Sony Dash Personal Internet Viewer

by Sony

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 7.7 x 4.1 inches ; 1.8 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B00375MPA8
• Item model number: HID-C10
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (270 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,904 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Your favorite parts of the Internet customized the way you choose, available in a dash. Over 1,000 free apps can be displayed at the touch of a finger. Choose from your favorite information and entertainment content including weather, traffic, social networking, movies, music and more--pushed right to your kitchen, bedroom, or office. The Dash Personal Internet Viewer connects quickly and easily to your existing wireless network and features a vibrant 7-inch LCD touchscreen for accessing a variety of video services for online music and viral videos, full-length feature movies and TV shows. You can also listen to MP3s and Internet radio via the built-in stereo speakers, or by using the headphone jack (headphones not included).

Make the Internet uniquely yours and access over 1,500 free apps with the Dash Personal Internet Viewer. Click to enlarge.

The compact size maximizes counter, bedside, and desktop spaces.

Access a variety of video services for online music and viral videos, full-length feature movies and TV shows.

Your favorite parts of the Internet customized the way you choose, available in a dash.

Streamline Your Life with Free Apps
The 1500-plus apps available for the Dash Personal Internet Viewer deliver the information and entertainment you want--weather, traffic, social networking, movies, music, and more--right to your kitchen, bedroom, or office.

Listen to What You Want
The Dash Personal Internet Viewer is a compact audio multi-tool: listen to MP3s and Internet Radio out loud with the built-in stereo speakers, or privately by using the headphone jack (headphones not included).

Customization
Customizing the Dash home screen to fit your own personal needs and style is easy. Simply choose your favorite apps and theme that you want displayed.

Access to Sony Content
Get access to the best Sony has to offer: movie trailers, minisodes, music videos, game trailers, and the latest deals from SonyStyle.com.

7-Inch LCD Touchscreen
The WVGA 800x480 LCD touchscreen displays crystal clear photos and video from a wide viewing angle, and automatically adjusts the display for an upright or horizontal orientation.

Simple Setup
Connect quickly and easily to your existing wireless network.

Elegant and Space Saving Design
The compact size maximizes counter, bedside, and desktop spaces, and the timeless design blends in with any décor.

Easy-to-Use Clock and Alarms
When you enter your zip code the device automatically sets the time for you. Set up custom alarms, either one-time or recurring, with the option of waking to Internet radio stations, built-in alarm sounds, or your favorite app.5

Multi-Source Video Content
Access a variety of video services for online music and viral videos, full-length feature movies and TV shows you can watch and control on the brilliant LCD.

Convenience
Stream the web content you specify through Internet apps, without the distraction of a PC. It's always on, always fresh, always available at a glance without the delay of booting up your PC.

Online Photo Access and Sharing
For a great photo viewing experience the Dash Personal Internet Viewer conveniently loads and displays your photos from online services such as Photobucket, or you can simply view your photos directly via USB. The touchscreen user interface allows you to set effects, rotate photos, zoom, and play or pause photo slide shows.

USB 2.0 Interface
Access audio, video or photo content stored on mass storage USB devices by connecting to the USB port.

What's in the Box
Sony Dash Personal Internet Viewer and user's manual.

Product Description

Your favorite parts of the Internet customized the way you choose, available in a dash. Over 1,000 free apps can be displayed at the touch of a finger. Choose from your favorite information and entertainment content including weather, traffic, social networking, movies, music and more pushed right to your kitchen, bedroom, or office. The Dash Personal Internet Viewer connects quickly and easily to your existing wireless network and features a vibrant 7-inch LCD touchscreen for accessing a variety of video services for online music and viral videos, full-length feature movies and TV shows. You can also listen to MP3s and Internet radio via the built-in stereo speakers, or by using the headphone jack (headphones not included).

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

870 of 880 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Best "wake-up station" on the market but falls short of "personal internet viewer" title, May 4, 2010

By 

JC Chupack (Gurnee, IL United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sony Dash Personal Internet Viewer

UPDATED: Sony has released a software update that rolled out in the first week of June 2010. I've edited the review below to identify issues resolved in the software update. I have noticed some freeze-ups since the software update, but they've been relatively infrequent. If you buy the device new now, it will update itself as soon as it connects to the internet.


