Sony’s Dash, unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show on Wednesday, typifies the increasing number of hybrid products being made possible on small screens with internet connectivity.
Its mother is the digital photo frame (DPF) and its father could be a bedside alarm clock, but it has an elder brother in the Chumby , which seems to have had a big influence on the Dash.
Sony admits as much. It is licensing more than 1,000 apps from Chumby Industries and adding its own including YouTube, Pandora internet radio and Sony movie trailers and music videos.
Sony calls the Dash a personal internet viewer. It features a 7-inch touch screen, stereo speakers and uses a Wi-Fi connection to pull in news, sport, weather, traffic and social networking updates and many more services.
Different members of a family can have their own profiles and the device can multitask – playing internet radio while online pictures are browsed, for example.
The Dash will be available in April for $200.
