GNS 3000 Bluetooth GPS receiver for mobiles [Update]

The GNS 3000 to Global Navigation Systems has been available since November 2022 (¹). It replaces the GNS 2000 Plus. Now equipped with a Bluetooth transmitter 5.0, it has an SD Card connector to record position data continuously.

Compatible with Apple products, it is mainly aimed at devices not equipped with GPS : iPod Touch and iPad WiFi all models. It can also be used with all PDAs, Bluetooth-enabled laptops and tablets. It has a Li-Ion battery offering a battery life of 10 hours continuously.

[Update 15 May 2024] Warning : from iOS/iPadOS 17.x, a update of the device is essential. But it can only be done from an Android device.

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Simultaneous Wi-Fi and cellular connection [Update]

In coastal navigation, so often within range of a cellular network, you can download GRIB files, weather maps, or simply communicate with friends. But what if your smartphone or tablet is already connected to a multiplexer via Wi-Fi, or an NMEA gateway, without cutting off the data that powers our favorite navigation app ?

This is the tip of the summer…

[Update 25/09/2020] The trick in question depends on the iOS version used. Details in the article.

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Getting started with an iPad / iPhone

For all browsers who are new to using an iPad, and who do not yet know the basics of manipulation. For everyone who asks me :

  • How to load an app ?
  • How to sideload a purchased app on a second device ?
  • How to delete an app and reload it without paying ?
  • How to update apps ?
  • How to know there are updates ?
  • How to download a book in iBooks ?
  • How to know when a book is updated ?
  • Etc, etc,…

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Iridium Mail & Web app : GRIB weather files on iPhone and iPad in open sea [Update-2]

[Update 15 February 2019] The recent update of the application Iridium Mail & Web app gives me the opportunity to refresh this post originally written in December 2011.

The Wi-Fi Gateway Optimizer from RedPort allows owners of a mobile satellite phone to make requests and receive GRIB weather files from an iPad or iPhone on the high seas, into the wild, anywhere on the world.

After implementing and testing this solution On a long journey, It proved to be perfectly operational. However, it is limited to the receipt of the forecasts of the GFS weather model worldwide, and the wave pattern WW3, obtained by the American server's autoresponder Saildocs.

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GALILEO and Apple mobiles

Less than a month before the launch by Ariane 5 of four new satellites carrying the GALILEO constellation to 18 satellites, manufacturers of tracking components have already presented their new tracking chips supporting European GNSS. This allowed the Spanish company BQ to offer the first “Galileo-ready” smartphone at the beginning of September., equipped with processor Qualcomm Snapdragon 652, l’Aquarius X5 Plus.

We might have expected to find the same chip in the iPhone 7 from Apple, which has since fitted the iPhone 4S and the iPad 3 all of its mobile devices with Qualcomm communications processors, integrating GPS reception (US) and GLONASS (Russian), it's nothing. With this latest smartphone, Apple reconnects with Broadcom, sidelined since 2012 to perform these functions, by integrating a chip BCM47734.

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iPadNav.fr becomes iTabNav.fr

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.

iPad GPS far away from networks

For those who do are not yet fully convinced, despite my assertions in many posts (¹), Here's another example of the accuracy of iPad GPS, cut off from any cellular or terrestrial Wi-Fi network. Already lived in 2011 during a stay in La Reunion (²), this time back from a recent trip to London I brought back the "proofs" below, screenshoted aboard an Airbus A320 : Read more …