed limit warning  option. I though to myself “great, this will come in handy on the motorway”, however the highest speed I managed to set it for was 30MPH so as you can imagine it was extremely annoying alerting me whenever I reached 31 MPH.

The other major issue I had with the Copilot was how hard it was to mute the volume. Most of the time when I am driving I don’t like to listen to the spoken instructions and I rely on the map and onscreen prompts. Although CoPilot can be muted it takes seven screen taps to do and then return back to the map and this did my head in. Every time I restarted CoPilot I had to do the seven screen taps once more.

The most important feature with any sat nav has to be the reliability of getting you to your destination correctly and the CoPilot has not let me down once. I must admit it has taken me on a few routes that I know TomTom would not have but I got there and quickly, whether I input the full address or just the postcode.

My favourite feature of CoPilot has to be the actual display when navigating. Not only do I love the map colours but also the layout of the onscreen information.

Everything seems to be in the right place and they have managed to fit a lot onto a relatively small display (depending on handset).

As you will see below the CoPilot offers lane guidance which is a nice feature and really comes in handy when you don’t know where you are going!

CoPilot Navigation Display

Copilot Navigation Display

Conclusion:

So, how does CoPilot Live 8 compare to its rivals?

In terms of navigation it is certainly as good and at that super low retail price its sure to do pretty well.

Will I be continuing to use it as my daily sat nav – No. I actually got my TomTom back out today and this was only due to the keyboard and volume issues I had. If these were rectified I would probably stick with the CoPilot.

A good effort CoPilot and I look forward to new versions in the years to come.

Posted by: James

Posted in: GPS/Sat Nav, Reviews
Tags:
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