Panbo

The Marine Electronics Hub

Category: Handheld

The damn iPad: iNavX, X-Traverse, Navimatics & AC 57

Navigation / Handheld

The damn iPad: iNavX, X-Traverse, Navimatics & AC

iNavX_iPad___iPhone.JPG

It’s so sad:  Nowadays when I contemplate my amazing portfolio of iPhone marine apps (discussed here, here, here, and elsewhere) in iTunes, featured right across the top of my PC screen are the ones now also optimized for the iPad.  But I don’t have an iPad (though I did touch one).  And behold the difference.  The size of what you see when you click on the image above will depend on your particular screen’s pixels-per-inch resolution, but the proportions are right regardless.  iNavX on a 9.7-inch, 1024 x 748 pixel iPad is obviously quite different from iNavX on a 3.5-inch, 320 x 480 pixel iPhone.  There’s room for more chart and bigger touch buttons, not to mention nav data and a compass ribbon across the top.  Damn…

Inmarsat, Iridium, & Globalstar…the horse race 15

Handheld / Communications / The Trade

Inmarsat, Iridium, & Globalstar…the horse race

inmarsat_isatphone-pro_collage.JPG

Competitive heat is really building in the portable global sat phone/messenger sector, and once it gets sorted, it’s got to be good news for those of us who venture beyond cellular networks.  Last week Iridium announced that its smaller, cheaper 9602 SBD modem is ready ahead of schedule to some 90 “integration partners,” and a few weeks before that Inmarsat detailed its IsatPhone Pro (due in June), including its game changing pricing.  And while I discussed both of these developments here in January, it’s Globalstar that may be the dark horse in this race…

Garmin visit #2, GPSMap 78 6

Handheld / The Trade

Garmin visit #2, GPSMap 78

Garmin_78_industrial_design_evolution_cPanbo.JPG

Today Garmin introduced the GPSMap 78 series, an apparently major refresh of the 76 series long popular with boaters.  While I only got to fiddle with a pre-production unit for a moment, I did learn a lot about the industrial design process behind it.  The ID department in Olathe — aka “The Skunk Works” or “Area 51” —  has a tool collection that would make all sorts of craftsmen and artists drool, but I’ll save that story for another day.  What’s particularly notable about the exhibit shown above and below is how many design iterations were created and modeled for the 78, and how detailed they were…

Steve Jobs, listen up! 40

Handheld

Steve Jobs, listen up!

Panbo at the Apple iPad store.JPG

Honest, it was purely coincidental that I booked a hotel room in Boston that’s three blocks from an Apple mega store. But, sure, we checked out the iPad opening day phenomenon, and the scene was actually impressive.  Out on the sidewalk, happy new owners showed them off to friends and the media, while others waited in lines to pick up preordered units or to place orders.  Inside iPad classes were underway and images of new iPad apps lined all three floors. Most important, there were lots of iPads online, loaded with apps, and easy to try out as long as you wanted, and they are nifty (as you can read in umpteen places). But the abundant and generally well informed staff were not able to answer my main question, which, in fact, has become my to-buy-or-not-buy line in the sand…

Monitoring & Control Apps: InteliSea & Maretron 5

Wireless & Apps / Handheld

Monitoring & Control Apps: InteliSea & Maretron

InteliSea_iPad_Alarms.JPG

Ah, so there you are stretched out in a teak chaise on the skydeck of your mega, but are you bored and/or uncomfortably out of touch?  Hell no, not with an iPad full of books, videos, games, work tools, internet connectivity, and even an app that connects you directly into your elaborate InteliSea vessel monitoring and control system.  There’s a nice demo of their existing $99 iPhone app at the InteliSea site, and I can tell you from on-phone testing that it manages complexities like those mimic screens above better than demoed, but won’t this app shine on the iPad? And if you’re a geek, or the yacht’s engineer…

Dry Case for iPhone & Touch, gaumy but good 15

Handheld

Dry Case for iPhone & Touch, gaumy but good

Dry_Case_test_cPanbo.JPG

“Gaumy” is great Maine word for something kind of messy or awkward (there are numerous spellings), and it came to mind when I tested the Dry Case above.  Its various doodads and fairly large size almost completely suck the elegant simplicity right out of an iPhone or an iPod Touch.  However, because you can easily suck the air out of the case, it’s not only exceptionally waterproof, but the screen and even the iPhone camera, still work fine, which is more than can be said for the Otter Case also discussed after the break…

Navionics Mobile Marine, a great app made better 32

Handheld / Charts

Navionics Mobile Marine, a great app made better

Navionics_Marine_USA_cPanbo.JPG

I think it’s safe to presume that Navionics Mobile Marine is the best selling iPhone charting app in the U.S. and many other countries. In fact, as I just wrote in an April Yachting article, many iPhone boaters consider it a “no brainer” even if they also use other nav apps. But lookee here, they’ve rebuilt the entire thing, substantially improving both features and value. Today you can buy the US East Marine and East Lakes versions for $10 each, a steal really, but they are 166 and 535 megabyte files, which is a bit of an inefficient pain for all concerned.  By contrast, the new $10 Marine&Lakes:US will be an easily updated 2 MB because it doesn’t come with data.  BUT you’ll be able to download charts and lake maps for anywhere in the entire U.S., quite easily, and fresh direct from Navionics’ own servers. The greedy download illustrated above — note the chart and POI detail of Newport — took about 10 minutes on my home WiFi, and a much smaller download went fine even over AT&T’s poky Edge service.  And there’s more…

DeLorme & Spot, who knew? 14

Handheld / Communications

DeLorme & Spot, who knew?

delorme-pn-60w-and-spot-communicator.jpg

The gadget and GPS blogs are all over this combination of DeLorme handheld GPS and Spot messenger, which will apparently get official when the CES opens tomorrow.  With good reason, too, because a user will be able to key a free-form text message into that new PN-60w and get it delivered from a lot of places where cell phones are useless.  I didn’t think a Spot could handle custom messages from the point of origin, and it sure makes me wonder what we don’t know yet about the fixed marine model…