Coordinated Software

Bob, I assume you mean navigation products - I'll give some specifics below.  There are some things like Word and Excel files that can be moved between PC's and smartphones and used (if the smartphone supports the Microsoft Office formats - very common today).  For specialty software, there has to be some standard file transfer format or support on the PC from the software developer.  SmartList To Go (the product that I use for all of my boat databases) comes with a PC application part.  When I sync my Centro with my PC, all of my database entries are now also available on the PC.  I generally never use the PC software there - but it's a great backup.  I rely on those databases for so much of my organization on my boat.

For navigation, the key is the ability to transfer waypoint and route data.  That allows you to use the exact same navigation on each device.  Charts can be different and different software will support different types of chart data.  There should be some type of exchange for routes especially though.

Products like Memory-Map have a PC component.  That's one way to solve the problem.  You've got to like their PC navigation software though.  It isn't a very common PC product for boats.  I don't even think it was reviewed by MadMariner in their multi-part series all about navigation software.

For my boat, I have Raymarine chartplotters, radars, etc.  It's a pretty big installation.  I also use Rose Point's Coastal Explorer on my PC.  There are times when it is much nicer to design a route on the larger screen.  To be honest, I create most of my routes on my phone because I can do it when I'm just sitting around, in bed, or at the helm following another route.  It's way nicer to create a route on a touchscreen phone than the Raymarine cursor-panning user-interface that they have.  The thing is that you want the exact same routes on the phone and even on the Raymarine system (so the autopilot can follow it exactly).  Coastal Explorer outputs routes in RXF (Maptech's route exchange format).  ActiveCaptain Mobile can import and export those exact type of files too.  So I can easily pass the exact same route between the different software products.

The Raymarine adds a little complexity.  I have a Bluetooth device under my helm that allows NMEA data to be sent to the Raymarine network wirelessly.  It's made by ShipModul and is a BT41.  It should be easy to find it by searching in Google.  I'm pretty sure there's a way to move the route to the Raymarine with Coastal Explorer but I wrote a small utility that allows it to work from the phone too.  I like doing it with the phone because I can stand in front of the Raymarine chartplotter and watch the route points being uploaded.  The exchange program for ActiveCaptain Mobile is internal right now but I've made it available to anyone who wanted it.  It'll eventually be released as a utility.

So now when we're following a route (sometimes over multiple days offshore), every system is locked onto the exact same path.  That's a really nice thing.  Karen and I each have phones and we can watch our progress and answer the inevitable "how long before we get there" questions without bothering each other!  It also makes a perfect backup if something goes wrong with the Raymarine system.

We have a few plans to extend this capability in the future.  Since the phones can share data back to the web site (like the marina, anchorage, and local knowledge markers today), why not share route data between captains too?  That's coming.  We'll allow you to upload your routes to the web site over the phone to be optionally shared by other people.  If you don't want them shared, then they'll just stay as a backup for you.  That's another thing that's missing on a lot of harware chartplotters - easy backup.  Anyway, when you want to go between two ports, there should be a good chance that someone else created a sample route (including reviews, comments, etc).  Download it onto your phone and then export it around to your other systems.  You can also edit the route to make it more personal if there's something about it that you don't like (and then upload it back to the web site).  That's one more example of some of the incredible things that can be done when you have a fully "connected" phone.  We have a lot of other ideas like that for the future too!