United Kingdom Charts Available

With this post Polar Navy chart coverage finally extends “across the pond”. Comprehensive coverage of United Kingdom and Ireland waters in vector format is now available. These charts use data provided by UKHO. To order, visit our shopping page: http://www.polarnavy.com/shop

UK & Ireland charts are sold on a CDROM media with free postal delivery world-wide. The introductory price is $29.99 (that’s about £19).

PolarView NS 1.8 / PolarCOM 1.8

PolarView NS
- Extensions to anchor alarm to allow editing anchor position and guard circle radius directly on a chart
- Additional navaid light sector display mode – allows light sectors to be “lit up” to show range
- Restore correct chart panning direction for MacOS 10.7 Lion
- Numerous miscellaneous bug fixes and improvements

PolarCOM
- Analog anchor instrument displaying distance and bearing to anchor from ship position
- Numerous miscellaneous bug fixes and improvements

GRIB data service will now require an activated copy of PolarView NS after free trial period.

iOS SDK

It’s been a while since anything was posted here – so here goes some news.

This post is to announce that an SDK for iOS (iPhone/iPad) is currently available from Polar Navy. SDK comprises substantially all functionality of our desktop products including:
- Fully quilted vector chart rendering
- Fully quilted raster chart rendering
- Support for routes, waypoints and POI
- Tides and tidal currents calculation and display
- Live ship and AIS display
- GRIB overlay

This SDK is available for commercial use (i.e. not in retail form).
If your company/organization is interested in developing iOS navigation applications – please reply here to get more information or request a demo app. Replies will be screened, if requested.

PolarView NS 1.7 / PolarCOM 1.7

PolarView NS
- Integrated ordering and download of world-wide cartography from ChartWorld
- Integrated download of USACE inland vector charts
- Export chart view to PDF document or image, in lieu of printing
- Manage and sort charts as packages
- Numerous miscellaneous bug fixes and improvements

PolarCOM
- Support for AIS “Pilot Plug” own position (AIVDM)
- Numerous miscellaneous bug fixes and improvements

Activation Code Renewal

PolarView licensing is based on a unique serial number, that is specific to each computer and operating system, as described in this article. Normally,  activation code will activate up to 5 computers with distinct serial numbers. The intention is to allow users to have up to 5 simultaneous copies of PolarView NS.

Sure, 5 systems is quite a bit – most users don’t actually have that many computers on board (or at home for that matter). But what if you need to reinstall operating system or buy a new computer? Until now, once you ran out of original 5 activations, the only solution was to buy another activation code. It’s a good thing that, feature for feature, PolarView is the most money can buy – when it comes to navigation software.

Now there is a better way to handle this issue. Users who have used up all of their activations, are now eligible to renew their activation code and get one additional activation, which can be used to reinstall PolarView on a replacement computer, whether you buy new hardware or reinstall operating system. Users are allowed one re-installation activation code per 6 months. This period will be reviewed during the course of this program.

If your activations have ran out and you need to reinstall PolarView, or you simply want to know how many activations you have remaining, visit this page: http://www.polarnavy.com/renew

Raster Charts of New Zealand

Raster charts of New Zealand in BSB format compatible with PolarView are available at this link: http://depositfiles.com/files/axnw6oma3

These charts are converted from TIFF images provided by LINZ by Marco (his software page here).

Make sure to download charts from the link in this post. Charts available from the software page may not work with PolarView.

Memorial Day Special!

For a limited time only PolarView NS license price has been reduced to just $29.99. You can get all the great advanced features of PolarView NS for this reduced price until June 5th.

Get it while supplies last! Then go out and have a great sail!

P.S. Due to positive response sale will continue for 10 more days

Raster Charts of Brazil

Raster charts for waters of Brazil (including the coast of South America from Caribbean down, as well as rivers) are available free at the following link: https://www.mar.mil.br/dhn/chm/cartas/download/cartasbsb/ . These charts are in BSBv3 format and are fully compatible with PolarView.

If you prefer to download these charts as a single archive, pick up a file here . This file was created on May 25, 2011 – follow updates on source page as necessary.

Thanks to a user for a “heads up” on this information!

Release 1.6 updated (Mark II)

Another update of release 1.6 is available. Both PolarView and PolarCOM have been updated.

PolarView updates include improved handling of certain international vector charts.
PolarCOM updates include better handling of bi-directional serial ports.

PolarView release number is 1.6.43
PolarCOM release number is 1.6.55

Another GPS option for PolarView & PolarCOM

Just recently I got a chance to order and use another compact USB GPS receiver – ND 100 by GlobalSat.

This receiver uses the same drivers as it’s cousin – the ever popular BU-353 about which I previously blogged here.

Since I already have the Prolific chipset drivers installed, ND-100 worked right out of the box. In my test it quickly acquired a fix and provided position to within about 5 feet – all *indoors*. It also appears to have a bit less of a stationary “course drift” than my BU-353s, though that could be individual device issue.

The primary advantage of this device is a form factor – rather than being a GPS “mouse” it is a “USB stick”, the size of average external flash drive, though it feels a bit heftier. It fits well into my netbook and avoids messing with wires. That said, one drawback may be that it requires additional space to the side of netbook, least it catches onto something and pops out of the USB socket. No big deal though, it can be plugged right back in – and no harm done. PolarCOM will reacquire the connection shortly.

All in all another good option, available on Amazon for about $35.