CoPilot Live HD, The First iPad GPS App Arrives At The App Store

One of the coolest roles of the 3G iPad has to be as that of navigator. No more squinting at the iPhone’s tiny screen while trying to navigate the spaghetti-bowl of the NYC-area highway system; no more ending up in the wrong Springfield because of accidentally tapping in the wrong place.

The relatively inexpensive ($30) CoPilot GPS iPhone app now has an iPad version, CoPilot Live HD North America — currently the only iPad GPS app out there. The good news is that unlike most apps, the HD iPad version is the same price as the iPhone version. The bad news is that so far it’s only available for North America.

Now if only someone would make a car mount requiring less commitment than this one.

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About the author

When he was eight, Eli Milchman came home from frolicking in the Veld one day and was given an Atari 400. Since then, his fascination with technology has made him an intrepid early adopter of whatever charming new contraption crosses his path — which explains why he's Cult of Mac's technology editor. He calls San Francisco home, where he works as a journalist and photographer. Eli has contributed to the pages of Wired.com and BIKE Magazine, among others. Hang with him on Twitter.

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Posted in iPad, News |

OlsonBW
On the 3G iPad, what happens with GPS when you are outside of wifi and cell reception. Does the GPS chip NEED either or both of the 3G or wifi signal to work?
Example – I’m driving through the mid west or anywhere well cell phone coverage and wifi overage is spotty at best. Does that mean any of the GPS programs like this one and TomTom, etc., don’t function?
Does it stop functioning? Does it have lots of lag (slow- very slow?).
I want an iPad and this as much as anything, actually more than anything, is going to determine if I buy a 3G one or not.
Gene Avenir
I’ll be watching for the availability of the RAM Mount for the iPad ( http://www.ram-mount.com/CatalogResults/PartDetails/tabid/63/partid/082065077045066045049054054045065080056085/Default.aspx ).
I’ll also find out about how the 3G iPad works on purely GPS (out of AT&T 3G and WiFi range) later this week while in the Nevada desert. Then again without 3G or WiFi, where’s the map data going to come from?
Eli Milchman
Olson, while the Wifi iPad doesn’t have an actual GPS chip, the 3G iPad does. This means that, just like any other device fitted with a GPS chip, all it really needs is decent line-of-sight to the GPS satellites in geosynchronous orbit above us. Which means that your 3G iPad should maintain a healthy fix while driving through the vast, cellphone-less Midwest. Theoretically, anyway.
You’ll notice that Apple lists the 3G iPad as having “Assisted GPS” — this means that, while it doesn’t *need* a nearby cell tower for a location fix, it *can* take advantage of signals from cell towers in order to augment the satellite signal when the latter becomes weak (like when driving through an area with lots of tall buildings, etc).
Finally, neither wifi nor 3G have any impact on the accuracy of the GPS signal; the Wifi iPad has the ability to sorta kinda guess the user’s location based on proximity to signals from wifi hotspots, but this method is really pseudo-GPS, and is the only way for the Wifi iPad to spit out a location fix, since it doesn’t have a GPS chip.
Hope that clears things up.
Eli Milchman
Gene, many GPS apps (Magellan’s RoadMate or Navigon’s MobileNavigator, for instance) actually store the maps your device — which is why they generally take up a gig-plus of space.
Great questions, btw.
Alexis
@gene…those Ram Mounts are unreal and amazing…I love them and especially the ones that have the locking mechanisms on them…
I knew the great accessories were just around the corner and just like the Ram Mounts I can see that they are blowing away any expectations I could have ever thought of myself…great great great…good luck
merv
I just purchased CoPilot GPS for (ipad + G3). I have not taken it out of the house yet.
I input my home address and it gave me a address that was close but not mine. I input my sons home address and it gave me choices some that were close but not his address. My house has only been here 5 years but my son’s house has been there for 50 years. The maps are not detailed on a local level. You could not get to my house from the location it shows without backtracking. I do not trust it to guide me right to the destination, it only gets near the destination. If I had not been familiar with the location of my son’s house I could have ended up a long ways from it, because of the information provide by CoPilot.
I will use google maps to find my destination before traveling. I hope evenually detailed maps on a area basis will be able to be purchaed.
http://www.livingwithipad3g.wordpress.com dancmos
I would really love to see an actual review of Co-Pilot Live HD. All I can find are these lame re-hashings of the press release. On iTunes the reviews are all over the place from “Wow, it’s so awesome” to “I just wasted $30.” Is there nobody out there who will do a true review?