FlytoMaps All in One HD Reloaded

Application: iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch

Function: Marine, Lakes, Parks charting and navigation

Cost: $9.99 for iPhone $19.99 for iPad HD

Rating: ****

FlytoMaps has added a ton of new changes since I reviewed the app back in January 2011. I thought it was worth a second look to point out some of the new features.

The most noticable update is that they now offer a new HD version for the iPad or iPhone.  The HD version will cost you $19.99.  The iPhone only version is still a great value at $9.99. Once you buy the app most of the charts are free to download from within the app. Specific apps are available for purchase where copy rights apply.

Features:

• All USA Nautical charts
• All Europe and Australia, New Zealand Nautical charts
• More than 100 US Parks and Forests 
• 100 major EU parks 
• 20 most famous Australian National Parks, all New Zealand National Parks
• Most famous world holiday areas and islands (Caribbean, Seychelles, Mauritius, Maldives, Canary Islands, Azores, Oslo Fjord
• Lake Maps for Minnesota, Michigan, Massachusetts and Wisconsin
• The marine charts of UK Ireland and Netherlands areas cannot be downloaded because subject to UKHO copyright. If you are interested in those areas please purchase the specific App
• New iPhone3GS Magnetic Compass integration.
• FlyToMap - ALL IN ONE is for boating, sailing, fishing, walking, running, hiking, skiing, kayaking, rafting, geocaching.
• Zoom and Pan fast just by a finger touch
• Use Latitudes and Longitudes to go to your favorite places
• Record your GPS Track
• Detailed tour guide at your finger tips
• Real time GPS position on the map
• Geo-Tagged photo management
• Insert the destination ‘Waypoint’
• Real time speed, distance and direction to destination
• Insert Unlimited Markers of your favorite places on the chart or map
• Search your Favorite points or any location by name
• Set On/Off Elevation Contours if you feel data is cluttering
• Latest version 3.5.5 added distance calculation and heading vector and improved drawing of overlays.

There is an extensive list of charts and maps. The provide Hunting Map, Water Maps, Travel Maps, Park Maps and Lake Maps.  The water charts cover most of the US and some additional locations around the world.

Travel Maps cover the Caribbean, Central America, the Mediterranean and a few spots in Southeast Asia.  Park Maps are the most extensive covering most of the USA, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.

Lake charts are limited to just a few states in within the USA.

The marine charts are very  nicely detailed with all the buoys, lights and markers. Depths are shown in gradients of different colors. You have the option to show charts and maps in Offline, FlytoMaps, Google or Cycling modes.

The charts and maps can be downloaded for viewing offline.  This allows you to see the charts while not connected to the Internet. This is a key feature if you are doing any offshore sailing.

The chart to the left shows the Google selection. Marine charts are kept for the ocean areas and the Google map is overlayed to show the land detail.

Soft keys across the bottom of the screen include GPS, Search, Map, Track, Measure, Marker, Camera and Settings. 

The GPS feature enables real time tracking of your position. Simply tap the icon and it will take you to your present position. Tap it again stop the real time tracking.

The satellite icon in the lower left of the screen gives you the status of your GPS connection. You can tap this and detailed GPS data is provided showing your position, altitude, course, speed, heading and GSP signal strength.

The Search feature allows you to search by name any location on the charts. Simply type in a location that you want to find and the app take you there and displays the location on the charts.

This is a great feature that will quickly take you to a point anywhere in the world without having to pan and zoom around the chart.



Additional display items that can be accessed from the main screen are the speedometer, a compass and distance and heading displays.

The speedometer is in the upper left corner of the screen, the distance and heading are in the upper right and the compass in in the lower left.

Tap on these icons to enlarge the display, tap them again to minimize.

The app is a little weak in this area, I wish they would put all of these items in a instrument bar instead of having them spread all over the screen.  There is no NMEA data integration available at this time either.  This would allow user to view their ships instrument data within the app.

The track features allow you to record and save tracks of your trips. There is also a pause button to temporarily suspend the track recording.  I did not see the ability to display the track on the charts.  This might be another nice feature to add.

There is an option to send the track by email. Selecting this will allow you to send an email with a file attached in .kmz format.  This will allow you to view the track on Google Earth or any viewer that can read .kmz format files.

I do not know how many tracks can be saved or if there is a limit on the size of the track files or miles recorded. If anyone knows this information please let me know.






The next soft key is the Measure function. Select this if you want to measure distance from one point to another on the chart.

