Sony Dash: A Personal Internet viewer
Dash is an amped-up alarm clock running a Sony-tweaked version of the Chumby widget OS that lets you view Internet TV, look at photos from Facebook, browse headlines on Engadget, and check Twitter from the Dash's seven-inch capacitive Touchscreen. Dash also adds in Sony's Bravia Internet Video platform to support streaming media services like Netflix, Pandora, and Slacker.
Features:
- 500MHz Processor
- 256MB of RAM
- Seven-inch capacitive Touchscreen
- Stereo speakers
- Snooze bar and dedicated volume buttons
- USB port/headphone jack
- Chubby OS
- Internet TV/Netflix/Youtube/Facebook/Pandora/Twitter
- Thousands of Applications/Themes
Negatives
- Bulky design
- Lagging key response
- No internal Battery
Sony calls the Dash a "personal internet viewer," and cloud-based content is the clear priority: there's no provision for streaming your own media from a computer or server. That's a bit of a bummer, especially since the USB port isn't supported for local playback of music or photos yet. There are a couple Chumby widgets that seem to handle LAN streaming. Same goes for photos: it's easier to look at Facebook photos than it is to view images from your PC, and while there are Chumby widgets that bridge the gap. We’ll expect a better Machine in Sony Dash 2 which will be out in market on 2012 December.