This iPad conversation is driving me nuts.  I love it, want one and plan to get one.  But when will they have on board NEXRAD weather?  I have an XM receiver with AnyWhere map linked via Blue Tooth, but apparently the iPad does not work Blue Tooth the same way, and no Apps have emerged for weather in the cockpit.

I am not talking about 3G/WiFi on the ground weather, but in the air flying, far from any cell tower.

Anyone know about this?  As soon as it comes, I'm buying one.

Jeff L

From blog.foreflight.com

ForeFlight is announcing support for two external GPS receivers for iPad, iPhone, iPod touch.

We¹ve collected a great deal of data about how the iPad and iPhone built-in GPS receivers work in the cockpit, and quickly came to the conclusion that an external GPS receiver option is sorely needed for these devices.  With those needs in mind, we tested a variety of options over the last few months and finally found two hardware solutions that are up to the task of keeping oriented in the flight environment.

The first supported device is the Bad Elf GPS Receiver for iPod touch, iPhone, and iPad (66-channel, SBAS/WAAS, 10Hz). This small, directly attached GPS receiver avoids the need for charging a separate device while providing high quality GPS fixes for ForeFlight Mobile HD.  The BadElf GPS requires zero setup ­ just plug it into your iPad or iPhone and you have an upgraded GPS signal.  More information is available on the Bad Elf web site.

Bad Elf GPS Receiver for iPad and iPhone

The second is the GNS 5870 MFI Bluetooth GPS Made for iPhone/iPad/iTouch.  This battery-powered device provides wireless GPS signals to the iPad and iPhone.  There is some initial setup required to connect the MFI over Bluetooth, but it doesn¹t drain any battery life from your iPad or iPhone.  More information is available on the GNS web site.

GNS 5870 MFI Bluetooth GPS Made for iPhone/iPad/iTouch

In our flight testing, both devices were able to maintain a fix with even very weak GPS signal strength.

Pilots flying with ForeFlight can benefit from either device.  For iPad WIFI+3G owners, these devices can replace the built-in GPS receiver for significantly better reliability and more consistent accuracy values.  For customers with devices lacking an internal GPS receiver, like the iPad WiFi-only model, these devices allow in-flight GPS positioning that isn¹t otherwise possible.  These devices are authorized by Apple and require no special modifications to iPad or iPhone hardware.

Many of our customer know that we believed the GPS receiver in the iPad was not up to certain tasks and thus we intentionally avoided building in features that would lead pilots to believe otherwise. For example, showing GPS location on an approach plate without higher-quality GPS hardware was a bad idea, in our opinion ­ too many customers reported intermittent loss of GPS signal from the iPad or iPhone. With the availability of this newer hardware, however, we intend to open access to features that can benefit from this enhanced hardware. Stay tuned.

NOTE to access GPS, go to settings, make sure airplane mode is off and location is on.

Sent from my iPad

On Nov 15, 2010, at 8:20 PM, H & J Johnson <hjjohnson@sasktel.net> wrote:

Bob Are you positive that your unit has a built in GPS? I just upgrade my iPad from the standard wi-fi to the 3G + wi-fi and was wanting the unit w/ a GPS but was told that infact they do-not come w/ a GPS. There are 'GPS emulators' that make it work like a GPS but it isn't infact and gps.  I can't get any 'gps' functions to work on my w/out the 3G operating.

Snip....

Jarrett Johnson

235/320 55%

<mime-attachment>

--

For archives and unsub http://mail.lancaironline.net:81/lists/lml/List.html