When you tap the icon two silver markers appear on the screen. Take you finger and move these to the points that you want to measure between.

The distance and heading from the first point to the second point will be displayed on the top of the screen.  This is a great feature to quickly do some measurements between your present point and any point on the chart.

The Marker features allows you to place a marker on the chart. I personally think this feature should be called Waypoints instead of Markers similar to most other GPS charting apps. When you tap the Marker softkey a favorites screen come up. Here you can view your favorites or add a marker by tapping the plus sign. You can give the marker a name and description and it will allow you to add a photo and change the coordinates if needed.  One thing lacking is the ability to make a route from these markers or waypoints.


One unique feature that they have added is the FlytoMaps online marine map viewer.  This is a web based viewer of their marine charts. This is a great planning tool and it allows you access to all the marine charts for free online.

In the upper right corner you can select the Edit mode.  This  allows you to edit the online charts to show points of interest, measure distances, draw lines and delete objects.

This appears to be their answer to an Active Captain like crowd source mapping system. All of the white boxes are points of interest, wrecks or obstructions.

Well, I like what I am seeing from the FlytoMaps gang. They are adding many new features and continuing to improve their product. That is a good thing!

This app is called FlytoMap All in One and that's what you get. They provide maps and charts for camping, hiking, boating and more.  It is a tall order to put all this into one app but they have done and it and it is well worth the price.

Android 4.0 MK802 Mini Computer

Application: Micro Computing

Function: Apps, media player, Smart TV, Linux, Android
Rating:****
Price: $75.00

If your a regular fan of my blog you know that I don't write much about  hardware.  The site is primarily dedicated to Marine Apps.  In this case I could not help myself. This little device has captured my attention and imagination.  The Android 4.0 MK802 is a tiny computer that fits in the palm of your hand.  It is a little larger than a USB memory stick but it also has a processor, RAM, storage and I/O ports which makes it a mini computer.

The device is designed to run Android 4.0 on a AllWinner A10 1.0 GHz processor. It also has 512Mb or 1 GB RAM and an optional 4 or 8 GB of solid state memory. The AllWinner A10 processor is used in many lower priced tablet that are presently on the market so it does a fair job running the operating system. It is not a speed demon but it can be used to check email, surf the web, play some games and play music and video files in 1080P.

To use the device you will need to connect it to some kind of monitor or TV, keyboard and mouse.  The unit comes with several options to make these connections.  This model has a micro HDMI for connecting it to your monitor. A micro USB is provided to provide power to the unit.  A full size USB is provided for connecting additional storage, keyboard and mouse. A microSD card slot will also let you provide additional storage up to 32GB.

The device has WiFi capability which will allow you to connect to the Internet or wirelessly to your onboard network NEMA server.

Specifications:

•  OS - Android 4.0
•  Main Chip - Allwinner A10/ 1GHz Cortex-A8
•  Memory - 1GB
•  Storage - 4GB
•  Graphical processor - 2D/ 3D/ OpenGL ES2.0(AMD Z430)/OpenVG1.1(AMD Z160) 27M   Tri/sec
•  Network - Wireless 802.11b/g/n, WAPI(Ralink8188)
•  Expand Memory - Micro TF 2-32GB
•  IO/Ports - Micro 5pin USB/ USB2.0 data transfer/ OTG and host expand
•  Keyboard - Support virtual keyboard,support 2.4G wireless keyboard, fly mouse
•  Audio - AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, AMR-NB, AMR-WB, QCP, MP3, WMA, WAV, MIDI, M4A
•  Video - WMV/ASF/MP4/3GP/3G2M4V/AVI/MJPEG/RV10/DivX/VC-1/MPEG-2/MPEG- 4/H.263/H.264/1280*720P HD 30 fps, 1080P/720*480 D1 30fps
• Android APP - Youku, Tudou, QQ, Youtube, Twitter, AngryBird, Office, Gmail, Browse, Skype.
• HDMI - 1080P&2160P
• Power Input - 5V2A
• Size - 8.8*3.5*1.2cm
• Weight - 0.2kg

Features:

• Support the latest HTML5, Flash10.3, etc.
• Netflix, Angry Bird, Gmail, YouTube and more
• HDMI output port, support Full HD 1080P/2160P.
• USB2.0 Host high speed data interface and T-Flash card slot.
• Support install applications & games, will bring you best entertainment.
• Can connect wireless mouse, keyboard, etc.

The device primarily runs the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich version. Hackers and modders are already providing customized Android version to give the device better performance.

