The greatest drain on your battery is caused by having your phone’s screen switched-on on all the time, as well as the continuous “re-drawing” of the map as you move – which in CoPilot’s case occurs several times per second. However, there’s a number of things you can do when using CoPilot Live Premium to extend your battery life if you’re travelling on foot or don’t have a car charge.

1) Turn the brightness of the screen down. Today’s high-resolution vibrant colour smartphone displays are one of the key factors in battery usage. Try turning the brightness down to around 50% and you should see your battery lasting longer.

2) Enable ‘Power Saving’ mode in CoPilot. A feature we introduced into CoPilot Live Premium with a free app update recently, the power saver mode updates the map screen display less frequently and in turn causes less drain on the battery. The trade-off is that your movement along the map will seem a little less smooth than normal, however this will significantly reduce battery consumption. You can switch to ‘Always use low power mode’ for optimum battery performance or automatically switch to low power when the battery drops to 30%.

3) Use Directions view. If you mainly rely on voice guidance or are travelling on main roads with long distances between turns, then switch to CoPilot Live’s Directions view. Directions view only shows you a map when you are close to a turn, with a turn indicator and distance countdown to displayed at other times. This guidance mode updates the map view the least freqently and is the best way to save power.

Have any other battery saving tips? Share them in the comments below!

We hope you’re enjoying your offline route planning and local exploring app. Our new free app is now just over a week old and so far we are delighted to see it soaring up the App Store charts in many countries.

As a result of the huge increase in downloads, our servers are working overtime to make sure you can activate the app and download your selected map region as quickly as possible. We are aware that some customers have experienced some difficulties activating the app. Please rest assured that we are currently adding additional capacity to cope with this unprecedented demand.

We would also like to remind our CoPilot Live Premium customers that our free GPS app is not a replacement for your current app. CoPilot GPS does provides trip planning and on-board maps for free, however voice-guided turn by turn navigation, 3D maps and ActiveTraffic™ are an additional paid cost.

We have some exciting plans for CoPilot Live Premium and we’ll be introducing a variety of great new features and enhancements over the upcoming months.

We’re excited to announce that our brand new CoPilot GPS app is now available to download for FREE from iTunes and Google Play!

CoPilot GPS is our all-new offline route planning and local exploring app that gets you everywhere you need to go without relying on your mobile data connection. Detailed maps of an entire country or region are stored on your smartphone or tablet, so you’ll be able to calculate routes and get driving or walking instructions even when there’s no mobile coverage. Millions of Points of Interest (POIs) are built into the app, making it easy to locate nearby restaurants, shops, hotels and more. You can also search for local businesses and attractions using Bing™ and Wikipedia. And did we mention the best part…….mapping and planning is FREE!!!

Note: CoPilot GPS  does not include full voice-guided turn by turn navigation or 3D maps – you can upgrade through in-app purchase or simply buy one of our CoPilot Live Premium apps.

Check out CoPilot GPS featured on Engadget and CNET

Here’s the full list of features available in the app:

• – Premium quality 2D street maps stored on-board your device for offline use
• – Millions of Points of Interest (POIs) built in with in-app dialing
• – Powerful route planning with a multi-stop trip optimizer
• – Alternate Routes: CoPilot GPS will provide up to 3 ways to your destination
• – Drag and drop to adjust your route or destination
• – Driving directions: Manually preview through the turns to your destination
• – Walking mode: Explore unfamiliar cities on foot with ease
• – Universal app: the iPhone version runs on iPad too!
• – Social sharing: Share your location with friends on Twitter & Facebook *
• View the CoPilot GPS feature gallery

Looking for a premium sat nav experience?

If you’re looking for 3D maps and voice-guidance, you can upgrade to the full CoPilot Live voice-guided, turn-by-turn navigation through your CoPilot GPS app via in-app purchase. Just tap MyCoPilot> Features & Upgrades> Full voice-guided 3D navigation

Unlimited use of full voice-guided navigation is available via in-app purchase for just £17.49! You’ll have access to dynamic 3D maps, speed limit warnings, clear spoken directions and realistic ClearTurn™ display with lane indicator arrows and exit sign information.

You can also buy our ActiveTraffic service in-app too. It’s £9.99 for 12 months use.

Let us know if you have any questions about the new app.

Happy Travels!

So how does Samsung maintain it’s momentum and newly-crowned position as #1 phone manufacturer globally? Bring on the Galaxy S III – launched officially in London yesterday.

