Ever since the demise of Streets and Trips, we’ve been looking for a replacement to plan our annual travel route. I really like Roadtrippers, it is a free website – Roadtrippers.com – with companion Apps for both Android and Apple. I used to like the fact that S&T was on my computer and did not need an Internet connection. Roadtrippers does need an Internet connection, but it is surprisingly fast, and the advantages outweigh the negatives for me. It’s real claim to fame is the suggestions for things to do and points of interest which I wrote about in a previous article.
You can plan your entire trip on the computer, and you’ll have it all with you on your phone or tablet while traveling. It does not offer voice-directed, turn by turn navigation, but it does show your planned route and it shows your current location along that route, silent navigation if you will. Another advantage is that you can share your plan with a simple link. This way your family can know where you’re supposed to be and your friends may be able to meet up with you or offer suggestions of sights along the way.
An extra nice touch, is the ability to write some notes, and add a calendar date to stops along the way. It doesn’t actually calculate the arrival date, just gives you a calendar to enter it yourself.
by Jim Guld, www.geeksontour.tv
CoPilot Live Premium, North America Maps $14.99 for iOS and Android. For complete pricing and map availability, visit their website at www.copilotlive.com. There is a free version, but it does not offer voice-directed turn-by-turn instructions.
Technology can make travel a richer experience. Teaching technology to travelers is what Geeks On Tour is all about. We have been using GPS for navigation since we started RVing back in ’03. Keeping up with this stuff is a full time job and we love it. Visit us at www.geeksontour.tv.
Our Advice
Don’t get rid of your paper maps and atlases. Do get the CoPilot Live app for your mobile devices – we like it! It is available for Android phones and tablets, iOS iPhones and iPad 3G/4G, Windows mobile, and laptops, too. Be sure to read thru the excellent user guide available on their website under the Support menu. ALK, the company behind CoPilot has been in the business since 1979. They know what they are doing, and they do it well.
I first got the CoPilot app for my Droid RAZR phone and used it in our travels from Louisville, KY up through New Jersey, New York, and New England. While in Vermont, I bought the new Google Nexus 7 tablet. The main reason for getting the tablet was for navigation. This review is based on those 2 devices.
Stand-alone Dashboard GPS navigation tools have been around quite a while, and they still have their place. More and more I see them being replaced by general purpose devices like smartphones and tablets running navigation apps.
The Big Picture, Planning Vs. Navigating:
Size matters. So does distance. I still like planning our trips using a laptop and a combination of Microsoft Streets & Trips, Google Maps, and paper maps. The big laptop screen makes it easy to see and the information available is unprecedented. Navigation using the laptop requires a GPS receiver and a secure place to mount the laptop. It is much easier to mount a mobile device running CoPilot for navigation. I have decided that for me, the 7 inch screen is ideal for trip navigation. I attach it to our dashboard with a simple strip of Velcro.
I still use the free Google Navigation with voice search on my Droid for around-town driving, finding restaurants, stores, etc. It is always with me.
The Nexus 7, with its superior resolution, Android 4.1 OS, reasonable price, and responsive touch screen is a great way to go. And, unlike other Wi-Fi only tablets, it includes the GPS receiver. More on the Nexus 7 in an upcoming review.
Though you can use the app right after downloading, you will want to customize it for best results. Spend some time with the settings for the Map Display, Guidance, Traffic, Speed Limits, Language & Voice, etc. Vehicle Preferences are especially important for RVers. Height restrictions and Propane restricted tunnels are nice to see and are usually available only on higher end GPS units. We entered our RV height at 12’ 6” and it properly routed around some low bridges but not all. Admittedly, we’ve never seen so many low bridges as we did in Connecticut, none of our devices or other resources showed all of them.
The Pros: Almost too many to list. Here is a summary.
Great street maps which are stored on your device. No need for a data connection while navigating.
RV aware settings for height and propane.
Excellent spoken turn by turn directions – short and clear. Visual cues on the screen are easy to follow.
Trip planning is easy. Alternate routes are suggested. You have complete control to drag your route to exactly where you want.
Choice of 2D and 3D views, with or without directions on screen.
There are multiple ways of adding a destination. You can select a contact from your address book, pick a location on the map, input lat/lon coordinates, and even use a geotagged photo.
Price. It is inexpensive if you already have a device. It is worth buying a device just to have the app.
Sound is not as loud as most dedicated dashboard units. You can use Bluetooth or cable to your radio, if so equipped. I think I will get a new dashboard radio with Bluetooth capability for better volume.
The onscreen keyboard is flakey. Strange things sometimes happen when using it for input. Occasionally typing an entry just won’t work at all – pressing search enters your typing twice, or adds extra characters. This can only be called a bug. I have seen this mentioned in other reviews. This needs to be fixed.
