Geopro Messenger
Two-way text messaging through the Iridium satellite system $699.

Reception Connection

Two-way texting for twenty cents—worldwide

Spot can send, but it can’t receive. The Globalstar constellation on which it depends has a long-standing problem handling two-way data. Solution? Enter the Geopro Messenger.

Using the low-orbiting Iridium satellite constellation—which has no such problems—the Geopro Messenger is a compact handheld device only slightly bigger than a typical cell phone, and it does what Spot can’t: receive text messages as well as send them.

In a crisis, you can press a single button to alert emergency services and give them an exact position from the Geopro’s integral GPS or send regular check-in messages back to your home or office.

The best feature though is that Geopro boasts a virtual keyboard that you operate by a mini-joystick just below the screen to compose 160-character text messages to any SMS-compatible phone or e-mail.

Geopro Messenger $699
Plus $50 (initial fee)
Monthly charges $35, and Airtime charges $0.20 (per message)

Geopro
(905) 272-1734.

This article originally appeared in the February 2011 issue of Power & Motoryacht magazine.