Category: Wireless & Apps
Yes, that’s Nobeltec Time Zero Trident running on Gizmo’s Mac Mini with NMEA 2000 data coming in via Actisense NGT-1 — as seen in an earlier entry on ChartTable21 — but, wow, the screen shot was taken on my iPad. And I had complete control of Trident from the pad without any noticeable delay in commands or zoom/pan screen refreshes, even with the intense graphic data seen in those nicely blended MapMedia hi res photo maps. If you’re interested in extending an onboard PC navigation system over WiFi to an Apple (or Android) pad you may recall that in October the possibilities weren’t thrilling, but that was before Splashtop Remote Desktop came along…
The Raymarine e7 being announced today may be the most important launch of the year, because it’s not only a hot new 7-inch MFD design but it also marks a complete refresh of Ray’s multifunction display software. While it uses the “hybridtouch” mix of touchscreen and keypad controls introduced in the E Wide Series — though with notably fewer and bigger buttons — I understand that the underlying code began at zero serveral years ago. And I see a lot of fresh interface ideas in the many product photos you’ll find after the break. But while the e7 will network with up to five other e7s and all sorts of existing Raymarine sensors and black boxes, it apparently will not network with existing Ray MFDs, which may be the downside of a complete software rewrite. But then again, it surely can make some interesting new connections…
It hasn’t gotten much press yet, but Sabre Yachts recently introduced something called LaunchPad, which is a collection of boat specific apps and services that purchasers of certain Sabre models will receive on an...
A few weeks ago I tweeted about how I’d had a nice dinner meeting with Raymarine and that they had all sorts of interesting product news that I couldn’t write about yet. But, dang,...
The original Wirie — seen above being assembled on a cruising boat in the Caribbean — is a 1,000 mW USB WiFi transceiver which seems smartly set up for marine use and has many fans. But I’ve been one of those boaters who prefers an Ethernet-based alternative because it can be installed beyond USB cable length limitations, plus it can go right to a router and thus easily serve the Internet to multiple devices. (A particularly good Ethernet-based, high-power WiFi radio is the Ubiquity Bullet, which is available in many marine packages, as we discussed at length last Fall.) However, the new WirieAP model adds a local boat WiFi access point to that waterproof plastic case, which means that the install only requires a 12 volt feed to let every WiFi-enabled device on board share a well-amplified shore-side Internet connection…
Impatient me was beginning to wonder if the intriguing Iridium 9602 short burst data modem would ever materialize into a useful product. The Cerberus communicator and service I discussed in January is supposed “to arrive” for real in 7 days, but it’s gotten zero marketing so far, and I haven’t heard about any other 9602-based devices that might seriously appeal to boaters until yesterday. And, in fact, even the DeLorme inReach isn’t scheduled to ship until Fall. But it certainly looks neat…
It’s obviously not practical to anchor in Camden’s Inner Harbor — especially as there are often two Gizmo-size boats on each of those floats — but it was a good first taste of Boat Monitor, a very interesting new remote anchor watch system. What’s happening here is that I used Gizmo’s low-power Datalux police car computer (seen in yesterday’s entry, and also here) to log onto Boat Monitor’s web site and establish a sophisticated anchor watch keyed to a Garmin 17x GPS connected via NMEA 2000. Boat Monitor’s server then started minding Gizmo’s position, ready to serve it elsewhere and/or send alarms as needed. One possibility is this $5 app on my Android phone, but there are others. The details and flexibility are impressive…
When I wrote about Garmin’s new GDL 40 cellular weather system recently, the comments reminded me about how many different ways there are to access data and forecasts (and how opinionated some folks are about the methods they favor). So I guess I shouldn’t be surprised when two apps that both specialize in downloading and displaying GRIB weather model data on iPads or their smaller siblings, take quite different approaches to the task…
Gizmo is still ashore, but she shed her shrink-wrap this week and today I had a few enjoyable hours aboard tidying up and fooling with some new accessories. One is the handy mount holding the iPad up next to the Datalux police car computer (which apparently survived the winter aboard fine), but first let’s talk about the free and very clever BoatUS smartphone app showing on the pad. Some of the features alluded to in that link aren’t enabled yet, but its primary function — making an automated call for a tow — worked very well in my test…
I only got a poor photograph in Miami when Jeppesen let us peek at the soon-to-come C-Map charting app for iPads, and so I’m tickled that they send over a selection of screen shots....
