MacGregorSailors.com

Currently I have an iphone 4s with Garmin Bluechart Mobile installed. its good, but not great due to the small screen. I am thinking about an Ipad or Ipad mini. But I am having trouble finding out if they have GPS installed (True GPS not using phone tower signals) as once I am out of town there is no more mobile service.

Can anyone confirm that any of the models has true GPS (like the Iphone does)..

3G models do.

Thread some where on here about people testing it.

A couple of threads on the subject...

http://www.macgregorsailors.com/forum/v ... =4&t=21833

http://www.macgregorsailors.com/forum/v ... =7&t=21767

I did a lot of research before settling on an Android Asus Transformer specifically because of it's onboard GPS capability. As far as I could find (as of two years ago...things may have changed), no Apple product has built-in GPS (they all get their location information from the cell tower signal). If you must have an i-Thing, you can probably get around this limitation by buying a Bluetooth GPS receiver. I have one for my Asus as a backup and it syncs well and offers really accurate position readings.

Best,
Dan

All current Apple products that have a cellular chipset also have true GPS, and none that do not have cellular transceivers do. The GPS is contained on the cellular chipset. IOS devices without true GPS use WLS, WiFi Location Services, which access a database of mapped WiFi emitter MAC addresses to localize the phone. WLS is sufficient for shopping, not sufficient for navigation.

With GPS:

iPhone 3G, 3GS, 4, 4S, 5
All iPads with 3G

Without GPS:
iPhone (original)
iPod Touch
iPads without 3G

The iPads W/ cellular are great. But you may need to use a bimini to block direct light; & turning horizontal will allow you to see throuugh polarized lenses

Hi Guys, thanks for all the advice. by the look of it I need the model with 3G (closest I can get is 4G),so I have true GPS!!

I am looking for this only as a backup system, I have a chart plotter (Garmin 451S as a primary) and paper as a last resort. Reason it needs to be Ipad is to use the Garmin Bluechart Mobile app (which I have on my Iphone), its good but too small on a phone screen..

Many thanks all.....

This was also thrashed to death in 8 pages of posts in this thread

http://www.macgregorsailors.com/forum/v ... =does+Ipad

but the kind soul OP went back and summarised in post 1, so you only have to read that..

Many thanks to the kind soul who summarized that whole thing in the first post, as I didn't want to real it all anyway.

My FIL and I were talking about how cost-effective ipads and such were for nav applications when we were in WM yesterday, and he was looking at all the fancy but pricey systems on display, and how those tablets and such have GOT to be taking a big (and getting bigger) bite out of sales.

I bought the Ipad Mini with 4G in the end, I will report on how I find it later on, but so far its looking good!!

Very happy to report that the Ipad mini with cellular and 4G has a proper GPS, and that its accuracy is excellent. I was impressed with Garmin Bluechart mobile when I had it on my iphone, I am even more impressed with it on the bigger screen.

It will now be replacing the Netbook with the home scanned charts as my backup nav system.....

The IPad with GPS/cellular is a great backup system that you can carry around with a cup of beverage in the other hand to plan the next days course, or to see where you went wrong and how you ended up over there

If this one fell overboard, I would buy another.