MacGregorSailors.com

Since the ipad has the operating sustem of the i phone, wonder if folks will be doing marine navigation with the new Ipad?

If I recall correctly the iPad has very similar feature specs to my iTouch, which means neither has an internal GPS like the iPhone. Maybe the 3G version will but I can't find any details. The Apple BlueTooth stack only supports headsets, so you can't use an external BT GPS either. To date I've only found one external GPS that can connect to the iTouch or iPhone via a docking base and that is from Tom Tom. Who knows if they will make a version for the iPad. There are some other BlueTooth ones out there that have been proven to work, but you have to jailbreak your iTouch or iPhone to get them to function.

Without a GPS I can't see much real navigation happening on an iPad. Certainly planning apps like the Navionics or Memory Map one should work, but the mfg has to re-write them for the bigger screen. Otherwise all you get is a small window the size of the iTouch screen or a blown up pixelated full screen app.

I see that Best Buy now offers the iPad with 3G. It has "assisted GPS". Does this mean it will work as a chartplotter without cell phone reception?

Anyone using one of these yet? About how much is a monthly data plan for one of those bad boys?

I am getting ready to move back to the U.S. and the big family discussion/debate/decision is what type of cell phone and which company. Leaning towards AT&T iPhone or Verizon with an Android phone. Of course my daughter wants a Blackberry since that is what all her friends have.

But I already have a Trac-Phone which works just fine and is very cheap to maintain and use (in the very limited way I use it). So I am considering going with my Trac-Phone and then getting an iPad for my daily commute to D.C. (1 hour+ on train and metro) and also as a nifty gadget for use on the boat (Navionics, tide and weather info, etc...).

Any feedback or thoughts?

Thanks,
Jim

ON EDIT: Follow-up question for those that understand these things better than I...what does it really mean when they say the iPad has no "Flash". Can you give me examples of when you need "Flash"?

Our iPad 3G arrived last week, and it does have GPS. In my limited experience with it so far, it is more accurate than the GPS in my [old] iPhone 3G -- and of course the screen is acres larger. I'd agree that any existing phone aps would need to be revised in order to take full advantage of the screen size.

But the iPad is really the Admiral's toy, my new iPhone 4 was delivered this morning, and it is SWEET.

Flash is an animation/video player program by Adobe, without which you can't see the intended moving images on web sites that were created using Flash. Currently the iPhone and iPad do not support Flash. It should not matter in a GPS application.

parrothead wrote:...

Flash is an animation/video player program by Adobe, without which you can't see the intended moving images on web sites that were created using Flash. Currently the iPhone and iPad do not support Flash. It should not matter in a GPS application.

Parrothead,

Thanks for the info.

Do you mean embedded videos like on CNN's website and stuff like that? How do I know if something is "Flash"?

What about photobucket videos I upload? Are those flash?

And of course, I presume you can access regular websites such as this one with no big problems...right?

Jim

Lord - - -I am SOOOOOO techno challenged

Rick Less

Rick,

I thought your were "ex-wife" challenged...



Jim

c130king wrote:I see that Best Buy now offers the iPad with 3G. It has "assisted GPS". Does this mean it will work as a chartplotter without cell phone reception?

Anyone using one of these yet? About how much is a monthly data plan for one of those bad boys?

The data plans are what pay for the devices/phones. They can be pricey ($30/mo) if you don't use it much.

I am getting ready to move back to the U.S. and the big family discussion/debate/decision is what type of cell phone and which company. Leaning towards AT&T iPhone or Verizon with an Android phone. Of course my daughter wants a Blackberry since that is what all her friends have.

I've never heard a bad word about the iPhone. But again, you need to sign 2 years of your life away to AT&T for an additional $30/month.
We have Verizon because contrary to AT&T's cute commercials, they don't have 3g coverage here. I find it amusing because the commercial has a guy walking on a map of the US spouting out cities that AT&T has coverage for. He says our city (Bozeman, MT) which strangely does NOT have 3g coverage but DOES have roaming coverage. So technically AT&T has coverage here (stretching it).
With that said, we have an Android phone which is pretty cool. It has an app called "Google Sky" that is simply amazing. You hold the phone to the sky and it displays the names of planets, constellations etc. As you move it, the display moves to match the sky. It has built in turn by turn voice GPS like many car GPS's so you can use it for that as well.
The voice control lets you speak something, like "Pizza" and it will look up pizza places close to you and list them. Touch the name and it dials. Another nice app I found allows me to tether it to my PC via the USB or Blue tooth and have broadband on my notebook.

But I already have a Trac-Phone which works just fine and is very cheap to maintain and use (in the very limited way I use it). So I am considering going with my Trac-Phone and then getting an iPad for my daily commute to D.C. (1 hour+ on train and metro) and also as a nifty gadget for use on the boat (Navionics, tide and weather info, etc...).

