GPS 2.0
Many of us jumped on board GPS, and tucked away our paper maps. I've been generally pleased with my unit, and don't plan on going back to Rand McNally anytime soon. My Garmin works best on the open road because it gets a clear signal, and there's little traffic to contend with. After using it a while, you start to realize that GPS units, while incredibly powerful, are also incredibly dumb as they have no idea if a road is closed, under construction, or blocked by an accident.
The first attempt to remedy that information deficit involved the MSN service. For an annual fee (I recall $60), the unit gets updated via radio towers. Now, the GPS unit can receive information, and be updated with current road conditions to plan a better route around the ice cream truck spill. The unit can also get info such as gas prices nearby.
However, networking is all about two way communication. A new GPS unit, the Dash Express seeks to remedy that deficit. Using a combination of WiFi, and GPRS (which hook into the cellular data network), this unit can download the latest info, and also upload. What can it send up the network? The reportedly killer app is the current road speed, so other users on the road can know the traffic conditions and be rerouted around delays accordingly. This is especially useful for sidestreets and less than major thoroughfares that don't collect traffic data. The data link is also useful to update the device, search Yahoo, and get gas prices.
Unfortunately, you're going to have to search a bit for the cheapest gas to offset the cost of this latest GPS toy. The unit itself is $399, right around what a higher end GPS unit is going for these days. However, the network requires a $13 monthly fee (it drops to $10 monthly if you pay for the year). This can put a serious dent in your wallet, considering that serious techies already pay a premium to access data on the road from a cell phone, and/or wireless data plan for their notebook.
Does the Dash Express change the rules? I'm not quite sure, but I am intrigued. I'm seeing a trend in electronics accessing cellular networks if we recall that Amazon's Kindle gets its content in a similar fashion. I was pleased to see that the Dash Express wasn't relying on WiFi which can be far more miss than hit outside of urban areas. I'm also curious to see what the more mainstream manufacturers of GPS come out with to compete with this (too bad it's not an open standard that the other manufacturers can all submit traffic data to an open network). While I don't drive in enough traffic to justify that monthly fee, I can think of some that do, and would benefit from such a device. Finally, the GPS that comes with the car is looking mighty dated with all of this new technology in this area.
You can read a review of the Dash Express here.
The first attempt to remedy that information deficit involved the MSN service. For an annual fee (I recall $60), the unit gets updated via radio towers. Now, the GPS unit can receive information, and be updated with current road conditions to plan a better route around the ice cream truck spill. The unit can also get info such as gas prices nearby.
However, networking is all about two way communication. A new GPS unit, the Dash Express seeks to remedy that deficit. Using a combination of WiFi, and GPRS (which hook into the cellular data network), this unit can download the latest info, and also upload. What can it send up the network? The reportedly killer app is the current road speed, so other users on the road can know the traffic conditions and be rerouted around delays accordingly. This is especially useful for sidestreets and less than major thoroughfares that don't collect traffic data. The data link is also useful to update the device, search Yahoo, and get gas prices.
Unfortunately, you're going to have to search a bit for the cheapest gas to offset the cost of this latest GPS toy. The unit itself is $399, right around what a higher end GPS unit is going for these days. However, the network requires a $13 monthly fee (it drops to $10 monthly if you pay for the year). This can put a serious dent in your wallet, considering that serious techies already pay a premium to access data on the road from a cell phone, and/or wireless data plan for their notebook.
Does the Dash Express change the rules? I'm not quite sure, but I am intrigued. I'm seeing a trend in electronics accessing cellular networks if we recall that Amazon's Kindle gets its content in a similar fashion. I was pleased to see that the Dash Express wasn't relying on WiFi which can be far more miss than hit outside of urban areas. I'm also curious to see what the more mainstream manufacturers of GPS come out with to compete with this (too bad it's not an open standard that the other manufacturers can all submit traffic data to an open network). While I don't drive in enough traffic to justify that monthly fee, I can think of some that do, and would benefit from such a device. Finally, the GPS that comes with the car is looking mighty dated with all of this new technology in this area.
You can read a review of the Dash Express here.
Labels: GPS
posted by digitaldoc at 9:33 PM
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