The blog
The company Digital Yacht propose Nomad, the first AIS transponder class B mobile with Wi-Fi interface.
The Nomad is supplied with a portable VHF antenna of 25 cm equipped with a sucker and a 4 metres cable, and with a built-in GPS antenna. USB and Wi-Fi interfaces will allow the use of the device with many navigation and charting application for iOS devices, Android, PC and Mac.
To date, the constellation of Chinese GPS satellites BeiDou-2 covers only part of East Asia and the Western Pacific. With the commissioning of GALILEO European GPS late 2016, the replacement scheduled of U.S. 2nd generation GPSII by the 3rd generation GPSIII, the launch into orbit of the 3rd generation of Russian GLONASS-M satellites, China intends to catch up with global coverage forced march. Read more …
I had presented in May 2015 the excellent raster charts NV Charts by the German Publisher NV Verlag. In 2016, the previous cutting in 4 areas for France - Channel and Atlantic coasts - has been split into 8 areas for 49,90$ apiece. It should be noted that each year a new edition replaces the previous one, there is no update.
Bounderies in 2015
For the first time since 5 years I'm not moving to the Paris Nautic boat show. And for the first time I am not "glued" ten hours a day to a 9 m². And so for the first time I take the time to be interested - remotely, without jostling, without air conditioning, without pollution in Paris – to various products related to my field of investigation and which have caught my attention.
Some concern security, others useful accessories, all of them have to do with mobile devices, smartphones or tablets, and some are really innovative.
I have mentioned last July the "Stopovers" Guide, digital version of Bloc Marine published by the Figaro Group. It seems that the remarks I made on the excessively fragmented division of these guides were heard : The version 2017 has the number of modules reduced by 17 down to 12 for the Channel-Atlantic coast, and 13 down to 10 for the Mediterranean. It is a welcome initiative !
The major update 5.0 of iNavX, issued late August, was unfortunately a long and painful labor for new developers, and a succession of whirlpools and reefs for users. Among the many bugs and regressions laboriously fixed by successive builds, the worst part was the total loss of charts for almost all of us. This is, repeatedly. To top it all off the recent migration, this month, of charting server X-Traverse to a new website Fugawi much more user-friendly, didn't make things easy. Some explanations are necessary. Read more …
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.
ShipModul manufacturer comes to provide on his website two major updates to dowload for its multiplexer Miniplex-3 :
The two update files, featured with a procedure (in English), are packaged in a single folder WiFi V1.5.0.3. Download. The implementation can only be done with the configuration utility MPX-Config V.2.1.0 minimum, available in PC and Mac versions. Read more …
No developer vacations ! I talked about testing the new features to come during our Long journey from Corsica to Normandy last May. After several weeks of finalization, and mainly to adapt early to future iOS 10 Available this fall, here is the delivery of the new version 2.0.15 in Weather4D 2.0. An addition of long-awaited new features.
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 !