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| Dash Express Two-Way Internet-Connected Portable GPS Navigator | 
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| Brand: Dash
Category: CE
List Price: $299.99
Buy New: $299.00
You Save: $0.99 (0%)
New (1) Used (2) from $199.97
Avg. Customer Rating:  166 reviews
Sales Rank: 3497
Color: Black
Media: Electronics
Native Resolution: 480 x 272
Display Size: 4.3
Includes MP3 Player: 0
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 2.8 x 4.8 x 4.1
MPN: 99-1000-001
Model: 99-1000-001
UPC: 892437002012
EAN: 0892437002012
ASIN: B0014CIBWC
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews:
 Great July 3, 2008
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
I love it... but don't by the accessory kit... all of the stuff is already in the Dash Express box... the "buy with" is very deceptive marketing...
 Good and improving July 2, 2008
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
I ordered this unit on the first day of sale because I happened to be looking for a GPS that day and it sounded like the future. Got it a few days later and made a trip from Tucson to San Diego. It did a lot of nice things including updated gas prices but since there weren't many units on the road yet, the traffic info was pretty sparse until I got to San Diego. Did a nice job of getting me through interchanges and I rolled up to the hotel with no problems. The window mount/ suction cup thing is actually illegal in California so I jury rigged a stand in a cupholder. Used it a few weeks later in Houston on a rental car and it worked OK but still hated the mount. The send2dash bit is great as I was able to send destinations to the device. What is most impressive about the unit is the ability to upgrade. They have forums on their web site where they respond to requests and talk about what they are working on. I just got an update this week that speeds up imaging, allows me to train the unit to select my usual route and upgraded a few other items. So I really like the unit but I hate the mount. I did go buy a Bracketron cupholder mount to replace my jury-rigged setup but the unit weighs about 13 oz and while it is better than I had, there is still more movement than I'd like with the unit. Since I paid $400 for the unit and they've dropped the price to around $300, they gave me 3 months extra connect time before I have to start deciding what kind of contract to get. I'm leaning towards only activating the connect feature for the months I'm on the road out of town. At $13/month, I probably only need to pay for 3 months a year and that would be less than the $120/year of a 2 year contract. I don't need the daily traffic stuff for my short commute to work and I don't even take it to work. When you do connect, you can catch up on all the upgrades and map changes you missed so there is no real penalty for not taking the continuous contract.
Dash exceeded all my expectations! July 1, 2008
7 out of 10 found this review helpful
This is a great product for someone who wants it all. Here are my favorite features:
Being able to send addresses from my desktop is awesome. When I'm planning a business trip, I review my itnerary, enter the addresses online and they are magically waiting for me when I arrive in an unfamiliar place.
Movies on the fly- it tells you whats playing, time, location everything.
It has yet to fail me and I continue to get updates wirelessly.
I looked at all the competitors and I have yet to see any other Nav device deliver what Dash does.
Dash Express - advanced GPS of the future June 26, 2008
7 out of 10 found this review helpful
I have been using the Dash for 25 days. Having used 2 other GPS units in the past this is one that is far superior in many ways. The DashApps available on their WEB site are extraordinary and though I'm not in real estate an agent shouldn't be without it.
 It's a Teenager - Lot of Potential, Not Very Productive June 24, 2008
9 out of 15 found this review helpful
Huge. It may be the wifi antenna or the phone antenna or the GPS receiver inside it. But considering there are wifi enable much smaller devices and smaller phones with good reception, it is kind of hard for me to forgive the size of this. Been big, comes with extra problems. This need a huge arm to hold it and this come with just one of those. Looks like a toy crane. Believe it or not, this GPS comes with its own wrench, just like one of those come with Ikea furnitures. Arm and Unit almost take the complete glove compartment space. So I have to take one star out for the physical appearance. No, not just for been huge, but look of it's too.
It looks good in it is own way, if you mount this next to a cassette player. But if you are a type of guy who has a CD player in your car or iPod in your pocket, you may find this look like an old TV box from your grandparent's house. My $120 secondhand Herman Kardon GPS looks like a supper modal next to this.
This comes with a plastic plate suppose to stick on to your dashboard, so you can mount the GPS unit on the smooth surface of that plastic plate. Brilliant idea, if it works. Keeping a side holding this huge unit, that plastic plate even unable sticks itself on to the dashboard. I don't think it could very expensive for them to add 3M sticker on it and make it actually useable. So I'm going to take a one star out for that.
