Francis – Page 25 – Navigation Mac

Recharge mobiles on board

Posted on12 July 201526 th 20239 comments

This summer, It's decided, We rent a large catamaran with our family ! Finally, It would be better to say "in extended family" : four adults, Two grown teenagers + their respective boyfriend + a child of 11 years old. We thought of everything : ride, Victualling, clothing, sunscreens, spectacles, Caps, Masks and snorkels, fishing lines… all ! A week before our departure, The skipper sushered us :

— You've thought about phone charging ?
There, a silence, then the answer :
— Uh,, isn't it, What for ?
"You will be nine on board, That's as many smartphones and certainly half of tablets… and there are only two cigarette lighter sockets on the boat !
— Diantre…

Satellite phones : prices increase in France

Posted on29 June 201512 July 2016

If satellite phone rates, mainly Iridium and Inmarsat, have not evolved in the United States., this is not the case in France. After storage removal of products remained on the shelves, new supplies from distributors saw a sharp increase. Indeed, the combined action of Euro decline and French VAT rise obligated to a significant prices increase, both the material as communication SIM vouchers, prepaid or postpaid. Read more …

Reading : 'Electronic charting' HS48 Voiles et Voiliers

Posted on23 May 201515 August 20244 comments

Since end 2012 I found no more of maritime books causing me the overwhelming desire to share, Like the few novels described in this section " Reading ”. Today this feeling comes back to me, in a completely different vein, on reading the excellent Special issue n° 48 of Voiles et Voiliers : " Understand and use electronic charting ”. Read more …

NV Chart extends coasts of France from SHOM

Posted on3 May 20155 th 20243 comments

In a previous entry I presented the SHOM raster charts provided by many publishers on iPad. For several weeks the German nautical chart publisher NV Verlag offers two new areas ending coverage of the coasts of France Atlantic and English Channel. These charts are usable both with iNavX on iPad/iPhone, only with GPSNavX and MacENC on Mac. We can therefore, unlike Navionics, use the two available copies of each region on two different media (iPad , iPhone ou Mac).

The new TimeZero arrived

Posted on30 th 20155 th 20245 comments

You remember the launch of TimeZero in June 2013 and the interest aroused among the many users of MaxSea on PC. I then wrote :

MaxSea is already planning future developments of its application. A future major release will likely see connection to external instruments over WiFi, File transfers (waypoints, routes and tracks files) with other applications, perhaps openness to other charting editors

We waited, hoped, and then Pschiiitt ! No more evolution since that date except for a few cosmetic improvements in November 2013 before the Paris Boat Show. No more contact for me with the developers (I was a tester for the beta versions). No more news for a year until rumors reported from the last METS in Amsterdam reporting an ongoing development integrating (finally) AIS, and also WiFi radar DRS4W by Furuno. This has now been done since the 23 th. Read more …

Bug iOS 8.3 et GPS Bluetooth

Posted on13 th 20155 th 20248 comments

The iTabNav company sent me information regarding all current owners of a GPS Bluetooth-powered for iPad Wi-Fi, like the GNS2000 or BadElf.

Currently Apple iOS 8.3 No longer working with external Bluetooth GPS receivers. It seems that the Apple Location Services in latest version iOS 8.3 doesn't transmit the GPS data Received from these GPS GNS2000 to the application for navigation.
Apple Inc. is aware of this bug iOS and Promises A solution as soon as possible. I hope that this issue will be resolved in the coming days.
Multiple manufacturers applications for navigation Have Warned before The update iOS 8.3 like BadElf, see : http://bad-elf.com/blogs/bad-elf/18013536-alert-compatibility-issue-with-apple-ios-8-3-and-external-gps-receivers

Let's hope for the affected users that an iOS version 8.3.1 will quickly fix this bug. We can hope so because an update should quickly fix another bug that is much more important for Apple : the troubleshoooting of the Touch ID on many devices.

Iridium stops distribution of AxcessPoint router [Update]

Posted on17 February 20153 th 20254 comments

Iridium announced to its distribution network the shutdown of the AxcessPoint WiFi router at the end of February (¹) which allows an iPad or iPhone to connect to an Iridium phone to access an email service.

No need to worry for current users : the associated Iridium email service will remain active and accessible to all users. However, this router will no longer be able to be ordered from the 25 February. Read more …

iNavX and iSailor always offer more functions

Posted on15 January 20155 th 202416 comments

The year 2015 barely started, the developers are already giving us the developments of their applications, probably made between two glasses of champagne during the holidays. I consider iNavX and iSailor as the two best navigation apps so far under iOS. These are the ones that offer the most extensive functions and the selection of the best charts. They each have their qualities and faults., and I take advantage of the new features brought by their recent update to try a quick function/price comparison.

Warning, this exercise is associated with a snapshot vision, valid today but quickly obsolete tomorrow, as changes are rapid in this domain. On the other hand, it is always difficult to distinguish between objective and subjective aspects in a comparison., I was already confronted in the past (¹). Read more …

New GFS grid 0.25° model

Posted on12 January 20155 th 20244 comments

By a corrected notification on 23 December 2014 (¹), with NWS (National Weather Service) NOAA announced a major update to its GFS weather prediction model to be effective in mid-January 2015. Actually, This model has been partially available on an experimental basis since the beginning of December.

NOTE

March, the Global Forecast System (GFS) is a weather forecasting model produced by the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) dependent on the NWS. Dozens of variables (²) are available through this dataset, from the temperatures, winds and precipitation down to soil moisture and atmospheric ozone concentration. The entire world is covered by the current GFS model with a horizontal resolution of 27 km between grid points up to 10 days. The horizontal resolution is 70 km for forecasts between one week and two weeks. The GFS model is a coupled model, Composed of four distinct models (An atmospheric model, An ocean model, A terrestrial model, and a sea ice model), that compete together to give an accurate picture of weather conditions. Changes are regularly made to the GFS model to improve the performance and accuracy of the forecasts. Mesh data is available for download via NOMADS servers (National Operational Model Archive and Distribution System) and widely used by app developers around the world.

Iridium Mail & Web became fully usable again

Posted on7 January 201525 July 201626 comments

Since release Apple iOS 8 early October 2014 the messaging app Iridium Mail & Web app (who replaced Iridium Mail & Web app) was no longer able to export an attachment to another application using the “Open in” function.… ”. As a result, a GRIB weather file received as an attachment from the SailDocs server could no longer be used in any application, mainly Weather4D PRO.