The Apple iPad

[RichardS]

Adolf is not best pleased, but then he never is.

Loved it - tears steaming down face. A great scene from a great film but different!

Richard

 

[misterg]

I-Pad functionality

 

[Major Catastrophe]

Loved it - tears steaming down face. A great scene from a great film but different!

Richard

Are you not a fan of Downfall videos on YouTube? There are literally hundreds of them covering just about every political event.

Gordon Brown's downfall is a good one. Just search YouTube for Downfall.

 

[smartcom]

Bluetooth will easily cope with the bandwidth of NMEA, the problem is more likely to be one of limited range - nominally 10m max I believe but stick enough boat or bodies in the way and that will drop off. WiFi is a much more powerful transmitter, so more reliable but shorter battery life. Also, with the longer range, more prone to interference, especially if everyone leaves the channel number on the default!

RS422 (ie NMEA0183) to WiFi and Bluetooth converters are standard items, so having a wireless connection is easy.

The big problem is having a computer display on deck - this is not a low tech item, and the market is small, so whether you go for a repeater display or a waterproof and rugged laptop the price is going to be similar to a good quality dedicated plotter with the same screen size. If you just want to navigate donw below, though, the PC at the chart table is ideal.

 

[whipper_snapper]

In fact it can be used to 'run' any navigation software - PC or Mac - and it doesn't need a built-in GPS to do it:

You can use VNC to share the screen of any other machine, so you can have your PC safely below running maxsea, and view the screen and control the programme with the ipad.

I have done this with an ipod touch - it worked fine but the screen was too small to be useful, maybe it would be useful on an ipad ????


But I certainly would not buy one for that.

 

[chabrenas]

My local French paper claims that a Chinese company that has been shipping a similar device for at least six months is suing Apple. (The accompanying photo shows a screen displaying the Microsoft Windoze flag). Anyone knows anything about this?

... wonder if they're making US lawyers rich with the court case.

 

[Channel Ribs]

I don't think Apple are claiming to have invented the tablet computer.

Apple do not tend to invent concepts, they innovate technology and then apply it with elegance.

 

[Ubergeekian]

Yours must be broken then, mine does this without any trouble at all:

Playing music,
Telling me if I have an email,
Showing me YBW, RIB.net and the latest weather (all in windows that can be flicked between easily).

All at once.

Sorry, I was being a it imprecise. Yes, a very few Apple apps - music, email receipt and one or two others - are allowed to multitask. None of the others are - tabbed browsing ain't multitasking. Apple seem to have decided that the best way to deal with the rather slow processor is not to overload it. On the phone, that's probably fine. On something which could show several windows at once ... rather less so.

Thanks to b3ta.com for this useful comparison:

 

[Twister_Ken]

One of the better things to come from China.

"When the finger points at the moon, the fool looks only at the finger"

 

[DogWatch]

Urmm, apart from the lust for this product.

Do you really lust for electronics?

gosh, I live in a different world, is this a city dweller thing?

 

[Channel Ribs]

Yes, a very few Apple apps - music, email receipt and one or two others - are allowed to multitask.

None of the Apps multitask, Apple took the decision to not attempt something that would be a serious drain on processor and battery and replace it with what I personally think is a very elegant solution: Push notifications.

I shall save up for an iPad, I shall not be expecting it to be a multitasking device and so shall not be disappointed that it cannot.

If multitasking is a killer feature for you then clearly such a simplified device is not worth looking at.

 

[Ubergeekian]

None of the Apps multitask

Some Apple ones are permitted to do so - it's a version of Unix, after all, and Unix is a multitasking OS. Does the music player stop when you browse the web?

Apple took the decision to not attempt something that would be a serious drain on processor and battery and replace it with what I personally think is a very elegant solution: Push notifications.

Indeed, and quite a neat solution it is ... for a device with so small a screen that nobody would try to run two visual applications at the same time. I have my doubts on something with a laptop-size screen.

If multitasking is a killer feature for you then clearly such a simplified device is not worth looking at.

Of course if Apple gave this thing proper multitasking it might cut into the lucrative MacBook market. Their aim is to create an entire new market sector ... I'm not convinced.

 

[Deleted member 36384]

"When the finger points at the moon, the fool looks only at the finger"

A nice quote Twister_Ken. I remember my children at around 1 year old doing exactly that. It was very funny, they just couldn't understand.

Two years later my son, in the middle of summer, in Oman, said he new how Santa delivered presents. The reindeer galloped in the same spot while the earth spun below the sleigh and Santa simply dropped the presents down the chimney as they passed underneath him. There is a lesson here.

 

[Spud]

iPad with Navionics UK-Holland HD

So far so good with the iPad and Navionics (Charts £26.49 for UK&I and Holland). Just ordered waterproof case.

Only tested in Solent so far, but very happy, also links to facebook and twitter from the Navionics app so you can upload your track.

Big test will be from the 23rd August when it will be doing the Sevenstar RORC UK&I race.

 

[andymcp]

What waterproof case did you order? Been looking around for the same and not decided yet...

 

[Spud]

Waterproof case

I have gone for Aquapac, I dont think its the best looking case, but easy to get hold of in my timescales.

 

[Richard Shead]

You can win an iPad

I have gone for Aquapac, I dont think its the best looking case, but easy to get hold of in my timescales.

At this years Southampton Boat Show, with Navionics software and I will now get on the blower to Aquapac to see if I can grab a case too.

Stand E001 IPC Media.

Just enter on the stand.

See you there...

 

[Spud]

The Aquapac case is not a purpose design for the iPad, but near enough, you can use the iPad as normal, the case has no effect on the touch screen. One thing that might prove problematic is if you have the need to turn on and off the rotation lock button a lot you could put a hole in the Aquapac. As for the Navionics software, a few bugs. You cannot share your track via facebook or twitter as the soft button is missing, I have reported this, awaiting reply. Will give you an update after the RORC RBI.

 

[Ex-SolentBoy]

The Aquapac case is not a purpose design for the iPad, but near enough, you can use the iPad as normal, the case has no effect on the touch screen. One thing that might prove problematic is if you have the need to turn on and off the rotation lock button a lot you could put a hole in the Aquapac. As for the Navionics software, a few bugs. You cannot share your track via facebook or twitter as the soft button is missing, I have reported this, awaiting reply. Will give you an update after the RORC RBI.

I have been using the Navionics stuff for a while now. Seems great value to me, especially as a quick passage planner.

You might also like to try the Memory Map stuff. £20 gets you the whole of the UK admiralty charts! Not the easiest think to work out the downloading though.