When Captn Jack’s lent me an i-Blue 757 GPS last month, they were clever enough to put it in “logging” mode before they sealed the box. Thus, once I sorted out the included software and downloaded the saved log points (30,591 of them!), I was able to see the box’s UPS trip from Massachusetts to my house overlaid on Google Earth. Now that’s a damn sensitive receiver that can hold onto GPS satellites inside a box inside a series of brown trucks! And obviously the i-Blue’s 1000mAh Lithium battery is pretty long lived even when it’s not being trickle charged by its 25mA solar panel. By the way, note the lat/longs shown in the i-Blue’s PC utility software below; in Google Earth I was able to drill down to a factory parking lot in northern Taiwan where the unit was probably tested for the first time. While I like logging for tasks like mapping island trails, and the i-Blue is certainly an easy way to bring home a visual cruising history, I found that it also serves quite well as a Bluetooth GPS sensor to Pocket PC and laptop charting programs. It even has a unique standby feature that worked fine, and is well explained in this thorough Pocket GPS World review. Note that you use a USB cable to charge the i-Blue and also to download logs and set GPS and logging parameters. I didn’t check if someone without Bluetooth could use the USB connection as a GPS feed, and the otherwise good manual doesn’t say, but I will get another chance as I liked this gizmo so much I’m buying one. I tried an EMTAC Trine Bluetooth GPS that Captn Jack also sells, and while I’d say it’s noticeably sturdier than the i-Blue, I’m going for the lower price and logging capability. I do like how Jack’s is selecting good, better, best products in several categories like this and WiFi, and recommend downloading the new catalog PDF, which seems to include some gear not yet on its Web site.
My May PMY column “Universal Aggravation” is now online, and I'm tickled with how Craig Wallace Dale realized our opening illustration idea. How’s that for action electronics photography! You may recall that testing the Harmony 890 won me over to Logitech’s online programming system, but there may be even better solutions out there. I’d heard that Atlantic Marine Electronics programmed a Harmony for every Viking Yacht launched (an impressive move on Viking’s part), but when I called them it turned that they are now using the NevoSL, which is partially touch screen and according to AME “more intuitive.” I also learned from my friend Kim Kavin’s excellent megayacht site, CharterWave, that at the very high end Crestron has a remote that can summon 24 hour cabin service, an idea Kim is not so sure about.
I’ve been using this iWay 600c for a couple of weeks now and there’s a lot to like about it. The turn-by-turn car navigation is first class, and so is the MP3 player. I can’t remember which software I used to rip that Rodney Crowell album, but I just dragged the folder onto the iWay’s hard drive and it took care of the rest, displaying the album cover and track names while sending the sound to my truck’s radio via its FM transmitter. This is not ideal in terms of audio quality, but it’s wirelessly simple and it helps a lot that you can easily adjust the frequency used (those big touch screen arrows at the bottom above) as you drive through sometimes competing broadcast stations. And if you’ve programmed in a destination, or a series of destinations—all pretty easy with excellent Navteq street maps, millions of POI’s on the hard drive, a decent screen keyboard, etc.—the iWay smoothly mutes the music before it delivers voice directions. The navigation/music player combo is pretty slick, and I can easily imagine using it on a boat, at least as a backup plotter. More on that soon.
Magellan has not been doing much in the North American marine market recently, and actually this new CrossoverGPS comes loaded with street maps and topos, but you need to purchase pretty pricey chart SD cards to use it on a boat. Nonetheless that little 3.5” touch screen appears to be quite able (don’t miss the demo). I’d like to test it versus the Lowrance iWay 600c, supposedly heading my way for delivery next week. Have a fine weekend!
You’re probably going to see a lot of cute headlines like the above, as West Marine had the wisdom to supply many a marine writer with a pair of Fanning Thongs, which are not only comfy and seriously technical but have a “church key” built into their soles. The literature says that this is for opening a “soda” bottle, but a Corona seemed the better test. Worked fine too, which is probably why thong reviewer “Jim E Jams” writes that “The ladies always go ooooh and aaaah when I pop a top with my reef fannings.” It’s an absolutely horrible weather day here in Maine, my excuse for another in the Weekend Weirdness series. I also updated the GrandCentral entry; thanks all!
