Oh Dear Elaine Bunting

[Ex-SolentBoy]

YBW news has a piece on iPad navigation software.

Elaine Bunting says "One or two make it difficult, or even impossible, to view ship's position in lat and long, which to me is the minimum requirement. A sad culprit is Navionics, an otherwise excellent product. This provides no position co-ordinates for you to record in your logbook or mark on a paper chart. Please note, Navionics: this surely must be so easy to remedy. You've stripped out the Number 1 point of having a handheld GPS."

How hard can it be to press the little magnifying glass in the top corner and the select, Lat,Long?

Or, touch the screen anywhere, including your position, and then touch the question mark which also shows Lat,Long.

It does make me wonder if other product reviews are this "comprehensive".

 

[npf1]

There also seems to be some confusion between raster and vector in that article.

 

[EBunting]

Don't believe everything you read on forums!

Yes, you press the magnifying glass symbol you do get a lat/long option, but it's not necessarily ship's position! Right now, that option puts my co-ordinates 85 miles from where I know I am, and well inland at a location I've never visited.

As for the question mark, that allows you to drop a crosshair on the map, and you can try to get that as close as possible to the ship's position arrow icon, but it's still giving you the crosshair co-ordinates and not your GPS position. I want the GPS position. Some programs provide this, and I've had a bit of correspondence with Navionics about the omission as I think this info should be displayed permanently on screen without further keystrokes. I like to write down lat/long in the log hourly and it would be nice to have it visible. I'm sure it must be easy to do.

The comment about raster and vector is quite right, I apologise for getting a bit confused. Mea maxima culpa. End of a long day. Thanks for pointing it out and I've corrected my blog.

 

[wotayottie]

So thats you told MR Solent Boy!

 

[Ex-SolentBoy]

Yes, you press the magnifying glass symbol you do get a lat/long option, but it's not necessarily ship's position! Right now, that option puts my co-ordinates 85 miles from where I know I am, and well inland at a location I've never visited.

As for the question mark, that allows you to drop a crosshair on the map, and you can try to get that as close as possible to the ship's position arrow icon, but it's still giving you the crosshair co-ordinates and not your GPS position. I want the GPS position. Some programs provide this, and I've had a bit of correspondence with Navionics about the omission as I think this info should be displayed permanently on screen without further keystrokes. I like to write down lat/long in the log hourly and it would be nice to have it visible. I'm sure it must be easy to do.

The comment about raster and vector is quite right, I apologise for getting a bit confused. Mea maxima culpa. End of a long day. Thanks for pointing it out and I've corrected my blog.

Press the location symbol in the bottom left hand corner first then. That centres the map on your position so the magnifying glass will give your position. If your iPad thinks you are somewhere else that is not Navionics fault.

As far as the question mark goes, yes you are pedantically correct. However, zoomed in the likely error from someone with fat fingers and the shakes is still only going to be a few meters for heavens sake?

I do question why you want such a dead accurate position anyway. The only real purpose a lat long readout from a plotters serves is to allow you to plot your position on paper or in a log, as you say. For that the two methods I quoted are more than accurate enough, and are within many GPS units tolerances anyway.

I use a plotter for visual navigation. A lat long readout to me is just a waste of screen space. If I want it, I, and I am sure many others, are quite happy to press a screen to find it out.

 

[ChrisE]

Press the location symbol in the bottom left hand corner first then. That centres the map on your position so the magnifying glass will give your position. If your iPad thinks you are somewhere else that is not Navionics fault.

As far as the question mark goes, yes you are pedantically correct. However, zoomed in the likely error from someone with fat fingers and the shakes is still only going to be a few meters for heavens sake?

I do question why you want such a dead accurate position anyway. The only real purpose a lat long readout from a plotters serves is to allow you to plot your position on paper or in a log, as you say. For that the two methods I quoted are more than accurate enough, and are within many GPS units tolerances anyway.

I use a plotter for visual navigation. A lat long readout to me is just a waste of screen space. If I want it, I, and I am sure many others, are quite happy to press a screen to find it out.

You might think that it is a waste, we fishermen, looking for a precise spot value such a read out as well as the general view of where we are ....

 

[Woodlouse]

I do question why you want such a dead accurate position anyway. The only real purpose a lat long readout from a plotters serves is to allow you to plot your position on paper or in a log, as you say. For that the two methods I quoted are more than accurate enough, and are within many GPS units tolerances anyway.

What's the point of having an accurate position and then not using it? Strikes me navionics should at least have the option to show the boat position at all times.

 

[Ex-SolentBoy]

What's the point of having an accurate position and then not using it? Strikes me navionics should at least have the option to show the boat position at all times.

Can't argue with that.

What I took issue with is the fact that the review said you couldn't get the information when you actually can, just by touching the screen.

 

[oldbilbo]

Yes, you press the magnifying glass symbol you do get a lat/long option, but it's not necessarily ship's position! Right now, that option puts my co-ordinates 85 miles from where I know I am, and well inland at a location I've never visited.

That's me girl! Best of the bunch. Sockit to 'em.....

 

[wotayottie]

Can't argue with that.

What I took issue with is the fact that the review said you couldn't get the information when you actually can, just by touching the screen.

When in a hole, stop di .................