ExtraDash, Though Not Yet Perfect, Looks Awesome On The iPad
September 30, 2011
Combination apps are nothing new on the iPad. And yet, perhaps there is none better than ExtraDash, which just arrived in the App Store. Created by Amotech Ltd., the $4.99 app is like a high-tech, Swiss Army Knife for your tablet.
Called “Your Luxury Application,” ExtraDash offers worldwide Internet radio, GPS, news, music, and indeed, a lot more.
Designed using an impressive white-on-black interface, the app includes tools for both Wi-Fi and 3G users.
All users will benefit from ExtraDash’s Internet radio capabilities. Initially, in the U.S., 40 stations are available for live streaming including Star 102.5 FM in New York and Texas Austin 95.5FM. You can also change your home country setting at anytime and listen to stations from around the world.
Not interested in listening to Internet Radio? No problem. Simply fire-up the app’s music player. Here you can listen to songs and playlists from your iPad’s Music app. Strangely, you can only listen to Internet radio in the background. When you begin using another app, the music player turns off. Hopefully, this huge limitation will be corrected with a future app update. ExtraDash also includes Apple TV connections, allowing you to control and listen to everything you have in the app on your ATV as well. Other features available to all iPad owners include access to the latest news headlines, GPS (which shows your current location), and the ability to update and review your Facebook feeds directly from within the app. For 3G users, ExtraDash also includes the so-called Awesome Live Speed. As you’re driving, the app will automatically update your current speed and offer a speed history graph. This feature will also work on Wi-Fi only iPads that use iPhone tethering. As much as we like the initial release of ExtraDash, it does come with some irritating limitations. In addition to its inability to allow music playing in the background, the app’s news feature is lacking. While the app does offer a headline or two (with links to full articles) at the bottom left of the screen, these appear randomly and sometimes, they don’t show up at all. In addition, ExtraDash lacks customization tools that would make it better. For example, it would be nice to have the option to deactivate those features we don’t want or cannot use. Plus, adding a weather or Twitter feature would also be beneficial. Overall, however, we’re quite impressed with what Amotech has already done. In fact, even though ExtraDash isn’t yet “perfect,” it does come highly recommended mainly because of its notable list of features, and of course, its price, which we find more than reasonable. In fact, in time, we’re confident future app updates will make the app’s $4.99 price tag look even more unbelievable. Download ExtraDash today in the App Store.
