Introducing TOSCA Mobile!
Be sure to check out the mobile verson of the TOSCA website! This provides weather, tides, charts and AIS on your iPhone, iPad, Blackberry or other Android devices. The mobile site provides the same key content from the cruising pages formatted for the smaller devices.
The challenges to providing this information on smartphones are due to the screen size, navigation is somewhat cumbersome and limited bandwidth. For example, when using a smartphone, clicking through 3 or 4 pages to get to the information is frustrating. Surfing web pages over the cellular network often is slow and tedious. Once you get to the page, you don't want to download the large pages, graphics, pictures, etc. Information needs to be available in as few clicks as possible and formatted for the small screen. In essence, the mobile pages are mini, stripped down versions of the web pages.
When deciding which pages are suitable for the smartphone, the distinction was made that you will using your smartphone while on the boat mostly using the cellular network. When on the boat you want key navigation and weather information, not the news and community sections of the site. Through the mobile version, we can get to these with a very simple navigation page and 1 click. This is easier and faster than navigating the entire, complex site.
Please note, the Apple iPhone and iPad tables do not support Adobe Flash. Unfortunately, the NOAA Online Charts do not display on these devices. We have not found a suitable workaround at this time.
The URL is http://mobile.gotosca.org. Be sure to update your bookmarks on your mobile device.