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Sony Fixes Flubbed Dash Download (sony.com)
New submitter FourG writes: Not much fanfare (which is to be expected given the niche of the device now) but it looks like Sony posted a fix for the much maligned "can't download dashboard" error. It requires a USB key and can't be done over-the-air. My Dash required a factor reset afterward before it successfully downloaded the dashboard, but YMMV...
I have no idea what the summary is talking about.
You can't spell "oneiromancy" without "roman".
The Dash appears to be a much maligned alarm clock tablet by Sony. I guess this fix addresses some of the issues owners have had and complained about.
I personally find the target audience for this device hard to envision. I guess it's for people that aren't satisfied with a simple alarm clock and either don't want to bring a tablet to bed or don't own one. No thank you.
Finally, a note about editing. If a script can do a better job editing, maybe you shouldn't be an editor. I really don't think this summary was looked at by a person, in which case: Whiplash, please hire developers to make better editing scripts. The summaries should contain information about the device, why we might want to care, and the issue with the device--none of which show up in this summary.
The product page for the Sony Dash does not really shed any more light on what it is, but the pictures indicate it is a clunky tablet-like device which you can be stood on a table against a backdrop of different home furnishings, mostly in soft focus.
A Sony press release from 2010 says that:
Sony today announced that its new Dash, a Wi-Fi touch screen device that pushes real-time, personalized Internet content to users in their homes or offices ...
Featuring a 7-inch color touch screen, Dash uses your existing wireless internet connection to provide a continuous display of your selections from over 1,000 free apps, many provided by chumby industries ...
Apparently "Chumby Industries" is a service provider for this sort of device which, according to its own website, had "year-long hiatus sometime relatively recently.
So it looks as if those who stuck with the device, despite an apparent year-long absence of some of the services, suffered a bug at some point which prevented them from using it, and that Sony has released a patch to fix it.
I thought we were all boycotting Sony since the rootkit fiasco and PS3 firmware feature removal?
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
Regarding the Dash, they are/were devices from Sony running a licensed and tweaked version of the Chumby software, but communicating only with Sony servers.
Regarding the current status of Chumby, the company folded several years ago, though the servers were kept up for somewhat longer by investors in hopes of finding a market. Once that fell through, one of the Chumby employees purchased the bulk of what was left for what I suspect was a nominal amount, put up a server to provide basic clock capabilities while he got things straightened out, then left that basic service up and running and now has subscriptions available for people who want (many of) the previous capabilities of the devices. If you have an old Chumby you should be able to use it as a clock.
Regarding the Chumby itself, it was an Internet-connected tiny-board computer running something Linux based with a touchscreen running applets built in a stripped-down version of Flash. Without an Internet connection, they're not quite bricks but close (there is an offline/serverless setup you can do to run them from a USB stick). The appealing thing about them isn't and wasn't the hardware (basic ARM stuff from before the iPhone existed). The appeal of the Chumby even now is that (as others have noted) it's a clock with some computer features. The Chumby has streaming audio from multiple sources (predefined or manually-entered URLs), an FM tuner, hardware volume knob, snooze button, USB port for a stick with MP3s, etc. along with WiFi and the ability to connect to it via SSH.
These days you can get better software capabilities with a stand and an old Android phone plus a few apps, but even then you're probably going to spend quite a bit more time fiddling with that setup than you will by just plugging in a Chumby, entering a WiFi key, and maybe setting a schedule for switching to/from night mode. And you still won't have a snooze button.
fencepost
just a little off
Somehow, knowledge of what the Dash actually is escaped me. From reading the various posts I have learned that it is "much maligned," has suffered from serious recent problems, and that the fixed for such is also fucked up. I was certainly not surprised to learn it is a Sony product (may their entrails be eaten by scorpions.) With luck, I will forget all about it by dinner time.
Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
I stopped using mine a few years ago after the channels started to slowly disappear. Yes, it was an over glorified alarm clock. But it was nice to glance at various pages that scrolled by like traffic cameras, weather, news stories, etc. When it became simply a clock I was done with it.