The Sony Dash is marketed as a "personal internet viewer." In my opinion, it does not live up to that name. Others are more accurately calling it "glimpse internet" and "upgraded alarm clock." It's a 7-inch touch tablet designed with a weighted wedge style, meant to sit on a countertop or bedside table. Sony basically licensed or bought the Chumby OS and added its own internet video service as well as re-designing the UI a bit for the larger screen. I was attracted to this device because I liked the idea of a Chumby, but it seemed overly bulky and too small of a screen. The Dash takes all the good parts about a Chumby and adds a bigger screen and a better design.

I'm giving a lot more detail below, but to sum up: what you think of this device is largely going to depend on what you want from it. To me, this device's best tagline would have identified it as a "wake-up station"...telling you everything you need or want to know as you wake up to begin your day. My rating of this device is based on what I expected out of it: in short, a glorified alarm clock. If your alarm clock could:

* tell you weather and traffic at a glance
* have multiple alarms per day, each with their own sounds, configurable in any way you want...if you want to wake up at a different time each day, with a different tone each day, it can handle that. (Really, if you've ever used your cellphone as your alarm clock, consider everything your cellphone can do as an alarm clock...this can do all the same stuff, without ever having to worry about all the problems of cellphones as alarm clocks.)
* quickly show you a few e-mails, status updates, or photos
* let you go to sleep/snooze to a podcast or internet video

If you look at that list and think, "wow, that's exactly what I want in an alarm clock," then you're the target user for the Sony Dash. Sadly, they're not marketing it to you at all. Really, they're barely doing anything to sell this device. I've seen exactly zero ads. Were it not for Engadget, I wouldn't have even known it was available or what it was. And, stupidly, what Sony is doing is positioning this so it goes up against things like the iPad and Archos tablet. Sony should be positioning this as the best damn alarm clock in the world. That's their mistake and what will, IMO, make this device fail.

On that note, I've seen alot of reviewers poo-poo the Sony Dash by saying "oh, my cellphone could do this" or "oh, my iPad does this better". Well, your cellphone and iPad don't do what this does, because neither of those devices are meant to sit still on a bedside table. Your cellphone and likely your iPad get up and leave when you do, which makes them nearly useless as an alarm clock unless you are a single person living alone. Even if you are a single person (or if you are willing to have separate devices for each person), you'd need to buy several accessories to make a cellphone or iPad sit as nicely as this does on a surface. So, long story short, a cellphone and an iPad appeal to a broader audience, no doubt, but, this device hits a very necessary niche for which the iPad and cellphone are ill-designed.

PROS:

* Very fast and easy setup on the device -- you can use the device without going to the web, but there are quite a few apps that require configuration via the web, and the web config has issues (see Cons list)
* Design is sleek. It looks damn cool on your bedside table.
* Pleasing UI, simple to navigate
* AccuWeather weather (a plus over other weather services, IMO)
* Sits securely (can be rubbed by cat without falling over)
* Bright and colorful screen, videos look great
* Completely customizable alarms and alarm clock
* NEW IN 6/2010 UPDATE: Customizable snooze length - 1,2,3,4,5,10,15,20,25, or 30 minutes
* "night mode" that dims the screen and shows only the clock, when the next alarm is set for and the weather in black and white...though I did notice today that it's got a little "mom" that writes itself in in cursive, which is kind of a cool "surprise" bit of chrome
* Price is just about right, in my opinion. If Sony ripped out everything but the alarm clock and weather functions, shrank the screen, and got it to $99 or $79, that'd be a very nice product...would beat the heck out of the American Innovative Neverlate Executive Alarm Clock. At $199, it's less than a netbook, less than many cellphones, and far less than the Apple products that could fit this space.
* Usable touch keyboard, fine for posting to Twitter or Facebook, but I wouldn't use it to type a long e-mail
* Really good selection of default sounds loaded
* Was able to access my Amazon Video on Demand purchased videos and play them easily, and since I haven't bought anything else that does that yet (except my PCs, of course), that's a nice feature for me.

