Many of you ask me about choosing an iPad for boating use. Unfortunately having no time to respond to every request a post is required. Every year, it is appropriate to review this issue, and sometimes even more often.
follow the leader… Read more …
Category : iPad / iPhone
GNS 3000 Bluetooth GPS receiver for mobiles [Update]
On September GNS 3000 to Global Navigation Systems has been available since November 2022 (¹). It replaces the GNS 2000 Plus. Now equipped with a Bluetooth transmitter 5.0, it has an SD Card connector to record position data continuously.
Compatible with Apple products, it is mainly aimed at devices not equipped with GPS : iPod Touch and iPad WiFi all models. It can also be used with all PDAs, Bluetooth-enabled laptops and tablets. It has a Li-Ion battery offering a battery life of 10 hours continuously.
[Update 15 May 2024] Warning : from iOS/iPadOS 17.x, a update of the device is essential. But it can only be done from an Android device.
iTabNav.fr always listening to browsers
14 mars 2011 – 14 mars 2024, a birthday (¹) which does not fall round, but a performance worth saluting ! What was just a startup in the early days of the use of tablets and smartphones in navigation is now a company with a long history (²). Dominique Gauthier, its founder and manager, has participated for more than ten years in securing our iPads by becoming the exclusive importer for France of the famous cases aiShell (Originally “iPad Case”). Designed and manufactured in Germany, waterproofness and robustness that no longer need to be demonstrated, benefiting from a range of supports and accessories meeting all needs at sea. Read more …
Simultaneous Wi-Fi and cellular connection [Update]
In coastal navigation, so often within range of a cellular network, you can download GRIB files, weather maps, or simply communicate with friends. But what if your smartphone or tablet is already connected to a multiplexer via Wi-Fi, or an NMEA gateway, without cutting off the data that powers our favorite navigation app ?
This is the tip of the summer…
[Update 25/09/2020] The trick in question depends on the iOS version used. Details in the article.
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,…
iOS 11 and navigation apps
Among the many new features brought by iOS 11, I particularly appreciated the improvement in the multitasking functions. The addition of a retractable "Dock" in the MacOS way, the "SlideOver" function combined with the "SplitView" function already present in iOS 10. This will greatly improve the use of navigation apps. Read more …
Iridium Mail & Web app : GRIB weather files on iPhone and iPad in open sea [Update-2]
[Update 15 February 2019] La mise à jour récente de l’application Iridium Mail & Web app me donne l’occasion de rafraîchir ce billet rédigé à l’origine en décembre 2011.
La passerelle Wi-Fi Optimizer de la société RedPort permet aux possesseurs d’un téléphone satellite mobile de faire des requêtes et recevoir des fichiers météo GRIB depuis un iPad ou un iPhone en haute mer, into the wild, anywhere on the world.
Après avoir mis en oeuvre et testé cette solution sur un long parcours, elle s’est avérée parfaitement opérationnelle. However, elle est limitée à la réception des seuls prévisions du modèle météo GFS mondial, et du modèle de vagues WW3, obtenues par le répondeur automatique du serveur américain Saildocs.
GALILEO and Apple mobiles
Less than a month before the launch by Ariane 5 of four new satellites carrying the GALILEO constellation to 18 satellites, manufacturers of tracking components have already presented their new tracking chips supporting European GNSS. This allowed the Spanish company BQ to offer the first “Galileo-ready” smartphone at the beginning of September., equipped with processor Qualcomm Snapdragon 652, l’Aquarius X5 Plus.
We might have expected to find the same chip in the iPhone 7 from Apple, which has since fitted the iPhone 4S and the iPad 3 all of its mobile devices with Qualcomm communications processors, integrating GPS reception (US) and GLONASS (Russian), it's nothing. With this latest smartphone, Apple reconnects with Broadcom, sidelined since 2012 to perform these functions, by integrating a chip BCM47734.
GPS and iPad Wi-Fi + Cellular
Early January 2011 I wrote that I started the year in a bad mood (¹) After finding repeated incompetence of Apple sellers, during the Christmas holidays, concerning devices they sold, mainly iPad and iPhone. Unfortunately, I note that 5 years later, Nothing has changed, it is to despair !
iPadNav.fr becomes iTabNav.fr
On September 14 mars 2011 I had announce the opening of an e-commerce website focused in accessories, mounts and connexion devices dedicated to iPhone and iPad for marine navigation : iPadNav.fr. Since then, its founder and I maintained a close collaboration, our complementary actions allowing us to provide an effective response to all new users of these wonderful tools perfectly suited to nautical activities. Many of you were able to meet me several times on his stand, both the Grand Pavois de La Rochelle and the Paris Nautic boat show.
After three years of existence, Dominique Gauthier company has grown considerably, to the point of wanting to expand its offering to users other than boating : outdoor sports, hiking, trekking, fitness, and all leisure activities for which numerous targeted applications are now available, both for Apple devices and for the fast-growing market for Android devices.
Thus, iPadNav has just announced in a press release the change of name of its website to iTabNav.fr July 1st 2014, in a desire to open his offers to all useful accessories for tablets and smartphones, regardless of brand or operating system, and for all leisure activities.
Hope that this new extended offering meet the same success as for leisure boating and sailing, because iTabNav.fr will offer specialized products scattered across multiple foreign websites on a single French website. With local French service and support as a bonus.