OK, might as well be up front about it, I'm thinking that smartphone-based person overboard (POB) beacons, like the CrewWatcher™, have got to be the worst idea I have heard of in a very long time, particularly since we already have a much better alternative: AIS/DSC beacons.
In fact, the only reason I can come up with for why the former are even a thing, is that it is a manifestation of the smartphone addiction syndrome that many people have been worrying about lately. In this case the symptom seems to be:
I will buy anything, no matter how ill conceived, as long as it runs on my smartphone, and even though there's already a much better alternative available.
That was sweeping. Let me go through my thinking, and compare the two systems.
