The Apple iPhone 3GS Compass as a handy/useful backup

[baz]

Having an iPhone 3GS is very handy for several reasons. I'll present two good reasons here...

1. The built-in Compass application not only provides a compass that displays either True North or Magnetic North but will also display your current La and Lo such as 47º43'45"N, 122º7'34"W and a map showing where you are at. The La and Lo values will allow you to almost instantly find yourself on your chart. 🙂 This application will also provide a Google map in the iPhone's display showing where you are.

2. The "Find My iPhone" feature is also very handy for family and/or friends who want to know where you might be on the high seas when you take an extended voyage. This feature is used via Apple MobileMe web site. You enter the iPhone owner's MobileMe website and use the "Find My iPhone" and the web page will display almost exactly where the iPhone is located. So, having the iPhone onboard allows it to be found and gives it's location. In addition the person using the "Find My iPhone" (such as a family member who might be a bit nervous about you being out in rough weather or caught in rough weather) can send a message to the iPhone that will display for up to two minutes. The message can be accompanied with a sound to alert you even if the iPhone is in 'silent' mode. The default sound is just like a sonar ping. 😉 The sound terminates when the iPhone is activated/turned-on.

My wife and I both have iPhones for our daily use, so we find it's just a real bonus to have when boating. Wife has the 3GS model whereas I have the lowly 3G model that does not have the compass feature. 🙁 Wife has said several times -- "If I find that you are tracking me I'll simply throw the iPhone out of the car's window or any nearby trash can." 😀 Hmmmm -- maybe I should swap our phones. 😉

I would say the iPhone 3GS is a wonderful backup to other means of knowing where you are on the water.

 

[Bruce Moore]

Even better - for $10 you can have a fully functional, GPS enabled chart plotter, capable of displaying up to 100 tracks, creating up to 100 routes, placing and storing up to 200 markers, and more.

Navionics provides 30 mobile apps for regions around the world. Here's Marine: US West

Also available are the NOAA Buoy Data Reader-$3, complete Navigation Rules (COLREGS) - $3 - and many other highly functional and informative tools.

 

[baz]

Other useful iPhone applications are "The Weather Channel" and "Windbuoy". I particularly like the former for its "Beach" conditions and wish it would also provide wave height. What it displays, for example, are words like "Sea State: Very rough", "Wave Height: Overhead" which is meaningful for the surf boarders. 😉 It will also give when high/low tides will occur for locations and lots of other good stuff.

"Windbuoy" will give, for example the "Buoy EBSW1" (located 9447130 - Seattle, WA), the wind direction, wind speed, wind gusts, wave height (sometimes), ambient temp and wind temperature. This is information transmitted directly from the Buoy -- see http://www.Windbuoy.com/

 

[thataway]

I recently obtained an i phone. The GPS is not all that accurate in comparison to marine GPS or even the auto GPS (unfortuantely) The GPS feature has been a dissapointment. The compass works fairly well in open areas, but in the boats, there is enough interference, that it is not as reliable as the ships's compass.

As for working on the high seas--i doubt that. The i phone has to be within cell tower reception for the find feature to work--and once any distance from the coast, of course there is no tower reception.

But it is a neat gadget...