The press release calls SiMON2 "the first alarm monitoring system for the new Apple iPad," which seems odd given what we've already seen from InteliSea. I think what Palladium Technologies was trying to say is that SiMON2 is the first such app designed exclusively for the iPad. It is not just an extension of a full bore PC-based megayacht system, like iSiMON or InteliSea, but rather a new iPad-centered monitoring system designed for "smaller" yachts...
Panbo reader Pat Harmon is cruising Alaska aboard M/V Sun Dancer and he kindly agreed to write about some gear, seen above, that's helping him stay in touch:
I recently installed a cell phone booster on my 43' North Pacific trawler, and although I am not an expert, my hands-on experience may be helpful to my fellow boaters. I am computer literate and had Navy electronics training back in the 60's...
"It's the firmware (and customer support), stupid!" That's the lesson I learned when I bought an $75 EnGenius EOC-2610
high-power WiFi system in December, 2008 (when I was staying in NYC, cadging Internet from neighbors). I got far enough into its dense menu systems to see some good hot spots, but I never got the damn thing to actually connect. And at first my hubris was such that I simultaneously took to task a small company called Great Boat Gear for selling a "marine" version of the same hardware at more than double the cost. Well, my bad...
Ah, so there you are stretched out in a teak chaise on the skydeck of your mega, but are you bored and/or uncomfortably out of touch? Hell no, not with an iPad full of books, videos, games, work tools, internet connectivity, and even an app that connects you directly into your elaborate InteliSea vessel monitoring and control system. There's a nice demo of their existing $99 iPhone app at the InteliSea site, and I can tell you from on-phone testing that it manages complexities like those mimic screens above better than demoed, but won't this app shine on the iPad? And if you're a geek, or the yacht's engineer...
I've had impressive results with the Tacktick Micronet system on the Annie G., but the gear is expensive. Good then that Tacktick has introduced an economy version of the T101 wind system, called the mn30 and/or T033 (click on photo above for larger version). The nifty solar-powered, wireless masthead sensor is the same, but the display is powered from a boat's 12v supply instead of solar cells. Which seems like a reasonable trade for a discount of over $400 retail, and might even be preferable on boats where the display doesn't get sufficient sunlight. Actually, there may be some other features missing from the mn30/T033 that I haven't found yet. But I do know that it supports basic calibration like offset and speed %, and can integrate with a Micronet wireless speedo or NMEA box (& GPS) for True Wind readings. Here's the manual PDF and U.S. distributor Ocean Equipment's listing.
Photographing a brochure leads to distortions (thanks regardless to Richard “Widescreen” Brain), but use your imagination to square up and sharpen the new Raymarine ST70+ image above. Then understand that this 6.5” 640 x 400 pixel screen is capable of showing all the SeaTalkNG/NMEA 2000 navigation, engine, and systems data promised in the original ST70, and I think you’ll agree that this is a welcome product indeed. But where are the control buttons?
It’s come to my attention that not every Panbo reader is obsessed with AIS! So how about a new charting app for the iPhone? That would be Navionics Mobile, which was just introduced at the Genoa Boat Show. It is, in fact, a relative of iNavX, the first iPhone charting app (why reinvent good code?), though obviously different. iNavX can’t download a NOAA raster chart of Genoa, Italy, for instance, and no raster chart can offer a choice of nav aid presentation as illustrated in the split screen shots above and below...
So how about a product whose details are mysterious and which may not exist, and even if it does, probably doesn’t work very well? The thing is that I’ve gotten a little Bluetooth happy, and the Deckband 4i concept looks like a particulary interesting way to use it on a boat. From what I can gather at the unfinished site above, this hub not only permits four crew to communicate via Bluetooth cell phone type headsets, but can also somehow mix in VHF, and (I think) serves as a proactive man overboard alarm system.
So I’ve been testing two marine WiFi systems. First up is newcomer 5MileWiFi, pictured above. Its heart is in that little machined aluminum case which delivers Internet to your PC via that main USB cable, also used to get some of the power needed to run what’s claimed to be a 1,000 mW WiFi transceiver. The side mounted USB cable is just for added power and can go to your PC or any other USB power source. The $399 package also includes 25’ of LMR240 coax and a 38” high 9 dbi omni-directional marine WiFi antenna.
I’m truly excited about the imminent release of ActiveCaptain Mobile, the long awaited heir to the Outdoor Navigator (ON) PDA & smart phone charting program that went dormant two years ago. Of course we got some big hints when developers Jeff and Karen Siegel introduced the ActiveCaptain (AC) web site about a year ago. Now 5,000 boaters are registered there, and together they’ve made some 150,000 updates to its visual database of marina, anchorage, etc. cruising info. So the idea of ActiveCaptain Mobile (ACM) is to be not only an ON-style mini-plotter but also a live-anywhere connection with the AC database.
high-power WiFi system in December, 2008 (when I was staying in NYC, cadging Internet from neighbors). I got far enough into its dense menu systems to see some good hot spots, but I never got the damn thing to actually connect. And at first my hubris was such that I simultaneously took to task a small company called Great Boat Gear for selling a "marine" version of the same hardware at more than double the cost. Well, my bad...
So how about a product whose details are mysterious and which may not exist, and even if it does, probably doesn’t work very well? The thing is that I’ve gotten a little Bluetooth happy, and 
