11. MSN Direct

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 nuvi 780 and 880 units extend the MSN Direct 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 and 880 provide the additional features listed below).

Garmin's nuvi 880 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 67: MSN Direct Service Coverage Map for North America

Figure 68: 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.

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. In other words, just because you can receive MSN Direct signals doesn't mean you're in an area of traffic coverage. You can check if traffic information is reported in your local area by visiting MSN's Data Availability Chart.

Be sure to check the coverage map before signing up for MSN Direct; coverage in the United States is improving, 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.

In order to begin the free 3-month MSN Direct trail, you'll need to go online and activate the MSN Direct receiver at Garmin's MSN Direct activation site.

Figure 69: Entering the MSN Direct Product Key

The product key is printed on a yellow sticker attached to the 12v power adapter/MSN Direct receiver. Enter this number to begin the activation process.

You don't need a credit card or have to input any personal information to start the 3-months of service.

Figure 70: Associating MSN Direct with your Windows Live ID

MSN Direct provides the option of associating the device with your Windows Live ID, if you have one. Using Windows Live allows you to send addresses wirelessly to the GPS.

Figure 71: Choosing an MSN Direct Service Plan

Microsoft provides a lifetime activation option, at $130, or yearly service for $50 per year. You can also choose the last option, and just begin the three months of free service. If you decide the MSN Direct features are worth $50/year, you can always renew the service at any time.

Figure 72: MSN Direct Service Activation

Once the activation steps have been completed online, power on the GPS, plug in the MSN Direct adapter, and make sure you're in an area of MSN Direct coverage. The GPS will automatically pickup the activation signal and turn on the MSN Direct features within 20 minutes.

Figure 73: Main Menu

Once activated online, MSN Direct features can be accessed by taping 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 74: Accessing MSN Direct

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

Figure 75: 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 76: 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 77: 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 78: MSN Direct Weather, Other Cities

If you tap on "Other City" from the Weather screen (shown in figure 78), the nuvi 880 displays the local weather conditions of nearby cities, listed in order of closeness to your current location.

Figure 79: 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 80: 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 81: 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 82: Movies Playing at a Theater

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

Figure 83: 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 84: 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 85: 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.