General tech innovation awards are interesting, but what about our little world? In fact, I was quite slack about reporting the various boating innovation awards all last year, and so I’ve compiled a list of all the electronics-related awards in the four competitions I know of:
Last night Garmin announced a slew of new mobile products, and I must say: WOW! Check out the Colorado, a high-end handheld designed for driving, hiking, boating, and…um…multimedia, location-aware, gaming/educational experiences! The interface is neither old Garmin handheld nor new Garmin marine, instead featuring that big 'Rock 'N' Roller' thumb wheel/cursor thingy, and two soft keys. The wheel brings up a spinning menu system (seen right) that’s a bit like Furuno’s RotoKey.
At this point in the year I like to cruise around the various “Best of” tech lists, mostly for geeky fun, but also looking for innovations that may eventually trickle down to the boating world. Like Popsci.com’s Innovation of the year, which is this flexible, light, and supposedly inexpensive Powersheet solar panel at right. Nanosolar started producing panels just before Christmas, and I’m wondering if they would hold up on Big Gizmo’s big cabin top? Popular Science has more of interest, including sun block that’s built into hand and face soap. Then there’s PC World’s 25 Most Innovative Products of 2007, where you’ll see a few products already Panboed, like the XO learning laptop, the Amazon Kindle, and the HP TouchSmart IQ770. And Cnet’s Best & Worse tech of 2007, where the “Best smartphone” is the very same AT&T Tilt I saw boat cell guru Jeff Siegel fondling recently (more on the nifty software he showed me coming soon). Plus who wouldn’t want to check out SciFi.com’s top 10 gadgets for the filthy rich, along with its many other lists, including “101…strangest…gadget gift guides”.
So what lists did I miss, or, more to the point, what new general technologies are going to make boating life easier and more fun? (But please save your “most innovative new marine electronics” choices for a discussion to come.)
It’s good to hear that Aeolian shook the snow off her decks and made it to Bermuda. John Gass emailed that the skipper is “very pleased” with his new NavNet vx2 system, but the electronics in this included nav station shot (bigger here) look like they were installed when the boat was built by Holland Jachtbouw in 1998. It’s not 1985 vintage, but you don’t see some of these devices every day.
