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Anyway, thus far my wife and I are very satisfied and it house taken us on some unique routes and gotten us out of a lot of traffic already. This thing is worlds better than our Garmin (C580) we're retiring and at the price we paid as a result of Amazon clearing them, it is a steal compared to any of the current Garmins or TomToms that still do not offer a comprehensive and logical 2-way data stream service. A new $800 unit from Garmin doesn't do much more than our 4 year old Garmin did except cost more and have a bigger screen. I found out about Dash a little late and considered not buying it due to Dash getting out of the hardware business, however the concept and the reviews seemed promising. I would imagine if you don't live in a major metro this is not the unit for you, but I think I got a bargain and hope the service sticks around for many years to come. Common complaints I read were the traffic service not functioning well, the Yahoo Local search being down a lot, slow startup, inaccurate or silly routing, etc. I read a lot about the shortfalls and expected those to be something I lived with after getting it and setting it up. I have not had any of these problems and wonder if these reviews were written before several updates that have taken place or just due to user error (more common than you might think).
Kill off the consumer based business and focus on a product that could be sold to other GPS manufacturers. Once you use a Garmin Nuvi, you will be greatly disappointed with all the basic features that this just doesn't offer. The flaw of this concept is the low adoption rate of the dash has meant that results are not great. An always connected device that can do internet searches for what you you are near or looking for.
There are 2 components to a dash GPS - the hardware and the service. It was a tough choice, but probably the only one that would save the company. All of this forced Dash to make a hard decision. First the bad, the device is awful.
Also being able to use a far more robust system to determine traffic by every Dash reporting back to dash central with road conditions. Buying a Dash GPS today, may be a bit of a risk, but at least it is a lot cheaper then the $600 MSRP that they went for a a little over a year ago It is huge, slow, and just not user friendly. The service is where you begin to see how GPS should be.
I make sure that the DE shuts off instead of "continuing" after the power has been lost. Better that than it collect dust as a paper weight.Sorry about all my bitching but I really had high hopes for this product and I'm sad about how it turned out.The one thing about the DE that consistently worked and that I am still impressed with is the "Send to Car" feature. One can only hope. I have tried to get the DE to prompt me to take a different route because it detects heavy traffic ahead. (And my TivoHD takes a long time to boot too)The routing is truly terrible. But the real kicker here is that it could be fixed so easily. But now that I've had one for a while I'm not impressed.
As of the 3.0 firmware update which lands this summer turn-by-turn applications will be officially allowed by Apple. I get LOST very frequently when following the turn-by-turn direction provided by my DE. What a total let down.The DE Voice for turn-by-turn is so bad that I turn it off and leave it off. Doing this EVERY time I get in the car is very, very annoying. That, however seems to be asking too much. Eventually the DE connects but why does it take so long. My iPhone always has full 3G coverage and also picks up several WiFi connections that the DE ignores. The DE is ALREADY setup to deliver this and has had plenty of time to do so and has ignored the ringtone like profits.My route has NEVER been determined by traffic.
I'd even be willing to pay an extra (one time) fee for this. I'm here to tell you it is. Most iPhone users aren't willing to pay.99 cents for an app. At this point that is nothing more than an excuse.
My fiances built in GPS system in her Jetta is DVD based and hasn't been updated in over 2 years yet it manages to get us to our destination EVERY time.Listen up Dash team. I don't go outside of the Portland metro area very often and as such there is ALWAYS cell coverage, wifi or both. The total (boot up + connection) time before the DE is usable can be anywhere between 4-8 minutes. Also, I'm not a good writer and I'll be jumping around a lot.
It doesn't matter where I'm at the result is the same. I ALWAYS pick the first route as it seems to be the most practical.Updates are too infrequent and communication from Dash has dropped to pretty much nothing. A internet connected GPS with RSS and real time traffic. iPhone application developers will be able to make a $10-$20 iPhone app that will make the DE look like something from the 80's. I don't care if the DE is internet connected, has RSS, can tweet my location to my friends, etc if it CANT GET ME TO MY INTENDED DESTINATION. But i'm sure the iPhone apps will have the same feature and routing that actually works. My Tivo (which uses strangely similar boot screens) loads up faster than my DE. One of the best things about the DE is the ability to keep current.
