Meanwhile I downloaded the chart app to my smart phone

[freelancer]

While I hunt down an antenna for my old gps combo (previous post), mostly out of curiosity and the fact that I don't want to haul out the boat at this point of the season to install a fixed GPS, I downloaded the Marine East application from Navionics to my HTC Incredible Smart Phone.

I tried it out on father?s day and it worked like a charm, the chart is very detailed and up to date. I already plotted the course for my upcoming 4th of July trip to Baltimore Inner Harbor. The app has all the normal gps chart stuff...one cool extra is the "geo-tag" which allows you to take a picture with your phone and tag it with your current position then email if you wish. Best part is that the app only cost around $13 vs. the $150 you pay for the average gps chart chip. Lucky for me I have made the trip before and I know where the good water is. In addition to my charts I believe the app is a good back up.

Just wanted to share my experience with this software.

 

[AguaSki]

Re: Meanwhile I downloaded the chart app to my smart phone

I too have the new HTC Incredible and downloaded the Navionics app. My local lakes are small and I already know them well, but the Western lakes map will come in handy when I visit Lake Mead for the first time in August. It is good to hear a positive report from a user.

Last spring I fell into the iPhone v. Android decision. I wanted to stay with Verizon, but I also knew I wanted to be able to run the Navionics app which was only available on the iPhone at the time. By May it was fairly obvious that Navionics would soon deliver an Android version of the app so I made the decision to go with Android. Navionics did deliver on an Android app a couple weeks after getting my HTC Incredible. Earlier this week the Sling Player Mobile for Android was made available, so now I have everything I wanted in a smart phone. Glad I skipped the iPhone and stayed with Verizon.

 

[freelancer]

Re: Meanwhile I downloaded the chart app to my smart phone

AguaSki,

In the early 90s I spent a couple years in your neck of the woods mostly in Arizona. There are plenty of nice lakes to try out and I?m sure having the charts on your phone helps out. I'm not yet sure how things might work out if you lose your cell phone signal? GPS is satellite based and I can't see you loosing the satellite signal as often as you would lose your cell phone signal, HUMMMM.

 

[skargo]

Re: Meanwhile I downloaded the chart app to my smart phone

AguaSki,

In the early 90s I spent a couple years in your neck of the woods mostly in Arizona. There are plenty of nice lakes to try out and I?m sure having the charts on your phone helps out. I'm not yet sure how things might work out if you lose your cell phone signal? GPS is satellite based and I can't see you loosing the satellite signal as often as you would lose your cell phone signal, HUMMMM.

The sat and GPS signals are independent of each other.

I just bought an HTC EVO and am going to download the Navionics East app.

 

[freelancer]

Re: Meanwhile I downloaded the chart app to my smart phone

I used the app during the 4th of July weekend on a trip from Philadelphia Harbor to Baltimore Inner Harbor. It worked great as a GPS navigation chart with all of the information that you would find on a fixed marine GPS. A couple things to note:

1. You have to touch the screen on occasion to keep the phone from going to sleep mode.
2. In extreme heat (it was over 100 degrees on the way back to home port) you may want to try to keep it out of the sun or keep the phone cool the best you can. In our case, just as we got tied up the phone shut down for about 15 minutes and would not boot up, after letting it sit inside the air-conditioned cabin for a while it started back up and worked just fine.

Glad I got it because with the money I saved by downloading the app, I purchased a cockpit cover which I really needed to get now during the season.