The processor is capable of running the Linux operating system also. There are alot of resources out there of people already running Linux on these devices. The Linux image simply has to be copied to the removable microSD card and then inserted into the device prior to powering it up.

To revert back to Android, simply unplug the device, remove the SD card and power it back up with the Android operating system.

My little mind started working overtime to come up with uses for this device onboard our boats.  We are all looking for low power consumption computers for use onboard. The less battery power we use means less charging needed from generators and alternators. This little computer operates on 5 volts and draws only 2 amps. The largest power draw will be from your monitor or big screen TV.

There are several great charting apps that will run on Android. Getting GPS to the device could come from a USB GPS or through a TCP/IP NMEA link over WiFi.

The addition of this device to any TV instantly gives you a smart TV capable of connecting to the Internet, downloading or streaming music and movies, books and much more.

I am familiar with many Android apps that are being use on mobile phones and Android tablets. All these apps can now be used on this device over a big screen TV or monitor.  The versatility to boot up with Linux gives you another full blow operating system with OpenOffice for word processing and spreadsheet applications and many other Linux programs.

Most of these devices are made in China. Once one company puts out a device others seem to copy it and put it out under their own name. Zero Device is another company that has their own version called Z802 and their newer Z902 models.  FXI Technologies has the Cotton Candy USB Stick. You can see and purchase them all at Allied Express.  Amazon.com has many of these devices for sale also.

Well, if you want to experiment or like to tinker a little like me, pick one up and let me know how you plan to use it.  I see this as a whole new developing area of computing. I am sure future versions will have bigger and faster processors and more features.  Did I mention that it was only $75.00, I might buy two!

If that is too expensive you can buy a Rasberry Pi for $25-$35 bucks.

Sail On
Mark

Intellicast Boating HD

Application: iPad, iPhone iOS 4.0 or later

Function:  Marine weather and charts

Rating: ****

Cost: $6.99

What are the two things all boaters need when heading out for a day cruise or a weekend on the water. Charts and weather of course. We all know weather is a key factor in keeping the fun in our on the water activities. Keeping an eye on approaching storms can keep you and your crew safe.

Intellicast, a Weather Channel company is known as one of the nations top weather services. They have developed a great app for on the water enthusiasts.  The extensive customizable weather data displays and the added bonus of NOAA RNC charts makes this app one you will want to consider while on the water.

The app provides a wealth of weather data and overlays so you can select the type of real time weather or forecast data you want. Tides can be checked by selecting from the listed tidal stations on the chart. Hurricane tracking and severe weather alerts are provided too.  The high resolution satellite and radar will keep you out of harms way from severe weather. See the additional features below.

Features:

• NOAA Raster charts
• Marine forecasts
• Buoy and C-Man reports
• Marine and severe weather watch/warnings
• Severe storm and tropical cyclone tracking
• Tides stations
• CONUS, Alaska, Hawaii, Canadian, Caribbean, and Mexican radar data
• Forecast radar for the CONUS
• High resolution satellite imagery to highlight clouds and fog
• Wave heights
• Sea and land temperatures
• Wind speeds

The first thing you need to do is set up your weather viewing locations.  On the top left of the screen you will see an icon next to a cities name. Select this and a drop down window will allow you to add a home location and other cities that you want to view.

Simply tap the drop down and select the city where you want to view weather data.

Up to date Marine reports are listed on the bottom of the screen with the latest data.

The app has a lot a versatility in allowing you to set up only what you want to see. The different viewable layers are selected with the Map Layer selection on the bottom right of the screen.

You can select up to 6 layers or overlays to view at one time.  There are 17 separate layers to choose from. There are five overlays including Marine observations, NWS Coastal forecasts, Tides, Storm Tracks, Tropical tracks.  The layers and overlays that you select will show up as icons on the bottom center of the screen. You can then turn these off and on for viewing by tapping them. This gives you the versatility to change what your want to view on the fly.






Marine forecasts can be viewed for the area you located in.  The app knows where you are located using the internal GPS.

Marine forecast data includes temperature, dew point, humidity, water temperature, wind, gusts, wave heights, pressure and latitude/longitude.

Hurricane warnings are very important to those of you in the gulf and up the eastern seaboard.  The screen shot to the right shows the latest tropical storm Ernesto and it's forecast track through the Caribbean.

The Blog feature in the upper right hand corner of the screen gives you an up to date narrative description of the tropical activity in the gulf.

The app is a great resource for weather data, providing the user with the flexibility to view a variety of data in real time or forecast modes.  The NOAA charts do not provide any navigation features except for reference to the weather data. 