If you are interested let me know I probably wont refuse even a low ball offer. I'm frustrated so bear with me.When I first saw a demo video that highlighted what the Dash was capable of I was instantly hooked. Above all it IS a GPS right. The last thing I heard from the Dash team is that they are planning to license the Dash software to other platforms. It takes at least another 3-7 minutes to find a connection. I take the DE off of the mount and hide it in the car when I arrive at my destination.
This product has had more than enough time to bloom and it has done nothing.I'll be selling my DE for dirt cheap. Please forgive me upfront. I have to wait several minutes after docking and then hold down the power switch to turn the DE on again. Good luck competing with that. Monthly service fee.
not robotic at all. What good is providing 3 different routes if traffic isn't one of the factors. I'm using the iPhone as an example but other platforms such as Android pose just as big of a threat.I've given the Dash team way too much of my money. Again the stock Jetta GPS voice in her car sounds amazing.
Why is this when there are 3 radio's. This is a long rant. So good luck trying to get them to pay $13 monthly. Male, Female, Celebrity, etc. Swwwweet. I live in the Portland, Oregon metro area.
If you don't want to read about my disappointment with the DE feel free to skip this post. What good is having the (supposedly real time) traffic info if the DE doesn't make use of it. Even still the next time I dock the DE the device has a completely dead battery. And without a monthly service charge. iPhone users would laugh in your face. The 80's toy Speak-n-Spell sounds better than the dying cow coming from my DE.
I Really wanted one. It wouldn't bother me all that much if the battery would hold a charge for more than 5 minutes. ALLOW me to pick from several different voices. Even if the Dash team makes an iPhone app it will very likely get lost in the flood of the 200 other turn-by-turn GPS iPhone apps. That was months ago.Now there are some amazing things happening with the iPhone. I've been blindly paying the monthly fee hoping that things would get better.
Many people would argue (and have) that its not a big deal. Forerever is more realistically between 3-5 minutes.
I paid good money for the DE and I also pay a monthly fee. More frequent communication and DE updates would have kept me hopeful.Yeah, I know the fan boys will say that's the risk of being an early adopter.
I really, reallly, REALLY want to like my DE but it really is a piece of junk.First, the unit takes FOREVER to boot up. The Dash team doesn't leverage this.
As such I expect a superior experience especially against non-connected STOCK GPS systems. But it doesn't stop there.
8 out of 10 times the DE gets me lost instead of to my destination.
It pulls up a random subset of what's on Trulia and it is cumbersome to use, it doesn't remember any settings, no custom search functions, doesn't find homes closest to you. It doesn't do that. I am REALLY disappointed with this unit. It basically doesn't work. I bought it to tie into Trulia and look for real estate.
But it doesn't impress me for one primary reason: when I need directional assistance to an unknown and unfamiliar destination, Dash has always come through with flying colors. (I also noted a green dashed line on Sunset Avenue that was sent to my Dash by Dash computers that keep track of such things).After fourteen years using GPS on the road and on trails, I can say with some authority: Thank you Dash for expanding my GPS universe.And finally though, the venture capital funds supporting Dash are running thin, and I wouldn't be surprised to find no Internet connection in six months or a year. I read lots of criticism about the Dash not being on a par with other brands of car Navigators.
OF COURSE IT DOES. Well, I wasn't born yesterday (it was 70 years ago actually) and I jumped in with my eyes open; so far though, it's been a good decision. I just grabbed my Dash, turned it on, and used the 'Internet' connection to [1] get my local temperature, [2] check my local gas prices, and [3] check FOX news headlines.
I have been using hand-held GPS in my car(s) since 1995.The Dash is my first 'car' Navigator, and it is far more useful than handhelds. I don't need directional assistance driving home from the grocery store.Another reviewer noted that the 'Internet' connection didn't work. And even if Dash-the-company shuts down, my Dash will still give me directional assistance to, as I said, an unknown and unfamiliar destination.
Maybe so. It does what it is supposed to do.Sure, I can often drive a more familiar and efficient route in my hometown; but so what.
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