SAN FRANCISCO-- Dial Directions, a leading provider of voice-entry for location-based services and mobile devices, is the first to deliver another industry milestone. Dial Directions’ new service turns any phone into a ‘remote control’ for connected GPS devices and navigation services. Whether their GPS is near or away, owners can simply call 1-DIRECTIONS (or 1-347-328-4667) on any cell phone and speak their destination. The destination appears instantly on their navigation device.
Dial Directions’ phone service is an effective service for hands-free voice entry for navigation solutions, without requiring hardware changes or additional costs. Manually entering a destination address is a distracting and cumbersome task that often requires pulling over and stopping the vehicle. Dial Directions solves this problem. Speaking saves time and frustration when trying to enter a long business name or spell an unfamiliar street via keypad. Moreover, with remote access, drivers can call ahead to tell their GPS where to go even before reaching their cars.
Dash Navigation is the first navigation partner to feature Dial Directions’ destination voice-entry. Available immediately nationwide, Dash users can call 1-DIRECTIONS (or 1-347-328-4667), speak an address or intersection, and see the destination appear on their Dash ExpressTM GPS device.
“Dial Directions’ innovative approach to address voice-entry using a phone call makes navigation even easier than before, and offers a new and exciting way to interact with the Dash Express,” said Robert Currie, president and chief operating officer of Dash Navigation. “This announcement marks an important milestone for the extension of the Dash connected navigation platform into voice services. Dash is committed to bringing creative and compelling features to the Dash community by working with companies, like Dial Directions, that are pioneering new types of GPS services while remaining committed to high standards of performance, quality and accuracy.”
To use the new service, Dash Express owners simply register their phone number with Dash Navigation at http://my.dash.net.
A video demonstration of Dial Directions voice-entry for Dash is available at http://www.dialdirections.com/dash/demo.
Dial Directions is pleased to also announce a partnership with deCarta to offer destination voice-entry as a new capability for the company’s geospatial software platform for location-based services. deCarta plans to integrate Dial Directions’ voice recognition technology in the next generation of Connected Navigation Services.
“With a wide variety of location-enabled services potentially available to the consumer through connected navigation, streamlining the user-interface for ease-of-use is exceptionally important,” said Louis Bouchard, director of marketing of deCarta. “Having Dial Directions join deCarta’s value-chain consortium of connected navigation service and technology providers is a key component to increase service usage and user-satisfaction.”
Offering consumers convenience, ease-of-use and safety are important considerations as navigation devices become mainstream. U.S. cumulative navigation device sales will reach 300M in 2013, according to Telematic Research Group.
“Our ‘remote control’ phone service bridges the gap between voice, mobile and location-based technologies,” said Adeeb Shanaa, chief executive officer of Dial Directions. “This new service is another extension of the Dial Directions platform, which illustrates how our proprietary technology to provide a location simply by speaking, enhances the performance of GPS devices. We’re pleased to support our partners in offering the next generation of navigation services.”
About Dial Directions
Dial Directions provides the leading platform for voice-activated location entry, directions, and other LBS, powered by innovation in speech recognition and voice user interface. The Dial Directions platform enables industry partners to expand their mobile services with a voice-activated interface, including 411/directory assistance providers, carriers, mobile applications and devices, and navigation solutions. Dial Directions partners include leaders in innovation such as Ask.com Mobile, Evite, Jingle Network’s 1-800-Free411, Virgin Mobile USA and Volt Delta Resources. Dial Directions also provides the first free nationwide phone service for driving directions, 1-DIRECTIONS (1-347-328-4667). In any U.S. city, mobile phone callers can say their start & destination address; and receive turn by turn directions by text message. For more information, visit: www.dialdirections.com.
About Dash Navigation, Inc.
Dash Navigation connects people to the information that empowers them in their cars. The company’s first product, the Dash Express™, is the first personal navigation system with two-way, Internet connectivity. It’s the smartest way to get from A to B -- and get information about everything in between. Dash is located in Sunnyvale, Calif. and is funded by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Sequoia Capital, Skymoon Ventures, Crescendo Ventures, Artis Capital and ZenShin Capital Partners. For more information, visit Dash Navigation at www.dash.net.
About deCarta
deCarta is the leading geospatial software platform that has enabled some of the industry’s most successful Location-Based Services (LBS) applications such as those deployed by Verizon, Sprint Nextel, AT&T, T-Mobile, Multimap and Hotels.com. The company's technology is ideal for high-volume LBS applications in the mobile, personal navigation, connected navigation, enterprise and Internet markets where scalability, speed and reliability are vital. deCarta’s solutions are preferred by application developers and service providers who seek to leverage deCarta’s unique core strengths of server-side and wireless LBS expertise, and also want the flexibility to customize map styles and self-brand. Some of deCarta’s customers and technology partners include Appello, ATX, AutoTrader.com, Gearworks, Hotels.com, INRIX, Local Matters, loopt, Maps.com, Motorola, Multimap, NAVTEQ, Networks In Motion, Tele Atlas, TeleNav and WHERE. deCarta is privately held and headquartered in San Jose, California with international offices in the UK, Germany and China. www.decarta.com.
