After a long, painful, nearly anonymous ride on the wrists of a select few uber-geeks, Microsoft's finally throwing in the towel on one of its longstanding pet projects: the SPOT watch. Those who've followed the technology recently (you know who you are) already know that the writing's been on the wall for some time; the applications and content available to the watches haven't been updated in ages, and indeed, the entire line of Abacus Smart Watch 2006 models -- the only type being recently offered -- has been discontinued and out of stock for a few months. For what it's worth, MSN Direct's program manager is quick to note that the underlying technology most certainly isn't going away; quite the contrary, in fact, with compatible Garmin and Windows Mobile products still going strong. Though your impetus may have been misguided and your fate sealed from the moment you hit the market, dearest wristwatches, your overwhelming nerdiness will be sorely missed. Oh, and for those of you who plan on sporting your piece of Microsoft history to the very bitter end, take some comfort in knowing that existing content types will continue to be delivered, at least.

If you thought Garmin had exhausted all possible options at CES, you thought wrong. Here at CeBIT, the outfit has rolled out four new navigators for your routing pleasure, starting with the nüvi 205 (3.5-inch) and 205W (4.3-inch). These siblings both feature a 333MHz processor, Garmin's own HotFix technology to get your position on the double, the famed "Where Am I?" feature and the ability to snatch traffic information via MSN Direct when used with an optional receiver. Additionally, these two are set to include map choices such as the contiguous United States, Canada or regional sections of Europe. As for the higher-end 255 and 255W (pictured), they'll be all too similar save for the maps, which promise "comprehensive coverage of North America, Europe, Australia or New Zealand." For pricing and availability information, click on after the jump.

[Via GPSReview]

Although MSN Direct has popped up in all sorts of devices over the years, we've always thought it belonged on cellphones, and it looks like Microsoft finally agrees -- it's announced a WinMo version of the auto-updating information system at MWC. The client uses your phone's data connection instead of the SPOT network to grab data -- but unlike other widget apps, the info is presented directly on the homescreen and auto-updates. Microsoft has got a technology preview of the app available now, no word on when or if it'll ever be standard fare.

Garmin's Nuvi 680 isn't exactly a major upgrade, virtually identical in appearance and features to the company's earlier Nuvi 660, with the notable exception of added MSN Direct support, which proved to be enough to get the folks at GPS Lodge to check it out for a full review. On that point, they found the 680 to mostly deliver the goods, with MSN Direct features like weather information and gas prices well-incorporated easily accessible. The MSN Direct Traffic feature, however, looks like it'll prove to be more useful to some than others, largely dependent on the coverage in your area. As for the 680's other functions, GPS Lodge found that the unit unsurprisingly performed identically to the Nuvi 660 -- in other words, very well. You'll still have to wait until March to get your hands on one, when it'll retail for $999 (including a free year of MSN Direct). Until then, you'll just have to make do with checking the weather on your coffee pot.

Microsoft and Clear Channel are teaming up to have MSN Direct deliver data like weather, traffic, movie listings, sports scores, and stock prices to HD Radio receivers. The new service, which will be known as MSN Direct HD, should start showing up in compatible HD Radios next year.

We were wondering when someone was going to combine the infinite utility of a GPS receiver with the limited but potentially powerful data conveyed by Microsoft's MSN Direct (i.e. SPOT network). Look for the forthcoming Garmin Nuvi 670 / 680 (apparent followups to the 660 and 610) to sport this feature, among others -- you'll know more when we do.

There are often days when we get up in the morning, stare down our coffee machine and think: "You know what would work really well on this thing? A weather display." Thank goodness, because Melitta has just announced its ME1MSB Smart Brew Coffeemaker with MSN Direct. The $250 MSRP coffeemaker (Amazon's got a pre-order for $200, ships on November 15), as you can imagine, brews a mean cup o' joe (perhaps not as strong as this espresso maker), but also displays up-to-the-minute weather information via MSN's FM sub-carrier broadcast network without requiring a subscription -- just plug it in wherever you can get a radio signal (most of the continental US is covered), and off you go to caffeinated meteorological heaven. We think that the ME1MSB will be a fine addition to our kitchen, because it would finally fulfill our dream of adding another way to getting the weather without peeking outside, bellying up to our computers, or reading that archaic RSS reader known among certain scholars as a "newspaper."

Even though Fossil has washed its hands of SPOT, Abacus, its "tech" brand, soldiers on. Some shady character was trying to hawk these to us at CES, but it looks like Abacus' next attempt at MSN Direct will debut in more official channels starting next month. Besides being incrementally prettier than their last round, the Smart Watch 2006 is available in a wider variety of styles, has twice the memory, and is alleged to download data faster from the SPOT network. What may not have occurred to Abacus, however, is that a cheesy black-and-white digital watch face is a cheesy watch face at any speed. We'll wait for SPOT 2.0, thanks.

[Via SpotStop]