The last post covered the Navionics USA & Canada HD app from Navionics. In this post I will provide a concise review and opinion on the iSailor app for the iPad as applied to the Georgian Bay area. I am using this app with a 3rd Generation (Wifi+Cellular) iPad. To allow for a better comparison with the iNavX and Navionics apps I discussed in the last two posts I have included a short video demonstration of how the app looks and operates.

iSailor
Publisher: Transas Marine International (www.isailor.us)
Price: Free for app, $4.99 for Lake Huron & Lake Superior charts (together). In looking at other charts I’m finding that the prices for the other Great Lakes areas, i.e., Canadian Lakes Ontario and Erie as a package, and all the Canadian Great Lakes, are on the order of $24.99 to $39.99, more on the order of Navionics. The USA charts though are much less.

I really want to like this app. It has a very nice interface and uses vector graphics. It’s reasonably fast and how can you beat the price. But the charts for the Georgian Bay area are missing some critical market buoys that are on the small chart route. These buoys are in areas that we regularly boat and their absence is obvious. I worry then that there will be missing buoys in areas which I’m not familiar with which means I’ll need to double check with another app or paper charts. Not good. There is also a strange rendering issue where two adjacent parts of the displayed chart don’t match. I’m not sure what this is and suspect it’s probably only an issue when I’m working at my desk and scouting out a trip. I really like it, but ….

The video below provides a ‘slice of life’ regarding this app. The video covers many of the same topics that were discussed in the videos of the other two apps and highlights the pros and the cons of the Navionics app.

Pros:
1. Smooth vector graphics make the chart easy to see and understand at my desk and on the boat. The response time is very good in terms of pinching to zoom and scrolling. (Note: we are required to carry, and do carry, paper charts with us.)
2. It does a very good job of identifying the boat’s location and recording a traveled track.
3. It allows for the simple plotting of a course.
4. Permits the setting of markers for depth areas.
5. The separate charts are priced on the order of $5.00 each which is a real bargain considering the app is ‘free’. I could easily purchase the necessary charts for the Great Lakes for $25.00 or less, but I really only need the Lake Huron charts which includes Lake Superior and cost $4.99 (plus tax). This pricing makes it a ‘no brainer’ to buy updated charts annually. (Note: I’m not sure if prices have gone up but it seems other Canadian Great Lakes charts are on the order of $25 to $40, perhaps not so much of a no-brainer.)
6. The iSailor app takes about 57.6 MB of space on the iPad versus 180 MB for iNavX and  115 MB for Navionics. Note that our iNavX installation only covers Georgian Bay, and our iSailor installation Lakes Huron and Superior, while Navionics covers all of the USA and Canada.

Cons:
1. There are missing buoys in our area (Snug Harbour / Franklin Island).
2. The chart display misalignment is very annoying.
3. There is little else to knock them for but of course we really don’t use all of the features of the app. There may be issues specific to the east and west coasts (tides, etc.) that aren’t apparent to us.

Here’s a video that shows the iSailor  app in action (in the office).  I’m not equipped to do an on-board demo. It performs similarly when used on the boat. There is an HD icon in the top right area of the video, click on it to see a better resolution version.

Note: electronic charts are not a substitute for up-to-date paper charts. You should carry paper charts in addition to electronic charts. Stuff happens and devices can fail when you need them most. Always have a backup.

Links:
Post #1 (Introduction)
Post #2 (Overview)
Post #3 (iNavX Review)
Post #4 (Navionics Review)

Update: Since the original post I received a message from Navionics to upgrade the charts for $54.99, essentially I am buying the app annually to get access to the updated charts. This seems to be a bit unreasonable to me. Yes I get all of the charts for Canada and the USA, but I really only need and want the charts for Georgian Bay. They are forcing me to pay for more than I need. I’m not crazy about this. Perhaps $9.99 for the updated Great Lakes charts would be reasonable. I’ll just stick with the 2012 version. It makes the iSailor app look like a real winner in comparison.

The last post covered the iNavX app from GPSNavX and the Georgian Bay charts from Fugawi X-Traverse. In this post I will provide a concise review and opinion on the Navionics app for the iPad as applied to the Georgian Bay area. I am using this app with a 3rd Generation (Wifi+Cellular) iPad. To allow for a better comparison with the iNavX app discussed in the last post, and the iSailor app that will be presented in the next post, I have included a short video demonstration of how the app looks and operates.

Navionics, USA & Canada HD Details
Publisher: Navionics (www.navionics.net)
Price: $54.99 for app including the charts for the USA and Canada. Annual updates are also $54.99.

This has become our ‘go-to’ charting app when heading out on the Big Sound outside of Parry Sound, Ontario. It just works and the interface is pretty simple to figure out. Because I don’t use it every day, I’m not out everyday and there are times I’m boating in areas I am very familiar with, I sometimes need to poke a couple of the icons to remind myself with what is what. It’s really excellent when used at my desk to plot a course and to figure out where to go with clients. I can pinch to zoom and scroll everywhere in Georgian Bay without needing to load another chart.

The video below provides a ‘slice of life’ regarding this app. The video covers many of the same topics that were discussed in the previous iNavx video and highlights the pros and the cons of the Navionics app.

