Navigation with Tablet

Gdetrailer wrote:

zigzagrv wrote:
I started using Co-Pilot on my Android tablet a couple years ago and find it is the best GPS unit I have ever had. I bought a mount for tablets and have it mounted inside on the wall just below the outside mirror. Very convenient. You can also preplan trips with Co-Pilot. I usually pre-plan each day of the trip and load it up each morning before hitting the road.

Can't tell, but almost a "shill" review, way to glowing of a report and leaving out a lot of pitfalls/shortfalls in a Tablet based GPS..

There is no reason you couldn't have added your experience without being condescending to another member who coincidentally been around several years longer than you. Good information is getting harder and harder to find on many forums I visit because many good contributors just leave rather than try to justify and defend their opinion.

Gdetrailer: Don't know what Android tablet you have, but sounds pretty crappy to me. I have had almost none of the problems you have described, but you are right about POIs to an extent. There is a way.

Disclaimer: I do not now, nor ever have worked for Co-Pilot or any of their affiliates!

^^ x2
Gdetrailer: You must have used a very old version of Co-Pilot. I do agree with POI. I have not had the problems that you encountered. Route planning could be easier, but it does give alternate routes that can be selected.

zigzagrv wrote:
Gdetrailer: Don't know what Android tablet you have, but sounds pretty crappy to me. I have had almost none of the problems you have described, but you are right about POIs to an extent. There is a way.

Disclaimer: I do not now, nor ever have worked for Co-Pilot or any of their affiliates!

It was a brand new top of the line Acer Iconia, quad core processor.

Not "junk" by any means, in fact after having it installed discovered that CoPilot never "terminates", it stays running in the background using Tablet memory and battery.. Had to forcibly shut down CoPilot.

Blasted App was as bad as a virus.

Then CoPilot decided it must download an upgrade, yeah, you guessed it, it crashed its self during the upgrade..

Had to fully remove the App, then download and install the new version which we were never able to get the maps to download properly.. The maps would fail downloading after several hrs..

Fixed CoPilot, removed it then scanned in our paper maps..

MUCH BETTER than fighting with free junk..

One thing I have found with Android and "Apps", the OS is half baked and the Apps are also pretty raw also..

mich800 wrote:

Gdetrailer wrote:

zigzagrv wrote:
I started using Co-Pilot on my Android tablet a couple years ago and find it is the best GPS unit I have ever had. I bought a mount for tablets and have it mounted inside on the wall just below the outside mirror. Very convenient. You can also preplan trips with Co-Pilot. I usually pre-plan each day of the trip and load it up each morning before hitting the road.

Can't tell, but almost a "shill" review, way to glowing of a report and leaving out a lot of pitfalls/shortfalls in a Tablet based GPS..

There is no reason you couldn't have added your experience without being condescending to another member who coincidentally been around several years longer than you. Good information is getting harder and harder to find on many forums I visit because many good contributors just leave rather than try to justify and defend their opinion.

"Member" may have been around the "forum" longer, but I HAVE been working with computers since the 1980s. I didn't just fall off the computer "apple cart" yesterday.

When I see "glowing" reviews WITHOUT pointing out possible downsides it often sets off my BS meter..

When I am looking for real world seat of the pants user info, I have often found the reviews which are all sunshine and roses are often not true.. Same goes for the really bad reviews..

I try to "balance" my view with plus AND NEGATIVE views, giving some real world "I have used this" type of feedback and here is my thoughts..

I am not going to sugar coat it, not going to fill your world with sunshine and roses and not going to BS you to death in order to get you and others to buy in..

I took "others" reviews of CoPilot which at the time seemed to have the lesser of complaints than competing Apps and we tried it. For us, it was much more of a hassle to get it to work the way we travel. I don't BLINDLY FOLLOW, I CAN think on my own and when CoPilot deviated from what I KNOW is the better routes it proved to me that it is not better than paper maps..

Yes, fundamentally, CoPilot DOES function as a "GPS", but from my own usage I can say that it may not be all of that glowing review. It DOES have flaws, it IS difficult to enter your destination, it doesn't do multiple destinations, waypoints or even have rest stops.

I suspect that a standalone dedicated GPS CAN perform GPS functions MUCH better than CoPilot AND provide MORE features at the same time.

We use the free version of CoPilot as a replacement for paper maps so my wife can figure out where we are when we might want to do side trips or check the route the Garmin is taking us on. CoPilot does tend to be buggy, but usually works. I like our dedicated Garmins, we have a 2689 in our B and a 2589 in our car. I like being able to talk to the Garmins even though they often don't understand,it does save some stopping to reprogram most of the time. I would pay money for a better app than CoPilot that supported local maps but since it is just back up as long as Garmin continues to support stand alone units it isn't high on my want list.

Another point on the curve, a friend used a smartphone and Google Maps to come about 400 miles to our house. She was so frustrated with it, and the several hour longer it took her (operator error mostly) that when we made some local trips and she saw how our 2589 worked she bought one before she went back.

wa8yxm wrote:


With Google Maps I was worried the screen size on my phone woudl be an issue. but... Turns out that as you approach a turn the map "Zooms" in automatically and then back out (Not far enough by my standard) so it is not.

The only issue with google maps is is the battery on the phone gets low..
.

You can get a mount for a tablet and go as big as you like but really your average cell phone is as big as most of the stand alone GPS devices.

If the battery is dying...plug it in...

Deleted

This discussion reminds me of the days when you went to AAA and got a Trip Tick

zigzagrv wrote:
I started using Co-Pilot on my Android tablet a couple years ago and find it is the best GPS unit I have ever had. I bought a mount for tablets and have it mounted inside on the wall just below the outside mirror. Very convenient. You can also preplan trips with Co-Pilot. I usually pre-plan each day of the trip and load it up each morning before hitting the road.

wholeheartedly agree here