Picking my head up
Posted by Dash Navigation on February, 20 in Uncategorized
Anyone who has shipped a product knows that the final weeks before shipping often entails everyone putting their heads down and executing on the final details that need to get buttoned up before the product ships. Well, I like everyone else at Dash, have had my head down grinding away, which has resulted in me neglecting to post for the last six weeks. I am going to spend some time today getting into the conversations in the comments and then I will get back to posting on a more regular basis. We really do value our interactions with customers, beta testers, and the community at large, and I am looking forward to continuing those conversations.
Mark
February 20th, 2008 at 4:46 pm
And as simple as that, the beast is tame.
Thanks for the update..No TT for me
February 20th, 2008 at 8:25 pm
Agreed - thanks for the update! I’m sure we’re all anxiously awaiting an email with some more updates.
February 21st, 2008 at 7:54 am
Thank you, I was getting nervious.The month is two thirds over. Thanks again
Roy
February 21st, 2008 at 9:04 am
March 27th
February 21st, 2008 at 9:05 am
March 27th, the day after my birthday
February 21st, 2008 at 9:09 am
I knew they would push out, but I didn’t expect this much.
February 21st, 2008 at 9:10 am
sorry march 27th!!
February 21st, 2008 at 9:34 am
Could we have some more product pics please? Profile, rear?
Thanks.
February 21st, 2008 at 9:47 am
Mark,
Would love to have some news to get us excited again about buying this product. What features are the team working on improving? Can you give us some highlights on what is going to turn out just as good as (or better than) you hoped?
February 21st, 2008 at 9:50 am
@Rob - well, hopefully it will be a great “slightly post birthday” gift for you
@elva - I will work on getting more photos / screen shots up here in the next few days.
Mark
February 21st, 2008 at 9:54 am
Can we know what the delay is (hardware/software)? Why is the pushout so long? I’m sure I’m like a lot of your customer; I have told plenty of people about your device and got them interested, but they wanted to see mine first. At this point, I have nothing to tell them except it’s delayed. Is there any possibility that you will be able to release early?
February 21st, 2008 at 11:41 am
@Colleen & dashless - Here is one example of what we are working on improving. As you know, most (if not all) navigation devices have difficulty acquiring or maintaining their GPS fix in major downtown areas (sometimes called the “Urban Canyon” effect). Given that so many of our customers drive in major downtown metropolitan areas we decided to work with our GPS chip provider, SIRF, to get updated firmware that will result in a *much* better experience in downtown metros. We flew a team out to the east coast to test the product in a variety of conditions, including driving around Manhattan testing a device with this updated SIRF firmware, and it worked much better than a device without this update and much better than all the competitive devices we tested in this area.
February 21st, 2008 at 12:59 pm
This sucks..sorry Dash I cant wait that long. Delay after delay and I can’t hold off anymore.
February 21st, 2008 at 5:10 pm
Almost at the finish line, congrats! I’ve been through several 1.0 ships and let me tell you that it’s never smooth nor easy. Hope things go well on March 27th. If they do, you may see me as a user for v2.0 (sorry, I don’t buy 1.0’s of anything anymore hehe).
February 22nd, 2008 at 2:02 pm
Mark - Are the SiRF firmware enhancements part of their InstantFix or InstantFix II products? If so, kudos as those enhancements have been providing very good results in other devices.
February 22nd, 2008 at 8:02 pm
Thanks for the pics … but I’ve seen them all before.
Again, how about some profile/side and rear shots, 360 shots … or is there something you have to hide?
Thanks.
February 23rd, 2008 at 4:08 pm
If I pre-order today, will I be able to get one on your initial launch? Or is your Mar 27 initial batch only enough to fulfill the earliest pre-orders?
February 25th, 2008 at 12:15 am
@Tommy - thanks for the note and hopefully we can convince you to become a dash customer at some point in time.
@Tim - InstantFix focuses on the signal acquisition time, and the improvements in our firmware have been focused on signal sensitivity (fixing the “Urban Canyon” problem I described). This isn’t to say we aren’t interested in integrating InstantFix into our product, it is just that the example I highlighted above isn’t specifically using that technology.
@Elva - Let me work on getting more pictures for you. I have mostly been getting requests for screenshots, not unit shots, but it seems like you want to see the physical product from more angles, is this right?
@beq - I would have to look into how many units we have ready to ship compared to our order total, but I think if you order now you should get one shipped out on or close to the 27th.
Mark
February 25th, 2008 at 8:34 am
Yes, physical product from more angles please
Thanks.
February 27th, 2008 at 4:14 am
I’m in. Took the plunge last night. Look forward to getting the unit.
A couple of questions:
1. Will there be a detour function? If so will you be able to choose to skip a section of a highway / road in case of traffic or accident?
2. Will you be able to select, in your routing options, to avoid highways, tolls, etc?
3. Will the mapshare updates be “instant” to the dash, or whenever teleatlas decides to give you the map update?
Thanks
February 28th, 2008 at 9:56 pm
@Elva - tonight I just posted a series of new photos that I think address what you are looking for.
@nday - I just started a series of posts detailing functionality and requested that people post what they want me to talk about in the comments of that post… I am sure I will answer all these questions in the course of that series of posts.
February 29th, 2008 at 3:14 am
Excellent. Thanks for the updates. Can’t wait to get the unit.