Login at MacSailing.net

I was doing some research for my yacht club's new web site (the Little Ship Club in London) and stumbled across SailingNetworks.com.

This is a really cool social networking site for sailors, that integrates with Facebook, as well as providing loads of cool boating-specific feature such as:

• [li]Skippers & Crews Opportunities[/li]li]Blogging[/li][li]Yacht profile[/li][li]Log book[/li][li]Yacht Clubs[/li][li]Crew Management[/li]

I found a website that scrapes all the iTunes stores and shows the reviews on applications from around the world, so (out of curiosity, of course) I put in AyeTides and looked at the reviews. My, what an interesting difference of opinions. Quite a few 4, 5 star reviews (thank you very much!), plus a number of 1 and 2 stars. Interestingly, the lower reviews seem to often mention surfing and how the stations aren't close to good surf spots.

The target group for AyeTides is obviously (well, at least obvious to me) sailors, not surfers. The stations are for the most part located in ports and channels that boats need to navigate and not where large waves are the norm. I don't normally see many boats trying to hang ten off the North Shore of Oahu or Malibu. The government thought as much too, as there aren't tide stations located in the surfing areas.

I'm not sure why surfers would be so interested in the tides, when waves are much more a wind-driven phenomenon than tidal. There are web sites devoted to surfing and with an iPhone that's a great combination, so long as you're connected to the web (and have a waterproof and sand-proof case for the iPhone!). It might be useful to have an application that shows the surfing forecast, but you'd still need to be on the web to get the data.

So, I guess the reason for this post is to explain why there are some negative reviews, and give my response to them. I appreciate that they bought and reviewed the app, and I'm sorry it doesn't fit their needs.

A

We're intending to use MacENC and GPSNavX on our upcoming circumnavigation of the South Pacific (NZ, Cooks, Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, Vanuatu, New Caledonia etc).
I have some old BSB and NOS vector charts that cover parts of the area, but they are out of date and there are considerable gaps in coverage. However, when searching the web I can only find proprietary charts that need PC software or dongles, or charts covering coastal areas.
Can anybody suggest a vendor who sells charts of the South Pacific that are compatible with MacENC ?

Google Earth Comes To The iPhone, And It?s Awesome

From washingtonpost.com

Robin Wauters
TechCrunch.com
Monday, October 27, 2008; 1:43 AM

Color me impressed: Google has released a custom Google Earth application for the iPhone/iPod Touch, and it's stunning.

The Google Earth geographical software has been altered to make maximum use of the iPhone's screen and functionality. You're able to tilt the device to adjust your view when browsing mountainous terrain, use the 'My Location' feature to jump right to where you are in the blink of an eye, and use Google's local search engine to look for information on cities, places and businesses. Google has also added additional layers to the application, namely Panoramio and Wikipedia, for geo-located high-quality photos and informative articles respectively.

This marks the main differentiator between the official Google Earth app and the one Earthscape released last May. More recently, the Earthscape application dropped its price from $10 to free, but will most likely be trumped by the official app now.

As CNET points out, Google Earth for iPhone has a small Webkit-based browser to show the specific information users click on, and includes a link to the Safari browser Apple builds into the iPhone. When you click the address of a business using the local search engine, the iPhone will intercept the command and show it on the Google Maps application, enabling you to get directions instantly.
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The app is free and available today in all languages the iPhone currently supports (18) and will gradually be released for 22 countries in total. Check the iTunes App Store to see if you're among the lucky ones.

Product Manager Google Earth Peter Birch, who is the one demonstrating the app in the video below, has also announced that a similar application running on Android is high on the priority list for the future, but that there's nothing to announce at this point. More features, like integration of 3D buildings and advanced mapping functionalities, are in the pipeline. It's likely Google is also looking at ways to monetize the mobile traffic.

I've done some searches here on this topic and I don't see any posts more recent than 2007, so I thought I'd bring this up again. Has anyone found anything that works particularly well?

I have a RadioLabs WaveRV Marine and I'm getting so frustrated with the driver. If I restart my machine it logs on to the first open network. If I try to change to the stronger, faster locked networked, it hangs and it hangs my whole machine. I can't even Force Quit the app. I've emailed the company and they know of this problem with the Mac driver and there is no solution.

I live aboard and for my work, I need to be able to log on to the fast wi-fi provided here at my dock, but my internal Airport just doesn't have the range. Has anybody got a good Mac friendly wi-fi solution?

Christine

After reading about the AIS-2-USB, and my use of a USB GPS, I started wondering if the RS-232 connection will soon be going away. Will radar units, or other marine electronics, start using USB? Will the RS-232 multiplexer be replaced with a USB hub?

Hi,

Is there anyone here who has experience with hooking up a the above wireless display to a mac mini? Either directly to os X or via windows XP on paralells.

thx

Can i ask for help with my ideas?

I am a very tech savvy older adult :-) and I am going to be sailing with my husband in a Drascombe Drifter from Marina Del Rey to Oceanside this coming week.

I have the 1st generation iPhone and yesterday replaced it with the 2nd generation iPhone because my husband asked me to get a GPS and I thought that the 2nd gen iPhone with iNavX would be a more interesting GPS than investing in a stand alone GPS.

I have downloaded the software to my iPhone and have downloaded the San Francisco to San Diego chart.

I have never used charts before. Where do I go to learn about how to use the program? Where can I go to learn about the charts? My husband knows how to read charts and also has been a pilot for over 30 years and knows how to read airline charts. How do I set waypoints?

Yvonne

Anyone found a good iPhone case? I was riding the rail on a J-105 this weekend with my iPhone in a ziploc bag and don't want to take that risk again.