The other day I reported I had been chosen as a DashExpress beta tester.  And today was the day - the Dash arrived!  Herewith, for your viewing pleasure, the great unboxing:

The box itself.

Open it up, and we have an installation guide and a getting started guide.
And a DashExpress.  It looks cute.

The entire contents of the box.
L to R, the DashExpress itself, a mounting bracket, and a nice little case, then
a USB cable (labeled, "do not use, computer connectivity not yet activated"),
a mounting disc, and two power adapters, one for the wall, one for the car.

Plug it in, turn it on, and poof! it works, and immediately finds an update to install.

Shades of Tivo, it gives you running commentary as it boots...

We made it!  Now it starts searching for GPS satellites...

And it has found them!  And located "my car", pretty exactly.
Awesome!

In addition to plugging in the DashExpress itself, I went online and registered myself at my.dash.net, a little portal where you can maintain addresses and other information for your DashExpress.  As soon as I entered my "home" and "work" addresses, the DashExpress made a little noise and confirmed the addresses had been downloaded.  Cool.

Of course the proof of this pudding is in the eating; I need to put it in my car and drive around.  Not only is it supposed to be a cool GPS, but it gets realtime traffic, so it can route dynamically based on actual driving speeds.  I can't wait to try it out.  Stay tuned!