The Marine Electronics Hub
Continuing my new product tour from the 2026 Discover Boating Miami International Boat Show, the next stop is at the Navico booth for the Simrad NSO 4 and B&G Zeus SRX. These two families of chartplotters sit atop Simrad and B&G’s lineups. They also complete each company’s transition to products based on Navico’s NEON operating system.
The electronics area of the 2026 Discover Boating Miami International Boat Show is noticeably smaller this year. In years past, the show featured a separate electronics room. This year, that room is a food court and the electronics area is on the main floor of the convention center. Although the area itself might be smaller, there were still quite a few exciting announcements and new equipment on display. First up are two different lines of Furuno MFDs designed for smaller boats.
Furuno is expanding its industry-leading lineup of NavNet TZtouch MFDs (Multi Function Displays) with the new TZtouchE series, delivering a streamlined navigation experience with robust functionality and performance. Designed for boaters demanding powerful tools in a simplified interface, the TZtouchE series delivers an affordable path to many advanced features, including amazingly detailed TZ MAPS charts…
As Simrad Marine Electronics marks its 80th anniversary, the brand celebrates eight decades of innovation with the launch of NSO 4 – the next chapter in marine navigation. Built on the revolutionary NEON operating system (OS) and designed to be the world’s most intuitive chartplotter, NSO 4 is the latest premium chartplotter and fishfinder in the Simrad portfolio, delivering an unmatched combination of effortless control, lightning-fast performance, and sleek design, setting a new standard for offshore navigation…
Garmin today unveiled the GPSMAP 9000xsv series – superior chartplotters designed for captains and anglers that demand world-class performance. Available with a 10-, 13- or 17-inch touchscreen display, these multi-functional displays (MFDs) boast Garmin’s cutting-edge integrated xCHIRP traditional sonar and UHD scanning sonar to help anglers see and catch more fish. Users can get 5Ghz Wi-Fi connectivity for seamless software and map updates at ultrafast speeds, and see charts, maps and entertainment in vivid detail with up to 4K resolution…
Tablet navigation has come an extremely long way in the decade and a half since Ben Ellison started covering it. However, for as far as the apps have come, integrations between navigation apps and chart plotters remain remarkably frustrating. Some in brand solutions, like Active Captain with Garmin equipment and TZ iBoat with Furuno plotters, work quite well. However, cross platform options typically involve clunky, multi-step export and import routines. Often, these routines require ejecting and inserting physical memory cards, a task made more complex as memory card slots move to the back of slick, all glass chart plotters. Raymarine and Orca have broken with recent trends and offer a wireless integration that allows for remarkably simple sharing of routes between a tablet running Orca and a Raymarine Axiom chartplotter.
Aqua Map is pleased to announce the launch of Route Planner, a multifunctional route planning tool that offers navigators enhanced control and flexibility. By combining Automatic and Manual planning modes, Route Planner allows seamless switching between them within the same route. This hybrid routing capability enables users to customize and combine manual and automatic segments, or fully manual or fully automatic routes, providing precise control.
Hello Panbo readers! This is Ben Ellison — sometimes known as the “Other Ben” or the “Old Ben” — and I want to apologize for posting here so infrequently in recent years. It’s not...
Offering bigger, high-resolution displays with built-in sonar and mapping to help serious anglers find and catch fish OLATHE, Kan./July 8, 2025 – Garmin (NYSE: GRMN), the world’s largest and most innovative marine electronics manufacturer,...
A forum post snuck in a few weeks ago looking for beta testers for TZ iBoat. Timezero’s iBoat is an impressively full functioned navigation app for iOS and iPadOS. Until now, it has not...
