Brett's Tech Blog

I decided on this last vacation that I'd break two of my vacation rules: bring along technology that would take my attention away from relaxing and use that technology in a story I'd later do on TV.

But this new Dash GPS begged for a long road trip to truly see if it in fact did what the manufacturer claimed: find nearby restaurants with reviews, gas stations with current prices and find your way.

Listen- I know GPS is nothing new-but in less than 10 years it has evolved from clunky devices monochromatic screens to colorful touch screens that light up the dashboards of just about every new car.

When GPS radios found their way into our cell phones, the service providers found ways (with fee's and applications of course) to make what's immediately around us known-helpful when you're in a strange town or in my case, below 14th street trying to find that coffee shop I stumbled on once that had really strong coffee I enjoyed so much and didn't note the name.

New GPS's (including those in your car) have added useful information through the years like ATM locations, gas stations and various other useful retail establishments, but none added an Internet connection that could keep that information up-to-date.

The information on the Dash is as fresh as the fingerprints you left on the screen when you searched.

En route, it did a fine job of guiding us from Manhattan to Maine-even the rural road that led to the house we stayed in. But, it also showed traffic information that was accurate. In fact, on the way back we encountered a pretty severe thunder/lightning storm and though it didn't accurately tell us about that (No harm there, most weather people can't even do that), it did accurately warn that traffic about 10 minutes ahead was going to come to an abrupt stop-and it did.

And on the road-as you'll see in the video-it found the current price for the gas station we stumbled on (Though it wasn't the cheapest, there's a price to pay for convenience). And had our hunger gotten the best of our timely intentions to make this a "two stop drive home" we could have enjoyed Sushi-en-route from a 5-star Sushi place that was just a mile or so off the freeway-a fact, quite frankly, we wouldn't have known on our own not being locals.

I also found the fact I could "e-mail" addresses to the device a time saver. Prior to departure I sent my home address and the address of the house we were staying at so when we got in the car, it was set to go without any fumbling through menus.

So check the video and let me know your thoughts and questions. And for the record, I wasn't driving while filming.