The Marine Electronics Hub
I lucked out. Just look at all the data I’ve been slurping through my Verizon Galaxy Nexus cell phone while living and working afloat. Up until this month I didn’t think that using 21,482 megabytes on a $60 data plan was possible without repercussions — like Verizon throttling me down or even saying “bye-bye, buster!” But apparently it’s perfectly OK for me to keep right on slurping at this piggish pace. Am I enjoying a short term sweet spot?
Since leaving Myrtle Beach on April 1, I’ve spent a fairly ridiculous amount of time messing around with WiFi and cellular Internet connections, and not only is Gizmo quite well equipped in those categories...
I was so focused on finally heading north that I forgot the April 1 announcement of DeLorme’s new inReach SE, even though one standard step in getting Gizmo underway these days is firing up the original inReach for tracking, messaging, and much more (as discussed here last fall). But my forgetfulness does not indicate a lack of appreciation for the new model (which I’ve already handled briefly in prototype form). To the contrary, I think the SE (Screen Edition) will likely make a lot of boaters as enthusiastic about the whole inReach concept as I’ve already become…
I’ve been waiting so long that disappointment loomed large. It was mid-April last year when I became a Kickstarter ‘backer’ in the Pebble E-Paper Watch for iPhone and Android, which really just meant that I might get a good deal by buying one upfront for delivery the following September. But I wasn’t the only geek who thought they’d sniffed out a bargain. Though Pebble’s Kickstarter goal was only $100,000, almost 69,000 backers sent them over 10 million dollars! Which was neat in the sense that the Pebble people could then make the watch waterproof and add other features, but not so great in that suddenly they had a LOT of watches to build, which took much longer than ‘estimated’. However, I’ve been smiling about Pebble ever since I opened my mailbox last week and found the box with “It’s Time” printed on it in large, ironic type…
Garmin isn’t messing around. The 8000 Series announced this morning includes three MFD sizes — 8-, 12-, and 15-inch — as well as the 8500 Black Box that can drive new Garmin monitors available in 15-, 17, and 19-inch sizes. Do click on that family photo above to not only see the whole range but also something called the GRID for Garmin Remote Input Device. I’ve wondered if Garmin would ever add a rotary knob or joystick to its touch screen interface and the answer is that now you can have both…
I’m apologetic to all the manufacturers who’ve loaned me products I still haven’t tested or written about — so many gizmos, so little time! — but maybe it was a good thing in the case of the Yacht Phone which I first saw (floating) at the Lauderdale Show. Because the $20 three-month 50 minute prepaid card included with the sample had run out, I bought another 50 minutes at yachtphone.net. The purchase process turned out to be easy, in a few minutes the phone was able to make calls (aside from 911), and customer service even answered a few questions within an hour on a Saturday. Plus the phone itself exceeded expectations…
Holy Batman, the just-announced Garmin Quatix watch can connect wirelessly to a Garmin autopilot and not only show you what the AP is doing but let you steer the boat from your wrist. Plus if you fall overboard the lost wireless connection will set off an MOB alarm on a Garmin MFD and the AP will try to steer back to you. I hereby rescind my recent mumbling about Garmin’s conservative approach to marine electronics! And aside from all the connectivity — the Quatix can apparently interface with Garmin PC, Mac, and iPad apps too — it seems like a heck of a boating watch even if you aren’t running other Garmin gear…
I probably made the PR guy’s day! He called out of the blue with two questions — did I think that many boaters care about cellular boosters and had I heard of Wilson Electronics? — and my reply was not only “heck, yes” on both counts but also a report on how pleased I already was with the Wilson amp I installed on Gizmo last September. The company may have just decided to pay attention to the boat world, but I was more than ready to test the box of Wilson gear that recently showed up at Panbo HQ…
I believe that this gentleman — Durval Tavares, the founder and president of Aquabotix — earned that grin the hard way. It’s no surprise that getting something as complex as a “remote controlled underwater camera vehicle” with an iPad interface to market would be a challenge, but when I visited the company HQ yesterday I was impressed with just how many details and disciplines are in play behind the scenes. I was also impressed with the cheerful, collaborative work environment Tavares and his team have created and I quite enjoyed taking my first HydroView driving lesson in the factory test pool (video example here)…
It’s time to catch up on Dr. Craig Summers and his passion for Tacking Time to Destination (TTD). The basic idea is to calculate in advance how long it will take to tack (or jibe) a sailboat to point B in particular wind conditions, but there’s a lot to it. Like how does the software program or dedicated device know exactly what your particular boat can do those conditions — a set of performance values known as polars — as well as what the boat and wind are doing in real time so it can perfect its predictions? And what about currents? When we last discussed SailTimer in 2009, Summers had introduced a rudimentary iPhone app and was working on something called The Sailing GPS. The latter is real now, the app is several generations advanced, and that’s not all!