Yesterday David Pogue of the New York Times wrote a pretty glowing review of a new Web-centered phone and voice mail management service called GrandCentral. The central idea is one single phone number for life, and the central technology seems to be some slick switching software that can, for instance, ring either or both of my physical phones instantly if, say, I want to initiate a call from my GrandCentral voice mail box (which imported a big Outlook contact list flawlessly), or decide to record a custom greeting for that test Call Me button up there. So, yeah I spent some time signing up for a free GrandCentral account and testing some of its many features, and I too am pretty blown away.
I’m working on an article about universal remotes, the bane of many yachts (and households). Specifically I’m testing a Logitech Harmony 890, and so far am finding it an amazing solution to just about every problem I’ve had with previous “universals” (lots). If you’re not familiar with the Harmony design, they all have USB ports which you use along with dedicated software and Harmony’s Web site to program the thing for all the devices you want to operate. You can teach it individual commands, but Logitech has thousands of devices already databased, including my particular TV, surround sound system, DVD player, VCR, and Media Center laptop. I’ve checked and know they also have the dedicated receiver in the KVH M3 system. What else should I look for in the lists?
I’m feeling so old today. First I saw this Casio Waveceptor watch going for $25 on Woot. Five times a day the thing listens to WWVB, the time signal station in Colorado, and adjusts itself to atomic precision. I remember in the 70’s laboriously tuning into that station and tracking errors in the various expensive chronometers on a whale research vessel where we were using celestial nav to map and stay safe on the big banks off the Dominican Republic. Then I hear that Darrell Lowrance has retired and a fellow young enough to be my kid has taken over as new CEO of Navico (Simrad, Lowrance, etc.). And early this week old time big yacht installer Larry Smith Electronics suddenly shut its doors. I suspect some sort of financial mismanagement was the cause, not lack of business. Meanwhile, this old guy’s phone is busy as companies prepare to strut their stuff in Miami.
The Lowrance press release claims that “the iWAY 600c is the first portable navigation device to offer dual routing capability, allowing consumers to navigate both highways and waterways”, which I don’t understand as Garmin has done that nicely for some time. But that’s not to say that the 600c isn’t an interesting and unique portable-sized car/boat navigator. How’s about a 30 gig hard drive almost filled with U.S. and Canada road maps, hi res sat photo maps of metro areas, 5.5 million POIs, Lowrance’s own NauticPath U.S. charts (hopefully fixed), and some 3,000 Enhanced U.S. Lakes (there is a European model too). Which leaves 5 gigs free for MP3 tracks you can play using the unit’s built in “full spectrum FM modulator.” All is this displayed and controlled by a 5” VGA touch screen for $800 list with 12 and 110 power supplies, suction mount, and USB interface included. The 600c does come out of the automotive division—which is probably why I didn’t hear about it until now (thanks, Barry!)—and while the press release says “waterproof”, the spec page says “completely sealed to prevent internal corrosion.” At any rate, it’s supposed to ship in February and I’m on the test list.
A comment in the Velocitek S10 entry reminded me of this DeLorme Blue Logger that I tested a couple of years ago. It’s a pretty powerful little gizmo for the money, but one thing I didn’t get into in the short review was the annoying file format it logs into. As I recall I had a devil of a time getting the data into non-DeLorme mapping programs, but that issue may now be easily solvable with some of the conversion programs we’ve discussed (though I haven’t checked). Apparently I also missed the fact that the real time Bluetooth NMEA 0183 output does not include the WAAS corrections, as discovered by a PMY reader. I don’t know why DeLorme did that, or if it’s still true.
Now that’s a damn sensitive receiver that can hold onto GPS satellites inside a box inside a series of brown trucks! And obviously the i-Blue’s 1000mAh Lithium battery is pretty long lived even when it’s not being trickle charged by its 25mA solar panel. By the way, note the lat/longs shown in the i-Blue’s PC utility software below; in Google Earth I was able to drill down to a factory parking lot in northern Taiwan where the unit was probably tested for the first time.
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I’m feeling so old today. First I saw this Casio Waveceptor watch going for 