Discrepancies in maps and directions. No GPS Navigation or map is completely and absolutely accurate. This app is better than most, it did correctly route us around some low clearances, but not all. We are using the CoPilot Live Personal – not CoPilot Live Truck, which is available for $149. There is a way to send corrections to CoPilot. On their website, you’ll see a link to ‘Submit a Map Improvement.’ They guarantee that the corrections will be made within 45 days.
In conclusion, this is a great app for navigation and planning on your smartphone. It is even better on a tablet like the Nexus 7.
A Short Video Demo of CoPilot Live on the Nexus 7 Android Tablet
This tip brought to you by Geeks on Tour
Geeks on Tour is a membership website with hundreds of Tutorial Videos on topics of interest to travelers, such as using smartphones, managing digital photos with Picasa, Route-Planning with Streets and Trips, and sharing your travels with a website using Blogger. You can subscribe to our free enewsletter, or become a paid member and be able to view all of the videos in the Learning Library.
It’s a rare RVer that doesn’t use some type of GPS device to assist in navigation. When we sold our house and hit the road in 2003, we used the Streets and Trips software on our laptop with a little USB GPS receiver. A few years later we bought a Garmin dashboard GPS, then a Rand McNally RVND, and now a Magellan. Those are all great devices and we use them all, but I like using my Droid smartphone with Google Navigation the best! Why do I love it? Let me count the ways:
It’s in my hand. I am in the passenger seat – this is not a good thing for a solo driver – but for a navigator, it is so comfortable to hold the device in your hand to be able to adjust your view, search for locations, or change settings. When I have to manipulate the screen on a device that is mounted to the dash, I have to sit up in my seat and contort my body in order to see the screen and be able to properly use the controls. If we’re using Streets and Trips on the laptop, that’s easier than the dashboard units, but it’s big and awkward.
It’s fast. My navigation advice is usually needed when Jim is driving according to the dashboard unit and he says something like, “this next turn doesn’t seem right, what should I do?” I need to quickly get a birds-eye view of where we are vs. where we’re going, and evaluate the choices of how to get there. With a simple pinch gesture, the Droid responds with what I need – instantly.
It’s clear. Even though it is a tiny screen, the resolution is so good that I can read every description and see every feature. I can even turn on satellite view and see the trees, rivers, bridges, and buildings. Any of the other devices seem almost childish in their graphics by comparison.
It’s Google. I can search … and find … anything. Any campground, park, store, address, restaurant, or service – this is Google, it’s on the Internet and up to date. Traffic information is quite reliable within about 15 minutes.
It’s my smartphone. My email is on there, so I can look up the email for the campground reservation and touch the address to navigate there, or call the phone number. Or I can use my Passport America App to find a campground, then just touch ‘directions’ and my Google Navigation takes over with turn-by-turn voice directions to the exact address. Or I can browse to the website for the Presidential Museum we want to visit – see an address on the web page, touch it, and choose Navigate to there. Here’s a short video showing how I can touch an address on email and then go straight to navigation:
It’s not perfect – nothing is! The main drawback is that the information is coming from the Internet, so if you lose cell signal – you lose your maps. There are ways to download your route in advance, but that requires that you know where you’re going … in advance! We will not be getting rid of our dashboard units any time soon – and we still think Streets and Trips on our laptop is the best way to plan our travels – but Google Navigation on our Android smartphones is the clear favorite GPS navigation device for Geeks on Tour!
Geeks on Tour is a membership website with hundreds of Tutorial Videos on topics of interest to travelers, such as managing digital photos with Picasa, Route-Planning with Streets and Trips, and sharing your travels with a website using Blogger. You can subscribe to our free enewsletter, or become a paid member and be able to view all of the videos in the Learning Library.
The dreams of a company who wanted to develop wireless broadband integrated with satellites and ground stations have gone up in smoke. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has changed its mind and rescinded its earlier approval of the network after GPS enthusiasts peppered the government with concerns the network could wipe out GPS reception for many users across the country.
LightSquared, a Reston, Virginia company had planned to provided nationwide 4G broadband coverage, which included a plan to transmit computer-users' signals via satellite. The ground-based transmitter stations would have used a radio frequency close to those used by Global Positioning Satellite receivers. Even though the frequencies are different, GPS users said the powerful transmissions of LightSquared's network would overpower GPS devices, rendering them less effective to virtually useless.
LightSquared argued that GPS users would simply have to upgrade to new equipment that would not be affected by its broadband transmissions, asking the FCC to "approve a technical solution" to the issue. With over 100 million of the popular way-finding gadgets sold in the US in 2010, even if just half of users were adversely affected by LightSquared's signals, that's a lot of very unhappy users, expected to apply a costly "technical solution."
In the end the GPS community has apparently won the day. Although LightSquared has vowed to investigate an appeal of the FCC's ruling to nix their plan, the fallout from the ruling is already apparent. The company's CEO stepped down early this month, and late last month it was reported the company had defaulted on a $56 million spectrum-sharing payment. At this point it appears the only folks looking at a "technical solution" are those over in Virginia.
