DashApp Spotlight: Fire Eagle Location Based Service
Thanks to the work of community developer Mike Tuckman, we’re excited to be included as a Fire Eagle launch partner. Fire Eagle is a location based service (LBS) that acts as a digital switchboard, by receiving and distributing a member’s current position in real-time. With a few quick taps, Dash Express customers can wirelessly provide their precise location to Fire Eagle. In turn, Fire Eagle will notify any of the customer’s linked applications - a library of sites and services that’s quickly growing.
“Fire Eagle is about making everything on the Internet more useful, fun or interesting by adding the element of location. We’re here to help people take their location to the Web by giving them the ability to control how much detail about their location they want to share and which applications they want to share it with.” -Tom Coates, head of product at Yahoo! Brickhouse
Search Along Route Expanded
As a follow-on to the June08 Dash Express update, we’ve recently expanded our popular Search Along Route™ functionality. Initially, Search Along Route enabled customers to pinpoint Yahoo! Local destinations anywhere along their route – between the origin and destination, presented with both absolute distance and deviation off the route. Now, in addition to identifying Yahoo! Local points of interest, the Dash service has been expanded to enable all Internet-connected queries, lists, and feeds to pinpoint destinations - including gas stations (prices!) and movie theaters (showtimes!). Additionally, partner developers such as Trapster and Mike Tuckman have been integrating Search Along Route into their free DashApps.
DashApp Spotlight: Trapster… Reloaded
Trapster®, an inaugural DashApp partner developer, has incorporated community feedback and leveraged our June software update to implement a new free service. Previously, Dash Express customers had access to a real time speed trap exchange system including a growing database of nearly 40,000 static enforcement points, such as known hot spots and red light cameras, plus the ability to report the same right from their GPS. However, today Trapster has introduced a new DashApp that provides these same real time alerts automatically along a driver’s route - delivered directly to the Dash Express.
Many local drivers already know the usual enforcement points in their area, and travelers have for years been able to download databases of static speed trap POIs. But, 99% of the time the police are not at any given known enforcement point. What’s most useful is an alert that identifies where police actually have radar or laser set up right now, and to share the location of these traps with others in real time. We’re pleased to announce this is exactly what the new features allow Dash Express customers to do. -Pete Tenereillo, President and Founder, Trapster.com
Dash at IET’s Intelligent Environments and GeoWeb 2008
After getting the API updates out I am taking it to the road.
First, I’m attending the IET Intelligent Environments conference in Seattle on Monday and Tuesday (today). This academic-focused event presents numerous papers focused on:
Intelligent environments are spaces in which computation is seamlessly used to enhance ordinary activity. One of the driving forces behind the emerging interest in highly interactive environments is to make computers not only genuine user-friendly but also essentially invisible to the user. - Steventon and Wright 2006
On Wednesday and Thursday I’ll be heading up to Vancouver for the GeoWeb 2008 conference. This covers everything geospacial on the internet.
As illustrated by our vision, we find these topics interesting - both watching and contributing to the ongoing discussion.
If anyone wants to stop by and say ‘hi’ at either of these conferences please feel free to grab me or send an mail (chris at dash.net). Hope to see you there.
Dash API Enhancements
After a lot of great feedback from the community and our developers we’ve just updated our Dynamic Search API for DashApps (PDF). Today we introduce several enhancements including a larger result sets, various user experience improvements, Search Along Route ability, and custom icons. But that’s not all…
The most exciting improvement may be facilitating in-car text entry. This takes advantage of the Dash Express two-way connectivity and really opens the door for a variety of useful application. For example, DashApps could be used to check flight status, find tough to locate electronics, and update social network statuses all from the comfort (and convenience) of your ride. And two of our top customer developers (Mike Tuckman and Michael Muni) are already creating them…!
Now for some stats: Since the introduction of our APIs less than two months ago we have seen developers create over 40 DashApps. The top DashApps see a whopping 20-30% install rate from our customer base - and we enjoy hearing how much they love them!
The Dash Express June08 Update
Just about three months after launch, we’re fired up to release the Dash Express June08 update – it contains literally hundreds of modifications, many straight from forum and blog feedback. It’s also several firsts for us… and the industry. Our first software update. The first automotive GPS software update via WiFi. And the first GPS which recognizes that sometimes YOU know the secret shortcut. Highlights:
MyRoute™ – With the new MyRoute feature, as you travel from one point to another, Dash Express will automatically learn your preferred route in the background. The next time that you drive between the same origin and destination, the first route choice will be MyRoute, complete with traffic-based arrival time data. MyRoute can be compared to the computed Dash routes, including traffic detours, to decide which is optimal.
Search Along Route™ – Finding whatever you need on the road using Yahoo! Local search just got even easier. With the new Search Along Route feature, you can now search for anything you need along your selected route, shortening diversions on the way to your destination. Want to grab a latte on the way to a meeting? Simply do a Yahoo! Local search for “Starbucks” and select “along route” to be presented with the stores that are most conveniently located. Results are displayed with the distance from your current location, the distance off the route and the direction of the destination relative to the selected route.
FasterFind™ – With the new FasterFind feature, we have dramatically decreased the time it takes for Dash Express to find its position and start navigating. Powered by SiRFInstantFix technology, Dash Express uses additional over-the-air GPS satellite position information to get a fast GPS fix so you can be underway in seconds. FasterFind will even improve the device’s ability to get a GPS fix under difficult conditions such as beneath tree cover and near high-rise buildings.
Performance Enhancements – Continued system tuning has enabled significant progress in overall device performance. For instance, the June08 Update increases the speed in which Dash Express draws its maps by more than 50%. It also enables quicker toggling between 2D and 3D map views and smoother map zooming.
User Interface Improvements – The June08 Update also includes numerous customer-requested refinements to the Dash Express interface, making it even more intuitive for daily use. These improvements include tuning the route selection screen to make it easier to select among the multiple route choices, improving the readability of road labels on the map and expanding the night mode color scheme across more menus for glare reduction.
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.