My notes on installing
ALK CoPilot map program on an HTC clone phone.
I recommend not buying this program.
December
24, 2010
I decided to get a new phone which had a few more bells and whistles,
such as a touch screen which worked a little better than the HTC 8925.
The 8925 is a nice phone, but is heavy and bulky compared to newer
ones. I purchased an HTC T5388 II which is much lighter and the battery
seems to go longer between charges.
After much searching to find a map program which did not need a data
plan, I located CoPilot Live V8 by ALK. You can get several versions
depending upon your phone type. I bought the down loadable version at
$29.95 instead of the CD version for about $60.
They don't take Discover cards or Paypal as far I could determine: only
Master Card, VISA, and American Express. The download including North
American maps is about 1.3 Gigabytes. They give directions, but it
seems they don't actually read them concerning what you need to do to
get what you bought.
An e-mail is sent to you which gives you a link to the
download site, and a link to the install directions. They send you a
separate e-mail letting you know you have 24 hours to set up an
account, which is not clear why you even care about an account. The
download site requires you to supply your order number (which is in the
e-mail), your surname (your last name) and your billing zip code.
Download the 1.3 gig file and save it on your pc.
Next, I unzipped the file and then copied all 3.5 gig to a 4 gig micro
SD card and installed it into my phone. The directions say that when
you start your phone, the program will automatically start installing,
but if it doesn't, browse to the folder and run the autorun
application. I had to run this file, and it installed after I told it
to install on the SD card. Then you must start the program with an ICON
in the start screen. It begins to install and eventually asks you for a
voice. Select either voice, and it attempts to connect to download the
voice. This is a serious problem if you do not have a data plan, which
I do not. The program would go no further, so I had to abort the
initial setup, and it does not work.
I can't give an evaluation of the map program, but I think the
directions need improvement. I am still waiting on a response as to how
to download the voices and add them to the phone. While waiting, I
downloaded a free account management program called CoPilot Live
Central 2.0. I really don't want to have an account with them, or
anyone else. Too many screen names and passwords to remember, so
people, in general, make all accounts the same or write them all down
someplace. In either case, the hacker who gets one of your accounts can
bankrupt you quickly. Then I tried to log onto my Central 2.0 account
using my screen name and password as they stated, and it rejected.
Now, I am really interested in Google's packaging of down loadable
maps, and if they successfully get it to work, will make Copilot and
other similar programs junk. The only thing CoPilot has going for it at
the moment, is the ability to navigate without a data plan and at the
moment, looks like you need a data plan to get the voices so you can
run the program. They are in need of taking a look at their customer
service or installation assistance.
When I get this to work, I will update the site to let you know how to
get it to work.
Monday 12/27/2010
I
received an e-mail with a link to a new voice file, with installation
instructions. I downloaded the file, unzipped it and then installed it
according to the directions. When I started CoPilot on my phone, and
selected a voice, it immediately gave the error message for
downloading. I again sent them a note about not having a data plan, and
it did not work.
Wednesday 12/29/2010
I got the same answer from CoPilot three times: I should download the
voice files and replace the ones on my phone with the new ones. I
thought they might have come up with a patch or something for my phone,
but no, they just had one answer, which did not work..
Last night, I got it to work myself. The problem is that the
CoPilot installer program expects to see the voice files in a specific
place. Their instructions stated to copy the voice files to
the phone but did not say where they should be. I had copied
their entire extracted files, including the header file name "CoPilot"
to the main directory of the SD card. I guess I expected the installer
to get relative paths to the voice files, as any good programmer would
do. A good programmer knows that in different equipment, in different
operating systems, it is likely that the program will be in different
locations, and take measures in the installer, to make sure the files
are accessible. In my case, CoPilot could not find them where it
expected them, then went to the internet to get them.
To make it work, I had to delete everyting and then copy only the two
main Copilot files to the SD card main directory. This is a dumb thing
for Them to do, since it resides with other programs and
there is no indocation of what these two files do. After copying only
the two files, and reinserting the SD card, the program installer
automatically started and installed CoPilot. I started it with the Icon
and everything worked.
If you still decide to buy this program after hearing all the problems
I have had, then the next step is to get on the internet to CoPilot,
and give them a couple of things to get an activation key. I thought
that was what I bought when they sent my receipt along with a COA type
code. I had already supplied this, but no, they give you another number
from the internet after you give them a serial number and your e-mail
address. MAKE SURE YOU ACTIVATE THE PHONE MAP BEFORE YOU LEAVE THAT
SCREEN. They tell you in the web page with the activation code it will
be e-mailed to you, which it is NOT!!!.
Knowing what I know now, I would wait for the next Google map program
which will include downloadable maps.
Charlie Morrison
eplurib@earthlink.net
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Charlie Morrison
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