Author : Francis

From 2009 independent IT trainer and consultant for boating. Translator of several navigation apps on iOS and MacOS. Professional in boating for over 30 years old, I dispense from training to applications as well as advice and assistance for the integration of mobile devices (tablets, smartphones) on board pleasure boats.

Sargassum, North Atlantic calamity

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During this period of major departures towards the southern islands before reaching the Antilles, It seems useful to me to relaunch this article which went unnoticed in the heart of summer.

Sargassum (sargassum) are brown algae that grow in the Sargasso Sea, off the coast of Florida and the Bahamas, where they get their name from. Some floating species then drift in a long belt that sometimes extends for thousands of kilometers on the surface of the sea depending on ocean currents and winds.. Many browsers have unfortunately encountered it. Read more …

Iridium GO! exec® adopts Certus®100 service [Update]

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The latest device Iridium GO! exec® (what a funny name !) has been available since March. It represents the first standalone device produced by Iridium to adopt the Certus®100 (¹) down to 88 Kbps download, 22 Kbps upload.

This big brother of the Iridium GO!® appeared in 2014 provides download speeds 40 times faster, but at costs that are clearly proportional. Read more …

Iridium Certus 100, a step towards yachting ? [Update]

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Since the operational commissioning of the constellation Iridium NEXT (¹), Iridium has begun offering its new range of services called " Certus® ”. These services rely on the significantly increased technological capabilities of new satellites, which has made it possible, among others, Iridium to be approved as a second satellite communications provider for the GMDSS maritime security service (²), of which the competitor Inmarsat has held the monopoly since 1979.

Certus®, in addition to demonstrating that American businessmen are also literate. (³), is a range available in six bandwith levels starting from 22 Kb/s up to 704 Kb/s, and up to 1408 Kb/s in the near future.

Read more …

For eco-responsible pleasure. Part 2 – Nav&Co

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Boaters and water sports enthusiasts now have two applications helping them to better understand and protect the increasingly fragile marine environment.. Nav&Co is an initiative 100% public composed of SHOM, of the OFB (French Office for Biodiversity), of the State Secretariat for the Sea and DGAMPA, with co-financing from the European Union. DONIA (*) is a private initiative of the company Andromeda Oceanology which received the support of the Rhône-Mediterranean-Corsica Water Agency. If DONIA is dedicated mainly to the western Mediterranean basin, Nav&Co currently covers all metropolitan France, Corsica and Guadeloupe. Read more …

For eco-responsible pleasure. Part 1 – DONIA

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Boaters and water sports enthusiasts now have two applications helping them to better understand and protect the increasingly fragile marine environment.. DONIA is a private initiative of the company Andromeda Oceanology which received the support of the Rhône-Mediterranean-Corsica Water Agency. Nav&Co (*) is an initiative 100% public composed of SHOM, of the OFB (French Office for Biodiversity), of the State Secretariat for the Sea and DGAMPA, with co-financing from the European Union. If DONIA is dedicated mainly to the western Mediterranean basin, Nav&Co currently covers all metropolitan France, Corsica and Guadeloupe. Read more …

TZ iBoat V.3.0 launches its charting revolution

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Nobeltec, Inc., subsidiaries of MaxSea International, is a leading developer of PC-based marine navigation software and provider of electronic marine navigation charts. This company is the official developer of TZ iBoat on Apple Store. After several weeks of beta-testing, The version 3.0 has just gone online.

A revolution is taking place in the world of maritime cartography... Never seen before ! TimeZero announces.

Read more …

Connecting USB/Bluetooth GPS with Mac M1 [Update-2]

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The arrival of Macs with Apple M1 processors and macOS systems 11 “Big Sur” and macOS 12 “Monterey” caused disappointment among GPS users connected via USB and/or Bluetooth for their navigation applications.

In USB, latest driver Prolific V.2.2.2 is now universal for GPS BU-353xx from GlobalSat. As for the GNS3000 (¹) in Bluetooth it always suffers from an instability of the interface for the connection of multiple devices, instability that unfortunately does not yet seem to be fully fixed. Read more …