Dash Express Review (GPSmagazine.com)

13. MyDash Website

Figure 46: Searching for POIs on MyDash Web Portal

Dash Express owners can take advantage of MyDash.net, an impressive online portal that lets you manage your account, get support, customize your Dash GPS, search for Points of Interest and send them to your Dash device, and more.

Figure 47: Re-Ordering the POI Categories on your Dash Express

MyDash even lets customize the POI categories on your Dash Express device. Using MyDash.net's widget, you can add, remove, and re-order the POI categories. Changes made online appear almost instantaneously on the GPS.

Figure 48: Send2Car Plugin

MyDash also provides a plugin, called Send2Car, that makes it easy to send addresses to your GPS. The plugin can be used in Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 and higher, Firefox, Safari, and Microsoft Outlook 2003+, and lets you highlight text on a webpage and right-click and send it to the GPS.

The plugin verifies the address before sending it to the device.

Figure 49: Creating a Saved Search

MyDash.net also lets users create "saved searches". Saved searches can be Yahoo! Local searches, such as a Yahoo search for all Starbucks in the area, or your own customized list of addresses or business (i.e. your favorite restaurants), or an RSS-enabled search that is automatically updated whenever the source changes.

RSS feeds ("MyFeed") let you subscribe to RSS feeds that other, 3rd party websites create, and have the contents automatically downloaded onto Dash Express. For example, if a site published an RSS feed of the best surfing conditions at various beaches in your area, MyFeed lets you subscribe to that feed and view it on your device.

14. Screen Brightness

Figure 50: Dash Express vs. Garmin nuvi 760

Compared to other GPS devices, Dash Express' LCD display isn't as bright as it should be. In bright sunlight conditions, the screen can be hard to see. Notice how much brighter Garmin's display is compared to Dash's relatively dim screen.

15. Wireless System Updates

Figure 51: Update Available

Dash Navigation periodically makes software updates available to Dash owners. During my 3 month testing period, Dash released two traffic pattern updates and one firmware update. Dash says mapping updates will also be delivered over the air, and might be released as often as twice per year, at no additional cost to Dash owners.

Dash Express automatically downloads available updates and prompts the user to install them. Updates can only be downloaded via Wi-Fi, not GPRS.

Figure 52: Updating Device

Updates are installed directly on the device, so you won't need a computer to perform the update.

Figure 53: Update Complete

Updates installed quickly and I didn't encounter any issues during my testing.

16. Configuring System Settings

Figure 54: Settings

Some aspects of Dash Express can be customized via the Settings menu, shown above.

Figure 55: Set 2D Map View Setting

This setting lets users toggle between "car up" and "north up" modes when viewing the 2D map.

Figure 56: Set Traffic View

This menu allows users to specify how they want traffic information to be displayed on the map:

show all traffic - displays all available traffic information on the map
show only live traffic - only displays traffic information coming from actual human drivers. This setting doesn't display historical, or "best guess" traffic information.
show only traffic along route - only displays traffic information for the planned route

If you're primarily concerned with traffic conditions, you'll likely want to set the traffic view to "show all traffic", as this allows you to see traffic along alternate routes as well as your current route.

Figure 57: Adjust Brightness

This setting lets you adjust the screen brightness, and turn on/off the automatic dimming based on ambient light. Note that this is not the same thing as "night mode", which automatically changes the colors and brightness during night driving.

Figure 58: Set Day/Night Mode