The main problem with the app is that all the data requires that you have an Internet or cellular connection. Coastal cruisers will find this app very useful but long distance cruisers will need a weather app that can download and use GRIB files.  Weather 4D Pro would be a great choice for offshore use.

The app is great at weather but is very weak on marine navigation.  So, you are still going to need to purchase a separate navigation app.  I am not sure it is worth the $6.99 for just a few added NOAA charts.  I think I will save my $7 and just use the free Intellicast HD weather app. 

Sail On
Mark

Marine Map Navigator

Application: iPad, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPod Touch 3rd and 4th Gen

Function: Marine Charting and Navigation

Rating: **
Cost: $9.99

Well I survived the Jimmy Buffett concert in Chicago and the 4th of July celebrations and my niece's wedding in Colorado the past few weeks. I guess it is time to get back to work and tell you about some more great, geeky apps for your mobile devices. 

More charting apps are hitting the market these days and new features are constantly being added to the apps already out there. One new app I ran across today is called Marine Map Navigator.  Many of us who have been looking at charting apps have seen many apps use the NOAA Raster Charts.  These charts look like the old paper charts and have many limitations for displaying and viewing additional data.

Marine Map Navigator has taken a new direction and is one of the few apps to use Vector charts which can be downloaded for free from NOAA ENC.  This is a collection of about 1000 charts that cover the coastal areas of the US, Puerto Rico, US Virgins Island and the Hawaiian Islands.  The app will load and display and ENC charts in the S-57 format.

Features:

• Free NOAA ENC S-57 Vector charts
• Paid Canadian and United Kingdom Hydrographic charts
• International Hydrographic Organization charts
• Multi-touch gesture navigation
• Compass
• GPS display of current position
• Weather Data
• Tides
• AIS
• Speed and heading
• Waypoints and Routes

The feature list looks pretty inclusive of all the needed functions to navigate with your iPad.  The screen shots on the website don't seem to match the ones on the iTunes Store, not sure what is up with that. They may be from a previous release.

The splash screen shown at left comes up when the app is loaded. Here you can press Start to bring up the previous chart from your last session. Select Open Set if you want to select another chart. Open File will show you the recent files you have opened and allow you to select one of them. It appears to only load one chart at a time. Quilting of the charts would be a nice added feature.

Open Set will display a list of NOAA charts for you to select and manually download. Pick the chart you want and the file will be downloaded and installed automatically.

The app requires that you have access to the Internet or WiFi to download the charts to your iPhone or iPad. Once they are downloaded you can use them offline.

The first screen shot shows five tabs across the top listing Charts, Compass, Weather, Tides and AIS.  Additional buttons on the bottom of the display show Real time Position, a Measuring function, Navigation Lights, Waypoints, Routes, Layers and a menu selection. 

Selecting the Compass display will overlay the compass on the chart. The compass rose is shown with readings to 5 degrees. Speed, Heading and coordinates are shown in the bottom panel.

The Weather and Tides features require that you have an Internet or cell connection to download data. The tides and currents are from the website http://tbone.biol.sc.edu/tide/.

The weather tab just brings up the National Weather Service  page for the area you are viewing on the chart. This is a great site for forecasts, radar, satellite images and more. This is handy feature that lets you view weather from within the app rather than bringing up another app to check the weather.

The AIS screen also uses the Internet or cell connection to bring up the website http://www.vesselfinder.com/  This is not true AIS but a land based AIS site that rebroadcasts locations of vessels for you to see on the web.

The site shows it has about 29000 ships listed for viewing.  I am not sure what kind of coverage they have around the world so make sure to check your areas for coverage.











Waypoints and Routes can be created and saved under the Arrow menu key on the bottom right of the screen. To create a waypoint select Create Waypoints from the menu. Then tap the screen to create a waypoint. The keypad will then come up to allow you to name the waypoint. A color selection box will also pop up to allow you to make your waypoints different colors. After you have selected the color, save your waypoint.

Here I have created three waypoints and labeled them with different colors. A list of waypoints is shown at the bottom of the screen.

Selecting the Routes button from the bottom of the display allows you to create a route.  The waypoints that we created earlier can be selected and put into a route.  Save the route and the next time you select Open Route the new route will be displayed.

The measuring feature can be selected by tapping the second button from the left at the bottom of the screen.  With this selected you can tap on the screen and a pop up bar will show you the distance from your current location. It would be nice to have the heading to the waypoint shown also.

