We are used to seeing a number of dedicated handheld chartplotter units like the Garmin 76CS and Raymarine RC400 both of which I have been using for the past 4 years. You may also know that Raymarine have now ducked out of the market for some reason. But getting reliable marine chartplotter software for the Windows mobile platform is rather more difficult.
MuskokaTech is a company that creates software applications for mobile devices – in particular GPS and plotting software.
The Pathaway software from Muskoka is quite an exception . The “Standard” version is very capable and has the ability to “import your charts” …I haven’t tested this but will try to find out a bit more…but sounds very interesting and saves money if you have already got your Bluechart or Navionics charts.
It definitely imports the maps from Fugawi Global Navigator or Fugawi Marine ENC.
PathAway supports a wide variety of digital maps including the Fugawi World Digital Map Collection, many third party maps or even user scanned paper maps. Maps are highly compressed and can be any size and resolution that fits within your device memory.
Waypoints, routes and tracks can also be transferred between Fugawi Global Navigator or Fugawi Marine ENC and PathAway.
The Pathaway “Pro” version has some interesting “beta features” such as 2-way wireless remote location tracking. See where others are right from your handheld, share your location with others, or send to a central tracking service – now that would be cool for boats traveling in a flotilla on on the club regatta ! …And all without installing and AIS transmitter !
How about this software combined with the tiny HTC7510..mentioned here – now that could be a great combination!
March 31st, 2008|
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Further to the post on the arrival of solid state computers in particular the 
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ActiveCaptain Mobile for Palm OS was released this month (March 2008). It is a boating-specific application for Palm devices (typically Treo’s and Centro’s). It provides a chart plotter capable of handling thousands of charts at the same time as well as integrates to all of the point-of-interest data from the ActiveCaptain web site.
We provide all US NOAA charts for free with free 6 month updates. We’ve just signed contracts with UKHO for international charts. Because of royalties, we have to charge a small fee to pay for government royalties (but not for updates!). For example, we’ll be releasing a folio of every chart for the UK for $19.95US this Summer. These charts will also integrate with the ActiveCaptain web site which has international support today – we have quite a few markers for UK and NL among other countries. We could definitely use more anchorages in the EU!
With ActiveCaptain, you can add your own data. So your “local knowledge” of a nice anchorage, the fuel prices at a particular marina, or your personal feelings (review) of a certain facility can be shared by everyone.
The ActiveCaptain web site is completely free and free from advertising. It requires registration to cut down on spam entries and robots.
ActiveCaptain Mobile for Palm OS costs $49.95US. A Windows Mobile version has been announced and is in alpha testing with a dozen users right now. We expect the WM version to be completed in the next couple of months. An Apple iPhone version is being designed and evaluated currently based on the recently released SDK.
Thanks for that Jeffrey – that is really good news – I wish you every success with this launch.