Coastal Explorer app for iPads & iPhones

Ben Ellison

Ben Ellison

Panbo editor, publisher & chief bottlewasher from 4/2005 until 8/2018, and now pleased to have Ben Stein as a very able publisher, webmaster, and editing colleague. Please don't regard him as an "expert"; he's getting quite old and thinks that "fadiddling fumble-putz" is a more accurate description.

13 Responses

  1. David Pendleton says:

    Nice-looking app, but not particularly useful to inland boaters like myself.

    • Ben Ellison Ben Ellison says:

      Hi, David. I saw on the Rose Point support forums — which are good — that they “hope to add US Inland and Canadian {chart} options soon” but that means USACE river charts…

      https://ienccloud.us/

      If you’re looking for lake maps, no federal agency maintains those, or even any state I know of. But lots have been made by various commercial shops like Navionics and C-Map, so their apps are the best place to find them.

  2. Anonymous says:

    Would be helpful to mention that the downloaded app allows NO actions without creating an account and logging in. That’s before the user gets a chance to even consider a subscription.

    • Ben Ellison Ben Ellison says:

      Thanks, Anon. I had not realized that Rose Point insists on a minimal user ID for the free version, but it’s not surprising these days when even many websites do the same before sharing free content. Also, I missed it largely because CE hasn’t made me sign in for ages, as best I can recall, and even during the beta testing via TestFlight, and use on two iPads, and three PCs. Just works.

  3. Mark Rinkel says:

    Great write-up with an excellent description list of what is great and what still needs work. I’ve used CE for Windows on my previous boats and because I primarily use tablets now, I’ve watched the tablet version beta with great interest. The product is very promising, and I look forward to additional development.

  4. Keith Pleas says:

    I’ve been testing it on my boat iPad, my iPhone, and my home iPad. While on my boat it’s connected to my Nemo so I can have (mostly) the same data pages I have on my laptop. My preference would be to have common settings across ALL devices but I’m happy with the current functionality.

  5. Ray says:

    I’m still on the hunt for a good iPad navigation app that integrates well with our B&G system (wireless NMEA).

    Currently using Timezero as that’s what we have on a laptop but I really would love the ability to wirelessly upload routes to the Zeus MFD and view the radar on the iPad.

    Sadly, the B&G apps are horrible. With TZ being connected to Foruno, I doubt I’ll see it from them but maaaaaybe CE. Fingers crossed.

    • Ben Ellison Ben Ellison says:

      Ray, I got the CE iPad app working fine with direct WiFi output from a Simrad GO5, but can’t remember if that worked via my boat router. Same is true of TZ iBoat. It’s mainly a matter of finding the MFD IP address in the Simrad (or B&G) Settings menus.

      • Ray says:

        Yeah, it connects just great but it only receives sensor data. I won’t send routes to the MFD or receive radar.

        • Ben Ellison Ben Ellison says:

          Aha! You probably know that iBoat slickly shares routes and other data with TZ PC programs, Furuno MFDs, and the cloud. But it will only integrate with the Furuno WiFi radar, which doesn’t really compare to all the other Furuno radars.

          Rose Point will probably develop great synchronization between the new app and CE PC, but the only way I know of to get good boat radar on an iPad is with the manufacturer’s screen mirror app, and it’s often a bit laggy and/or harder to control.

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