I recently bought a Nokia N800 Internet Tablet, a wifi and
bluetooth device running under Maemo Linux, a Linux made for
internet tablets. There are hundreds of free programs from the
Linux hackers for this little box the size of your checkbook.
http://www.nseries.com/n800

There is an accessory Bluetooth GPS receiver, WAAS-enabled, 12
channel, really nice device that uses Bluetooth wireless to
connect to the N800 from within 30' away. This is nice because
the tablet doesn't need to be in view of the GPS birds to work.

There is a commercial street mapper program, Navicore, that's a
run-of-the-mill 3D mapper, route planner, talking navigator
packaged with the BT GPS and a really solid windshield vacuum
mount to hold the tablet firmly in its grip. It even holds firm
on my Honda Reflex motorscooter cruising down the interstate.
But this isn't about Navicore, which is pretty useless for
boaters....this is about....

Maemo Mapper....
http://youtube.com/watch?v=698iql3B824
This is one of several youtube videos showing its capabilities.
It's like carrying GPS-coupled Google Earth in your pocket. It
also couples to Terra Server for topographical maps from USGS,
Google Earth and Virtual Earth...all free sources for world
satellite imagery that Maemo Mapper uses by default. If you
leave the GPS info on the screen, you get speed, azimuth and
lat/long for your paper charts.

"What good is this on a boat?", you ask, frowning....

Well, not everyone on rec.boats is an ocean cruiser/racer. Most
boaters of small boats cruise around on lakes, rivers, some ICW,
harbors and the millions of miles of fresh and brackish waters no
chart covers...especially that has been updated since Noah did
the original in 1956. Oh, there are a few "fishing maps" for big
lakes, but they don't show much detail in between the bait/rod
ads trying to sell you something.

Take a close look at some of the videos on Youtube.
French speakers:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=sC3uV8cSMhI&feature=related
(Please ignore the hacker showing "N800 Google Earth" running on
the little tablet in 3D. It works but takes some serious
hacking.)

More Maemo Mapper info:
http://tinyurl.com/2rajbw
This video is old. Maemo mapper comes with 3 stable map/satphoto
sources already programmed. Virtual Earth photos are fantastic.
You don't need to add these any more. It's too easy, now.
To install Maemo Mapper FROM THE TABLET ITSELF, just go to:
http://downloads.maemo.org/product/maemo-mapper/
and click the green arrow....Most N800 programs install like
this. maemo.org is where the Linux geniuses now store all the
neat stuff, like Maemo Mapper, for this tablet...free!
Look around at other Maemo Mapper websites that keep popping up
on Google for more opinions and operational notes.

You can download the satellite photos via your wifi before you
head out....or, do as I do, using a bluetooth-to-cellphone data
link over the cellphone system (I'm on Alltel $25/mo for fast
internet) which has the area pretty much covered, especially
outdoors in a boat. Maemo Mapper over cellphone internet simply
goes and gets the maps/photos it needs to service the screen if
you move off what it already has stored, automatically. I have
two 8GB SD memory cards in my N800, a vast storage capability it
doesn't really need.

Now, about that BOAT!

The N800 is booted, bluetooth connected to the internet-enabled
cellphone and the little Nokia Bluetooth GPS receiver tucked away
safe with a view of the sky. Open Maemo Mapper and it logs onto
the GPS and gets its fix, nearly instantly. Click the full
screen button at the top of the N800 to get rid of the home
screen and you only see whatever satellite photo you're in. The
2nd button up on the left is the application menu button. Press
it and click View - Autocenter - Lead. This sets up the
satellite photo to follow you wherever you go. Press the bottom
of the square ring around the OK button on the upper left to
enable Auto Rotate so when you turn, the picture turns, too.
Ahead of you will always now be "up" on the display, no matter
what your course. The + and - buttons on the top either side of
the full screen button, now zoom maemo mapper in and out,
selecting the proper satellite photo for best resolution. Level
0 isn't supported by the freebie photo servers, but you don't
need it. Level 1 is zoomed in, on Virtual Earth, more than
Google Earth Freebie will allow. I can see my red Honda scooter
on the patio...it's THAT good. Most pictures are less than 6
months old in the USA. They are not, of course, live, which is
impossible.

Now that you have Maemo Mapper auto rotating and always following
you, you'll see the location of the little GPS receiver as a blue
dot on all maps/pictures. It will, once we get going, have a red
trail behind it superimposed on the picture of where it has been.
This trail, unlike most cheap GPS receiver trails, can go on for
DAYS. There's lots more memory on this tablet...and it's STORED
when you shut it down on the memory card to retrieve the trail
when you boot it back up, again. You can clear the track from
the menu page. If you touch the touchscreen or click a button to
control what's displayed, auto tracking is automatically,
sometimes frustratingly, turned off and you'll drive offscreen as
you move. How good is it? If you start it in the car of the
marina parking lot, you can follow your walking trail right down
the dock...on the side of the dock you walk on! It's WAAS
corrected and VERY close...as close as the really expensive boat
GPS units.

Now, having realtime satellite photos of this resolution and
magnitude while cruising down a river, the ICW, or near the
shoreline of your favorite lake, even never-before charted
waters, YOU can see anywhere around you, up that little creek to
see where it goes, what's 30 miles upriver from where we are now.
To move the picture away from your current location, you simply
DRAG IT ON THE SCREEN! This touchscreen is fully dragable. If
you drag a screen's worth, WAIT FOR IT TO COMPLETE ITS MOTION
before you drag it again. There's some heavy processing going on
and downloading if you drag it off the picture files stored in
it. This takes a few seconds to recover! How it does what it
does in so small a device is just amazing. What's on that island
over there? Well, now you can LOOK at the island from your own
satellite view....even in a rowboat!

Power.....The device you'll need power for first is not the
tablet or GPS, but your cellphone. My MotoROKR Z6M slidephone
runs out of gas in about 4 hours of GPS operation. It runs out
of gas MUCH faster when I'm streaming music or video or TV
through the tablet...2 hours. You'll plug the phone mobile cord
in first. If you're just running Maemo mapper in satellite photo
mode with the display brightness wide open, it'll run about 5
hours this way. Standby on this tablet is measured in DAYS, not
hours. The display light uses up the power the most. The GPS
receiver will run 20 hours on a charge full time. Both the
tablet and GPS receiver use standard Nokia Lithium-Polymer
cellphone batteries. The GPS 12V charger plugs right into the
N800 to charge it, too. The N800 AC power supply also charges
the GPS just fine.

Now you can SEE all around those rivers and lakes, even see the
bottom if the water is clear enough in 50' of water...whatever
the high resolution satellite can see, you can see. On a
roadway, this box follows along so well you can see what LANE you
are in or what PARKING SPACE the car is parked in on that
satellite photo. It's that close.

Geez, I might even be able to find my way out of the
swamps!....er, ah, the Chamber of Commerce prefers we call it
"Low Country"....(c;

Larry
--
Oh, and while you're fishing, you can bring up ANY webpage with
the satellite weather photo, forecasts or warnings....even while
the map software is running down the river! This is
Linux...works great!

Take a look at what Orb can do with it:
http://corp.orb.com/
You'll need one of those movies or cable TV, served from your
home computer just for you, right off your TV cable while you're
boating! I have three Orb computers running in Charleston in 3
Air Force homes on local cable TV. Their owners are in Iraq,
watching Channel 5 News from home...LIVE over Orb...on the other
side of the planet! Way cool stuff....even without the N800.
Any web browser can use Orb...well, except that damned iPhone.