Mad Mariner launched a weekly series today that is designed to teach readers how to make the most of mobile phone technology aboard your boat.
The Going Mobile Series will address how to buy a phone, choose a mobile plan, install amplification and choose applications to help navigate, obtain information on weather, tides and currents and do many other things once relegated to a full-size computer.
The series will be enhanced by Mad Mariner's Mobile Technology Forum, which allows you to contact the authors directly to ask questions about your boat and your mobile phone, obtaining information that can solve problems quickly.
While all this talk about smartphones may sound futuristic, this is not future technology. This is technology that is available today at a reasonable cost, using the device that is sitting in your pocket or purse. Almost all of us have a mobile phone and most of us upgrade or replace it every few years. With a little extra thought, that phone can become a GPS, chartplotter and weather station to backup your onboard gear – and this backup device is mobile. You can move it around the boat, use it in the dinghy or take it on shore.
Just ask our authors – they have done it.
Karen and Jeffrey Siegel are veteran technologists and cruisers who have made mobile technology a specialty. Jeff's background is in computer imaging, and the couple built a medical imaging company in the 1990s. Later, they created the Outdoor Navigator computer program, which was licensed by Maptech.
These days, the couple runs ActiveCaptain, a free online cruising resource fueled by thousands of members who share information on marinas, anchorages and other points of interest. They also sell ActiveCaptain Mobile, a program that allows boaters full use of ActiveCaptain from a mobile phone. When they write about mobile technology, they do so from deep experience.
As the authors explained in their newsletter, "We will be covering how a smartphone has become an invaluable tool on our cruises; how to ensure you have mobile phone coverage from even remote locations; what applications and websites you will find most useful and most usable on a smartphone; and we'll offer information to help you select which smartphone to buy."
We feel there is nobody better qualified to explain mobile technology to Mad Mariner readers than Karen and Jeff and we are proud to launch the Going Mobile Series.
