Called MSN Direct, the open API is designed make it more convenient for drivers. Instead of reentering or searching again for location information on navigation devices, the API allows them to send it directly from the website wirelessly or via USB connection.

There is a catch. It’s only compatible with MSN Direct-enabled devices, most of them manufactured by Garmin or Alpine Electronics. Nonetheless, the application could be a nice feature especially for real estate, travel, and event-focused websites.

“As more and more consumers are using their PC to locate their desired destinations and then needing to find those exact locations on their GPS device, MSN Direct is making that process easier for our customers,” said Roger Jollis, Garmin’s director of OEM and mobile marketing.

The good news for developers is the MSN Direct API is free and, according to Microsoft, pretty simple. Interested developers can access it at MSN Direct’s developer page.
 

Radio advertising has long held a dominant position in reaching the mobile consumers. Since watching TV or surfing the Internet while driving can lead to activity-crimping incidents like being hit by a dump truck, the audio-only way of reaching people for decades held a de facto monopoly on advertising to drivers.

GPS devices began to gain in popularity as they dropped in price while becoming easier for a typical retail customer to use. This broader adoption may hold the key to reaching customers from the Internet, something Microsoft hopes to manage with its MSN Direct service for GPS.

Microsoft announced an open API for the MSN Direct Send to GPS feature for navigation devices. Visitors to websites using the API will be able to send details about that business to their GPS devices before hitting the road.

While the wireless option for delivery should be popular, Microsoft also enabled a USB interface connection for sending that data to the GPS.

Once the location data is in place on the GPS, the driver may navigate to it as with any other point in the system. The XML document delivered over the API contains options to place address, phone number, and other related details in the GPS device.

We expect early business adopters to receive a nudge from Microsoft to promote this information to website visitors. It may not be a big driver of GPS sales, unless some category of websites manages to make such information so useful to people that they want a GPS unit to take advantage of it.

The software, which requires a data connection (any you can provide, whether EDGE, 3G, Wi-fi, whatever), adds a module to your device’s home screen. The section shows the top item from a single category, and is the only way to access the software (there isn’t a program in the Programs list to launch). You can thus see the top story in any category, the weather, or stock quotes on your home screen at all times, and scroll through the top items in each category without leaving the screen.

Select that module, and you actually launch the software. There, each section appears as a page, which you navigate through be pressing left and right. You can view top stories, specific news sections (which you turn on or off in the Top Stories preferences), weather (you select your local city and any number of other cities, and can see today’s weather at different times plus the next few days) and stock quotes (again, which you can choose).

On any page, you can usually scroll up an down and select an item for more information. You can get even further information, at which point the software will usually launch your web browser. There are sponsor ads at the top of each page, and in their own Sponsor section, which you can ignore or check out if interested.

The software is certainly useful, especially in the way it is integrated, and is a free no-risk decision anyways. The worst thing about it? It only runs on smartphones, and not the more capable touchscreen PDA phones. Also, when not selected, the home screen section blends in too well, and thus looks a bit strange just showing a floating headline (except for when it has a thumbnail image, which is rare).

Phones it definitely supports:

• AT&T BlackJack I
• AT&T BlackJack II
• AT&T Moto Q Global
• AT&T 3125
• Sprint Moto Q 9c
• Sprint Moto Q
• T-Mobile Shadow
• T-Mobile Dash
• T-Mobile SDA
• Unicel Motorola Q
• Verizon Wireless SMT5800
• Verizon Wireless Moto Q 9m
• Verizon Wireless Motorola Q
• HTC S710
• HTC S730

If you have a Smartphone not on this list, you are welcome to try, but I wouldn’t even attempt to install it on a touchscreen device. I did, and it refused to install on my T-Mobile MDA. Luckily, my wife has the SDA, so now she gets the benefit of this software, and I’m left wondering why my more advanced phone, running practically the same operating system, isn’t allowed to use it.
(via Loke Uei Tan)

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 MSN Direct, which transmits information over FM airwaves to devices, will allow the GPS to receive live traffic, fuel prices, weather reports, movie listings, local events of interest, news, and stock prices. Also, users will be able to look up destinations at home in Windows Live Local, then click a button to send it directly to their GPS unit. Very nice.

Amazon has the 780 for $900. It has a sunlight-readable 4.3 inch touch screen, weighs six ounces, an anti-theft feature, internal solid state memory (plus an SD card slot) and a headphone jack for use as an MP3 player. MSN Direct is free for the first three months, followed by a yearly $50 charge. You can also pay $130 and never have to pay the subscription fee again.

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