Mobile Technology Feature - Top 10 Business Apps for Android - Android has become one of the most popular mobile operating systems
in the world due to advanced software, competitive manufacturers, and an
app market that is filled with exciting and useful applications. Read
on for this fine Top 10 List compiled by tech writer, Blake Sanders
The Really Big List of Mapping, Geo location Mobile developer resources, APIs and Tools - The Mobile Ecosystem... no question that mobile is huge and
the opportunity for developers, in particular, geo developers! There's
loads of developer resources on the web so to help the developer,
here's a listing of just some of the fine dev resources, blogs,
toolsets and more to consider when developing or porting your app to a
smartphone or Tablet.
ArcGIS.com Mashup Tutorial with Flickr and Foursquare data-
Here's a simple "how to" tutorial on working with the free ArcGIS.com
to easily import KML or RSS data from Flickr and foursquare into ArcGIS
to create your own custom map mashup. ArcGIS.com has some recent
updates including support for KML, be sure to check it out!
Most Users of Free Photo Apps Say Adding Cool Effects is Most Useful - Adding cool effects
to photos was rated as the most useful thing by more than halfof
consumers surveyed using free online photography services, according to
CatchFree a free
online service that helps people find the best free mobile and web applications
to perform useful tasks.
Amazon Kindle Fire Tablet Up Close - No Replacement for the iPad But Pretty Darned Sweet - As could be
expected, speculation and blogging is rampant with many stories and
pseudo "reviews" coming out, many of them touting the next "iPad
killer".
Mobile Developer Resource - MapQuest & The Mobile Worker - Facility management companies, surveyors, multi-level marketing,
insurance claims, pipeline companies, water utilities; all have field
workers who would benefit from mobile applications. Not only checking in
to work sites, but keeping a record of the work done
Flickr GPS Photo Tag Tip - Here's a tip for Flickr users who want to share their GPS information
with their photos. note, in order to do this you'll need to be
capturing photos using a GPS-enabled or GPS-aware camera (see you're
smartphone hardware settings to ensure that GPS or location sharing is
turned "ON)".
Mobile data usage in Canada to triple between 2010 and 2012 - Some interesting, yet not terribly surprising, numbers on mobile
usage coming out of Canada. According to a report summarized on
Techvibes, mobile usage is soaring, in particular, the smartphone
segment
Social Location Directory
Do you have a location-aware application, social location service or other location-sensitive service that you'd like to share with us? Please browse this growing directory of Social location Services and feel free to leave a link to your favorite service! See the Directory HERE
Suggested Reading
The Underground Guide To The iPhone:
The iPhone is – if I may say so – one of the greatest mobile
revolutions of the past decade. More and more, mobile phones seem to
materialize out of our wildest dreams. Because of the tight integration
of third-party applications, you can do nearly everything with your
device — be it gaming, working, fooling around, and of course phoning.
Good Mobile Messaging: Executives and professional field forces spend an increasing amount of time on the road tending to business.
Mobile Apps - Native or Web?:
You probably have a plan to build a mobile app, but you've struggled
with the basic question - Should I build it using open web standards
such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, or should I build it as a native app
for the devices I want to target?
iBike Coach App- a new “Always On” feature always gathers data
Nike+ GPS App- for sports tracking, recording and sharing
Featured Events
Content & Apps for Automotive Europe 2012 (18-19 April, Germany)
will give you key insights on how in-vehicle connectivity is being
revolutionised as OEMs integrate dynamic content to stay relevant
throughout the vehicle life cycle.
Location Intelligence for Enterprise - Europe 2012, January 16-17, London Hear from Google, Jones Lang LaSalle, Tesco, Willis, Oracle,
ESRI, Microsoft, PBBI and many more as they debate the best strategies
for business models and integration.
Consumer Telematics Show 2012 (Jan 9, Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas, USA) is the most prestigious and
dynamic consumer telematics focused meeting for the automotive industry.
Held in Las Vegas on the eve of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES),
this year's senior-level speakers will include General Motors, Audi,
Toyota, Panasonic, Continental, Hughes Telematics, Gartner, KIA,
Mercedes-Benz and many more
Esri Dev Summit - The
Esri Developer Summit (DevSummit) brings together developers and GIS
professionals from all over the globe. March 26-29, 2012, Palm Springs,
CA