In many ways, if I had to do it again, I'd go the Trac-Phone path. It's SOOO much cheaper if you don't talk a whole lot on your phone.

If you are a gadget freak, I'd go with an iPhone. The iPad is cool, but it's not a phone and paying $30/month to have internet where there is no WiFi seems like a lot of coin to me.

ON EDIT: Follow-up question for those that understand these things better than I...what does it really mean when they say the iPad has no "Flash". Can you give me examples of when you need "Flash"?

I'm pretty sure Photobucket needs flash. However, there are YouTube apps that will play very nicely on an iPhone/iTouch or Droid. I've not used photobucket for video. Youtube is so easy.


--Russ

Flash is for kids, silly Rabbit..

Seriously - most movies are not Flash but other various Windows or quicktime format that will work fine on an Iphone/Ipad.If you use animations a lot then the lack of Flash on the Ipad will be an issue - best idea would be to head to the Apple store and pick up an Ipad and check out sites that you use to see if they run your stuff.

the Ipad plan (ATT) is 15 bucks per month for 250 Mb or 25 bucks for 2 Gb per month. with no contract needed, you can buy month to month.

The Iphone does require a 2 year contract.

ATT coverage in Bozeman is spotty - works fine at Airport, at the Life of Montana Building its dead. Pretty typical of ATT in non-metro markets, Ive found. Same issue in present location of Columbus OH.

Family considerations - the Ipad is really a single user device. For an incremental amount more money you can get a notebook in Mac OS that has a lot more functionality....thats what made it a no-go in our house.

Thanks for all the feedback...and the info on "Flash".

I have found out I will be issued a Blackberry...but I am sure there will be some restrictions/limitations on using it for "non-official" purposes...that is just the military way.

So I am pretty much set on getting an iPad with 3G...probably the 32GB one will fine. Perfect for me to use on daily commute sitting on the train. Sounds like it will be a useful tool to use onboard my boat. Probably great for shorter business trips/conferences etc... when I mostly just want to do news and email. And for longer trips I will probably take my laptop along...which is what I do now for all trips.

Cheers,
Jim

c130king wrote:I have found out I will be issued a Blackberry...but I am sure there will be some restrictions/limitations on using it for "non-official" purposes...that is just the military way.

So the military has the Blackberry contract. I know people with Crackberries who love them. Maybe you should wait until you can play with it to see what additional needs/wants you might have.

So I am pretty much set on getting an iPad with 3G...probably the 32GB one will fine. Perfect for me to use on daily commute sitting on the train. Sounds like it will be a useful tool to use onboard my boat. Probably great for shorter business trips/conferences etc... when I mostly just want to do news and email. And for longer trips I will probably take my laptop along...which is what I do now for all trips.

I have an 8gig iTouch. It's basically what the iPad was spawned from. The 8gigs is all I ever need. I've got several movies on there and quite the music collection in addition to some fun apps. I guess the 3G is worth it if you want to surf on the go. Be careful of the $15/250MB plan as I know people (on other networks) who have gone over and the per kilobyte rate is insane. I've got an app on my iTouch that continuously updates weather reports, facebook stats etc. I don't know how much data it's pulling down, but I'd hate to be paying for it.

The iPad/iTouch/iPhone is a pretty amazing device. For surfing/email etc., it's probably very good. It can't print and as mentioned can't do Adobe Flash Player which in my opinion isn't a big deal. The apps are probably what make it stand out from say a netbook PC. I wish the iPad/iTouch had a camera. I'm sure the next gen will.

--Russ

Here are the specifics on the iPad 3G data plans. http://www.apple.com/ipad/3g/

Essentially, if you start with the 250MB plan and use that up in less than a month, you can either buy another 250MB or upgrade to the 2gig plan.

I started with 250MB, and haven't had the iPad long enough to know how that will work out, but if you've had AT&T 3G service on an iPhone you can review the past several months of usage, and I never got close to 250MB.

It can't print a

Nice solution in Apps Store for this.

parrothead wrote:Here are the specifics on the iPad 3G data plans. http://www.apple.com/ipad/3g/

Essentially, if you start with the 250MB plan and use that up in less than a month, you can either buy another 250MB or upgrade to the 2gig plan.

I started with 250MB, and haven't had the iPad long enough to know how that will work out, but if you've had AT&T 3G service on an iPhone you can review the past several months of usage, and I never got close to 250MB.

Parrothead,

Can you confirm how you get your "plan"...you do it right from the iPad right? Do you have to be in a wi-fi area to be able to purchase the 3G plan or will it let you connect to the site for purchasing plans via 3G even if you don't currently have any 3G plan in place?

In other words if you are on the road...not in a wi-fi area...and you want to get a 3G plan...can you do it?

Thanks,
Jim

Jim - I surfed for this and it looks like everyone posting the 'signup' procedure is doing it from WIFI.

You should be able to activate a phone if you have 3G coverage, but I couldnt find this definitely.