Jserv's blog

Dash 與 OpenMoko 的聯姻

經過一段時間的沈寂，最近又有新的訊息。專注於網路連線 GPS 設備的 [dash] 日前由該公司的 Rob Currie (COO) 與 Mark Williamson 代表出席 [Web 2.0 Summit]，Tim O'Reilly 在 [Web2Summit: Backstage with Rob Currie of Dash] 一文中，提及這個新創公司對於 GPS 裝置所提出的新使用情境：

• Traffic data is real time, routing paths are crowdsourced based on historical and current patterns.
• Searches for restaurants, hotels, etc. are live, not immediately out of date.
• The Dash can pull data from internet mashups (Platial gets a shout-out) and even sites like upcoming.org: find me jazz music tonight close to where I am.

不同以往的裝置，[dash] 用了許多聰明的想法去強化基於 GPS 的搜尋能力，Tim O'Reilly 如此描述：

There are three types of search: specific locations (Starbucks), types of locations (coffee), and, surprisingly, specific products. During the beta period, they were surprised to find things like "ipod" in their top 50 searches.

裝置外觀很樸素平實，使用者介面也簡潔清晰，明確表達出以上概念的呈現，而，在文章中也悄悄提到 [dash] 與 [openmoko] 的合作計畫，Tim O'Reilly 提到：

when I asked about the hardware, and discovered that it was based on openmoko, the open source linux-based phone infrastructure, my ears really perked up. At bottom, this is a PHONE, and that tells us something very interesting about the future of the phone, with more and more devices with phone functionality that don't actually look or act like phones. It's also a full linux computer. Let your imagination be the guide.

的確有頗多想像空間，看似有些荒謬的 100% open source 手機如何能跟實際的商業獲利建立關聯呢？透過 [dash] 與 [openmoko] 的「聯姻」關係，點出了一個可行的商機，當然啦，好戲才要上場，咱們拭目以待。

關於裝置的規格資訊，可參考 Brady Forrest 的文章 [Dash, The Internet-Connected GPS]。
由 jserv 發表於 October 30, 2007 01:53 PM