Cool Gear- Dash

When I first saw this GPS unit, I thought I was ugly, expensive and I did not even give it another thought.

Then it was released and I paid a little more attention. You see the Dash, only on sale at Amazon for now, is not just a normal GPS. This little baby has a “always on” connection through a cell radio built right into this thing. What this means is that unlike the normal navigation device this thing can send AND receive info… huh.

So what does that mean?

Say you want to look up a restaurant; you can search for say “Chinese” it can look up restaurants in the area without an address. It will find the restaurant, look up the address and then maybe even show you the menu… pretty cool trick.

Also imagine 20 or 30 or 100 of these out in your city. Imagine that you can benefit because the unit 5 miles ahead of you slows to a crawl updates the database and you get re-routed immediately, missing the traffic slowdown entirely and seamlessly.

That is the promise and according to the “beta-testers” this form of swam mentality traffic updates in conjunction with the traditional data makes a far better, faster, and more complete picture of what is going on around you.

So what’s the problem?

Call me paranoid, but I am not so hip on the whole always on data link. It really means that they can track me all the time. I have nothing to hide mind you but hell what if the data uplink starts reporting to the police that I speed. Or went the wrong way on a one way street?

So for now I am on the fence, with great technology comes great responsibility. I have great hopes for this little device as the possibilities are staggering. But also the potential for misuse is just as awesome.