Surprising attendees of CES 2010, Sony has dropped a $199 7″ color touchscreen device named “Dash” that is destined for the market in April. We originally spotted the Dash in a FCC filing referencing a HID-C10 model number in mid-December. It has built-in Wi-Fi, and an internal accelerometer which supports vertical flip, allowing for two optional viewing angles: upright, ideal for a table or nightstand; and tilted, perfect for a countertop. It also supports multiple user profiles and channels, allowing several members of the household to create and maintain their own customized view of the Internet. Did we mention free instant access to over 1,500 apps from chumby industries, inc, including popular social networking, news, weather, sports, live traffic feeds, and more? Sony has also integrated access to audio and video content from Sony’s Bravia Internet video platform, including YouTube, Pandora Internet radio, Epicurious, Crackle, Livestrong, Blip.tv, and many others.
We’ve learned that the Dash was made in collaboration with Chumby – a highly respected company that has been offering products similar to the Dash for several years now that are completely open source, running on Linux. Chumby-based devices take your favorite parts of the internet and delivers them to you in a friendly, always-on, always-fresh format. It’s is a window into your internet life that lives outside your desktop, so content like weather, news, celebrity gossip, podcasts, music, and more has a place to play away from your world of documents and spreadsheets.
Other content includes a NAVTEQ app for easily accessible traffic updates on a customized route, and a Cozi app for simple management and synching of family calendars. Sony Music Entertainment and Sony Pictures Entertainment will also be contributing exclusive dash apps for movie trailers, music videos, custom user themes and more, including an app from Dr. Oz offering daily health and exercise tips.
The design is what we would expect for a product such as this from Sony in this kind of price range – black, monolithic design on an overall plastic construction and a gorgeous screen. The Dash also will satisfy most consumers with its USB port, headphone/audio input and built-in stereo speakers for outstanding sound.
Sony dash can run multiple sources of content simultaneously, so for example, Internet radio can be enjoyed while browsing through online photo albums. Or, the alarm clock can be set to play selected online videos from music, sports and other news feeds. This is an interesting new direction from Sony, and at a surprisingly low price. It will be interesting to see how well this sells in retail channels, and what impact it could have in flood of tablet devices arriving in 2010.
