Motive mag takes a look at the digital dashboards of the 1980s; a time where men were men and electronic car computer technology barely made anything fancier than some green LEDs. Despite this handicap, auto manufacturers came up with some fancy displays, as typified by this predecessor to my own 350Z, a Nissan 300ZX Turbo. Man, we’d like to see more of this kind of digital Knight Rider-esque readout in modern cars, but we have a feeling that the tach on the Prius would look pretty pitiful. [Motive Mag]
galleryPost('dashupdate21b', 3, '');Dash navigator’s latest update rolls out today, allowing for a few key improvements. • My Route records your local paths between two points (or locations within 800 metres of those points) and recommends the route along side traditional GPS routes next time you make the trip. • Searches for points of interest “along the way” return listings with distance from current location and distance from destination. • Road closures will be highlighted in black. • Using SiRF’s instantfix tech, the GPS will lock on sats on resume within 3 seconds • The GUI is about 50% snappier • Street names are easier to read because of better contrast. Video of My Route over at [Dash's Blog]
In this week’s Giz Explains, we’re doing a quick rundown of a sweet technology that has evolved from a (deadly) serious military application to becoming a household utility, found in all kinds of gadgets: GPS.
The first third-party applications for Dash’s GPS (you know, that internet-connected smart GPS) are here, and they do some interesting things. There’s Trapster, which shows you whether there are speed traps ahead (and let you contribute trap information), Mediaguide, which shows you the last three tracks played on any FM or AM station, and WeatherBug, which tells you weather conditions now and later.
The Dash Express GPS just received its first historic traffic model update using the live Dash data gathered by users. That’ll help predict traffic in areas where no Dash or other trusted data sources have been in the last 15 minutes. By end of month, a software update is coming with tweaks in performance, stability and routing. As for today’s historic update, Dash recommends all users download the patch by Wi-Fi. Let’s hope that more updates come often as this one, and with more features using that internet connection.
In a move not unlike the “Send2Car” feature on the Dash Express GPS navigator, Garmin has worked it so that people using Google Maps and MapQuest will easily be able to send the address they’re looking at to their navigator, to avoid typing it in all over again.
Today we learned that the seductively interactive Dash Express GPS navigator is using the OpenMoko open-source mobility platform that led to the Neo 1973 smartphone. This makes the Dash the first product based on OpenMoko’s GTA0X reference design, and the GPS hardware was designed to Dash’s order by OpenMoko and its parent company, FIC. Did we need one more reason to love this thing? Well, we got it. (There’s a press release down below.)
After lighting up the Today Show last week, today Wilson’s burning up the pages of the Grey Lady with a rundown of hot holiday.gifts loaded up with GPS. There’s navigation gear for hikers like Bushnell’s waterproof ONIX 400 (complete with XM radio), Garmin’s Forerunner 305 for power-joggers, the usual car-mounted suspects like Garmin’s Nuvi line and the hotly anticipated Dash GPS w/ a built-in cellular modem. The point is, no matter where you going or what you’re doing, there’s a navigator with GPS for it. Check out Wilson’s piece to see just which gadget goes where and for how much in a single convenient article, no GPS necessary. [NYT]
The eagerly anticipated Dash connected GPS navigator just made another extreme promise, offering third parties a chance to develop for the system. The example Dash uses is the real-estate value database Zillow—you can use the tool to check values of homes in the vicinity, as you see in the above pic. Dash will also encourage data providers to share data in standard formats such as RSS and KML (Google Earth files). After the jump, you can see a shot of the tool used to turn tags into Dash buttons. The company has lots to deliver on—we’re expecting review units in late December or January. [Dash]Thanks Gina!