At first glance, the S III does not look particularly remarkable – it appears similar in style to the Galaxy Note and the Galaxy Nexus. However under the hood this is indeed a “powerhouse of a smartphone”.

• A larger screen than the Galaxy S II: the S III manages to pack a larger 4.8” HD Super AMOLED screen into a similarly-sized smartphone. How? Simple – by reducing the screen bezel: less edge = more screen. According to early reviews, the screen is incredibly vibrant, particularly compared alongside the iPhone 4S.
• 1.4GHz Quad-Core processor. The S III is monstrously powerful for a phone. It’s 1.4 GHz Quad-Core should be able to handle even the most resource-hungry applications with ease
•  Smart Sensors. The Galaxy S III includes a variety of smart sensor-based detection features. For example it knows when you are looking at it, and won’t switch-off until you look away. It’s camera can help take the perfect picture by detecting smiles and making sure the subject doesn’t have their eyes closed.
• NFC-enabled. The new Galaxy is ready for mobile payments with NFC built-in. It’s nice to be future-proof, although exactly when NFC payments become common place remains to be seen.
• 50GB of free DropBox storage. Among the many rumours that circulated ahead of the Galaxy S III, one prediction was that the phone would include a Samsung cloud-based storage service. As it turns out, Samsung have partnered with DropBox to use a popular service that already exists. S III users get 50GB storage space, plenty for CoPilot’s 2GB European Maps.
• MicroSD slot. If 50GB of web-based storage is not enough or you prefer to store all your content locally, the S III includes a microSD card slot. That’s less common in the latest phones, but probably a welcome feature for many.
• 16GB, 32GB and 64GB variants. The S III is available in two colours: Pebble Blue and Marble White. There’s choice of 16GB, 32GB and 64GB which stack-up directly against the iPhone range.

Overall, this is the smartphone you’d expect from Samsung. It’s a genuine “superphone” that will surely continue the incredible sales trajectory begun by its predecessors. It’s not the only game in town of course. HTC is back on form, and Nokia’s partnership with Microsoft is showing signs of bearing fruit, particularly with the prospect of Windows 8 on the horizon.

We are looking forward to getting CoPilot installed onto a Galaxy S III and ensuring compatibility as soon as we can. We’ll post a video about it once we have a device.

Are you going for a Galaxy S III? Is it the best Android phone yet? We’d love to know your thoughts.

Are you among the first to get a Galaxy S III? Send us a photo of your device and – we’ll give the first 3 to respond a copy of CoPilot Live Premium.

You’re About to Spend a lot Less Time in Traffic!

Great news! Your CoPilot Live Premium app now includes 12 months use of our real-time ActiveTraffic service as standard. If you already have ActiveTraffic™, we’ll add an extra 12 months to your existing subscription for FREE.*

Tips&Tricks : CoPilot Live ActiveTraffic – How it works

Find the fastest route through traffic – every time!

ActiveTraffic™ uses the highest quality Live traffic flow information to automatically calculate the fastest route to your destination based on real-time conditions. It continuously monitors your route for delays as you drive and will alert you if a quicker route is available.

Learn more about ActiveTraffic  >

With possible gridlock at the airports, many people will be hitting the roads this Easter weekend, particularly now that the risk of a fuel tanker

strike is over (for now at least!). Although UK destinations are likely to be popular, many will be heading across to the continent to escape the sudden cold snap and to find some spring sunshine.

So what else could go wrong? Traffic chaos? Getting lost? Arguments over which way to go? How about huge roaming costs from downloading maps to your phone when abroad?

Here at CoPilot Live, we want to help you avoid travel problems this Easter. So we are offering some great discounts on the European map versions of our CoPilot Live Premium smartphone sat nav apps – for this weekend only.

CoPilot Live’s high quality UK and European street maps are stored onboard your smartphone or tablet, so there’s no need to worry about mobile data roaming charges when abroad. You’ll enjoy full-featured turn by turn voice guidance and easy to follow 3D driving displays door to door, wherever you are heading.

The CoPilot Europe sale starts today and ends midnight on Monday!

• CoPilot Live Premium Europe (UK + full European maps) will be available on the iTunes AppStore and Google Play at just £34.99 instead of £39.99
• CoPilot Live Premium Western Europe (UK + Western Europe maps) is just £28.99 instead of the usual £32.99

Beat the crowds with ActiveTraffic™

CoPilot Live’s optional real-time traffic service ActiveTraffic costs just £9.99 for 12 months – the ideal add-on avoid delays this weekend

For map coverage information, please click here.

