5. Nuvi 780's Enhanced MSN Direct Features

Garmin has teamed up with Microsoft's MSN Direct to provide various services based on your current location. The nuvi 680 was Garmin's first GPS to make use of MSN Direct, and the 780 extends the offering by providing "Enhanced MSN Direct" (the nuvi 680's MSN Direct service only provided traffic, weather, gas prices, and movie times, while the nuvi 780's Enhanced MSN Direct service provides the additional features listed below).

Garmin's nuvi 780 includes 3-months of MSN Direct service for free, after which you'll have to subscribe for about $50/year if you want to continue using the service. MSN Direct service isn't required for basic GPS navigation, but does provide some nice additional features, including:

• Traffic Reports
• Send to GPS
• Gas Prices
• Weather Reports
• Movie Times
• Local Events
• Stock Quotes
• News Headlines

Before signing up for service, you'll want to make sure there's service in your local area. You can check service coverage using MSN Direct's Coverage website, and viewing the coverage map for your area.

Figure 31: MSN Direct Service Coverage Map for North America

Figure 32: MSN Direct Service Coverage - Hartford, CT

Zooming in on MSN Direct's coverage map allows you to view more detailed coverage information for your local area. For example, figure 32 shows a detailed coverage map for the Hartford, CT area.

Note that MSN Direct service coverage is NOT the same thing as Traffic Information coverage. Traffic coverage is much more limited than service coverage, and is generally only reported for cities and major highways. That means it's entirely possible that the coverage map will show you living within solid green coverage, but traffic information might not be available in your area. You can check if traffic information is reported in your area by visiting MSN's Data Availability Chart.

Bottom line: check the coverage map before signing up for MSN Direct; coverage in the United States is generally pretty good, but it's still wise to check first. Second, if your primarily subscribing for the traffic data, consider that traffic information is generally limited to major highways and cities.

Figure 33: Main Menu

To access the Enhanced MSN Direct features, tap on the Tools icon from the Main Menu. Also, note that the current outdoor temperature is displayed in the top center of the screen when you're traveling within an MSN Direct coverage area.

Figure 34: Accessing MSN Direct

Tap on the MSN butterfly icon to access the MSN Direct features.

Figure 35: MSN Direct Main Menu

The following options are available via the MSN Direct menu, shown above:

• Traffic
• Weather
• Gas Prices
• Movie Times
• News
• Stocks
• Local Events
• Web Favorites

We'll take a look at all the features of MSN Direct, but first let's take a look at the weather report by tapping on Weather.

Figure 36: MSN Direct - Weather Report

Tapping on Weather from the MSN menu displays the weather conditions at your current location. You can also view the 3 day forecast, or tap on Other City to view the weather conditions in an alternate location.

Figure 37: MSN Direct Weather, Forecast

The MSN Weather Forecast displays a 3-day forecast of the weather at your current location. The forecast includes the visibility, high/low temperature, and precipitation.

Figure 38: MSN Direct Weather, Other Cities

If you tap on "Other City" from the Weather screen (shown in figure 36), the nuvi 780 displays the local weather conditions of nearby cities, listed in order of closeness to your current location.

Figure 39: MSN Direct Data - Weather at Destination Address

Another integrated MSN Direct feature shows up when entering a destination address. Once you've successfully entered in an address you want to route to, you'll notice that the nuvi will also display the local weather conditions at that destination. You can even tap on the weather icon and get more detailed weather reports at your destination address.

Figure 40: MSN Direct - Weather Alert

If a weather alert is received while navigating to a destination, such as flood, wind, or lightening warnings, the inclement weather icon will appear on the map screen, as shown above. Tapping on the weather icon will display more detailed information about the weather alert.

Figure 41: MSN Direct - Movie Listings

From the MSN Direct menu, tap on Movie Times to view local movie theater information. You can search for local movie listings either by movie title or by theater.

Select "Searching by Movie Theater" and the nuvi displays a list of nearby movie theaters, ordered by closeness to your current location.

Figure 42: Movies Playing at a Theater

Tapping on a theater then displays the movies playing at that cinema, and the show times.

Figure 43: MSN Direct - Stock Quotes

The Stock Quotes page can be customized to display the stocks of your choosing. Notice the "Waiting for broadcast" message shown above: it can take a while before MSN Direct data is downloaded and available.

Figure 44: MSN Direct - News

Top news stories can be viewed by tapping the News icon from the MSN Direct menu. Each headline story can be read by tapping on the news item in the list. There's no way to search for a particular news story, or customize the feed, so you're limited to the headline news feed from MSN Direct.

Figure 45: MSN Direct - Gas Prices

Tapping on Gas Prices from the MSN menu displays a list of local gas stations (ordered by closeness) and the price per gallon of gas (regular unleaded) sold at that station. The page also displays the distance and direction to the gas station, as well as the age of the data.

MSN Direct collects this data by observing credit card transactions at gas stations, and recording the price paid per gallon of gas. Using this data, you can choose the gas station that has the most competitive gas price, even if it's not the closest gas station.

Note that only stations with known gas prices are included in this view. In my area, several local gas stations did not show up on the MSN Direct Gas Prices search. So if you want a complete list of gas stations, you'll want to use the POI (Points of Interest) menu and search for gas stations. Presumably the data will get more complete over time, but for now I noticed that not all nearby gas stations were reported by MSN Direct.