MSN Direct was an
FM radio
FM broadcasting is a method of radio broadcasting using frequency modulation (FM). Invented in 1933 by American engineer Edwin Armstrong, wide-band FM is used worldwide to provide high fidelity sound over broadcast radio. FM broadcasting is cap ...
-based digital service which allowed '
SPOT
Spot or SPOT may refer to:
Places
* Spot, North Carolina, a community in the United States
* The Spot, New South Wales, a locality in Sydney, Australia
* South Pole Traverse, sometimes called the South Pole Overland Traverse
People
* Spot (produ ...
' portable devices to receive information from
MSN
MSN (meaning Microsoft Network) is a web portal and related collection of Internet services and apps for Windows and mobile devices, provided by Microsoft and launched on August 24, 1995, alongside the release of Windows 95.
The Microsoft Net ...
services. Devices that supported MSN Direct included wristwatches, desktop clocks, in-car
GPS
The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a Radionavigation-satellite service, satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of t ...
satellite navigation units, and even small appliances such as coffee makers. Information available through paid "channels" included weather, horoscopes, stocks, news, sports results and calendar notifications. The service also allowed users to receive short messages from
Windows Live Messenger
MSN Messenger (also known colloquially simply as "Messenger"), later rebranded as Windows Live Messenger, was a cross-platform instant messaging client, instant-messaging client developed by Microsoft. It connected to the Microsoft Messenger ser ...
.
Some
Garmin
Garmin Ltd. (shortened to Garmin, stylized as GARMIN, and formerly known as ProNav) is an American, Swiss-domiciled multinational technology company founded in 1989 by Gary Burrell and Min Kao in Lenexa, Kansas, United States, with headquart ...
GPS units, such as the ''nüvi 680'', allowed traffic notifications, weather forecasts, movie schedules and local gas prices to be received through MSN Direct.
As a radio-based service, MSN Direct did not have universal coverage, but was available in populated parts of the United States and Canada. It was not launched in other areas.
Microsoft's latest expansion of MSN Direct was to the Windows Mobile platform. MSN Direct for Windows Mobile took advantage of both cellular and
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio wave ...
connections, and allowed Microsoft devices to better compete with the information services available on other mobile phone platforms.
There were three versions of the MSN Direct software for Garmin ''nüvi'' GPS receivers:
* Version 1, which was available for all ''nüvis'', allowed users to receive local gas prices, movie times, weather forecasts, and current conditions.
* Version 2, which was available for series 700 and 800 of ''nüvi'' receivers, offered enhanced movie listings, local events, news, stock prices, and the ability to send Microsoft's Live Search Maps data to a ''nüvi''.
* Version 3 offered general airport delays for incoming and outgoing flights (but not individual flight delays) and a Doppler radar map when viewing weather.
The service was shut down on January 1, 2012, as originally announced in October 2009.
MSN Direct Discontinued , MSN Direct web site
See also
* DirectBand
DirectBand was a North American wireless datacasting, datacast network owned and operated by Microsoft. It used FM radio broadcasts in over 100 cities to constantly transmit data to a variety of devices, including portable GPS devices, wristwatche ...
* Datacast
Datacasting (data broadcasting) is the broadcasting of data over a wide area via radio waves. It most often refers to supplemental information sent by television stations along with digital terrestrial television (DTT), but may also be applied ...
* Pager
A pager (also known as a beeper or bleeper) is a wireless telecommunications device that receives and displays alphanumeric or voice messages. One-way pagers can only receive messages, while response pagers and two-way pagers can also acknow ...
References
External links
MSN Direct
Internet protocols
Products and services discontinued in 2012
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