The Dash looks interesting and I'm always tempted to get it, but I'm turned off by the slow interface and some weird routing problems that people have reported.

To me, the Dash is the Kindle of the GPS world. They were created with a purpose, but the hardware itself seems like an afterthought. Perhaps that's their plan. Bring it out now, make a name, make some money and later come out with new hardware to polish off the package. I'll be looking forward to a newer Dash and Kindle.

I have also wondered if the Dash company plans to license their data to other companies (for e.g. for use in Google maps). I do think that will happen at some point.

I bought this for two reasons. One: I travel for work, new cities of all sizes with numerous destinations in each city (sometimes up to 25). The office has a Garmin and loading trip destinations has been a real pain.

It has been a breeze with the Dash using Google Maps. Creating a GeoRSS feed is easy and as I add destinations it is automatically updated on the unit. Others in my office are now asking to borrow the Dash in favor of the Garmin.

The second reason is the gadget factor. I like that users are creating feeds and searches that are both useful and fun. For example Trulia home search, weather with storm alerts pushed to the unit, and demographic data. I created a search that finds the nearest NPR radio station. The possibilities are endless.

I have noticed minor routing issues, but it has not caused me any problems. The speed and the interface could also be improved, but overall it is able to do things that others units can't. The first firmware update (free) at the end of June will tell a lot about how quickly they are able to deal with some of these early issues.

Also I think the larger size is over stated. It was actually lighter than I expected. I cant stick it in my pocket but it fits easily in my laptop bag, and once placed its not overly large on the windshield.

Not to worry, DASH will be offering a newer slimer PND with new firmware.
Give these guys a chance.

By the way Fletch, your gas prices is a bit out of date!

Wow...AWESOME REVIEW! I've been reading reviews from various other places on this unit for some time and, though they've been pretty good for a Gen 0 device; I'll wait for and see what Gen 1 brings.

What's the red light on the face of the device for?

The red light goes on when you silence the device like voice commands.

Beware the traffic data! I owned one for thirty days and returned it because the traffic data reported actually worsened my lengthy days behind the wheel. Without a careful reading of the web site, you get the impression that solid traffic data represents recent activity from other DASH owners. This is not the case. It also represents predictive data from the INRIX system used by truckers. I had several instances where either I was zooming at 70 in supposedly stop and go traffic, or where the unit routed me directly to choked main arteries rather than to lightly traveled parallel routes. Several destinations were just plain wrong like the Atlanta airport???), and routing to others was crazy (a U-turn and two lefts rather than a simple right turn). You really want this device to work, and the idea is great, but the traffic data and routing are so bad, I would not dare trust it in an unfamiliar setting. You'll see similar and frequent comments on the same issues from others on Dash's forum. I agree: wait for V2.0.

Forgot one other thing, and it's a big deal at our company: Since the DASH cannot survey available wi-fi networks, you have to input the network name using the touch based keyboard. Unfortunately, it does not support several of the ASCII characters found on every PC keyboard (like ^). If your network name contains one of these characters, you cannot connect. Period.

Yeah, no perfect traffic unit available yet. Predicting traffic is kind of like predicting weather, stick your head out the window and see if it is raining would be much more accurate than trusting your weather report.

Traffic notification can help and it is getting better but I doubt it will ever be 100% correct all of the time.

There is so many possibility of traffic slowing down for no apparent reason such as a stall vehicle pulled over the side of the road can cause traffic to slow due to rubber neckers, and traffic could be freed up shortly after and I doubt any traffic notification device can report short period of delays such as I have mentioned accurately. By the time the traffic data is transmitted, the traffic could be free flowing already.
This is also known as the accordion affect in traffic reporting terms.

Fletch

Is everything O.K? no reviews or new products for a while now?

Yeah. It's been 16 days with no reviews. More than 2 weeks! Maybe you should post an article about the new iPhone's GPS feature.

I dobut Fletch will be able to get a hold of the new iPhone Stefan. Just worry that he has not been reviewing much and forum members may go away.
This is a great forum and hate to see it go away

Yeah. It comes out on July 11th. Oh well.

Here is what is new and improved with the first big update.

Performance-related

NEW FEATURE – FasterFind™ – With the new FasterFind feature, we have dramatically decreased the time it takes for your 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 your device’s ability to get a GPS fix under difficult conditions such as beneath tree cover and near high-rise buildings.

