This is a very cool bit of news. Because why? Because it means that some of the best navigation suites on the market, which tend to be PC-based, might now make use of some of the best radar hardware on the market. On with the press release!

Marine Electronics Leader Introduces PC-Based FMCW Radar Technology for the Commercial, Marine, Military and Surveillance Markets

Nashua, N.H. – Simrad Yachting, a leader in the design and manufacture of world-class marine navigation, autopilots, communications and fishfinding systems, has announced today its BR24PC Software Development Kit (SDK) for the commercial, military, marine and surveillance markets. Giving developers access to the Simrad BR24 Broadband Radar™ opens a wide spectrum of applications for land and sea. Approved third parties can obtain a license to the BR24PC SDK and create PC-based software that utilizes Simrad Yachting’s award-winning Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) radome technology. Potential applications include on- and offshore security, unmanned vessels, military (stationary and moving), river navigation, boundary surveillance, fish-farm monitoring and oilrig ship-docking management. Providing the opportunity for a user-friendly, real-time, fully-automated and integrated PC-based radar system, the BR24PC SDK is compatible with any off-the-shelf Simrad BR24 Broadband Radar.

“The Simrad BR24PC Software Development Kit allows integration of our revolutionary radar technology to a nearly unlimited range of new possibilities in custom marine and on-shore applications,” said Louis Chemi, chief operating officer, Navico Americas. “Not only is the technology the future of navigation, security and surveillance, our BR24PC SDK makes commercial-grade radar available at a competitive price.”

(more…)

[Good news for those who have opted NOT to jump on the iPhone bandwagon. It’s a press release, so you should forgive the exclamation points and hyperbole. —Tim]

Discover the value of Navionics renowned marine charts and lake maps!

Ideal for water sport enthusiasts of all kinds. Create a virtual travelogue to share with friends via email or facebook.

The most comprehensive features available in 3.2:
• Record/Save tracks, routes
• Capture geo-tagged pictures of your adventures
• Access the largest database of specialty marine POIs available
• Search marinas and specialty marine POI, with just one click to call
• Check tides & currents, moon phase, sun/moon rise/set
• Share the fun with friends
• And so much more!

Offering the best marine and lake maps covering regions around the world.

Navionics certified compatible Android models:
Motorola Droid • Nexus One
HTC Tattoo • Acer Liquid

Operating system required: 1.6 or >

App prices are in Euro starting at 9.99€.

I got to play with the established Navionics iPhone application running on an iPad last month, and I was impressed. Now Navionics has released a version of that software optimized for the iPad platform, and it ought to be even better. Here’s the press release:

Navionics Apps Now Available in HD for iPad

The top-selling marine and lake apps in the world just got BIGGER!

Enjoy the clearest and most detailed marine and lake charts on your iPad! Apps now optimized in HD – with sensational hi-resolution graphics for the ultimate user experience!

Ideal for boaters, fishermen and water sport enthusiasts of all kinds. You can plan your on-the-water adventures, anytime anywhere.

Imagine planning your day on the water or showing your friends the tracks of your last cruise on the iPad’s dynamic multi-touch glossy display, comfortably sitting in your living room… anytime anywhere.

The most comprehensive features available, version 4.1 offers:
• Award-winning marine charts worldwide and lake maps (US and Canada) in HD
• Satellite imagery overlay
• Tides & currents, moon phase, sun/moon rise/set
• Tracks, routes and markers can be shared on facebook or via email and view them on Google Earth
• Route planning
• Waypoints & markers
• The largest database of marine POIs available
• In-app Facebook

iPad apps prices start at 19.99 $/€.
iPad – Wi-Fi model locates your GPS position if Wi-Fi connected.
iPad – Wi-Fi+3G model operates similar to iPhone with regard to GPS capability but no phone or camera.

“Hey, you got your ActiveCaptain in my Rose Point Coastal Explorer!”

“Well you got your Coastal Explorer in my Active Captain!”

“It tastes great!”

ActiveCaptain’s Jeffrey Siegel just sent out the announcement below, and it should come as no surprise that I’m fairly “gung ho” about this. In my previous Cruising Wiki surveys (Cruising wiki shoot-out #1 and Cruising wiki shoot-out #2), ActiveCaptain has come out ahead of the competition. When you combine that with my ongoing love affair with Rose Point Coastal Explorer, the potential seems obvious.

