The Garmin booth wall is plastered with Nuvis. Or is that Nuviis? Regardless, these are sweet looking GPS navigation units. Even mo’ better is the integration with the MSN Direct service on the higher end models: look for the 780 and 880 this spring at $799 and $999 respectively. Garmin already had MSN Direct service in some models, but this year, they’re not the only ones: Microsoft announced partnerships with Pioneer, Goodyear and others to put their service in a nav device. Having weather, traffic, stocks and more come over the FM airwaves comes in pretty handy; I say that as a former SPOT watch owner with the service.
In a UMPC twist, StreetDeck says they’re adding MSN Direct to an after-market, touch-screen UMPC, but I haven’t seen the details yet. Are they truly embedding an FM radio in a UMPC or this just a touchscreen, car-puter / nav system they’re calling a UMPC? We’ll have to dig around for that. Even if they don’t offer a full-fledged UMPC, I wouldn’t mind seeing someone else add the service their device. Could be handy for when you need some basic info but don’t have any other connectivity. Hmm… especially with a SideShow display!

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