The next button on the bottom of the screen looks like a lighthouse. Select this and the chart will show you all the flashing beacons and lights in the area. The lights will actually flash on the chart. This is kind of a cool feature but if there are alot of lights in the area it can be distracting.

The layers button, second from the right on the bottom, allows you to turn off and on different features of the map. Once the button is selected a list of features will display. The default is that they are all on and will be shown in "Green" to turn off a layer simply tap it and it will turn "Red".

It takes some messing around with these features to understand how they work. It would be nice if the developer had a tutorial or more help online. As with most developers documentation always seems to come last.

The app appears to have some nice features. I like that it uses the NOAA vector charts and that the charts are stored on the device.  Waypoints and Routes are crucial to having a full featured navigation app. 

It is a little awkward working with the waypoints and routes at first. I did have some performance issues and the app did crash a few times while I was using it. It was very slow in responding to changes in zoom levels and in response to multi-touch gestures.  It is an early release and I can only hope the author works on improving the performance.

Has anyone purchased or used this app?  Any feedback from you readers would be appreciated.  I you are looking for an entry level app give it a spin.  There are a few bugs to be worked out so I am looking forward to future releases.

Sail On
Mark

Jimmy Buffett - Lounging at the Lagoon Tour 2012

Sorry for the lack of an app review this week. My family and I just got back from a great weekend in Chicago.  It was a gruelling 12 hour drive over and back but it was worth it.  We partied with our 30,000 friends of the Parrothead nation, also known as Jimmy Buffett fans.  The concert this year was held at Tinley Park's First Midwest Banks Amphitheatre.  It is an open air outdoors venue which is the only way to see Jimmy and Coral Reefer Band.

The picture is of my friend Scott and myself with some new friends who call themselves the Flamingo Sisters. You can find them on Facebook.

This has been a family tradition for us for many years. Our kids have grown up listening to Buffett music all their lives, so they know the words to most of his songs. It is part of their required education growing up in the Messerli home.

As a sailor myself, I have been listening to Jimmy since about 1976. Back then he was on cassette tape and vinyl albums. Some of you kids out there don't know what those are. My first Buffett Concert was in 1991 in Denver and I have been hooked ever since. 

Buffett and his band provide a unique concert experience the is unmatched by anyone in the business.  His legion of Parrottheads show up early and the party gets started by tailgating in the parking lot. Many venues open as early as 8:00 in the morning which allows for a full day of carninval like activities.  This year the gates opened at about 2:00 PM, so we had to pack all of our fun into about 6 hours prior to the 8:00 PM concert.

Over the years we have tried to perfect the tailgating experience. To be a true tailgater you have to be prepared for a full day of fun.  Some of the basics required are a cooler, a tent, a bar, a grill, a pool and whatever else you can dream up to make the day enjoyable.

Coolers

Coolers come in all shapes an sizes, I would suggest a large one with wheels.  The wheels will allow you to move it around easier or ride it. We found a few other modified versions which are shown here.

Cooler Trike

Cooler Grill combination

Bars

Some folks get by without a bar, but to be in the big leagues of tailgaters you will need a bar.  You will find many types of bars from just a table to some that are ornate and covered with palm fronds.

Palm frond version

Beautiful Teak bar

Tents

The weather this year was extremely hot.  To keep the sun off of you and to keep your beverages cool you will need a tent.  We purchased an E-Z Up brand which provide us with alot of space for our pool and friends.

Grills

While your tailgating you will need to eat. So a nice grill is needed to cook up some Cheeseburgers in Paradise. My wife surprized me on my birthday this year with an authentic Margaritaville Grill complete with articulating tailgate hitch. This is the ultimate tailgating accessory!

Pools

Temps this years during the concert were in the 90s. To keep from getting heat stroke we brought our trusty pool.  Others cool off with dunk tanks or a big sippy slides.

LandShark infested pool!



As you can see, tailgating is a real big deal for us at the Jimmy Buffett concerts.  I think his concerts are so popular because he provides us an escape from the world's problems, even if it is just for a few hours.  Not once did I think about the world economy, the finacial crisis, the election, my dwindling 401K, our national debt or the housing crisis while I was at the concert.  All those problems just melt away as we listen to his music. For a few short hours we get to get on board with Jimmy and he takes us to that magical place called Margaritaville where the weather is always perfect and the beer is always cold!

If you ever get a change to go to one of his concerts, I highly recommend it. It is a life changing experience!  I hope everyone has a great 4th of July celebration wherever you are.

~~~Sail On~~~
Mark