Navionics for BlackBerry

P

Pat Anderson

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C Dory Year
2005
C Dory Model
25 Cruiser
Vessel Name
Daydream
Well, bummer! A little Googling turned upthis thread on THT, Navionics for BlackBerry (and other smartphones) is at least a year away, so if you want the free chartplotter app, you pretty much have buy an iPhone!
 
While cruising remote lakes in Montana earlier this month, no charts were available for the lakes. Our iPhone, with no service, picked up sat. GPS and showed our location on an accurate map of the lake - not a chart, since no depth contours, but GREAT where nothing else was available. (our chartplotter showed our location, but its map was so generalized as to be useless - so, iPhone was sure handy.

For $5 we downloaded a Navionics app with charts from LA to Alaska - with the iPhone GPS feature it is a great backup to the chartplotter.
 
Chartplotter app = iPhone wins!

Tethering PAM (phone as moden) = BlackBerry wins!
 
Pat Anderson":3mzbzf2t said:
Chartplotter app = iPhone wins!

Tethering PAM (phone as moden) = BlackBerry wins!
Click to expand...

You could buy an iPod Touch and install the Navionics app on that. I don't know if I would spend the money, though, especially since I have a dedicated Lowrance handheld GPS.

Warren
 
I suppose it depends on the purpose - Pam gives a big screen on a big device - the laptop. We prefer not to cruise with a laptop in the cabin and as a backup it is most likely to be necessary in foul weather.

The small iPhone with built in GPS location on the Navionics chart seems to us the ideal electronic backup, since it competes with handheld GPS devices and also has the ability to be a cell phone for emergency contact.
 
El and Bill":2bn445bf said:
The small iPhone with built in GPS location on the Navionics chart seems to us the ideal electronic backup, since it competes with handheld GPS devices and also has the ability to be a cell phone for emergency contact.
Click to expand...

'Tis indeed intriguing, but it has one significant drawback that might be important to many...iPhones are not waterproof, and there are many reports of them giving up the ghost when exposed to nothing other than a bit of rain.

iPhones also don't have the greatest battery life...and using it as a phone and dedicated GPS device, will empty it pretty quickly. And that's assuming it has a fully charged battery to begin with...which as iPhone users know, is an internal, non-replaceable unit that prevents plopping a freshly charged pack into the device. This can certainly be mitigated if one has the ability to plug it in to the boat's electrical system, but this might not be acceptable for those wanting a completely independent backup unit.

For a backup that one might expect to need outside the boat - or for more than a couple hours - I still see a compelling reason to stick with the waterproof marine handhelds and some spare AA's.
 
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