Pros:
1. Smooth vector graphics make the chart easy to see and understand at my desk and on the boat. The response time is very good in terms of pinching to zoom and scrolling. (Note: we are required to carry, and do carry, paper charts with us.)
2. It does a very good job of identifying the boat’s location and recording a traveled track.
3. It allows for the simple plotting of a course as you can see in the video.
4. Permits the setting of markers for depth areas. In our case we highlight in darker blue the areas that are 6 feet or less.
5. All charts for North America are included in the base price. This offers a real savings for the boater who likes to cruise longer distances when compared with the ‘area by area’ map charge with iNavX. The pricing is very reasonable for what you get, even if you only use a subset of the provide charts. iSailor similar to iNavX offers a la carte pricing for North American charts.
6. The Navionics app takes about 115 MB of space on the iPad versus 180 MB for iNavX and 57.6 MB for iSailor. Note that our iNavX installation only covers Georgian Bay, and our iSailor installation Lakes Huron and Superior, while Navionics covers all of the USA and Canada.

Cons:
I’m really at a loss to point out any cons. It just works. Sure it could be cheaper, but it still is a relative bargain in terms of what it does and its utility. We don’t need to deal with tides in Georgian Bay so perhaps it could be better in that regard, but perhaps it’s already pretty good, I just haven’t assessed it for this.

Here’s a video that shows the Navionics app in action (in the office).  I’m not equipped to do an on-board demo. It performs similarly when used on the boat. There is an HD icon in the top right area of the video, click on it to see a better resolution version.

Note: electronic charts are not a substitute for up-to-date paper charts. You should carry paper charts in addition to electronic charts. Stuff happens and devices can fail when you need them most. Always have a backup.

Links:
Post #1 (Introduction)
Post #2 (Overview)
Post #3 (iNavX Review)

In the last post I provided a short overview of the three apps that I have purchased and used on my iPad (3rd Generation/Wifi+Cellular) for navigating in and around Georgian Bay. In this post I will provide a little more detail about the iNavX app including a short video demonstration of how the app looks and operates.

iNavX Details
Publisher: GPSNavX (www.inavx.net)
Price: $49.99 for app, $70.00 for electronic charts (Tobermory to Little current). The subscription allows for one year of chart downloads to as many as two separate devices, thereafter updates are $70.00.

I worked with this app for most of last year before discovering the two other apps that are included in this Informal Review. It should be realized that the effective cost to use the iNavX app on the iPad is about $120 plus taxes. The basic app provides no charts as part of the purchase price. The charts are purchased separately from Fugawi X-Traverse (www.x-traverse.com).

The video below provides a ‘slice of life’ regarding this app. In general this is not a navigation app that I use despite the relatively high price I paid for it. This of course is a personal opinion and I’ll share my thoughts on what is good and not so good about the iNavX app.

Pros:
1. Charts basically replicate the paper charts. (Note: we are required to carry, and do carry, paper charts with us.)
2. It does a very good job of identifying the boat’s location and recording a traveled track.
3. It allows for the plotting of a course, but this is not very practical as one needs to determine what chart to load next when plotting a course when in port or at home.

Cons:
1. The raster graphics are pretty rough to look at. The charts are basically an image of the paper charts. As you zoom in everything gets larger, it’s much like looking at the paper charts with a magnifying glass.
2. The charts are all in separate files/folders, there are about 90 individual charts for Georgian Bay. The labels used for the different charts in some way relate to the labels used with the paper charts, but not exactly, and not intuitively. This can make it tough to figure out what chart you need to look at to see the continuation. For example the edge of one chart may indicate that the continuation is on Chart 2242, but it isn’t included in the package. In other cases the chart may indicate a chart number but it is not the same number as used by the X-Traverse charts.
3. Not all the interesting areas of Georgian Bay are covered by the charts that are provided. For the most part the charts seem to cover the small boat routes. If you want to head out further there are no charts. And further out isn’t that far, for example I can’t easily find a chart that shows the Umbrella Islands, or the Snakes or the Limestone Islands. In most cases the provided charts with iNavX and X-Traverse just show the small boat routes and not all of the islands. You could not use this app to travel directly west across Georgian Bay from Parry Sound to the Bruce Peninsula.
4. The charts don’t scroll as you look at them when you are at home, or in port. To plot out a route or just check on where you might want to go you need to figure out what chart you need and then load it, and then the continuation chart. It really is not very easy. This is a very big issue with me as there are some 90 charts to select from. Once you are traveling and iNavX is plotting your location it will automatically scroll from chart to chart, so this is good news.
5. There doesn’t seem to be any way to set custom depths. In our case we like to have the six foot and less areas highlighted. Others might like the limit set to 8 or 12 feet. The iNavX charts do offer the standard paper chart colouring for shallow areas.
6. At $120 they are the most expensive by far.

Here’s a video that shows the iNavX charts in action (in the office).  I’m not equipped to do an on-board demo.

Note: electronic charts are not a substitute for up-to-date paper charts. You should carry paper charts in addition to electronic charts. Stuff happens and devices can fail when you need them most. Always have a backup.

Links: Post #1 , Post #2