It's official, the 30 November 2018, Johnson Outdoors, recent purchaser of Fugawi (*), decided to put an end to its activities. After discontinuing the distribution of their PC navigation software in August 2017, having closed the online nautical equipment sales store last spring, it is the turn of the download charts server to disappear. Read more …
Category : Applications
All applications
Navionics charts are no longer available for MacENC [Update]
[Update 30 th 2018] Warning : MacENC application is no longer supported by its developers. It no longer reads raster charts and Navionics charts are no longer available. Application is discontinued to date.
Since the upgrade of Navionics Gold to Navionics Plus (¹), Navionics supply disappeared from Fugawi / Charts folder for MacENC. Thinking of a temporary disappearance, I finally asked the Fugawi support who confirmed (between the lines) permanent deletion : Read more …
TimeZero makes its (mini-r)evolution on iOS
After 3 years without major development (¹), TimeZero (now under Nobeltec brand) comes on iPad with a new name and a new logo. Doesn't it remind you anything ? A feeling of déjà vu ?
TimeZero becomes TZ iBoat. No revolution in the user interface, all functions already present in the update 2015 are in place (AIS support, Furuno DRS4W Radar support, current and tide gauges display, etc,). So what's new for this new name ? Let's look carefully… Read more …
New for Weather4D
The latest update of the three Weather4D apps (Lite, Routing, Routing & Navigation) several user-requested improvements in the display of meteograms. But what is less obvious is a big work on the charts display in the Routing & Navigation, to better streamline the tiles overlay at different scales, during handling of zoom and slide, and to remove the "black areas" that sometimes remained on the least efficient devices of the previous generation. Read more …
iNavX 5.2 : AIS by Internet service becomes paying
With the latest version 5.2 of iNavX, AIS reception service by internet becomes charge. Ce service, provided by the company SiiTech for free from the origin of iNavX (¹), becomes a subscription service.
Weather4D makes its (r)evolution
Hear, hear, hardy boaters, new Weather4D applications come up !
I wrote “the” in the plural. The two historical applications of Sarl APP4NAV, Weather4D (th 2011) and Weather4D Pro (November 2011 ), change to the user interface of the now famous application Weather4D 2.0, which had been the subject of a complete review of its development published in December 2015. In order to make the range more coherent, the names of the three applications are harmonized :
Guide Escales 2018 – Red card ! [Update-2]
It saddens me to end the year with a critical article, but the subject deserves it. I wrote in December 2016 (*) a sincerely positive appreciation of the evolution of the application Guides Escales 2017 - Bloc Marine digital version by Figaro Nautisme editions - compared to 2016. But for edition 2018, is unfortunately go back, supply regress and severe rate increase.
Unlike the print edition you can keep several years in your boat library, the annual update of the application Guides Escales clears all purchased regions the previous year. It is therefore not a purchase but an annual subscription, nuance!. And that's not all…
[Updated 2022] The Escales Guide has been withdrawn from sale.
Getting started with an iPad / iPhone
For all browsers who are new to using an iPad, and who do not yet know the basics of manipulation. For everyone who asks me :
- How to load an app ?
- How to sideload a purchased app on a second device ?
- How to delete an app and reload it without paying ?
- How to update apps ?
- How to know there are updates ?
- How to download a book in iBooks ?
- How to know when a book is updated ?
- Etc, etc,…
The stakeholders of electronic charting [Update-2]
In April 2010 I published a ticket to locate the main actors of the electronic charting. Time passing, this information should be refreshed, due to recent business movements. Some have disappeared, as Maptech, more recently Fugawi, others have changed hands, an update is necessary.
Thunderbolt this 27 October 2017, Navionics charts was acquired by Garmin (¹) ! The last private publisher to remain independent, until today in the hand of the Italian founder Giuseppe Carnevali, passes into the portfolio of the multinational company Garmin, shortly after the purchase of the global database Active Captain. The cards are redistributed once again…
tide.info : real-time tide forecasts
Our friend Guillaume Bolo, the first in France to have offered for many years a very elaborate web interface presenting SHOM predictions – tide.info – is also the developer of the excellent app marée info for iPad, iPhone and Apple Watch. Copied but never equaled by SHOM itself, who ended up giving up, he will soon offer us a superb evolution… Read more …