CONS:

Now for the bad news. There are three issues that, in my opinion, are near blocking issues, but the silver lining to the cloud is that all three are likely to be resolved by Sony soon, and my rating reflects my strong belief that these will be resolved soon. Still, were I Sony, I'd feel great shame to have shipped this device with these issues as they are:

* USB drives are not working yet. This is huge, because they promise this on the box, and it's the only way to access your own music from the box (no DLNA or other wireless transfer support). It says "coming soon" if you attempt to play music or view pictures from a USB drive. Were I not in love with this as my alarm clock, I'd return it based on this alone. - RESOLVED IN JUNE 2010 UPDATE - USB drives are now accessible! You still cannot set an MP3 as a wake-up alarm, however.

* The web setup is a mess. The site itself looks shoddy, like no one actually cared enough to make it look nice...and the configuration area is not easily accessible from Sony's main site. You have to go to Sony's "MyEssentials" site (a term/brand that is in no way associated with the Dash), and that site is not linked from the Sony Dash page on Sony's site, nor from Sony's main site. Logging in from Sony's main site and clicking on "my devices" takes forever to load, so I never found out if I could get to the Dash config site from there. To find the config site after the initial setup, I ended up going to [...], trying my Sony login, and then Chumby re-directed me to the MyEssentials site. Basically, the setup on the Dash itself is so simple, but as soon as you hit the point that you need to use the web to configure something, you're lost. For this reason alone, I can't recommend this for non-geeks...which sucks because if this were fixed, I could see this being a really nice gift for a number of non-geeks in my family. I mean, this is basic stuff that they blew off, and it speaks volumes to Sony's lack of commitment to this device. - IMPROVEMENT IN JUNE 2010 UPDATE - It is no longer necessary to use the MyEssentials site to configure the Dash. You can do most day-to-day aspects of configuration from the device itself, though the device will still prompt you to register on MyEssentials during initial setup. This is particularly good because it turns out that Sony STILL has not improved the MyEssentials site for the Dash, and they can't reset passwords for your registered account through the website. You have to call customer service. If you try to reset your account's password through the MyEssentials site, it sends you to the SonyStyle site, which uses a different database of usernames and thus will not work.

* No web browser...which I wouldn't care about if there were more apps or if this weren't being sold as a "personal internet viewer"...but to call yourself an internet viewer and not have a browser is just sad. Plus, this makes the apps themselves frustrating. Most of them are just ported iPhone apps, which means they assume you can click links to view more.

There are also quite a few minor issues which Sony/Chumby could resolve in the next few months via software updates:

* Not enough "apps" (really, they're widgets)...lots of popular news and info sites are not represented, and the apps themselves are not the greatest quality.
* The layout options are limited. There's only two layouts, and neither of them are satisfying. For example, there's no layout that has two app panes. You can't customize shortcuts in any of the layouts, either, so you can't (for example) make sure that the Amazon Video shortcut is the first (or only) one available. - IMPROVED IN JUNE 2010 UPDATE - 2 new layouts are available, and they definitely improved on the usability.
* Not easy to switch between "channels" (different views with different apps...for example, I have a productivity channel that has my Gmail and Gcal in it and a separate social networking channel that has all of my social networks and news feeds), takes 4 steps to switch plus a not-insignificant load time. Basically makes the channel feature useless because it's too annoying to switch channels. You're better off just loading all the apps you want into your default channel.
* No copy/paste functionality...a pain if you're wanting to post a status to multiple sites
* No... Read more ›

201 of 209 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars It Has Potential, April 30, 2010

By 

R. Kim (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sony Dash Personal Internet Viewer

I've been wanting something like this for my living room for a long time as I refuse to hang a clock on the wall or use a clunky looking alarm clock. It's a beautiful little gadget with nice clean lines and is exactly what I wanted in terms of form factor.

It's easy enough to get going; just plug it in and use the wizard to connect it to your wireless 802.11 b/g network. The only part about the setup I didn't like is that you need to register it on Sony's website to activate and manage the "channels" and apps. The website definitely needs some work and is awkward at best, and after registering my Dash and adding some apps, I had to power-cycle the Dash before it synchronized and my apps became available.