We have been evaluating the Rand McNally TripMaker® RVND™ 7710. Our favorite feature of the device is all the ways it can inform you about sights and services that are coming up just ahead in your route. We wrote about this in our previous article ‘What’s Up Ahead.’ Today, my topic is Multi-Stop Trips.
With most standalone GPS devices, you get directions to a single place. The trip starts from where you are. You are asking, ‘How do I get from here to that single place.’ The RVND is one of the devices that allow you to plan and save trips with multiple stops. When you reach one stop the device notes that you have arrived at your first destination. When you turn it on the next time, it is ready to pick up where you left off and guide you to the next stop. Here is a video that shows exactly how to create a multi-stop trip with the Rand McNally TripMaker® RVND™ 7710.
We received our evaluation unit of the RVND 7710 in early September and used it to navigate from the New Jersey Shore to Ohio, and then south to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. There is a lot to this device and our review will be in a series of articles. The first things I want to tell you about are the special features that none of our other devices can give us.
Next Exit Information
I know several people who swear by their ‘Next Exit’ book which gives all the amenities to be found at every Exit on America’s Interstate Highways. Although that sounds like a great tool to have, we refuse to have any more books in our RV. The Rand McNally TripMaker® RVND™ 7710 now offers a similar set of information available at your fingertips as you drive down the road. Here’s how it works. During navigation, there is an icon on the screen that represents the Exit amenities – actually it’s a square of 4 icons: Food, Fuel, Lodging, and All. Touch that with your finger, or the provided stylus, and you’ll see a list of the upcoming exits.
Just touch the Exit info button and a list of upcoming Exits appears with the number of Gas, Food, and Lodging amenities
Now you touch the Exit you want to see and you’ll get the detail of those amenities. If there are more than will fit on one screen, you will see up and down arrows to the right so you can scroll thru the rest of the possibilities. You can always touch the Back icon in the upper right to return to your navigation screen.
If you decide to go to any of these places, you can touch the one you want, then touch ‘Add as Via’ and the RVND will route you there.
It’s Not Perfect
We used this feature when we needed to find a grocery store traveling through South Carolina. Using the Exit details feature, we found an IGA at exit 27. I touched the IGA listing and then the ‘’Add as Via’ button, and it dutifully told us - in it’s rich, loud voice – to turn off when we got to the appropriate exit. Then it told us to turn left and go a couple blocks. So far, so good. But then it told us that we would find our destination on the left and told us to turn. We still couldn’t see the IGA but could tell that there was some kind of shopping center set back off the street if we took the specified left turn. No IGA in this shopping center. What do we do now? We navigated thru the shopping center parking lot to the other side where we could take a right on the road back to the highway and, what should appear in front of us but an IGA! So, the GPS directions were real close, but not quite right. We actually find this happens a lot with all of our GPS devices – it gets the ‘on the left’ or ‘on the right’ backwards at the final destination. Usually, it’s no big deal. By the time we’re ‘at your destination’ we can see it and don’t mind that the GPS says ‘on the left’ when we can see it ‘on the right.’ But, in this case, the direction was given before we could see the sign. We almost missed it altogether.
Alerts for Upcoming Items
I like to take pictures of the ‘Welcome’ sign whenever we cross a state line. I throw a bit of a fit when I see a State sign go by and I don’t have my camera ready. So, one of my very favorite features of the Rand McNally TripMaker® RVND™ 7710 is that it alerts you when you are about to cross a State line or a Time Zone. It does this with spoken words as well as a special screen that displays.
It also has a warning when you are near an ‘Offbeat Tourist Attraction,’ or ‘Historical Marker.’ These are custom POIs (Points of Interest) and can be managed in the Preferences screen. First it announces that you are near an Offbeat Tourist Attraction. If you’re interested, you touch the notice and get more detail. Then, if you want to go there, you can touch the option to “Route to Here.”
If you don’t want the warnings for State Lines and Offbeat Tourist Attractions, you can turn those off, or change the warning distance if I like. You find them in the Custom POIs and it’s there you can set the warning options.
There is a lot to learn about this unit. Stay tuned next week for another article on using the Rand McNally TripMaker® RVND™ 7710.
This tip brought to you by Geeks on Tour
Geeks on Tour is a membership website with hundreds of Tutorial Videos on topics of interest to travelers, such as managing digital photos with Picasa, Route-Planning with Streets and Trips, and sharing your travels with a website using Blogger. You can subscribe to our free enewsletter, or become a paid member and be able to view all of the videos in the Learning Library.
by Chris Guld of www.GeeksOnTour.com You know we love our Droids! This 'touch an address' feature, we just gotta show you. This is a very short video showing you how to simply touch an address and let Droid take you there!
Geeks on Tour is a membership website with hundreds of Tutorial Videos on topics of interest to travelers, such as managing digital photos with Picasa, Route-Planning with Streets and Trips, and sharing your travels with a website using Blogger. Members can view all of the videos in the Learning Library.
