He provides a handheld Lowrance Airmap 500 (unless he upgraded). If you have something else you prefer he's not going to stop you from using it. You might have to ask him about the ipad for charts (he may want you to have paper on board just for his own sake, but what he doesn't know won't hurt him i guess). Charts are company paid for so no big deal if you can find them.
As for requesting where in the country you go, you can always ask but there's no guarantee. None of the cities I wanted to go to ever came up so it didn't matter. Plus, it comes up pretty short notice so you never know what's next anyway.