New iPad GPS?

[redcobra]

Originally Posted by Seaduction

Am I thinking correctly here:

1. I buy a new iPad with no cellular service carrier involved.
2. I download iNavX app via my internet connection (about $50).
3. The built-in iPad GPS receiver will show my position on the downloaded charts.

Sounds too good to be true!
I'm about ready to spring for an iPad!

Update:
Bought my iPad, downloaded iNAVX, downloaded the charts and yep it works great.

[dzhiurgis]

Haven't read everything here, but I have an interesting story how iPhone was quite useful for navigation.
So last year my father and couple of his friends decided to cross Baltic Sea. We live in Lithuania, around Klaipeda. They decided to go to Kalmar island, Sweden.
Usually it's me who preloads our Garmin Gpsmap 520s with charts. I have done countless of updates to our (and our friends) SD cards. I was pretty sure that I have uploaded the latest and largest version of maps, that covers the whole Baltic Sea. Obviously I haven't checked the coverage.
Midway of their journey, they found out that the chart is incomplete. They panicked for a bit, but quickly remembered having handheld car satnav with whole europe maps, which can be used in water. Moreover, my father remembered I've preloaded his iPhone with Navionics app (as probably none of them knew or cared how to use the paper charts). They found their way, however they managed to get so close to the rocks to trigger sounder alarm (set for 1.6 meter, while our draft is 1.4 as we mostly sail around shallow waters).
The rest went pretty, well they visited the place and so on.

[levm]

My experience with my new Ipad3 agrees with everything said above. In fact I was pleasantly surprised by the accuracy of the device. Just one word of caution when using GPS in a city it may create an error in the location apparently due to GPS data reflection from tall buildings. A similar phenomena may occure when anchoring close to a cliff.

[dzhiurgis]

Sorry, I forgot to mention one quick tip about using GPS in iPhone - it won't work if you switch to airplane mode - all the radios are shut off completely. If you want to use the GPS, but don't want to waste your battery by constantly searching for cell signal - remove the SIM card. It will disable the cell radio, but will keep the GPS working.