In this screen capture, you can see symbols for both the Rose Point and the ActiveCaptain notations I added about the old oil pier:

Here’s a link to the announcement from Rose Point, and here’s the announcement from Mr. Siegel:
==========================================

We are excited to announce that another major navigation program has adopted ActiveCaptain for its point-of-interest data. Coastal Explorer 2010 will include ActiveCaptain markers. The latest released beta version has it fully implemented for this phase of the integration.

With Coastal Explorer 2010, all of the ActiveCaptain markers can be accessed offline so you don’t need an Internet connection. Then when you are connected, Coastal Explorer will synchronize the data ensuring that you have the most up-to-date information possible. The marker details and reviews that you love on the website can be accessed right along with all of the wonderful chartplotter features Coastal Explorer offers.

Coastal Explorer brings even more users to ActiveCaptain. It’s robust features including integrated weather, Coast Pilot, voyage planning, and now ActiveCaptain make it a popular solution for PC’s.

The beta version is available now once you have purchased Coastal Explorer. We will be offering the software at a guaranteed unbeatable price to our captains. Purchasing from us helps support the ActiveCaptain web site too. If you’re interested in purchasing the software right now, email us – we’ll provide pricing and purchase information even before you can buy the software from our web site.

We’re planning some articles to help new users get acquainted with Coastal Explorer and will provide technical support for questions about using the software. We want you to think of ActiveCaptain when you want to use your laptop for navigation – we’ll provide the software and help you get started like no other dealer ever could.

Again we want to be perfectly clear. The web site and all of the ActiveCaptain data remains 100% free. That won’t change.

We’ll have more announcements coming up as more developers are working on integrating our data into their products. Stay tuned.

[It’s time for yet another version upgrade of Navionics’ award-winning iPhone applet. Having resisted temptation, thus far, when it comes to hopping on the iPhone bandwagon, I’m in no position to review this new software authoritatively. But I do know that it earlier versions enjoy a very good reputation with people I respect. Let’s see what we can learn from the press release.
—Tim]

The #1 marine navigation app just got better!  Navionics continues to add even more features and functionalities to its award-winning marine & lakes navigation app for iPhone.  Along with the most comprehensive features available, version 4.0 offers:

• Navionics award winning cartography overlaid with satellite imagery for an even richer user experience
• Battery life optimization that allows you to extend the use of your iPhone for more time on the water without recharging.

As always charts are resident on your phone to access at any time (no Wi-Fi needed).  Plan your adventures anytime and anywhere… check tides and currents, set routes and markers, and search for marinas.  Track your navigation, capture geotagged pictures, and create a virtual travelogue of your entire trip that you can share with your friends and family by email or on Facebook.  Navionics is the only marine app you will ever need – anytime – anywhere!

You can’t beat this list of features!
•Google overlay
•Optimized battery life
•Display and save up to 100 Tracks
•Create and save up to 100 Routes
•Place up to 200 digital Markers of your Favorite spots with selectable icons
•Capture geotagged Pictures of your adventures
•Share your Pictures, Tracks, Routes and Markers on Facebook or via Email and view them on Google Earth or Google Maps
•Access the largest database of specialty marine POIs available
•Search Marinas and specialty marine POI, with just one click to call
•Check Tides & Currents, Moon phase, Sun/Moon rise/set
•Input lat/long coordinates

Jesper Weissglas has put together a clever web page that allows you to view sample raster and vector chart renderings produced by many of the major chartplotter and navigation software products, including Active Captain, Rose Point Coastal Explorer, Expedition, Fugawi, Garmin, MacENC, Nobeltec VNC, OpenCPN, PolarNavy, Tiki Navigator, and TimeZero.

I’ll let Mr. Weissglas explain what he’s done, and why:

Features of charting programs are discussed a lot. But chart graphics quality is often overlooked. This page attempts to fix this.

Only unscaled screenshots and lossless file formats have been used. I have attempted to get the same area covered, but all programs differ in how they treat zoom and scaling, and the screenshots have been made by different people. So the shots are not identical.

I am not affiliated with any of these companies. I am a Swedish boat designer who is very picky about the visual appearance of my charts.

