CC Skywave SSB 2 With AM FM SW WX and Aviation Bands / Includes SW Wire Antenna Adapter

A Decade of Directions...CoPilot Live Laptop 10

Techstination feature for Wednesday, December 27, 2006

A decade of directions. Bloomberg Boot Camp, a report on today's technology. Years before the flood of handheld GPS navigation devices started showing up on store shelves, ALK Technologies was making software that turned laptop computers into navigation machines. The company is just out with CoPilot Live Laptop 10…and says company founder and Princeton University Professor Alain Kornhauser….

"What we've done is we've improved the displays, we've put the 3D views and really enhanced the look of those so that as you're driving, I think you get a better perspective of where the turn is ahead so you can see it relative to other turns and it's worked out very well."

With a GPS receiver…pricing starts at about 200 dollars. For many users…opening a laptop in a car for navigation just isn't practical. While ALK doesn't make stand alone device like the ones you'll find from Garmin, TomTom, Pharos and others….it does have software and GPS receivers that work with a variety of Windows Mobile cell phones and PocketPCs. The company has taken a unique approach to adding traffic data…to alert users to potential bottlenecks…and will allow each user's device to become a reporting station…

"The software itself really maintains what your performance has been as you've been traveling down the road."

It's all done anonymously…but does require a wireless Internet connection. You can find more information at Copilotlive.com. Bloomberg Boot Camp, I'm Fred Fishkin.