Nexus 7 tablet

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seaotter

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Apr 19, 2009
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Hi all,

Does anybody use or know of a navigation app that accesses canadian charts and works on a nexus 7 table (android).

I have some friends that could really use it but they have very little technical skill with digital devices ....

Any input gratefully appreciated ...

Jim Slocomb
Friday Harbor
 
I have the Navionics app downloaded to my tablet but do not know if it includes the Canadian charts or not. and yes, it is an adroid app. Should show in your Google Play app and it will tell you if it works on your tablet.
 
Not exactly a responsive post ........ The question was about tablets and not about paper chart requirements.
 
Greetings,
Mr. Seaotter. Agreed but wouldn't want your friend venturing into Canadian waters with just electronic charts thinking he was within the law if, in fact, paper charts are a requirement. Now electronic charts with the option of navigational overlays is an entirely different thing.
 
Good info on the Canadian requirements, thanks.

But back to the original question. As a new owner of a Nexus, I too be very interested to hear what everyone else is using. I looked around the Google "Play" store and downloaded a few free ones to try.

I didn't really want to start buying a bunch of apps just to try them, so any experience would be appreciated.
 
I have Navionics Marine&Lakes: USA on my droid. There is a Marine&Lakes: US&Canada for $15.54.
 
I have a Nexus-7.

Unfortunately, Navionics has not yet decided to support the N7 with their Android version. This is rather shocking since it's one of the most successful Android tablets in existence. I've had mine since July 2012.

For Canadian support, I think that Plan2Nav is the only choice. That's C-Map's own product. It's not bad and not very expensive. They haven't gotten very much publicity for the product and it sadly doesn't support ActiveCaptain (it should - it's free for them to add it).

My own ActiveCaptain Companion will fully support Android and needless to say works extremely well on the N7. I shot a video last fall of it in real use at my helm showing the N7:
A First Look at the Companion - YouTube

While the ActiveCaptain Companion is not a navigation app with nautical charts, it does do some very special things that aren't done by any other apps on any platform. And of course, the Companion will be free.

Check out the video and see how it handles hazards in a very unique way. That's just one of dozens of things it'll do.
 
Check out the video and see how it handles hazards in a very unique way. That's just one of dozens of things it'll do.

That's an impressive use of the technology and I can certainly see the value in it.

But all this, and the AIS thread as well, brings to mind a good friend of mine who is the chief production pilot for the 787 program. He was also one of the flight test pilots for the program during the testing phase. I did some video work for him last year and when we were finished and were both sitting on the flight deck of the 787 we'd been using I asked him what the plane was like as an airplane. What it was like to fly it, in other words.

This is a fellow who when I first met him was a Beaver pilot at Kenmore Air. And today he still flies both a Beaver and a Cessna 180. He also flies all our other models-- 37, 47, 67, and 77 as well as the 87.

He thought for a moment and then said (I'm paraphrasing), "Well it flies very nicely. Smooth on the controls, responsive, feels right. But," he added, it's not all that much fun to fly. It's more like playing a video game than flying an airplane."

And it seems to me that perhaps boating is going the same way. We have all sorts of electronic gizmos--- many of which we have and use on our own boat. But each new device or capability seems to take away more of the "fun" of running a boat. We have more and more "stuff" telling us what's around us, what's ahead of us, what's going to happen in three miles, two miles, one mile. We are fed the names and speeds and headings of every ship on the planet, or at least every one with an AIS transponder.

Now there is no argument against the increased safety that is realized through the use of a lot of this stuff. And there is always the tried and true philosophy "If it saves one life or keeps one boat off the rocks then it's all worth it." Also true, at least from one perspective.

But to me I'm thinking that all these screens and audible and visual warnings and readouts and tons of information are like the 787. Really cool use of technology and it can certainly be said to have an important purpose. But, like the 787 which has put multiple layers of technology between the pilot and the actual flying experience, it's simply not as much fun anymore.

