Dash Express now for pre-order, $600

The final pieces are falling into place for Dash, which finished with the Dash Express public beta and finally has a price for the unit and service. Prepared to plunk down $600 for the device and three months of service, and $13 per month thereafter? (That's month to month, or you can do $11 per month for a year, or $10 per month for two.) If not, well, you can still just buy the device without the service; either way expect it in black and in February.

[Zach @ Dec 17th 2007 12:25AM]

:o $600 for hardly any new features and an ugly design factor to boot? No thanks, I'm going to stick with my TomTom. While the traffic would be a nice addition - I'd rather avoid clumsy Yahoo Local!

[Paul Stamatiou @ Dec 17th 2007 12:56AM]

Hot damn! I'm going to pull a cartman and freeze myself until february rolls around, or 540 years pass..

[kyle allen @ Dec 17th 2007 12:59AM]

ok, every time i see a pic of this thing it reminds me of the wwpc (wrist worn pc) ... what ever happened to that thing? it was supposed to be 400mhz with 64 megs of ram, and like $200... I wanted one!!

[Jesse S @ Dec 17th 2007 1:35AM]

http://www.eurotech.com/EN/Products.aspx?pg=Zypad%20WL1000&pc=75&pid=260

[[e-mail] @ Dec 17th 2007 1:07AM]

The only real new special that this has in a sea of other GPS manufacturers is the ability for real live speed data from other Dash Express units. This gives precise speeds on freeways. However, it's not worth the extra money when other units are around $200 and charge $60 a year for traffic. It's not like the traffic that these other units provide is inaccurate either. They are pretty darn accurate because Cal Trans has sensors in the road to detect speed. And if the product flunks, no one else will have a Dash Express, making this traffic feature useless.

[Circ @ Dec 17th 2007 1:11AM]

I was one of the beta testers - while as you'd expect, the beta units had their quirks, this looks to be a better physical design, and based upon all the feedback they solicited, I'm sure they've created something that will appeal to a lot of people - a lot of real drivers' opinions went into the design!

The Yahoo local built in is actually incredibly useful. You type anything in from a business name to a category, and within a couple of screen touches you are on your way. The ETA is the most accurate I've ever seen, as it uses current data from other Dash units as well as historical information to calculate travel speeds along your route.

Having said that, $600 is a lot, and I already have the lookup features on my iphone and can type the result in myself to a cheaper unit with no additional monthly subscription.

Now, maybe if they let you do more with that cellular data connection, like rss feeds, stock/weather, sms...

[motek @ Mar 11th 2008 2:27PM]

CIRC, where did you beta this? What metro region? did dash also put others in your area so the communication of traffic would show you traffic on roads that don't have speed sensors. I'd like to hear more details, I'm in chicago and my garmin 550 has the traffic feature. Although, it rarely works on cloudy days until I'm almost to work. Even, better I have been zipping along at 60MPH when it has directed me to an alternate route because of heavy traffic that doesn't exist. I still rely mostly on the radio reports, and It has worked to save mea few times. It is ignorant of the traffic patterns times during rush hour so i have been rerouted in even worse traffic off the tollway. Please more details if its worth the $600!

[Gnaget @ Dec 17th 2007 1:19AM]

I don't know about this, I have had my GPS for a year now (Garmin). None of the features of this sounds even remotely worth paying a monthly fee for. The beauty of the GPS is that it is provided from the government for free. Maybe I am just a cheapskate, but I won't even shell out the $5 / month for traffic on my GPS.

Sure, I get frustrated when I want to find a business, and it isn't in the database, but I would rather make a quick call to goog411, and get the address than pay $13 / month.

[Will @ Dec 17th 2007 1:30AM]

Wasn't the picture just silver?

[nxtiak @ Dec 17th 2007 2:26AM]

Yeah, this post keeps getting updated every time I go to the site.
First it was Silver, then turned to black and in it it said at the end "now in black"
Now it doesn't say that but says "either way expect it in black and in February."

I wonder what it will say next time I go to the site.

[Jesse S @ Dec 17th 2007 1:38AM]

So, what's so great about this thing?

[Ray Jacobsen @ Dec 17th 2007 3:25AM]

As someone who has to battle Washington D.C. traffic with multiple destinations this device looks like a dream come true, now if I could only get my company to pay for it.
If just go to one place everyday and come home and need a GPS occasionally for long trips any low end GPS will do.

[randy @ Dec 17th 2007 10:10AM]

My dash isn't shaped like that. I don't know where this would go.