10" chartplotter + internet + media + waterproof = one device...?

[CapnK]

Or: the electronic/computer equivalent of a mariners Swiss Army Knife. ;)

Fujitsu has been selling their waterproof Arrows Android tablet in Japan the last year, and it is coming to the States now, being displayed at the Consumer Electronics Show 2012 in Vegas this week.
There is no price mentioned as yet, but it can't be more expensive than a standalone chartplotter of this screen size, *and* it has all the extra goodness of a tablet - including battery life/portability and multifunction capability and a pretty good amount of onboard storage (16gigs built in and and SD card slot so you can add up to 32gigs IIRC).

I've got the Navionics chartplotter app for Android that covers most of the East Coast of the US and the Bahamas on my (Android-based) phone (for US$14.95), I assume that I could add other chart areas to it. I know Navionics charts cover the entire world, so I think that this info is relevant for the many far-flung sailFarers who have home ports on the shores all over Earth.

There is also some active development on getting Windows applications to run on Android, so if that works out, we could possibly also use SeaClear and charts of our own choice on this device...

Add to the above the ability to browse the web, do email, watch movies, listen to music, keep a log, inventory of stores, etc etc... and you see what I mean about "Swiss Army Knife". Great for small boats, to have all this capability in one small package. What would be *really* neat, would be that it runs on 12 volts of DC power. ;D

Might be time for me to consider retiring my ~10 year old Magellan SporTrak handheld. :)

[CharlieJ]

We were unable to rely on Navionics charts in the Bahamas. The program simply could not find us most times, and remained stuck on the last place (and chart) it had locked onto. So we just stopped trying to use that (Navionic)

I'd check closely before I relied totally on the Navioics. Works well in the US however.

[jpfx]

some observations:
I can only imagine windows running on an android tablet within the WINE environment which would probably make it slow, verging on unusable. Support for requisite hardware devices (the built in gps) possibly being a show-stopper.
So far I've not been comfortable with the gps implementations on either apple or android tablets. If they use AGPS then accuracy will be reduced offshore, though possibly only tens of yards.
Magellan make a case for ipod/iphone that includes a gps (which should be redundant if the built in gps was any good?)
Rugged (or not) tablet PCs seem to be more versatile and cheaper for a used one.
I've thought about this a lot and have no solid reasons not to use an android/apple tablet, I just don't put my faith in them compared to a marine gps.
As a suggestion I'd use polarnavy (or seaclear) on a fujitsu P-1620 for under $300.

[Rick Westlake]

I bought the Navionics Android app for my Vizio pad, but I haven't tried it out yet. The Bristol 29.9 is on the hard, and I've been too busy with other things to get the hoped-for vacation time with the MacGregor trailer-sailor. I've handled the problems, though, and I'm gearing up to take the Mac south for a week or two in late March and early April.

The biggest advantage I can see to using the Android pad that way - if it works - is that I'd be able to plot out a course and inspect my planned route on a larger, higher-resolution screen than the one on my little Garmin handheld GPS.

But I don't think I'd stop carrying paper charts - not even a pair of 20" displays, like those of the ArcGIS workstations I used to work with before I retired, can beat a good paper chart for planning purposes!

[Captain Smollett]

But I don't think I'd stop carrying paper charts - not even a pair of 20" displays, like those of the ArcGIS workstations I used to work with before I retired, can beat a good paper chart for planning purposes!

Grog for that.

I'd love to sometime hear about what you 'used to work with.'   ;D  (old school unix hacker on this end)