The Great and Mighty IPad.....

[CharlieJ]

LOL- you guys are newbies ;D

Worked for IBM 1963- 1965, during which time the IBM 360 was introduced, then became a programmer with Prudential in 1966. IBM 705 and several IBM 1401's. The 1401's ran with 6 bit bytes and a check bit - 16k max in the system. When I left in 82, were running mainframes, with megs and megs of RAM

Several years ago I visited the Smithsonian, to find THE IBM 705 I used to program on as an exhibit. Talk about feeling OLD!!

[Frank]

From W. T.   

My reply is within....

     I'm a 10 finger typist, and can easily do 70 wpm,

*Braggart!!! I can't even talk that fast   :o

and my fat fingers don't like cramped keyboards.......

* I hear Ya....I hate texting on my cell for that reason

One reason I dislike laptops.   Have you tried voice on your Ipad?   

* Nope.....didn't know you could...

Mine is of course full size.  I've owned a small form factor tablet.... an Android,

* Android??? Is that like a Toyota?  :'(

which is arguably a better OS than IOS

* Sounds too much like IRS to me  :)

in some respects, particularly with regard to having a file manager, pathetic as it is.   

     There are many people in our age range that are computer hostile, so you are not alone.

* Yep....I know many worst than I am...

Computers were not especially useful to me, just a "hobby" up until the Internet changed the world.   At 12, I was just playing in basic on a computer 200 miles away that took up 3 floors at a university at a processing cost of $20 per minute.  Not as bad as it sounds because my programs normally took less than a second to run.   I would write code and punch it in on a teletype, giving me a strip of punch tape, which was then fed in to a reader attached to the phone via an acoustic coupler.   Primitive stuff.
     On the other hand, I'm totally TV hostile......... I've never had one and probably never will.  While I understand that there is stuff out there that has redeeming value on TV, I consider it the most insidiously negative force in our society.  It's ability to influence people's thought process and change their minds is downright scary.   The internet is also a very powerful influence, but it is extremely diverse, and not controlled by a relative few powerfully influential sources.   You choose where to go and what value to place on the various sources much more actively, you don't just sit on the sofa while Hollywood pours s__t over your head absorbing it indiscriminately.   There are intellectual skills that are important to the ability to sort the wheat from the chaff, and I feel that they are not really being actively taught to young people and should be an important focus in the school system.

* AGREED!!  F.D.

                                         H.W.

[Owly055]

I would venture to suggest that virtually all cruising / voyaging boats have at least some sort of computing device on board....  laptop, tablet, smartphone, chart plotter, etc.

    Of these, the tablets offer in my opinion the most versatile platform, with a large enough screen to be useful as compared to smart phones, which I personally don't own because I consider the tiny screen useless.   You can get chart plotter apps for them, and they can be used to display radar and ais, not to mention hundreds of other uses from basic computing to apps to do specific tasks such as tracking onboard inventory..... what you have and where it is, to language learning, to music / entertainment, ebooks, service manuals for various things, and on and on and on.

     The problem I see with any computing device is protecting it.  Tablets have large easily broken screens, as do laptops, only more so.    Of course the ocean environment and electronics or anything electrical are a match made in heck!  Humid salt air will corrode connections and destroy about anything.  Keeping your tablet or laptop in the cabin which hopefully is relatively dry will help, but it still needs additional protection from moisture and from being slammed around.   Something like a chart plotter needs to be cockpit viewable, but that means exposure.  However they will easily drive an external monitor, and that monitor can be protected by being enclosed.   A large screen behind glass.  But that of course makes it impossible to input anything.  Any input would have to be done below decks right on the device itself.  That's fine for a chart plotter, but what if I want to work on conversational french between the Galapagos and Nuku Hiva?   Or Portugese while crossing the Indian Ocean between Christmas Island and Durban, or the Atlantic from Capetown to St Helena and St Helena to Brazil?

     I don't doubt others have dealt with these issues already......... And I'd much prefer others be the pioneers, it's less work and less grief for me.   I'm interested in hearing what solutions others have come up with.  Waterproof floating cases exist, but at sea...............  I have no intention of dropping electronic overboard.   I've never lost, broken, or damaged a computing device or cell phone, and I've been building and using computers since the late 70's  (before anybody ever heard of Microsoft or Apple).

     What solutions work?  And what computing devices to most folks here find most useful?  I assume rigid mountings, protective cases, arms to hold them, etc, are all reasonable solutions to protection.  I personally have a strong aversion to Windows computers and Apple computers other than IOS devices.   Linux is my main OS and has been for many years now, I've always owned one or two Windows systems for reasons of having no choice, and I'm comfortable with both IOS and Android.


                                          H.W.

[Lars]

Gotta have one. I use a 8 inch Android  with opencpn  mostly for planning and getting ssb weatherfax . do have a dedicated chart plotter in the cockpit that is my primary nav tool. From my experience computer screens are hard to see in bright sunlight but do great down below. Tablets for me die in a few years anyway weather on a boat or at home. A few weeks ago you could get an Amazon fire for 45 bucks with Amazon prime.

[Owly055]

Gotta have one. I use a 8 inch Android  with opencpn  mostly for planning and getting ssb weatherfax . do have a dedicated chart plotter in the cockpit that is my primary nav tool. From my experience computer screens are hard to see in bright sunlight but do great down below. Tablets for me die in a few years anyway weather on a boat or at home. A few weeks ago you could get an Amazon fire for 45 bucks with Amazon prime.

How do you get SSB weatherfax on a tablet?   Does your SSB radio have a wireless interface to pass it to the tablet or something?  Bright sunlight screws any screen up in my experience.   

     I've not had the issue with tablets dying...... My first Ipad is almost 7 years old.   It was passed to a friend because I "upgraded", and still performs well and has decent battery life.  The OS and many if not most apps cannot be updated, but that doesn't keep them from working as they always have.   My Ipad Air II has more storage, and better performance..... as would be expected, and of course more features, many of which I do not use.  The big thing is 4G which was a premium of over $100, but gave me an onboard GPS as well as 4G.   When traveling I go to the local Verizon store and buy a 30 day plan for between $20 and $30, otherwise I use WiFi.  I don't often use the camera, but it IS useful because it takes the photos right into the photos application.   My new camera can connect wirelessly and import them "clunkily".    I can't claim any great improvements in the OS really, or the basic hardware.   My one Android tablet also was passed along, and now lives out it's life doing credit card processing in my GFs shop.  I prefer having a file manager as Android does, but it's a clumsy one at best, and needs a rethink.   

                         H.W.

[s/v Faith]

I use a Kaito 1103, my 3rd generation IPad and an app called "HF Fax".  Simply play the audio from the fax frequency (the app gives you the schedule)...  The IPads mic picks it up and makes the pictures.

Like any other use of shortwave, crowded anchorages, marinas and interference like inverters of LED lighting can cause interference.