Never the less, people still need to travel, so how about using some of CoPilot Live’s features to research your journey beforehand?

•  Use the POIs – Pull up a list of petrol stations and phone ahead through CoPilot Live – check on stock and queues without using precious fuel. Target less obvious stations away from the main roads and super markets
• Check your route – whether it’s a drive you do regularly or a new destination, use Alternate routes to see whether there are alternative ways to your destination – a few more minutes on the road may pay dividends in helping you avoid obvious and therefore congested roads
• Check your profile – Are you favouring/avoiding motorways? Would customising your speed limits help you conserve fuel?
• ActiveTraffic – For a £9.99 12 subscription warnings about congestion on your proposed route could save you its price in fuel many times over.

However you travel this weekend and for the forth coming Easter break, let CoPilot Live Premium help ensure your fuelled and ready to go!

For us, although we absolutely hope that the traffic chaos in Central London that some are predicting won’t happen, the widespread introduction of temporary road restrictions will certainly have an impact of some kind. Whether it be gridlock, or even empty roads as drivers avoid the area altogether, the introduction of VIP/Athelete-only lanes on some of London’s busiest routes will certainly disrupt the normal vehicle flow.

Quite simply, no one actually knows how the traffic is going to be, so we are taking steps to ensure that CoPilot Live is fully equipped to help drivers navigate as efficiently as possible.

Firstly, we will be introducing a new feature to CoPilot Live Premium via a free update in July which will provide a warning if your route includes roads within the Olympic Route Network (ORN). You’ll have the choice to find an alternative route if one is available.

Secondly, our ActiveTraffic service will reflect temporary road closures and the actual real-time speed of traffic throughout London on a choice of 3 routes, so you’ll be able to choose the fastest way to go on the day. Of course, those drivers eligible to use the ORN will be able to favour these roads automatically!

The debate about the Olympic Legacy, the overall cost of the games and ticketing will undoubtedly continue. Let’s just hope the press doesn’t forget to celebrate as the world’s greatest sporting spectacle comes to the world’s greatest city this summer.

Drivers in continental Europe and US would probably be surprised to realise just how few road tolls exit in UK – in most countries it is common place for motorways to toll-based.

Use of the UK’s road network is mostly free of charge, with a few exceptions: the M6 Toll, The London Congestion Charge zone and a number of bridges and tunnels. However, traffic volumes and associated congestion continue to rise. The theory goes that introducing privately-managed roads will help better maintain the existing network and fund the construction of new roads.

Of course the challenge is that the cost of motoring is already soaring thanks to the increased price of fuel and insurance. Adding additional charges based on road use is unlikely to be a popular move. However, there is an argument that by reducing congestion, road tolls could in fact save motorists money.

From a sat nav perspective, we already give drivers the choice of avoiding or favouring tolls roads within CoPilot, and we will be making this more sophisticated in the future by linking this to the overall cost of your journey.

So what’s your opinion? Are more road tolls a good thing? Or an extra tax on the already stretched UK driver?

This time round, there are many who’d be forgiven for wondering what all the fuss is about though. The New iPad looks virtually identical to the iPad 2, is slightly thicker and slightly heavier. As with the iPhone 4S, there’s not much at face value to get excited about.

However, this is of course the best iPad ever, and under the skin it brings one major enhancement to what has already proven to be a global phenomenon: retina display. The new iPad screen has four times as many pixels as the previous model – higher resolution than practically all PC monitors. Not bad for a mobile device!

As Charles Arthur points out in the Guardian “The essential thing about a tablet is that the screen is pretty much all there is.” So from that perspective alone, this improvement will surely reinforce the iPad’s already dominant market position.

The New iPad also packs some additional incremental improvements, including the camera from the iPhone 4S, although how many people will actually use this is surely questionable. An iPad is not the most convenient of point and shoot devices.

For us, we will be working to take full advantage of the New iPad’s retina display to provide the world’s highest resolution sat nav! We think CoPilot Live Premium HD’s 3D navigation views will look simply stunning.

In the meantime, we are offering up to 20% off our iOS apps this weekend to mark the arrival of the New iPad. It’s a great time to snap-up sat nav for your iPhone or iPad.