Geogarage, the mapping platform of raster charts derived from official services, today introduced two ENC-S57 rasterized charts layers for Weather4D Routing & Navigation, covering ’Spain and Croatia. The recent update June, 12 th of the application allows the activation of these two new chart sets. Read more …
The weather models war will take place [Update]
I relayed in December 2018 an excellent issue published on the blog of our friends at Geogarage, who make a permanent duty of a press review of the best foreign articles concerning cartography, meteorology, and more generally all subjects related to maritime navigation. Here is a translation freely adapted and commented on in French. Read more …
Weather4D and SailGrib improve the AIS network
Numerous AIS tracking networks broadcast over the internet are available. Among the best known : Marine Traffic, Vessel Finder, SiiTech, LocateEverything, and many others. One of these networks particularly stands out, AISHub, an AIS NMEA data sharing center, which offers developers an API allowing the integration of its network into applications, and therefore display of AIS targets received over the Internet directly into the application. Featured from the beginning in Weather4D Routing & Navigation, this system has made it possible to envisage new and particularly innovative services. Read more …
Are electronic charts prescribed in France ? [Update]
This question comes up to me from time to time, and as no one is supposed to ignore the law, I feel obliged to make my contribution to the edification of the crowds (of boaters) by providing a collective response.
Manual or electronic navigation, which one to choose ?
The new AIS class B+ transponders explained
The new AIS AIT5000 transponder (from Digital Yacht) increases transmission rate depending on ship speed.
A new generation of transponder (¹) AIS Class B+ claims to make pleasure boats more visible. Here's how… Read more …
MacENC and GPSNavX disappear forever [Update]
Since 30 th 2018 (*), I already had information regarding discontinuation by NAVX Studio LLC of the development of two historical applications created by Richard Ray : GPSNavX and MacENC. The buyers of these applications and iNavX had clearly announced focuse only to the development of iNavX, on iOS and Android. It is likely that applications on Mac were no longer profitable, especially with the loss of Navionics maps for MacENC. Read more …
VMG / VMC – for dummies
Navigation apps are full of acronyms. This coded and abstruse language was originally developed for electronic navigation instruments, GPS mapping and other chartplotters. These acronyms, in the form of three letters most often, are the contraction of terms defining specific navigation data and according functions. This facilitates on-screen display taking few space. If some of these acronyms are relatively well assimilated by the boater, as SOG for Speed Over Ground (speed over the bottom), you can quickly access subtleties that are not always mastered as COG for Course Over Ground, meaning "route runned on the ground", that the word "Course" in English can mean "Route" or "Heading" according to the context. Read more …
Navionics Boating mutating
Since Garmin has acquired Navionics (¹), it will not take more than a year for Navionics also make its small (r)evolution in its flagship iOS and Android application . New logo, renouncing the multiplicity of applications, abandonment of duality iPad/iPhone, pricing standardization, Bring, among other changes, A little more consistency in the offer. Read more …
Apple iBooks becomes “Books” [Update]
With the arrival of iOS 12 and MacOS 10.14 "Mojave" the Apple iBooks app disappears to make way for "Books". The user interface is completely changed, and for authors, a conformity of the works is imposed. The application wins certainly not in ergonomics, we feel a desire to put commercial emphasis on the books in the interface, and Access to updates gets complicated.
The new Iridium NEXT constellation is completed
A few months late, Iridium has just completed its Iridium NEXT satellite launch campaign (¹).With his 75 new satellites successfully deployed by SpaceX over the past two years, Iridium has achieved the feat of completely replacing its first constellation in record time. The last ten satellites, successfully orbited this January, 11 with a Falcon rocket 9 during the eighth and last launch, definitively complete the new constellation.