The blog
You know all the good things I think of my partner and friend Dominique Gauthier, Founder and Managing Director of iTabNav.fr (¹). I have been using his products since the beginning, We frequently collaborate, and also sometimes sail together.
He has just completed its online sales website a complete makeover. Read more …
14 th 2011 – 14 th 2024, a birthday (¹) which does not fall round, but a performance worth saluting ! What was just a startup in the early days of the use of tablets and smartphones in navigation is now a company with a long history (²). Dominique Gauthier, its founder and manager, has participated for more than ten years in securing our iPads by becoming the exclusive importer for France of the famous cases aiShell (Originally “iPad Case”). Designed and manufactured in Germany, waterproofness and robustness that no longer need to be demonstrated, benefiting from a range of supports and accessories meeting all needs at sea. Read more …
My friends Christiane and Jochen Lührs are the proud owners of a superb classic ketch German building, Socorro, with which they regularly cross the west European coasts. Fully built of solid woodin 1951, they maintain her with meticulous care, after many navigations from Norway to Scotland, and from Europe to the Antilles.
In stopover a few days ago in Vannes, I had the great pleasure to visit them. I knew Jochen when he was the German translator of iNavX, now a fan of Weather4D. I was finally able to visit their magnificent boat, which attracted more than one glance along the quay, with its perfect varnishes, its gleaming stainless steel, its masts Spruce, and impressive wheelhouse. I also discovered an amazing invention there… Read more …
If you navigate with an iPad and enjoy mobile navigation, and if you like listening to music for dancing on the waves, you may be interested in mobile Hi-Fi.
The well-known manufacturer Bose has designed small Bluetooth speakers, the SoundLink MicroBT, compact and completely waterproof, perfectly suited to nomadic use, and so to the boat. I tested and adopted.
For the first time since 5 years I'm not moving to the Paris Nautic boat show. And for the first time I am not "glued" ten hours a day to a 9 m². And so for the first time I take the time to be interested - remotely, without jostling, without air conditioning, without pollution in Paris – to various products related to my field of investigation and which have caught my attention.
Some concern security, others useful accessories, all of them have to do with mobile devices, smartphones or tablets, and some are really innovative.
In 2013 the world leader in leisure GPS has designed the Quatix®, a GPS watch waterproof allowing boaters to display on their wrist all data of their navigation devices, Garmin of course, equipped with Wi-Fi/Bluetooth owner hot-spot. This nice thing, provided with a 3-axis compass, a barometer and an altimeter, was particularly innovative. I do not know if it is all the rage among users of the brand devices, but the fact is that the concept was precursor - it was a time before the arrival of the Apple Watch - and that walk on his wrist in all location of the boat data from the instruments, with a neat graphic display and vibration alerts, can be reassuring. And more, the Quatix® gives the time !
Always stronger, Garmin is back in the range of connected objects by announcing the display Nautix™ In-view Display, comes featured a pair of glasses to display data on the edge of the glass. Not yet augmented reality, but we are getting closer.
This summer, It's decided, We rent a large catamaran with our family ! Finally, It would be better to say "in extended family" : four adults, Two grown teenagers + their respective boyfriend + a child of 11 years old. We thought of everything : ride, Victualling, clothing, sunscreens, spectacles, Caps, Masks and snorkels, fishing lines… all ! A week before our departure, The skipper sushered us :
— You've thought about phone charging ?
There, a silence, then the answer :
— Uh,, isn't it, What for ?
"You will be nine on board, That's as many smartphones and certainly half of tablets… and there are only two cigarette lighter sockets on the boat !
— Diantre…
The 14 th 2011 I had announce the opening of an e-commerce website focused in accessories, mounts and connexion devices dedicated to iPhone and iPad for marine navigation : iPadNav.fr. Since then, its founder and I maintained a close collaboration, our complementary actions allowing us to provide an effective response to all new users of these wonderful tools perfectly suited to nautical activities. Many of you were able to meet me several times on his stand, both the Grand Pavois de La Rochelle and the Paris Nautic boat show.
After three years of existence, Dominique Gauthier company has grown considerably, to the point of wanting to expand its offering to users other than boating : outdoor sports, hiking, trekking, fitness, and all leisure activities for which numerous targeted applications are now available, both for Apple devices and for the fast-growing market for Android devices.
Thus, iPadNav has just announced in a press release the change of name of its website to iTabNav.fr July 1st 2014, in a desire to open his offers to all useful accessories for tablets and smartphones, regardless of brand or operating system, and for all leisure activities.
Hope that this new extended offering meet the same success as for leisure boating and sailing, because iTabNav.fr will offer specialized products scattered across multiple foreign websites on a single French website. With local French service and support as a bonus.
This time, it came up ! The new waterproof case for iPad Mini by Andres Industries, to whom we owe the famous iPad Case, is finally available.
Smaller, lighter, more discreet, but just as robust, it is ideal for protecting your iPad Mini on boat, on beach, under the rain or in the desert (¹). With this funny name “ aiShell " , literally “Coquillage Andres Industries”, the manufacturer offers a case with all the tips of the big brother for iPad : a waterproof power connector, windows for cameras, adaptation to existing REM mounts. It even added two retractable legs to facilitate its use on a flat surface. A completely Germanic design. Read more …
Hey yes, this is the world upside down ! At the beginning of iPad use in a boat, the tablet was used to capture the screen of a PC fixed to a chart table for display applications such as MaxSea in the cockpit. The solution has been - and still is - widely used. But since I've been working with a few accomplices to demonstrate that the iPad is capable of providing a perfectly autonomous navigation solution (¹), These tablets are increasingly installed at a fixed position in the cockpit.
Once attached and connected to a waterproof power supply, on a wheel column or close to the tiller, disassembling the iPad may seem tedious for a few minutes to spend inside the cabin. The solution would it not mirror its screen to display on a single PC screen via WiFi, in order to monitor the progress of the boat on the electronic chart while we are active in the galley ?
[Update September 24/08/2020]