I used secondhand Herman Kardon GPS unit I bought from Ebay for around $120. The problem I had with it was, it has poor GPS receptions (so I thought) and it is difficult for me to find the exact road to exist in a complex intersection. So I brought this.
This takes extra time to boot up. But once it boot up, it acquire GPS connection relatively faster. It is quite easy to find the house address. Type the house number first, street name halfway, you get the location. I like that.
Yes. You can search for Gas price. But it is not exact or show up for all the stations. Good enough to get a basic idea.
You can install third-party applications in this. So I thought it is cool - until I install one. I install trapster (from trapster.com), and I thought it may display traps (cops :) on the map, so I can take precautions to avoid possible unpleasant encounters when I'm driving. (What a cool idea) But that is not how it works. You stop your car, search for nearest traps under an interface look like the address book, find the nearest trap (in text) and select that as your destination - and the GPS will tell you how to go there. Since I have no intention to drive to the nearest trap, some Saturday evening, I find that utterly useless. It could be nice, if that kind of information show up on the map screen while you driving, like how my cheap Herman Kardon displays Gas stations or shopping malls. But then again, this device even doesn't show those. All other third-party applications work the same way too.
Map looks horrifying compared to my cheap old GPS. Color scheme is dreadful. Some reason this GPS is not very generous with color. Black letters on dark blue background - not easy to read. Active road on White on light brown background (when no traffic info) - hard to understand while you are driving. I found myself listening to spoken street names from the GPS and looking for road signs to find the way, instead of looking at the map, because this map is not the easiest thing to read. In my old GPS, I can clearly see the passing cross roads on the map, in easy to read colors, with zooming too, and I can find my correct turn quite easily, relative to passing roads. Since that is not the case, I apologize, I have to take another star out.
This calculates the road in some strange way. I'm driving on Cross Bronx Expy (from GWB) to Soundview ave. And I have to take exit 4B since it is the closest and that is the exits all other GPS suggest. But this tell me to drive more than a mile further, take exit 5E, come back on Westchester Ave to the same spot, I may jump into from exit 4B. It is two miles extra driving, but I'm willing to forgive that as usual GPS misbehavior. In ZIP 07072, I'm driving north on the Bergen Turnpike toward the Sylvan Ave. My destination is toward GWB, so I have to enter in to the Sylvan Ave from the right side of the road and drive up like a normal person. Quite simple. You enter in to the road from right side and drive up. But this GPS tell me to turn left in to Sylvan Ave and take a u-turn (where allowed) back to right side. That is a kind of direction I may expect from one of my drunken friends at Saturday night. Not only in that location, I found similar behavior quite often. Using new technology is one thing, but driving all around unfamiliar busy roads, taking extra turns is not the safest thing to do. Now I use my old GPS parallel to this one. Hence I think it is fair for me to take out another star for all that trouble.
On the GWB, this shows me as I'm floating on the river quite often. If not, on some other totally deferent road. My old GPS simply say he lost the signal and just give up, and I thought it was bad. But now I know old fellow was just been honest. Still I'm willing to forgive this mischief, until I tried to use multiple route option. Nice function. If you obey the master. But if you been naughty and take the route bit off, just to take a bathroom break or wrong exit (or correct exit, when this GPS tell you to turn left and make a u-turn), it punish you harshly by totally ignoring the route you selected in the first place, and calculating totally deferent route, most possibly the one that you don't wanted to take in the first place. Not only that, if the GPS lost signal, it still calculate a new route. So there we are, nice looking multiple route function, but not practically useable.
Since I cannot practically use the multiple route function, traffic function is utterly useless too. Only time you can make a decision base on the traffic condition is when you use multiple route function in the begging of your trip. It shows you the traffic condition while you driving and so does my windscreen. It does not ask you up ahead "there will be traffic ahead of you and would you like to avoid it" or this don't show you traffic ahead unless you go back to routes screen while you are driving and investigate traffic condition - and I don't recommend you that. Mind you, they charge me around 10$ a month for this function. Now I want to take out another star, but no stars left.
This unit promise regular software update (if you pay them every month). And I'm going to give a star for that. Because this needs those - lot of those - and I'm counting on those. If not, I have to sell this on ebay for cheap and get myself a mature GPS unit.
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