My own prediction is that boating is going the same way. Even today, when most boats are still relatively simple in terms of technology, the people I see on the water who seem to be getting the most out of being there are, in order:

Kayakers, sailboaters, fishermen, runabout and PWC drivers, the owners of older, basic cruisers, and lastly, the modern powerboat cruiser owner with all his gadgets and bells and whistles. Not that this last guy isn't having fun or enjoying boating, but in listening to them talk about boating and what's important to them about it, it's become way more about the technology than about the fun of simply being on the water and seeing what there is to see.

Just a generality I've observed developing over the years, even on our own boat as we've added layers of technology. I think human nature makes it inevitable, but I also think it's too bad.

Nothing to do with the Nexus 7, I'm afraid, but hearing Jeff's hazard warning brought me in mind of our airplanes these days and my friend's remark.
 
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I have to agree with Marin on a lot of points. It's coming to cars, too. Now you don't even need to know how to parallel park, never mind use the clutch, brakes and steering to recover from a skid.

And I totally agree that people who think a boat is just a gleaming condo on the water, used to entertain and impress their friends, are missing out on something.

But the geek in me still wants all the gadgets ;)

And part of the fun of the kind of boating we do is keeping all those interconnected systems humming, then using them to get us where we're going in comfort.
 
There are limitless reasons (probably one for every boater to some degree) why people boat and how they derive enjoyment from it...

For every 10 advances in technology for boating...9 probably won't be there a decade later. The useful ones stay in some form and the likes of the sextant become something to remind us of "the good old days".
 
I have a Nexus-7.

Unfortunately, Navionics has not yet decided to support the N7 with their Android version. This is rather shocking since it's one of the most successful Android tablets in existence. I've had mine since July 2012.

Are you saying that Navionics is not compatible with JellyBean?
 
Are you saying that Navionics is not compatible with JellyBean?

I'm only saying that it doesn't support the N7. I don't know whether it's OS version, screen size, or the name of the product. It just doesn't allow download to an N7 even though it works on other Android devices. It also appears like the Android version of Navionics is a bit behind the iOS one.
 
But all this, and the AIS thread as well, brings to mind a good friend of mine who is the chief production pilot for the 787 program.

Oh please.

This is just another "boating will never be as good as it used to be" threads. OK, it won't. Get over it.

But this post jumps in a way that I've never seen. Marin, your pilot friend thinks the 787 isn't as fun to fly as his Cessna because it's a friggin 787!

My DeFever isn't as much fun as my first lobster boat steaming along the Maine coast exploring islands for the first time. If I got a 120' megayacht, it would surely be less fun than my DeFever. Little of this has to do with the iPad sitting in front of me. It has much more to do with the raw tonnage of the vessel underneath.

Electronics adds safety. It adds new ways to explore. It might take away some unknowns but it adds so much more. 40% of our users are women. That's unheard of for a boating resource - how many women are present on this thread or even this forum? These new electronics allow women to be a part of the cruising experience. They can use these devices and knowledgebases to help decide where to go and become part of the decision making. That is a pretty new thing and will allow for many more to get into this lifestyle.

So yeah, remember back on how good it all used to be. The memories are all good. But you know, it really wasn't all that much better than it is right now. It's more that our older memories have a tendency to fade away the frustrations and the bad parts.
 
You can reply to Marin without being so snit about it, Jeff. Besides, what part of boating DOESN'T remind Marin of airplanes? :)

But my point to Marin is that what modern electronics have done is open up boating to people like me that don't want to navigate the seven seas. We just want to get out and enjoy the freedom of the open water or a night at a remote anchorage without having to grab a sextant or have someone on the bow fathoming for depths with a sounding line. But to be fair, what's good for the goose is not always good for the gander. So if anyone derives greater pleasure in one style of boating (or flying) over another, then more power to them! Do it with the comfort that the rest of us will be far less likely to run you down by accident if we see you on radar or if your happy kayak is equipped with AIS. :thumb:

Tom-
 
You can reply to Marin without being so snit about it...

