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| Dash Express : Connected GPS |
Part IV - Connections and Conclusion
Connections
What the iPhone has done to the handset industry, Dash has done to the PND industry with this device. How about making your GPS interactive?
Here's an example. Suppose you are at home and want to buy a cigar. It's unlikely that the list of POIs on the Dash, or any device, will include a cigar store. So all you have to do is go to your account at the MyDash website, do a search for cigars and then send it to your machine. This search can then be saved on the machine and used over and over. This is what I did with the Home Depot and Lowe's searches you see in the screen shots below.
Here's a shot of the searches portion of the website. On the right are all my searches that I have saved. Notice the Lowe's and Home Depot ones at the top. On the left are a collection of searches done by other people that you have access to. The difference between a search and an address is that a search will return all the Home Depots in an area, not just one single address.
When a search arrives you get this screen on your Dash:
In addition to searches, you can send individual addresses from your Dash home page to the unit.
Here's how you are notified and then here's a shot of what happens when you click on View:
If you open the address you get a complete card, including the telephone number.
I don't need to tell you how incredibly convenient this is. To make it even easier, Dash has developed a plugin for Safari, Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Outlook 2003. Just highlight an address in these browsers or Outlook, right click and send the address to your unit. Here's a shot. Notice the Send to Car in the list:
This feature makes the Dash part of your daily life. Suppose your wife is out driving and wants to go to a restaurant you went to 6 months ago. All she has to do is call you and ask for the info, and then you send her the address, along with the telephone number and she can automatically route to it. To be honest, I think this feature is probably more important in the long run than the traffic features of the device. Small business, delivery services and other such companies can make great use of this ability.
Of course, the connectivity features mean that searching from the Dash, itself, is a whole different ballgame. No longer are you tied to a static list of POIs, but you can do a real time search on any keyword using Yahoo local. For example, I'm going out later today to look at cultured stone samples for the garage I'm building. A "home improvement" search on any unit's POI database won't work, because this is a specialty item that stores such a Lowe's don't carry. However I can do a search on "cultured stone" and find exactly where I need to go. This feature obsoletes any of the static POI databases in other PNDs today - no matter how many they may contain.
On the Dash website you can also do searches on GeoRss feeds, but I have no idea what this is and, unfortunately, Dash doesn't explain it very well. If anyone reading this can explain it to us please post a comment.
Generally I have had no problems with connectivity on the device. I did note that it didn't want to connect to my WiFi on a couple of occasions, but after a reset it connected without any problems. I don't know the reason for this. On the road I have never seen a dropped connection in this area (NY, NJ and the DC corridor).
Side note: One neat byproduct of the connectivity features is that if your unit is stolen you just call Dash and they will remotely disable it!
Paradigm shift 2
Take a normal PND and change it from a stand-alone device into a connected, interactive unit that can become part of your daily life.
Pricing
The big surprise at my meeting with Dash what the low $399 price that they announced. Given that this unit has more features than most of the higher priced machines this is sure to shake up the market a bit (especially since the Magellan Maestro Elite 5340 GPRS unit has a list price of $1,300). For the first 30 days, starting March 27, Dash has an exclusive with Amazon. They wouldn't discuss distribution after that.
In addition to the initial purchase price you need to sign up for their interactive service. This runs $12.99 for a month to month plan, $10.99 for a 1 year plan and $9.99 for a 2 year plan. You would be wise, however, to check Dash's coverage map on their website as not all of the US is currently covered.
Conclusion
As you can gather I'm more than enthusiastic about the Dash Express. It has a few teething problems, but nothing too serious or that can't be corrected. GPS won't be the same after this.
If you have questions or comments you can use this topic in the forums.
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