Mobile Phone Applications For Every Use

Programs that help navigate or obtain information
on weather, tides and currents are some of the better uses for a mobile
phone aboard a boat. But there is a whole family of additional applications
that can make your boating experience easier, safer and more manageable. As mobile
phones grow in popularity, there are applications to help manage lists, maintain
a blog, streamline email and perform web browsing that helps with dozens of other
common boating tasks.

Some of our database lists for Palm OS.

Karen & Jeffrey Siegel


© 2008 Active Corporation

What follows are some of the programs we have used while cruising, but this is by
no means a complete list. A quick Internet search will turn up many more, so shop
around when you have a need.



One of the first mobile phone applications that we used, and continue to use today,
is SmartList To Go by DataViz. SmartList is an easy-to-use, highly-functional database
program for Palm OS devices. There's a free 30-day trial and the software costs
$49.99.



Not only can you create your own custom databases, there are 50 pre-defined templates
that come with the program and thousands of others available on the web. For example,
there is a data conversion template, which can be helpful if you want to convert
liters to gallons, and a grocery list program to streamline your provisioning trips.
You can customize any of the templates and add to the lists to meet your specific
needs.


LIST SOFTWARE



But SmartList really excels at practical boating uses. We keep project lists and
maintenance log reminders. We keep a list of all boat parts with manufacturers,
model numbers, serial numbers and other data. That way we always have this information
with us when we go ashore. Once we were at a marine supply store and found a great
sale on zincs. We simply popped into the parts list and got all the specs we needed
to get the right parts. The savings from the ZHC-17 hull zincs paid for our slip
that night!

ListPro on Windows Mobile.

We use a fuel log to keep track of our fuel usage and how it might change, which
is important with today's rising fuel costs. For example, we can track the savings
we obtain by slightly reducing our cruising speed. In addition, spotting a moderate
change in fuel consumption might point to an engine issue looming in the future.



We also keep a log of every marina and anchorage we have ever stayed at. Included
is the exact latitude and longitude, notes about the stay, and other details. That
was the first set of data we put into our ActiveCaptain website.



Programs also exist for other mobile phones. Ilium Software has ListPro which runs
on Windows Mobile and Palm OS mobile phones. It has a variety of lists which you
can download for free and customize to meet your needs. We've purchased ListPro
for Windows Mobile and have run all of our boating databases on it with excellent
results. There's a free 30-day trial and the software is $29.95.

HanDBase on a Blackberry.

HanDBase by DDH Software runs on Palm OS, Windows Mobile, Blackberry and Symbian
mobile phones. Check their website for more information about the specific phones
supported. The website offers more than 2,000 databases which you can download for
free and use or modify. There's a trial version available and the software costs
$39.99. 



To read the complete version of this article, visit Activecaptain.com.