If you’re in the market, or just and interested observer, time spent on this site is very much worthwhile!

[I’m not much of a fisherman. Let’s just say that the fish are in no danger when I’m around. Still I’m a big fan of the Navionics Fish N’ Chip, because I love the detailed bathymetric data they contain. With a boat that draws about one foot with the motor raised, this can be very handy for finding impromptu passages and anchorages not in the standard guide books. On with the press release! —Tim]

Wareham, Mass. – Navionics®, the leader in electronic charting and digital navigation data, is pleased to announce the highly anticipated release of the Fish N’ Chip with the first-of-its-kind Great Lakes coverage area supported by Gold and Platinum Plus compatible plotters.

The Fish N Chip Great Lakes was well received at the Northwest Sport show, a proving ground for many inland mapping products and passed with flying colors. Navionics National Sale Manager Jeff Brodeur came home all smiles with the overwhelming response and positive feedback received from Pro Staff who have been using the chip since the release. Containing US and Canada data coverage, the Great Lakes is the first of three coverage areas to be released between March and Mid May of 2010. The entire East Coast will be on one chip while the West and the Gulf coast will be on the other.

(more…)

[It’s another MadMariner feature from a few weeks back. —Tim]

The folks at Rose Point Navigation Systems have released a beta of the new Coastal Explorer 2010 product. Navagear readers already know that I use Coastal Explorer 2009 aboard my boat. So my "executive summary" of Coastal Explorer 2010 should come as no surprise: the best navigation software on the market is getting better.

No, I’m not paid by Rose Point. My only compensation is that I get free software to test and review, which I then put to use aboard my boat, if I like it. And I like it. Of course, I am obligated to remind readers that this discussion encompasses my experience with unreleased beta software that may or may not include all the features discussed.

So what’s new in Coastal Explorer 2010?

The list of new features is actually quite short. Jeff Hummel, Rose Point’s Director of Sales and Marketing, explains why: "It’s not about features, features, features. It’s about making the features you already have better and easier to use."

One of the biggest challenges in updating software applications is creating more functionality without adding complexity and confusion. This is one reason many older, well-established programs can be so hard to use. Rose Point has chosen invest a lot of time and thought into simplifying the user interface, addressing real user needs in ways that require only a small number of steps to accomplish any given task. The general idea is that tools and features that are used the most should require the fewest number of mouse clicks.

At the same time, the features that are new remain consistent with Rose Point’s goal of making useful information more easily available to boaters. Examples include support for cruising guides such as the Atlantic Cruising Club’s Marina Guides, and new weather options such as support for XM WX weather, NEXRAD weather radar data, and upcoming AIS weather and conditions broadcasts. Other features include better planning tools and enhanced tracking, as well as direct support for NMEA 2000 data.

NEW PLANNING MODE

The Planning Mode screen has been completely redesigned to make it easier to find the commands you need, when you need them. The new interface design is oriented around tasks such as planning routes, managing marks on the chart, maintaining a ship’s log, getting information from guide books, and checking weather, tide, and current conditions. Almost all these features were present in the 2009 product, but now it’s easy to find them when you want them.

Gone, for instance, is the old Navigation Objects menu. That menu was, in my opinion, the most frustrating element of Coastal Explorer 2009. It contained all the things I wanted, but sometimes it seemed to require more hunting and more clicking than was strictly necessary.

In its place are a series of tabs across the top of the screen: Home, Voyage Plan, Marks, Ship’s Log, Guide Book, Conditions, Tracking.

[The new tabs across the top of the Planning Mode interface group features in intuitive ways that help users find what they're after, without cluttering up the screen. Notice, too, that the weather forecast includes a blue polygon highlighting the zone covered by the text forecast currently displayed. When you exit the forecast display, the zone polygon and borders disappear, cleaning up the chart as you go.]

How do I know the new interface works better? The fact that I always find what I want before it occurs to me to ask "What have they done with the old reliable Navigation Objects menu?" I’m one of those people who only reads manuals after I’ve exhausted every other possibility. The fact that I don’t even know what kind of manual accompanies the beta should serve as another indication of the usability improvements in this update.

