Dash Express: Next Generation GPS Navigation

If you’re a fan of GPS navigation systems, this is the most compelling reason to upgrade that I’ve yet seen; if you’ve been on the fence about whether to try one on, this just might push you over the edge.

Dash Express is a navigation system with built-in WiFi, better routing capabilities, traffic data, and a boatload of minor feature improvements, combined with an online control panel to expand your reach outside of the car.

The old way to navigate: at home, find the address of where you want to visit, write it down on a sticky pad, and head out to your car. Punch in that address and off you go. If they’re closed, you’re out of luck. Hit a bad patch of traffic, too bad.

Dash Express navigation: hop in your car, search Yahoo! Local for a destination, and get routed. Scan ahead for any traffic backups and reroute as needed. Change your mind as needed. Alert your friends (who are also Dash users) of where you’re heading to, or get updates in your unit of locations sent to you by your friends. Or rewind to the beginning. Find your destination address on your home PC, right-click it in your web browser, then select “Send 2 Car.” When you fire up Dash, the address will be waiting for you.

Dash is to standard GPS navigation systems what Google Maps was to MapQuest. One of things I always thought was “broken” in my nav system is the routing capabilities. To reroute, I’d have to pull up the turn by turn directions, and delete some of the waypoints, hoping I deleted the correct ones to force a reroute. Dash displays multiple routes and lets you choose from them. The UI has some significant improvements as well — at a glance it just looks more organized and intuitive.

Dash isn’t cheap at $399, but it sure is pretty! And maybe you can make up for some of that cost with one of Dash’s built-in features: find the cheapest gas prioces in town, and get routed there. Plus, if it ever gets stolen, you can remotely disable it so the thieves can’t enjoy your new toy.

Find it at Amazon

LocoMatrix - Use your Cell Phone and a GPSr to Play Games

When Swirl was in development, we started to build out a Bluetooth games platform. The idea was that games would have an organizer and use specially encoded phones that would record times and locations of the players in proximity. We could then build games like hide and seek and capture the flag on this platform. We ended up confusing just about everyone we presented the idea to, so we abandoned the idea, but you can still see remnants of some of that work in Swirl Connect.

That’s why LocoMatrix caught my eye. Using a compatible cell phone (newer Nokias and Sony-Ericssons) coupled with a GPS receiver, you can play location-based games that are not location-dependent. This was one of the big hurdles we had with Swirl, and why we were going to require an organizer. In LocoMatrix’s Fruit Farmer game, you have a game board that adapts to your environment. The fruit you collect is virtual, and you collect it by just being in a location — what makes it even more interesting is when you add players, the first person to a position collects the fruit, and it disappears from the game board on your phone.

After a while you’d begin to recognize the pattern, and just move to the appropriate position without even using your phone, right? Then build your own game board. There are multiple levels of difficulty available, and it looks like a good number of folks have designed their own boards for use.

LocoMatrix is in its infancy, and I would expect some rough patches on both their web site and with their software, but it looks like fun! I ordered my GPS receiver 5 minutes ago — though I won’t be surprised if the order is rejected 5GBP for shipping to the USA must be a mistake!

If you decide to try it out, I’d love to hear your feedback.

All I Want for Christmas: BUG, from Bug Labs

This is one of the more interesting products I’ve seen in a while, and although it doesn’t look
like it’s going to be shipping in 2007, this is high on my wish list for 2008.

Bug Labs has created open source hardware modules that can be snapped together like Legos to create a mobile device. You start out with the well-equipped BUGbase, with built-in Wifi, USB, and ethernet. BUGbase has four connectors used for snapping on the open source hardware modules. Each module or combination of modules you snap on enables additional device capabilities. Current and upcoming modules include:

• Camera / videocamera
• GPS
• touch screen
• motion sensor / accelerometer
• qwerty keyboard
• speaker and jacks

Then comes the software, also open source and community-developed with Bug’s own SDK. It looks like there are a handful of applications out there currently, with most being of the test variety, but it doesn’t take long for these kinds of plug-ins to gather momentum.

Sure, these things look like bricks, but you can’t beat the gadget appeal.

Check them out at http://www.buglabs.net/.