Lowrance HDS Gen2Touch
Yesterday Lowrance announced the formal arrival of its new HDS Gen2 Touch multifunction displays, which offer a lot of great features. Things such as 3D view, built in StructureScan and Broadband Sounder Technologies and alternate touch-button displays for the touch-screen squeemish. The highly esteemed Ben Ellison gives it the once-over on his Panbo blog, if you want the full story.
But the function I’m most intrigued by is something not even included in the standard purchase, it’s the compatibility with a service called Insight Genesis–a web based application that lets you use data recorded with your Gen2 Touch to make your own charts. Basically, you record your sonar data on an HD card and uploaded into Insight Genesis (which will officially launch on November 1st). The program crunches your info and makes you a map. You can create a detailed personalized chart of your local waters, which could be particularly intriguing for users of waterways not charted by NOAA, or that have out of date charts. Prices for the service range from $19.95 for one-time downloads to annual subscriptions ranging from $99.95 to $299.95 per year.
Of course, this is something that we here at Boating want to play with so stay tuned for our full review in the future.
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