Ipad Apps for Boaters

[Bradley]

I just bought an Ipad with 3G and Wifi and am cruising in the Caribe. What are good apps to have for a cruiser? Both boating apps and general living apps would be of considerable interest.

I have reviewed all of the previous threads concerning Ipads. Each and every one of them immediately go off on a tangent and do not discuss apps.

Please try to keep this thread to a discussion of apps. Thanks.

[Jimbo485]

INAVx
Facebook
Cruisers forum
Dropbox

[Selene]

iNavx, tidesplan 12, aye tides xl, shipfinder hd, dragqueen, windfinder, beaufortscale.
vlc, usb disk pro, ps express, find iphone, skype, spotify, ebay, itranslate, navfree gps.

[tartansail]

What I use regularly:
Navionics on iNavX (no idea how good for Carib)
Charts and Tides (for Active Captain)
TideGraph
Boat Weather

Kindle App
Google Earth
Netflix for streaming movies (If you have a TV and power, AppleTV will let you display iPad on the TV. I haven't used on the boat, but may next year)
Angry Birds + assorted other games

[ActiveCaptain]

Just released this week: DragQueen - a free anchor alarm. It has been installed by over 1,000 people already this week. We used it for 2 months at anchor before releasing it to the app store. I'm the developer. An Android version is already working from the same source and will be in the Android Market in a few weeks - also free. I intend to release the source code for it too with no license so anyone else can take it and enhance it, add to it, whatever.

There are some really interesting and new chartplotting apps coming in early 2012. These apps are so relatively inexpensive that it's worthwhile getting a few. I'm currently working with at least 4 iOS developers on products that aren't on the market yet. One in particular is an incredible product.

I personally like Navimatics Charts & Tides a lot - they have great ActiveCaptain support. There is a fantastic competitor coming for the popular Navionics products - if you can wait a little, hold off.

Get all the weather apps you can get - a variety are excellent. I only paid for Weather4D which I like when I have a WiFi connection. WeatherBug is the one I generally go to for radar and forecasts.

I'm developing a very large app that will act as a companion to your chartplotter. It's unlike anything else and doesn't really compete with anything right now. It'll also be free on Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and SmartTV. It supports phones and tablet sized screens. DragQueen was an experiment using this multi-platform development technique to produce real GPS apps for the various app stores. This upcoming Companion product will also be free.

[dandrews]

Originally Posted by ActiveCaptain

Just released this week: DragQueen - a free anchor alarm. It has been installed by over 1,000 people already this week. We used it for 2 months at anchor before releasing it to the app store. I'm the developer. An Android version is already working from the same source and will be in the Android Market in a few weeks - also free. I intend to release the source code for it too with no license so anyone else can take it and enhance it, add to it, whatever.

There are some really interesting and new chartplotting apps coming in early 2012. These apps are so relatively inexpensive that it's worthwhile getting a few. I'm currently working with at least 4 iOS developers on products that aren't on the market yet. One in particular is an incredible product.

I personally like Navimatics Charts & Tides a lot - they have great ActiveCaptain support. There is a fantastic competitor coming for the popular Navionics products - if you can wait a little, hold off.

Get all the weather apps you can get - a variety are excellent. I only paid for Weather4D which I like when I have a WiFi connection. WeatherBug is the one I generally go to for radar and forecasts.

I'm developing a very large app that will act as a companion to your chartplotter. It's unlike anything else and doesn't really compete with anything right now. It'll also be free on Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and SmartTV. It supports phones and tablet sized screens. DragQueen was an experiment using this multi-platform development technique to produce real GPS apps for the various app stores. This upcoming Companion product will also be free.

Always nice to hear what Active Captain is up too. Great tools that are easy and fun to use.

Don

[Jimbo485]

Thanks for the info, ActiveCaptain!

I have an iPAD1 with GPS and wifi. When trying to download DragQueen, it said IOS 4.0 is required. What should I do in order to download DragQueen?

[ActiveCaptain]

Originally Posted by Jimbo485

Thanks for the info, ActiveCaptain!

I have an iPAD1 with GPS and wifi. When trying to download DragQueen, it said IOS 4.0 is required. What should I do in order to download DragQueen?

You should upgrade your iPad 1 to v5. Version 4 is way old now and there are many capabilities in 5 that some software requires. We require v4 or v5. The iPad 1 will upgrade to v5 without any problem.

[sailcruiser]

Originally Posted by Jimbo485

Thanks for the info, ActiveCaptain!

I have an iPAD1 with GPS and wifi. When trying to download DragQueen, it said IOS 4.0 is required. What should I do in order to download DragQueen?

Jimbo, it sounds like you need to update the operating system on the iPad. You'd need to connect it to a computer with iTunes, sync and iTunes will detect an out of date operating system (iOS) and download the current stuff for you and install it. The only hitch could be if you are jail broken. (aka hacked). the current version I believe is 5.01.
SC

[Dockhead]

I bet I'm not the only user wishing for a more powerful chart plotter app for the IPad. Something with functionality more like our fixed systems. I particularly dislike the lack of a cursor in INavX.

[Selene]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

I bet I'm not the only user wishing for a more powerful chart plotter app for the IPad. Something with functionality more like our fixed systems. I particularly dislike the lack of a cursor in INavX.

Your are not really being "realistic", the cursor is right at your fingertip.

[ActiveCaptain]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

I bet I'm not the only user wishing for a more powerful chart plotter app for the IPad.

Stay tuned. There are fantastic new things coming - and no, I'm not developing a chartplotter. The new ones coming out though want to connect to ActiveCaptain so I'm getting early looks at quite a bunch of them. One in particular that should be out at the Miami Boat Show is going to change the whole game. Navionics has had it all too easy for too long. Prepare for a new beginning in marine electronics for the iPad in the first quarter of 2012...

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Selene

Your are not really being "realistic", the cursor is right at your fingertip.

It's not a cursor. At least, it does not have the functionality of a cursor in a regular nav system. There's no "Find Ship" -- the "cursor" automatically snaps back to the GPS location. It doesn't show the distance and bearing to your location (you have to set up a ruler). You can't do anything with the pointer without switching off the GPS.

It's as good program in many ways but this is poor.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by ActiveCaptain

Stay tuned. There are fantastic new things coming - and no, I'm not developing a chartplotter. The new ones coming out though want to connect to ActiveCaptain so I'm getting early looks at quite a bunch of them. One in particular that should be out at the Miami Boat Show is going to change the whole game. Navionics has had it all too easy for too long. Prepare for a new beginning in marine electronics for the iPad in the first quarter of 2012...

Cool. Are they only for IPad or are they being developed for other platforms as well (Android, Windows Tablet)?

[ActiveCaptain]

I see more for iOS than anything else. There are some new Android things too but it's about 4:1 iOS:Android right now.