Take this, add ExpertGPS, you gotta one heck of a nice GPS setup for a LOT LESS than the Garmin/Navionics and etc. But you gotta be a little bit computer saavy. This is gonna be big for GPS bit heads.
You are correct sir. With a GPS receiver, you can plot on a number of things…like Google Earth or Maptech Chart Navigator, which both run on Windows 7. A GPS/USB device sells for less than an $100 at Best Buy and that is about all you need to turn it into an awesome GPS unit for car or boat. (I am a computer tech…that’s my story and I am sticking to it.) What a cool find…did not know it was close to being in the pipeline but definitely worth waiting for.
PioneerLouie
Pioneer Venture 175, Johnson 90
Summerville, SC
Is there any reason that you couldn’t do that with a laptop? What is the advantage of using a Slate?
Hard drive on a laptop wouldn’t last too long on a boat in any kind of chop I’ve been told, unless one spends a lot of money and gets a mil spec one. Have been doing some research into this scenario as well, using a pc with gps as a chart plotter and it makes all the sense in the world. I’m assuming the Slate doesn’t have any moving parts to it, ie: keyboard, hard drive and would hold up better in a marine enviro.?? Haven’t really looked at the Slates much tho.
Russ B.
God is great, Beer is good, People are crazy
You could probably make a shock mount for a laptop and it would be fine. The military doesn’t realy have special hdd’s. They suck just like the rest. I work with them on a daily basis, and they fail ALOT. The slate does look cool, and sounds much better than the ipad. Should be interesting to see how much it goes for.
Kevin James: You know, when you’re a fat guy you don’t need a reason to sweat. Guys come up to me and go Jeez… what have you been doing - jumping rope in the attic or something?..Umm, no… I peeled an orange about an hour ago, why?
You can replace the hard disk on most any laptop with one of the newer solid state devices that have no moving parts, hence they are shock-proof. The only other moving parts in a laptop are the fans and cd/dvd drives and diskette drive if you still have one of those.
Kingston Technology and other memory manufacturers make them and for the GPS purposes you really don’t need a huge amount of storage. I would say that 64 gigabytes would be more than sufficient.
For those of you that do not know what a solid state hard drive is…it is like giant flash drive. A flash drive is not actually a drive but is a stick of memory.
PioneerLouie
Pioneer Venture 175, Johnson 90
Summerville, SC
I really don’t think any of the tablet devices scheduled for release in the next year are cut out for use on the boat. As sensitive as the iPhones/iPods are to moisture (even humidity in certain climates), I bet the thing would quit due to water intrusion before the hard drive had a chance to die. The high-gloss screens on the iPad and Slate will make using them in full sunlight difficult as well.