iPad Apps for Boaters

[christinekling]

After sailing some 700 miles this summer out to the Bahamas and up to the Chesapeake from Florida, I have really grown to love my iPad 3G. When I'm down below off watch at 3:00 am, I can just tap the screen to check out our speed and course and position right there in my bunk. When we are within range of the cell service, I get weather radar, AIS, all sorts of stuff that I can get through the Internet connection.

And of course it's great as an eReader for books, blogs, news, magazines, etc. A subscription to the electronic version of SAIL magazine is only $7.50 for 12 months and it looks beautiful on the iPad.

Today on my blog, I list some of my favorite boating apps. Write On The Water | So you want to quit your job, move onto a boat, and write

Fair winds,

Christine Kling
aboard Wild Matilda, a Ron Holland 43
at anchor off St. Michaels, MD

[gettinthere]

Originally Posted by christinekling

When we are within range of the cell service,

I didn't think the i-Pad did cell phone connections...

[Kefaa]

IPAD does not do cell phone - but it uses the 3G network when WIFI is not available. If you have the choice - always take WIFI first. It does not count against the ATT limit of 2gig/month.

As for Applications I like the list on your blog. I would add the following:
Note Taker HD - any time you would pick up a pencil to sketch something (e.g. the arrangement of those water lines or how that three sided widget looked before you took it apart. sketch it here.) It is great at note taking as well because it acts like paper.
Writepad - if you are a writer this is the one. It learns over time to recognize your hand writing or makes you improve it. I love this one because it does character recognition and produces text. (no images though)
Norterize - You mentioned PDFs, like the Yanmar manuals perhaps? Well, this one lets you annotate by highlighting, or post it notes or underlines, or even voice. Much cheaper than others that do less.
Stanza - similar to iBooks, with a nicer feel. It will also handle conversion of existing books from other formats, via Calibre.
Ebay for IPAD - better layout and handling of ebay than the IPhone version.

While I also like the idea of Sail (and Crusing World -hint hint) on my IPAD, somehow the paper just appeals to me - or maybe its that it does not show up like email.

[ArmyChief]

It does have Skype..you cannot Video Teleconference yet...but audio works great!

I might add..Craigslist for iPad is nicer than the PC version.

USA Today, Wall Street Jornal, (Someone tell Fox to get on the ball!!)

[christinekling]

@Kefaa I love Cruising World too, (I’ve even written for them) but for some reason there is a wild difference in the subscription prices for 12 months of digital magazines via the iPad app Zinio.

SAIL $7.50
SOUTHERN BOATING $8.95
YACHTING $10.00
water sailing">BLUE WATER SAILING $18.00
CRUISING WORLD $24.00

I’m not sure why Cruising World is one of the more expensive ones, but they’re beat out by their British cousin SAILING WORLD which runs $47.07 for 12 months. Since I assume their subscriber base has to do with their ad rates, it makes sense to me that the iPad is a natural for cruisers and they’d get more to subscribe by lowering their rates. Alas, who listens to me :-)

Thanks for the great apps, too!

[dennisjay]

Just wondering how the iPad fares in the marine environment. Apple has a reputation for making rugged products, but the salt air, etc. hasn't been kind to my previous Mac Book Pro. Seemed to shorten its life considerably.

[christinekling]

It’s too soon to tell how well the iPad will hold up at this point. I am not using any of the cases or coverings, though I think I am going to buy the ZipLock bag type thing I pointed to in my blog. The only real danger point is the place where the power cord plugs into the device.

BTW, I live aboard and my old aluminum Powerbook (pre-Intel) is still plugging away as is my 2-year-old iPhone 3G and my black MacBook. I use the old Powerbook to run MacENC in the cockpit of my own Caliber 33 and it has weathered a fair bit of spray. I have a hood for the screen and I keep a towel handy to throw over it when I hear a wave hit the hull. If it’s too rough, of course, it has to go below. My Apple electronics have worked better than some of my made-for-marine stuff.

[dennisjay]

Christine - Good to know. Couple of years ago I had a Powerbook and then a MacBook Pro aboard, and within an 18-month period, the logic boards went out on both. Could have been a coincidence, or maybe I'm just rough on laptops.

[ArmyChief]

Originally Posted by christinekling

It’s too soon to tell how well the iPad will hold up at this point. I am not using any of the cases or coverings, though I think I am going to buy the ZipLock bag type thing I pointed to in my blog. The only real danger point is the place where the power cord plugs into the device.

Might be a good idea to put desicant bags in the ziplock with it

Make your own:

Make Your Own Desiccant - Remove Humidity

[Christian Van H]

Originally Posted by ArmyChief

(Someone tell Fox to get on the ball!!)

If you only knew...

[ArmyChief]

Hmmmm

[SaltyMonkey]

This is a very timely thread. I just bought an iPad last week, and believe me, I was a naysayer. I have an iPhone, 2 Mac laptops, a Mac Pro 8, and I thought the iPad was a piece of marketing hype nothing. Well, turns out its great for reading materials. Using it to study for my HAM license, reading Capt Cooks journals, and subscribed to those magazines stated above. Bit dissapointed in that the sailing magazines dont include lats, or old boat. applications - bought a very cheap 5 $ chart app that works great. havent yet invested in any more expensive nav apps, but there is a lot out there, and if I needed to get charts say for the west coast, its a download click away.

The screen is exceptionally great, You can either use mobile me to sync files to it, such as pdfs and docs, so you can take your other documents with you, or you can use something like Mobile Air app to sync to a network volume/folder directly and get your materials. The other sys apps are OK to for mail and Safari web browsng

If nothing more its got my vote to be able to read more easily off a screen somewhere besides a desk, and play music while doing it. if you are skittish about first generation products, then wait a year. I'm enjoying mine.

[ArmyChief]

salty,

With me being deployed.....it was great to be able to watch movies on the flight over here and when I go back to the USA. It is about 12-15 hours of flying and on the flight back, I watched over 7.5 hours of movies and had over 72% of my battery.

I also read books with it and convert e-books to erader format for the iPad.

Lastly...sitting here on my desk, I use it as a slideshow pictureframe so i can look at my family....priceless

[dennisjay]

ArmyChief - Great story. Perhaps iPads should become standard issue.

[ArmyChief]

LOL...yea..you do that...and I'll give you one!!!

They should..if the Chief of Staff could see that I have all my repair TM's (Technical manuals..Non secret of course) in erader format and can take my iPad to the truck or device...diagnose and repari with NO PAPER BOOK.

If he's young enough and open minded..he'd be blown away!