Regarding the hardware, it's a gorgeous little gadget but a little short of perfection. The touch screen lacks the responsiveness of modern smartphone screens (which is what most of us will compare the screen to). I'm also slightly bummed at the resolution; 800x480 pixels is a little sparse for a 7" screen these days. By comparison, HTC's upcoming Evo 4G phone will have 800x480 on a 4.3" screen. My nerdy side thinks it would've been nice if they had crammed more pixels in there, but take comfort because frankly from a distance it doesn't matter as much. An interesting feature is that the screen will flip if you turn the unit upside down. I suppose that would be useful if you want it higher up and would like the screen facing downward, but you'd have to figure out some way to wall mount it and deal with the power cord or stabilize it upside down on a shelf somehow (it's not set up for either).

Regarding the software, it needs work. The interface isn't the most intuitive thing around; e.g. just realizing you have to use the menu button on top to get the menus going takes a second because your first instinct is to do everything via the screen. Customizing it takes patience. And I know it's early, but many of the currently available apps run in 4:3 mode instead of 16:9, so they don't even take the whole width of the screen (black bars down the sides like when you're watching standard def channels on a widescreen TV). I'm sure that part will work itself out as developers get a clue and build apps for 16:9, but it's bizarre to see apps written specifically for this thing that don't use the entire screen. I'm also hopeful there will be many more variations of dashboards coming through the pipeline; I'm not crazy about the only 2 I have to pick from right now.

I wish I could give this thing 3.5 stars, but I'm giving it 3 for now because Sony needs to get to work here. Thankfully most of its shortcomings are software related which can all be easily (and automatically) addressed by Sony. I'll come back and give it 4 stars after they've improved the software and their website. The limit is 4 stars for me though because the touchscreen isn't as responsive as the smartphone touchscreens many of us are accustomed to, and the screen resolution should be higher for a screen of this size.

Edit: I learned the reason many apps were done in 4:3 instead of 16:9 is that they were written for the Sony Chumby which has a 4:3 screen.

Edit #2: Forgot to add that it's still fun despite its imperfections.

Update 5/26/10: Sony e-mailed me and said they'll be doing an over-the-air update to my Dash by the end of this month which includes:
1. USB functionality for MP3 music playback and photo viewing
2. A new theme called "Full Screen App" that allows your apps to scroll in full-screen mode
3. Enhanced alarm functionality, including adjustable snooze duration for custom alarms and simplified one-touch alarm dismissal
*They also mentioned that the update for next month will include "new themes and the addition of expanded Internet radio options."

99 of 110 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Wait for updates, May 6, 2010

By 

Ian Jordan (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sony Dash Personal Internet Viewer

The Dash hardware is nice. It has a bright screen, a nice look, reasonable speakers, and a reasonably quick processor.

But the software. Ugh.

The software reeks of beta software. Lots of features are missing, even ones they advertise in the boot up video on the device! The USB port doesn't work for anything, the device can't display traffic, and the alarm functions are very basic. It has an auto-dim sensor, but the software for that is broken. It's advertised as an "ultimate alarm clock," but what advanced alarm clock only allows 5 minute snooze periods and requires you to press at bunch of buttons before you go to bed each night?

Above all of that, the UI is terribly slow. Button presses take a second to register, which is infuriating and makes no sense on something with a 500MHz processor.

Sony is promising updates to the unit, but I spoke to a Sony customer service specialist today, and they stated that Sony doesn't publish feature lists nor dates for upcoming software releases. So until the update is out, customers have no idea when it's coming or what will be in there. There's too much that needs to be fixed for this device to make sense for someone to buy today.

Stay away for now until Sony releases some major updates.

If you do want it as an alarm clock, here is what it can and cannot do:

Can:
1) Set a different alarm time for each day
2) Have multiple alarms on a given day
3) Wake you up to a buzzer, Pandora, Slacker, or 10 different pre-chosen radio streams

Cannot:
1) Use your own internet radio stream to wake you up
2) Use an app to wake you up
3) Use FM radio to wake you up
4) Use USB music files to wake you up
5) Have a backup tone to wake you up if the internet is down
6) Snooze for any period but 5 minutes
7) Edit or add alarms quickly
8) Have an alarm period that is not 60 minutes
9) Have the device go into night mode automatically at night.
10) Use snooze when waking up to Pandora due to a bug