Tag Archives: live

Copilot Live Premium GPS Navigation review (Android)

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So now I have my car, I need to make sure I have a good way of guiding myself when I don’t know where I’m going. I’ve tried many sat nav apps over the years over various phones and operating systems. On my previous phone, the Nokia 5230, free sat nav software was provided courtesy of Nokia and I have to say – considering it was free – it was fantastic. Not only did it include features that would normally come at a premium (eg traffic and speed camera alerts), but it also allowed maps to be downloaded to the memory card (in order to save data usage).

Sadly, whilst Android does have free sat nav provided (courtesy of Google) – it’s quite limited. The actual navigation is very good – but considering it doesn’t have speed camera alerts and also doesn’t allow map downloads, I decided I had to look into a premium option.

After much deliberation, I decided to go for Copilot Live Premium. It comes at rather a cost – £25 up front including VAT and then £10 per year (after the first year) for ongoing traffic alerts. However, you do get all the premium features I would expect – including free map downloads to a memory card (which are also very well sized) and free speed camera alerts.

Performance of the app is very good – on my HTC Sensation XE movement shows at a lovely frame rate. The GUI is also very efficient – not only does it look tidy but you can also choose from a wide range of stats to show on the main display such as speed, distance remaining, ETA and so on.

 There are also plenty of settings you can play with – from changing how far in advance the app warns you of an upcoming junction through to the types of POIs that are displayed on the map. I found some settings hard to find – in many cases they were hidden away – but there’s definitely no shortage of customisation.

Overall, I’m very happy with the app. In future, I’d like to see better speeding warnings – right now you only get a warning when you’re over 5mph over the speed limit. Whilst this is handy, if I was doing 35mph in a 30 zone I’d easily get caught by a mobile speed camera.

Ratings
Features: 4/5
Performance: 5/5
Price: 4/5 (good value for money, but monthly payment options would be nice)

Rewind: A look back at GEEK! so far

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Well, GEEK! is just over three years old now; and during that time I’ve written over 400 posts. So, while I don’t really want to add anything too new to GEEK! while I get my backup system finalised, I thought now would be a good time to run over some of the posts have brought the most traffic to GEEK!.

By far and away, the most popular post on GEEK! is the “Get the old Windows Live Essentials back“. So many of you were fed up with the poor functionality of Essentials 2011 (including me), so I linked you up with a download and instructions to get the old 2009 version back.

Next up, it’s the tool I found that allowed you to find the biggest files on your hard drive. The tiny tool quickly locates the files that are occupying the most space on your drive, allowing you to delete anything you see as unnecessary.

My review of the Samsung N145P netbook brought the next largest amount of attention to GEEK!. A fully comprehensive review that details everything you needed to know.

Not too far behind, my finding of TVCatchup back in mid 2009 provided Freeview TV access over the internet (in the UK). I still use the site regularly when I’m on the go, as it provides live TV without a bombardment of adverts.

Last in the top five, it’s my iPod touch 4G review. Simple and sweet – it explains all the new features that were (and still are) great additions to the iPod range.

And that’s it – a round-up of the top five biggest posts on GEEK!. Normal service on GEEK! will resume soon, but I’m just optimising the backup process on my new VPS!

Get the old Windows Live Essentials (2009) back – Messenger, Mail, Writer etc

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Update 23/03/2014, 20/08/2015: It still amazes me how much traffic this page gets (by far the most popular post on this site) – people still want Windows Live Essentials 2009! A few things to note… first of all, Windows Live Messenger is no longer supported by Microsoft and it’s now built into Skype, so use that instead. Additionally, the rest of the software still works fine (including Windows Live Mail which is the most requested item), but do bear in mind that the 2009 version isn’t designed for Windows 8/8.1/10, so you may have limited success (not tried it myself). Best of luck!

If, like me, you’ve tried Windows Live Essentials 2011 and dislike it – you’ve come to the right place.

I can’t stand the new Windows Live Messenger or the fact that Windows Live Mail now seems to display an error every time you download a new email. Microsoft clearly didn’t put enough work into this one. So until they fix the issues with it, I’m back with 2009.

Sadly, however, Microsoft have removed the download links for Windows Live Essentials 2009 which is quite annoying. You can still get the web installer from some sites on the internet, but I suspect Microsoft will remove the resources for this soon.

Have no fear though. GEEK! has the full installer which you can download and install to get the 2009 version back. You must uninstall the 2011 version first completely, and then install this version again.

Download now
File size: 134.85 MB

File is on Google servers. You will get a warning that the file can’t be scanned for viruses by Google – this is just because it’s too big for them to scan. Please see the disclaimer below.

Disclaimer: GEEK! has made every effort to ensure the safety of this download by scanning it for viruses and uploading it to a reputable server. However, GEEK! is not responsible for damage to you or your equipment through use of this download or software. Use at your own risk. This download has been provided purely for historical version provision purposes and is not in any way an intention to breach copyright.

Using Windows Live Writer to manage your blog

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Over the last couple of posts I’ve written (including this one), I have been using Windows Live Writer. This is a free piece of software that is created by Microsoft. It can manage and sort your blog for you with ease, and means you don’t have to use any online dashboard.

For GEEK!, I use WordPress and Windows Live Writer takes WordPress in its stride. I simply tell WLW my login details, and it automatically works out what my blog looks like, what theme I use, and what my posts would look like.

It does this all very quickly, and within a minute or so it is ready to go.

It is really quick, efficient and professional and I really like its simplicity. It is a great concept that works very well. I really like using it because it is so much easier than logging into the WordPress dashboard, then getting distracted by plugins, WP upgrades – the lot. With this, I just write my post without any distractions at all.

Perfect! Another recommendation for GEEK! Recommends.

[UK] Live TV on iPhone/iPod Touch is here!

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Big news iPhone and iPod Touch users – you can now get live TV in the UK on your Apple devices.

Before I explain and you explode in excitement, you need to head straight over to http://iphone.tvcatchup.com to get the service.

The service is in beta so you only get some of the Freeview channels, but all the big ones are up on there.

I’ve just tried it now and it’s absolutely brilliant. The service is apparently optimised for 3G and Wi-Fi, but I’ve just ran it through on Wi-Fi and it streams in harmony. I’m on a 2MB connection here and it loads up really quickly, and hasn’t buffered once in the last 15 minutes. Perfect!

This is another brilliant addition to the TVCatchup service. Perfect if you’re in need of some TV and you aren’t at home.

Great work TVC, I’m really looking forward to the final version, but for now the beta is way more than I need!

A little legal note: Remember you need a UK TV license to watch TV while it is being broadcast. For your own legal safety, make sure your license is up to date before using the service. Thanks!