I didn't mean to come across in any type of disrespectful way. It's just that whenever new things come out, there's always someone who's going to say that it just isn't as good as the sextant days. The memory of large numbers of boats smashed on the rocks part of those memories never seem to make it into the discussion.

The reality is that boating is better today and the larger number of people involved and especially the larger number of people-nautical-miles cruised are testimony to that.
 
The reality is that boating is better today and the larger number of people involved and especially the larger number of people-nautical-miles cruised are testimony to that.

I would advise cautiously using the word "better" because, if it isn't apparent, better to you or me is not better for everyone. :thumb: Still, it doesn't prevent people from doing it. I could say that driving was better back in the days of muscle cars, but now that I have a 2002 Ford, I still enjoy driving.

Tom-
 
My friend does't enjoy flying the 787 as much as our other models (or his smaller planes) because flying a 787 is all about managing technology, not actually "flying" an airplane. He is not saying the technology is wrong or shouldn't be there, just that its overwhelming presence has removed a lot of the basic enjoyment of flight.

You, Jeff, are obviousy totally captivated by technology. If you can get a piece of electronics to tell you what you can see on a chart and so relieve you of the need to have or use the chart, that's your goal. That's what boating is to you, or a large part of what boating is to you, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

The tools you have developed and are developing are very useful to someone who shares your devotion to technology. We use some of it in the form of Active Captain and it's great.

I don't think we'll be bothering with your Companion, however, because I view it as something we won't ever need. We don't want warnings sqawking out every time the boat gets near this, that or the other thing. Not because it's not a good and clever idea, and not because I think other boaters don't need it, but because sqawking alarms and blinking lights are not something we want as part of our boating experience.

I'm not anti-technology by any means. At work we use technologies that make what you're doing look like two tin cans on the ends of a piece of string. Don't take that as an insult, by the way, it's just the reality of the situation.

And I'm happy to have all that technology at my fingertips and would like even more because it allows me to do a better job with my work. But that's not what I want out of my boating. In fact boating is how we escape all the "flashing lights and talking screens."

So keep doing what you're doing. It's a great service to boaters and when you develop something we feel is useful to us we will certainly take advantage of it. Like the Drag Queen app on our iPad, for example, which we have not had an opportunity to use yet but are looking forward to trying out on our longer cruise later this year when we will be doing a lot of anchoring in places that are new to us.

But we're like our flight test pilot friend. Technology can do great things but it can also take things away. In self-parking cars and self-flying airplanes it can result in activities that to many people are a lot more boring and a lot less fun. Whether or not a person views it this way is totally dependent on the individual and what's important to them.

To me, technology is abslutely essential and critical to what I do for a living. It is not essential or critical to what I do for enjoyment.
 
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Back to the original thread discussion topic- the Nexus 7.

I have had one for several months now and use Mx Mariner as my standby nav ap. It lets you download a whole NOAA region, so you do not need internet connectivity for it to work. It works quite well as a basic marine nav tool. It does not support Active Captain.

David
 
It does not support Active Captain.

David

What I wrote before notwithstanding, Actve Captain is outstanding, and based our experience with it to date, were we in the market for a tablet-type device or a nav or charting application for one, we would not consider anything that does not support Active Captain.
 
Back to the original thread discussion topic- the Nexus 7.

I have had one for several months now and use Mx Mariner as my standby nav ap. It lets you download a whole NOAA region, so you do not need internet connectivity for it to work. It works quite well as a basic marine nav tool. It does not support Active Captain.

David

The reason I didn't mention MXMariner, EarthNC, or a couple of other Android apps is that they don't have Canadian chart support which is where the thread started.
 
Sea otter. There is an issue with some chart sources dealing with Canadian charts. I have found that some app sources which provide vector style rather than raster. They seem to only have the major charts and do not have any strip charts. This would lead the uninformed onto deep dodo. Go on line to Welcome Page | Page d'accueil and check out the catalogue of Canadian charts for your area of interest. Bill
 
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