Tablet PC for GPS

[MnWilly]

Hi everyone!

I have been closely following the Tablet PC marker and it WILL be exploding this year.

Question..

Has anyone thought of using one of these with the navionics droid or apple software as a GPS system for their truck, boat ect... From the small amount of research I have done it looks like you have to have a 3G capable tablet because the GPS chip is imbedded or linked to the 3G chip. Looks like the 3G doesn't have to be active but just there. This does raise the price of the iPad $100. There seems to be otter cases available for all the major brands of tablet PC's.

I am thinking a tablet with Otter case/RAM mount setup could replace a bunch of stuff including GPS on our boats. Plus, you would have the added benifit of having movies and tons of other features on the boat. This could entertain some bored young ones while out hter too.

Any thoughts?

[JohnMickish]

The major problem I see with using a tablet/phone as your primary GPS is that these devices are not waterproof. Now I suppose if you only used it for ice fishing and only left it in your truck you could get away with it.

Another issue is that Navionics is the only map available. Not that Navionics is a bad map, it is the ONLY choice you have. If your used to using a Lakemaster the two are not the same.

For me it is enough to not use my droid as my GPS.

[Raider4ever]

I'm thinking an ipad would last about three minutes of pounding through 4 ft. rollers to get home. They are great, but not really geared for that kind of work. I'm even thinking being mounted on your vehicle and going over long stretches of washboard roads won't have a happy ending.

[RuKiddingMe]

Protection would be simple enough for these devices, Otterbox has a case for just about all devices. For me the biggest issue would be the lack of battery time, the biggest benefit of having a GPS capable tablet would be to have where you want it and not tethered to a power cable. Also lets not forget that the screen on the tablets are not designed with outdoor viewing in mind so that doesn't help much either.