DIVING IN

Let’s look at one kind of voyage planning in more detail. I wrote about Coastal Explorer 2.0’s Timeline feature two years ago. Here’s how it works: Once you’ve created a route and set your vessel’s anticipated cruising speed for each leg of the trip, you can associate each leg of the route with the appropriate tidal current station. Yes, you have to do this by hand. The software can determine which current station is closest to your route, but if it happens to be in a completely separate body of water on the opposite side of some ribbon of land, "closest" may not be "best."

Anyway, once that’s done, you can slide your route left or right along the timeline to adjust your departure and arrival times. If you need to arrive at a particular waypoint at a specific time, you can slide that waypoint left or right along the timeline to align it with the time you want to arrive. All the other waypoints along the timeline slide with it, so you can see when you need to leave, and, even better, what kind of tidal current you’re likely to encounter along each segment of the trip.

[The upper Timeline illustrates a bad time to make this passage. Envision your vessel traveling from left to right, 'forward' in both time and space. The large purple arrows pointing to the left represent contrary current. The lower Timeline shows a much better time to make this passage. You'll avoid most of the strongest currents, except near the end of the trip, and even that bit of current is moving in the right direction.]

This was a great feature, but even I didn’t use it very often, because it required a lot of clicking and fiddling. Coastal Explorer 2010 streamlines the setup process a bit; I especially like the little arrows that point from the route leg to the location of the current station you’ve selected. Once you’ve got the Timeline configured, making use of it is much easier than before, and I suspect users will find themselves referring to it much more often than they did before.

[Cruise Mode will look pretty familiar to Coastal Explorer veterans, although the miniature Orientation, Go To Boat, Scale, and Info controls along the right edge of each chart view are new.]

In comparison, the Cruise Mode screen is relatively unchanged. This interface had already been pretty well streamlined, and was already a joy to use. Even here, though, a few tweaks help refine the experience. I like the new miniature Orientation, Go To Boat, Scale, and Info controls along the right side of the chart. I also like the way the cursor position status bar at the top of each chart functions. It would take about two paragraphs to explain the subtle behavior enhancements, whereas it only takes about two seconds to comprehend what’s happening and appreciate the improved user experience.

If you’re already a Coastal Explorer user, I’m confident you’ll find that it’s even easier to accomplish your primary tasks, and you may find that you use a few features you didn’t before, even though they were already there. If you’ve never tried Coastal Explorer, you’ll find that it does everything you would expect from a navigation software application, and it does it all better and more easily than the competitors.

Don’t take my word for it, though. I urge you to try them out. Don’t let somebody else demo the software for you. Sit down yourself and create a multi-waypoint route. Then change the route, adding a little side trip in the middle somewhere. Even if you only have about five minutes with each product, you’ll learn a lot about good user interface design.

Captain Richard Rodriguez of the BitterEnd blog brings us this story:

via The Unofficial Apple Weblog

And that’s exactly what Ship Finder HD does. It uses AIS coverage from across the globe to position ships on maps. Lee Armstrong of pinkfroot, a small iPhone OS development house, was kind enough to share this video showing Ship Finder HD in action. He writes. “[T]he new iPad’s form factor enables the app to be much more functional for just the casual user and the professional mariner.”

Richard adds this note: This isn’t really doable for the Professional Mariner as it’s a web feed and not real time data..  I actually have the same info on my iPhone.

It’s embarrassing to admit, but I have NOT hopped aboard the iPhone bandwagon. Yet.

So I will leave it to my iPhone-endowed readers to give us their assessments of this new iPhone app, a sort of personal organizer package designed around boating. It’s called Boating Suite, and it’s just $5.

Here’s the official info on it:

Boating Cafe, Inc. is pleased to announce that Boating Suite for the iPhone and iPod Touch is now available for download on the iTunes App Store!

Boating Suite is a professional, full-featured app for the iPhone and iPod Touch that is designed to help boaters manage all aspects of their boating activities. The suite consists of a Log Book, Fuel Log, Maintenance Log, Expense Log, To Do List, Shopping List and several customizable reports. Boating Suite is unique in that it’s the first app of its kind. Until now there has been nothing dedicated specifically to boaters. This app will fill that void and be something truly useful for boating enthusiasts.

Be sure to let all of your boating friends know about Boating Suite and follow us on Facebook and Twitter via the links on the website.