Gadget Coveting
I’m a long-time fan of portable GPS units, and I recently came across the Dash internet connected GPS unit. Essentially it is a GPS that uses wifi or a built in cellular modem to lookup and receive data. Besides the traditional high-end GPS feature of getting a traffic feed you can also:
- use Yahoo! Local to search for points-of-interest near you (much better than the static category searching built-in to current units)
- check movie times
- search for restaurants and read reviews
- sort nearby gas stations by current price
- send address information to your GPS from your desktop
- get software updates downloaded automatically without bringing the unit inside
There are some downsides as well:
- subscription fee for internet access/updates (although if you currently buy new maps every year it might be a similar cost)
- no Bluetooth
- unit size is on the large side
Since it is fairly pricey, I think I’ll wait until some more reviews are in (right now the reviews are almost all from the beta testers and seem very biased) before deciding if I will pony up the money for one, but it definitely looks slick. I hope Garmin is watching.