IMPROVED – Map Rending – Our map rendering speed has improved by over 50%.

IMPROVED – System Speed – We have improved our frame rates leading to faster toggling between 2D and 3D map view and smoother zooming in and out.

Routing

NEW FEATURE – MyRoute™ – With the new MyRoute feature, as you travel from one point to another, your 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 your MyRoute, complete with traffic-based arrival time data. You can compare your MyRoute to the computed Dash routes, including traffic detours, and decide which one is optimal.

NEW FEATURE – Detour around Road Closures – You will now receive road closure alerts and be routed around road closures.

IMPROVED – Route Selection Screen – To make it easier to select between route choices, we have added new labeling and have made the trip time data more prominent.

IMPROVED – Distance to Next Turn – We have improved the accuracy of our distance to next turn guidance.

IMPROVED – Arrival Time Estimates – We have improved the accuracy of arrival time estimates.

FIXED – Route Spinning – We have resolved the bug that was causing constant route spinning.

Guidance & Interface

IMPROVED – Final Destination Guidance – House numbers are now announced when arriving at your destination.

IMPROVED – Arrow Guidance – Visual tuning to the 3D arrow makes it easier to understand turn guidance.

IMPROVED – Road Labels – Color and style changes improve the readability of road names (both 2D and 3D)
IMPROVED – Address Book Logic – Now when you mark something as a favorite, it will automatically be added to your address book.

IMPROVED – Night Mode – For easier readability in nighttime conditions, we have extended the “night-mode” version across more screens including the address cards, the system information and report a problem. We also resolved the bug causing Auto day/night functionality to work inconsistently.

IMPROVED – Direction List Guidance – Distance and time data for each maneuver is no longer presented in a cumulative format, but is more specific to the individual road segment.

IMPROVED – Traffic Alert Placement – To make it easier to view the direction and distance to next turn, we have moved the traffic alert and blocked road alerts to the right-side of the interface.

IMPROVED – Roundabout Guidance – Traffic circle/roundabout guidance now includes both street name and exit number.

IMPROVED – Voice Guidance – We have decreased the frequency of ramp guidance. We also resolved the bug around FM (farm-to-market) roads.

IMPROVED – Average Speed Data – Your Trip Info should include a more accurate average speed calculation.

IMPROVED – Update Messaging – More descriptive update messaging has been implemented to give clearer guidance on the type of update and the amount of time we expect the update to require.

Search

NEW FEATURE – 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 the current location, the distance off the route and the direction of the destination relative to the selected route.

IMPROVED – Date Added to Gas Prices/Movies – We now communicate the day that we last updated gas prices and movie times directly on the interface

IMPROVED – Search Tuning – For the top 500 most common searches, we have tuned the data sorting to present more relevancy in the results.

IMPROVED – Search Distance Readability – Style changes improve the readability of the distances of search results.

I picked up a DASH Express around the end of June. I had read a lot of negative comments about the GPS part of the unit. Slow updating of the screen so you miss turns, etc. Also people complained about the device losing signal and taking a long time to recover. I called the folks at DASH before I bought my unit and asked if these issues were hardware or software related. I was told that it was software and that they had an update almost finished that would be dealing with these specific issues. They said the update would be pushed out in about a week or two. So I ordered my unit to see what a difference the update would make. True to what most people said the unit seemed to not show where I was really located. I would be at a stop sign at an intersection and it would be saying that the intersection was coming up in 600ft. or something like that. It also took a really long time to boot up and had a hard time getting a GPS fix. The connected search and everything else seemed to work really well. The update came out about a week after I had the unit. WOW! The unit was snappier all around. It gets a GPS fix much faster now. It is spot on in the location department. It reliably shows me where I am and it is right on. It still takes a long time to boot up from being completely off but it usually is just asleep and comes on instantly. I typically call myself a 3rd generation adopter because that is when I usually wait to join the crowd. In this case I was looking for a GPS that would give me traffic for commuting and this seemed like the best option. The pleasant surprise is that in spite of all the negative reviews the software updates have solved most of the problems. Last week I was traveling with a friend that has had a Garmin for about a year. He wanted me to switch to the 2D view to see what the route looked like. I had to go into the settings menu to find the switch. On my DASH I just hit the compass button and I'm there. This is a first generation unit that is well thought out with a team of techs that are responsive and eager to have the best product on the market. If you are in the market for a GPS these guys are well worth looking at.