Welcome to the (Mobile) Social
We’re not your average, every day automotive GPS company. In fact, we’re somewhat reluctant to even use the “GPS PND” label in describing the business given our unique philosophy… We’re running on a community-developed operating system. We’re crowd-sourcing real-time traffic data. And we’ve got an open API that’s being used to tap into online social networking functionality. That’s why we were all fired up to participate in the recent O’Reilly conference: Graphic Social Patterns East. Check out a few of our Flickr-hosted event photos and videos.
Dash Express Now $299.99
After seeing such outstanding results from our partners’ recent Dads & Grads promotion, we’ve decided to lower the price of the Dash Express. Hitting the $299.99 price point makes the Dash Express affordable for even more customers - accelerating the growth of the Dash Driver Network.
Being early adopters ourselves, we’ve witnessed our fair share of price drops. So, as a token of our appreciation, we’re providing an additional three months of free service to everyone who purchased a Dash Express on or before May 31.
Does Your GPS Tweet?
As the title asks, does your GPS tweet? If you’ve got a Dash Express, it sure does!
We opened our API just a few short weeks ago and the response has been amazing - with a couple dozen applications already built. Mike Tuckman and Michael Muni have been leading the Dash customer application development charge and even launched DashApps.net to spotlight the work of our community.
We’ve got speed traps, we’ve got weather, we’ve got radio info… But my favorite Dash App has to be Twitter. Maybe it’s not the most practical and I wouldn’t suggest firing it up while your car is in motion, but what other automotive GPS will alert your friends as to your location (perhaps, when you’re running late) and pull down their status updates? The customizable app can selectively tweet any combination of a personal message and your address, street, city, state, latitude, longitude, plus links to Yahoo! or Google maps. Additionally, the 20 most recent tweets of those you follow can be pulled down to the GPS.
This the flexibility of an open API and this the power of a two-way device. If you’ve got a clever application in mind for our platform, drop us a line at developer@dash.net .
Dash does TECH Cocktail, Chicago
Last week, we set up shop at TECH cocktail - a networking event established by Frank Gruber and Eric Olson to “amplify the technology signal in under served markets and have fun doing it.” We had a great time interacting with the tech savvy yet traffic-congested Chicago community. And to experience some local “flavor,” Chicago native Mark introduced us to the (in)famous Wieners Circle… though we ‘re reluctant to repeat the dialog on our family friendly blog.
New Traffic Model Update
This afternoon we released our second historical traffic model update to Dash customers. The wireless update includes traffic data collected from the Dash Driver Network during the past month. For a traffic model primer, check out CEO Paul Lego’s recent description.
Getting smarter every day…!
Dash for Father’s Day
Amazon has included Dash Express in a promotion for Father’s Day. We are thrilled our online partner has elected to include Dash Express in a limited time promotion designed to make gift selection for Father’s Day an easier task. We welcome fathers everywhere into the Dash Driver Network.
The 100 Best Products of 2008
The Dash Express was just selected by PC World as one of “the 100 best products of 2008“ Their editors selected the products for this list based on their “design, functionality, and performance.” We’re psyched to be the only GPS navigation device chosen this year, and that others continue to recognize how unique and revolutionary the Dash Express is.
Robert Acker
Telematics Awards: The Best Portable Navigation System
I’m at the Telematics Detroit 2008 conference, which officially starts tomorrow,and just got back from the “Global Industry Awards Dinner” where Dash won the “Best Portable Navigation System” award for 2007-2008. Now I have to figure out how to pack this delicate lucite award in my carry-on without breaking it. Seriously though, it was great to be recognized by others in the industry as the best connected PND this year. During dinner I heard several people at different tables talking about their Dash devices and all the new features they had. There was also a lot of talk from those who have been attending the conference for years that it and the industry are really gaining momentum–this is the first year that this conference has ever sold out.
I’ll report back with an update from the conference later this week.
Robert Acker
Post-Where 2.0, first partner DashApps online and API documentation available now!
First, we are so happy to see all of the energy and enthusiasm from the attendants of the Where 2.0 conference in reaction to our announcement. Today, we are happy to say that the first five DashApps that were released by partners are available on MyDash.
Also, as everyone has been eagerly anticipating we have now released the API documentation. We are still at a very early stage in our open platform and we can’t wait to see what people start building with it.
This is, of course, a work in progress so please send any comments, feedback or questions to us.
Happy developing!
“DashApps” - Third Party Services enabled by our open content platform!
Tomorrow morning at O’Reilly’s Where 2.0 conference we’ll be announcing another first for the GPS category. We’re opening up our service to enable other companies and developers to provide timely and relevant Internet content to the car. Our goal is to get drivers the answers they need every day. We call these new partner-created applications, DashApps.
Dash customers will have access to these new applications via the MyDash portal (http://my.dash.net/) beginning on Thursday, May 15th:
- Hunting for the home of your dreams? Coldwell Banker® allows consumers to search for homes with the “Coldwell Banker Home Search” button. It allows Dash drivers to access real estate listings and property details from their vehicle and instantly create a route to them.
- When and where is my meeting? Access calendar events, then dynamically route to meetings with Funambol’s “myFUNAMBOL Calendar” button. It allows Dash users access to their electronic calendars (from virtually any source, e.g. Outlook, Yahoo! and Google) from their Dash Express. Calendar items are updated automatically and users can route directly to any address listed.
- What’s that tune? Mediaguide enables Dash Drivers to easily find out the names of tunes playing on their radios. By simply taping the “BakTrax Radio” button, Dash users can see a list of the last three songs that just played on their favorite AM or FM stations.
- Speed trap ahead? Furthering Dash’s belief in the power of a driver network, the “Trapster® Find Traps Now” button not only gives Dash Drivers access to Trapster’s information about live speed traps and red light sensors, but also enables Dash Drivers to contribute speed trap information back to other Trapster users in their area.
- Is it going to rain? Access live, local weather information with WeatherBug’s “MyWeatherBug” button. It provides Dash Drivers with up-to-the-second information about current and future weather conditions while on the road.
Here are some partner-created demo videos of these new Dash Apps.
Trapster:
BakTrax Radio:
WeatherBug:
Funambol:
If you are interested in building for our platform, please contact us at developer@dash.net