Dummies, Wireless

Chapter 14: Other Cool Things You Can Network
These offerings from TomTom are great, but they still require you to lug the
GPS system into your home to sync things, and they require you to think
about your navigation needs ahead of time rather than as events occur.
A new startup company in Silicon Valley called Dash Navigation
(www.dash.net) is bringing to market a two-way Internet connected navigation
system called the Dash Express. Dash Express uses a combination of Wi-Fi
and GPRS (a slightly slower but widely available cellular data system) to
create a navigation system that’s always up-to-date wherever you are. With
the two-way wireless Internet connection, the Dash Express can
� Always be up-to-date: The system constantly receives updated map and
POI information over the Internet connection (Wi-Fi when at home, GPRS
on the road).
� Tap into the gigantic database of maps and address that Yahoo! provides
on the Internet: Dash Express lets you do live searches of Yahoo!’s
Local Search (local.yahoo.com) from the nav unit itself. You can find
POIs based on keyword searches, and even search for people’s
addresses and phone numbers.
� Get real-time traffic data from “feet on the street”: This is perhaps
the most far-out aspect of Dash Express. Dash Express systems automatically
tap into a real-time traffic network that feeds your own and all
other Dash users’ current location and speed information into an anonymous
system that combines user data with other traffic data sources
to send updated traffic info back to your nav system. Ever hear an
announcer on the radio say, “the I-5 is clear throughout the county”
while you’re on the I-5 stopped dead? Dash uses this real-world driver
data to improve the traffic reports and keeps this from happening. (If
only they could just get rid of the traffic for us!)
� E-mail your nav system: Because your Dash Express is on the Internet, it
has an e-mail address. Have somewhere you need to be this afternoon?
Shoot your Dash an e-mail before you get in the car, and that destination
will be loaded in the system waiting for you. You can even give out
the e-mail address to friends, so if your buddies change the restaurant
where you’re meeting them, they can send you the location while you’re
on the road heading there!
As we write, Dash Express isn’t on the market, but it’s on the way. You can
preorder the unit from Dash’s Web site for $599. The network subscription
will add another $12.95 per month, but we think that’s a bargain considering
the convenience the system will provide. (You can use Dash Express as a
stand-alone, non-networked nav system without the subscription, but the
real magic here is in the network connectivity.)
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