Dash Express
(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CNET Networks)Dash, which makes the very cool Dash Express GPS gizmo for cars (review), has opened up an API so developers can build new apps for the unit. On announcement, according to a company press release, several apps will be available: a homes-for-sale app from Coldwell Banker, a calendar app that can read appointments from Outlook, Google and automatically route you to them, a weather app from WeatherBug, a speed trap app from Trapster, and Mediaguide, which can display the songs that just played on local radio stations.
I want the Trapster app. Not only is this the most useful of the apps, I believe, it's also the one that leverages the Dash's two-way capability the best: You can add to the Trapster database when you drive through a speed trap yourself. There may even be a button that says, "Yo, I am getting pulled over right now." (I haven't tried the service yet; I don't know.)
Even cooler would be: Let me connect my Valentine One to the Dash device to update the database automatically.
The Dash API program faces two small problems, though: First, there's the chicken-and-egg issue for a non-market-leading platform. Dash is hardly the best-selling GPS product, even if it is the coolest. Developer interest will wane unless consumers start to get behind this product.
Second: Safety. I don't know how Dash is going to ensure that developers don't build distracting or confusing apps that get their users into trouble when they're driving. Building for the "60-m.p.h. user interface" is not something many developers have experience with. Hopefully this will be addressed is Dash's presentation at the Where 2.0 conference Wednesday morning.
Current Dash Express users can go to the MyDash site for apps.
Dash Navigation is building the GPS gizmo that everyone in the CNET reviews department is waiting for. See this video from 2006. Today at the Web 2.0 Summit, the company is announcing more features for its delayed product.
Dash now plans to ship its GPS product for cars, the Dash Express, in early 2008. Its key differentiator from other GPS units is that it will always be connected to the Internet, which will enable cool features like peer-to-peer (with other Dash devices) traffic reporting, and the capability to program routes on to your device from your Web browser.
Dash Express
(Credit: Dash Navigation)The new news is that the Dash will have an open platform, so people can build interesting apps for it. The Dash team will demo the platform with its own apps, including one that links into a Zillow API, presumably so you can drive down the street and see on your device just how much the houses you're passing by are worth (see also: Realius).
The product will also read in RSS and KML (Google's geo-markup language) data from the Web to do things like display events from Upcoming, open house data from Craigslist, and landmark and path data from all those geo mashups out there like Platial. For all I know it will also tie into crime databases and flash a warning when you drive into a dangerous neighborhood.
Dash claims its platform represents a "huge business opportunity" for companies that make geo-coded content. That will be true if Dash units become ubiquitous, but the company is competing with Garmin and other well-established consumer brands. Furthermore, future cars themselves will likely be Internet-addressable; Mercedes is already demoing this.
Dash needs to ship its cool gizmo soon.
Your Dash device will have its own dashboard in your computer's browser.
(Credit: Dash Navigation)
At Apple's WWDC a few weeks ago, the crowd was oohing and aahing when Steve Jobs showed off one of Leopard's new features called Web Clip. Web Clip is a feature built into the Leopard version of Apple's Safari browser that lets you take a section of any Web site and turn it into a widget for OS X's Dashboard. WWDC 2007 wasn't the first time Apple had shown off Web Clip. In fact, the feature had been demonstrated at last year's WWDC conference in August, although not during the high-profile keynote.
For Mac users who don't feel like waiting until October to get their hands on Leopard, an enterprising developer has created a widget called Dash Clipping that has nearly identical functionality to Web Clip and runs in Tiger. Users just plug in a URL and the Web page will open up right inside the widget. It's essentially a miniature browser that can be cropped and maneuvered to fit the desired content. Users can also set how often they want the widget to refresh.
Dash Clipping isn't quite as easy to use as Leopard's implementation, as users can't just toggle a Web Clip right from the browser (a feature that's only available in Leopard's version of Safari) or highlight various sections of the page with a neat light-box effect. Also, like Web Clip, it's also only useful with sites that present their content within certain boundaries, such as online crosswords, comic strips, and news sites with fairly standardized layouts like Yahoo and AOL's start pages.
I haven't been able to track down a similar widget for any of the Windows widget engines like Yahoo Widgets or Vista's sidebar. If you find one, please feel free to post it in the TalkBack.
To make your own custom widget out of any part of a Web site, check out Dash Clippings.
(Credit: CNET Networks / Scott Adams)
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