The Marine Electronics Hub
Apps running on tablets and phones have come a long way from the first, relatively primitive charting apps that debuted shortly after the turn of the millennia. Not only have the existing apps gained big functionality, but we’ve also seen many new entries into the category. This entry will attempt to review the currently available apps and their capabilities.
The Navigator of the United States Navy does not mess around. Addressing a bow-tie-speckled crowd of New England yachtsmen and nautical history buffs, Rear Admiral Richard West passionately described the “technological explosion” that is blowing apart the grand traditions of marine navigation, and his commitment to an all-digital future. When asked the inevitable question about paper charts, he grinned mischievously and said, “We’re going to throw them all overboard!”
TZ iBoat v3 introduces a revolutionary TZ MAPS, a new nautical map format that combines several types of data: Raster, Vector, detailed land information, high-resolution satellite photos, high-resolution Bathymetry, and new great features! TZ...
Orca makes some pretty heady claims about their CoPilot navigation app and hardware. Their home page is dominated by the tagline, “The ultimate navigation experience” and promises “Better boating with Orca.” Those are bold statements, but Orca’s goals are indeed ambitious. Orca aims to deliver a smarter, more automated navigation experience by leveraging both their own and off-the-shelf hardware. So, how far along the path to delivering the ultimate navigation experience has Orca progressed so far? Let’s take a look.
Teledyne Technologies Incorporated (NYSE:TDY) (“Teledyne”) announced today that it has acquired ChartWorld International Limited and affiliates (“ChartWorld”). ChartWorld, headquartered in Cyprus, with additional locations in Hamburg, Singapore, Vancouver and Tokyo, is a leading provider of digital marine navigation hardware and software provided through an affordable subscription-based model…
SI-TEX Marine Electronics today announced the official release of new POLARIS Charts, a content- and feature-rich vector cartography platform developed by sister company AvMap Srl exclusively for the company’s popular NavPro Series MFDs. POLARIS Charts covering the entire United States now come bundled with SI-TEX’s NavPro 900C/F and NavPro 1200C/F MFDs at no additional cost, providing powerful, yet affordable navigation, fish finding and radar functionalities for a wide range of boats. These units combine powerful chart plotting, built-in CHIRP sonar, and Wi-Fi radar capability in one convenient and easy-to-use package.
The Simrad NSX may be a value-oriented chart plotter in Simrad’s lineup but “value model” doesn’t tell the story of how important NSX is to Simrad’s, and Navico’s, future. NSX is the first MFD running on Navico’s Neon operating system. I’ve been using an NSX in Panbo(at) for the last several months and I’m pleased to report NSX is an upgrade from the Simrad Go it replaced in nearly every dimension. If this is Navico’s future, the future is bright.
It’s been four and a half years since Garmin bought Navionics and just under four years since Navico and C-Map’s corporate parents merged them. In both cases, there were statements made promising continued availability of the data on competing brands. But, would it? I’ve read comments from and talked to many boaters who are understandably nervous about access to their chart provider of choice on their navigation equipment brand of choice.
) – Raymarine announces the next generation of the LightHouse Operating System for all boaters. New LightHouse 4 delivers even easier operation, exciting personalization options, and several new features. As with all Raymarine software upgrades, LightHouse 4 is available to all Axiom, Axiom+, Axiom Pro, and Axiom XL owners completely free as a downloadable update.
level family of MFDs might not seem like a huge development. But, I’d encourage you to take another look because this announcement is a big deal. Simrad’s NSX is the first chartplotter from Navico to run their new operating system.
