At first glance Standard Horizon's new CPN may look like a fairly standard multifunction display, but note the "turn page" screen graphic at lower right, the small (but purportedly powerful sounding) stereo speakers, and the "Multimedia Chart Plotter" designation. The 7- and 10-inch CPNs have touch screens not only to help manage charting, optional radar, and so forth but also to select audio and video entertainment stored on front or back connected USB sources, or streaming over WiFi. And, yes, there is a Web browser in there too!
This is going to confuse people! Navionics has refreshed all its mobile apps, but in two different ways, and they're not done yet. The iPhone versions seen in the top panel are marked NEW! because they are in fact the completely new app that I wrote about in February and that let's you download and cache whatever charts (and lake maps, in the US) you want from a much larger region than the original Mobile apps. Which is why there are so many more regions of the old HD app seen in the lower panel, except they're newish too, just having become 5.0 versions, which includes the BIG addition of UGC...
Hurray for the Bad Elf GPS! While it's simply a high-performance GPS receiver that fits into the data/power port of any Apple iThing, it means that an iPod Touch can finally run mapping and charting apps like an iPhone 3Gs can, perhaps even better given the Elf's high specs. Ditto for older iPhones with their crummy internal GPS receivers and for WiFi-only iPads which -- like Touch's -- don't contain any sort of GPS. I'm sure that there will eventually be all sorts of ways to get GPS, and even other boat sensor data, into iDevices, but the Bad Elf seems to be an easy solution, and it can be had at Amazon for $100 right now. Here's hoping that it will also help some boaters untangle the confusion around iThing GPS, and data plans, which recently got worse...
Once again -- and a nice contrast to my various METS ramblings -- the good Kees Verrujit kindly wrote up his impressions of the huge Amsterdam marine equipment trade show:
Today I visited METS for the fourth year in a row. This year the show was even bigger than last year, by about 20%. Anyone who still claims they can do all halls and booths on one day is a close relation of Baron Münchhausen. I visited some booths as a NMEA 2000 enthusiast, some in my role of technologist for a yard, but most in my role as a delegated Panbo blogger. This year that was a lot easier than last, as more and more people seem to read Panbo or at least know Ben's name -- most vividly portrayed by a huge quote sign in the Fusion Marine Audio booth {like this one, only bigger!}. The major themes I noticed were: Pads (and iOS apps) were everywhere; AIS is taking off in a major way; Chinese electronics are coming; and
NMEA 2000 is here to stay...
Given how many active cruisers rely on WiFi, the advent of Firesheep -- which apparently makes it super easy to break into people's web accounts when they are on the same WiFi network -- deserves more than my comment on the Rogue Wave entry. I first heard about the problem via a dire-sounding ActiveCaptain newsletter, and I've since corresponded with Jeff Siegle who says boaters need to be warned. To get an idea of how dangerous Firesheep and copycat programs are, Jeff tried one while anchored off a marina and reports that he "got passwords from half the boats with people aboard - all
without them knowing." This tech blog, home of the illustration above, is also pretty dire, but, like so many internet security issues, this one seems somewhat confusing...
Wasn't it telling that three DAME awards went to iPad apps yesterday (even though only two were entered)? I can't find the full award text online yet, but the judges explained their Marine Related Software choice of Navionics Marine: Mediterranean HD thusly: "This system's ease of use was better than any the Jury had seen to date. With fingertip control provided by the iPad it was extremely easy and intuitive to manipulate the charts and establish routes and waypoints. Moving from screen to screen, updating charts, and zooming in on a landmark was expected to be very simple even on a moving boat." It's a bummer that all regions of Mobile 5.0 aren't out yet, but testing Beta versions for Canada, the Caribbean, and U.S. East leads me to concur with the judges, particularly in regard to the updating charts. Creating user generated data -- the major feature of 5.0, as emphasized in the Navionics graphic inset above -- is so much easier on a big screen with a big keyboard...
The press release characterizes the new (little 'e') echo series fishfinders -- six models in all, with the $450 550c above at the high end, and an $80 echo 100 at the low -- as "Garmin's return to the freshwater market." Which I read as "Hello, Lowrance and Humminbird!" and also as another sign of the company's tenacity. Dropping out of the hyper intense smart phone market may have been wise, but Garmin usually seems to meet competitive adversity with new models, improved features, better value, etc. They may have lost focus on the inland market for a bit, but they're back, and consider too the new xHD 4kW open array radars...
It's not just the new edition of Coastal Explorer that can play nicely with an iPad. In fact, it turns out that anyone running Nobeltec Admiral v6.5 or higher can get their iPad to show a variety of independent screens like the one above. (Right up through the latest 10.7 update, which apparently fixes numerous bugs, adds support for the latest Windows versions, and marks the welcome demise of Jeppesen's Raster Plus Pack gaff.) That's because Admiral has long supported the extended desktop capabilities of Windows, as well as touch screens. But Nobeltec Product Manager Bill Washburn, glimpsed in his own camera above, warns that screen refresh rate is marginal, at least at this point...
That's a beautiful sight, and I don't mean my float mate's headsail furl. Those six LEDs on the Rogue Wave WiFi transceiver are showing (from the bottom up) that it's getting power (via the Ethernet cable), that it's made a connection with a down-below computer (or router), and finally that its connection with an onshore hotspot is good enough to light up all four signal strength indicators. And I can attest that if the hotspot itself has a good Internet connection, this high power WiFi radio is ready to rock. I've been pretty pleased this season with the performance of the Wave Comet I wrote about last March -- it far outperforms the WiFi built into my PCs or phones -- but the Rogue leaves the Comet in the dust...
I've been using an iPad for a week now and -- sorry, Steve -- I'm not yet feeling "the magic". But just the fact that I can envision so many improvements to something already so cool speaks to how amazingly fast this wireless, touch screen, app device phenomenon is moving. My iPhone and iPod Touch have been almost magically transformed by iOS 4 (coming soon to the pad) and my Android phone is such a hotbed of fertile app chaos that it sometimes gets hot quite literally. And almost everything that's useful and fun about these devices is doubly so on my boat, with loads of room to grow. Which is why I suggested to the NMEA Conference crowd on Saturday night -- I got to make a little spiel again when the Technology Award was presented -- that integrating marine electronics with these things is an important challenge to them (along with addressing some of your diverse grumblings, like fixing some issues with NMEA 2000). It's also why I asked many manufacturers in the exhibition hall what their iThing plans are, if any, and, by golly, there are some good things coming...
right now. Here's hoping that it will also help some boaters untangle the confusion around iThing GPS, and data plans, which recently got worse...
