Fortunately, that is plenty of time for subscribers to the GPS information service to jump ship. You don't even have to wait for your subscription to terminate—just shut down your service anytime before the end date and receive a refund for the unused portion of your service. Check out the MSN Direct page for the full details. [MSN Direct via Electronista]

The Price: Garmin says $800, but you can find it online for $690.

The Verdict: It's the best all-around GPS on the market, but there are too many halfway decent Garmin models for less than half the price.

The 880 isn't the first GPS with voice command, but it's definitely the best. The remote button that you strap to your steering wheel makes activating it easy, and being able to dictate addresses including obscure street names is only part of the fun. When you're in POI search, you can name popular locations ("Starbucks") or categories (it actually understands synonyms like "Fuel" and "Gas"). Most importantly, you can tap the button and say things like "Cancel Route" or "Volume Up," commands most likely to be issued while driving, ensuring you stay safer than if you were to try to do these things with your fingers while keeping your wheels on the road. The only problem with voice command is that, to function, it requires the remote (pictured above). If somehow you break off the remote or lose it, you will forever lose the ability to talk to your 880, so be careful.

As you can see in the video, with the exception of its inability to understand "Cancel" or "Exit" while performing certain functions, it responds extremely well to natural speech:

We've said repeatedly that Garmin is the best bet for anyone shopping for GPS, and the 880 demonstrates this to be the case. It doesn't mean it's perfect, it's just by far the least infuriating navigator on the road today. Garmin often adds features later than others, but this only strengthens its predominance, since those like TomTom and Magellan—not to mention the innovative but ailing Dash—rush revolutionary features without spending time on core interface issues, and fail because of it.

Some of the 880's perks do not get me excited: I have yet to meet a Bluetooth speakerphone that doesn't result in people yelling that they can't hear me, a problem having as much to do with every different phone's cheap-o Bluetooth chip, no doubt. I also am very underwhelmed by the MSN Direct service that the 880 offers ("free" for 3 months). Its main feature is the traffic reporting but that information, even in massive metro areas, has proven to me to be absolutely useless. The 880 is as dumb as the lowliest GPS when it comes to awareness, and my hope is that historic traffic trends will soon be better integrated at the map database level—i.e. with Navteq and Tele Atlas—in order to make routing more smart even without the need for connectivity or any kind of realtime guesswork.

Some of you may realize that this review is long overdue. One reason is that, when I first got the 880, it had some bugginess that I'm glad to say has been fixed with a firmware update. Another reason for the delay is that I wanted to see how long it would take to stop using the voice commands. Sadly, it didn't take very long, but in prepping for this review, I started using the voice commands more, and realized that it's an asset I shouldn't so readily overlook. Just don't lose the remote, or you lose the feature. [Product Page]

Hands On Garmin's Streetpilot C580 GPS: Instant Traffic, Movies, Gas Prices...with a Catch [Gizmodo]

First off, it locks onto satellites in less than 30 seconds after power up— It's the fastest navigator I've ever had the pleasure of road tripping on. It's also one of the first navigators to utilize a MSNDirect over the air connection to grab regionalized traffic, movie, weather, and gas prices, sorted by proximity to you and your car. And like all Garmin setups, I can program in an address in about 20 seconds, which is pretty damn fast compared to the competition.

Yes, it's great. Except for a few minor flaws and one major screw up:

Number one on the list is useless MP3 functionality. Please, the GPS will not replace the iPod. Drop this function and give us a few bucks back. Secondly, the movie theater information is incomplete. In SF, the damn thing kept trying to send me to Daly City to watch 300 movie. Then, the most terrible flaw is that MSNDirect doesn't pick up data if you roam from your home region. This was most evident as I got stuck in Lake Tahoe for two days, as 5 feet of snow dropped shutting down highways, traffic crawled in Sacramento, while the little GPS hummed along like it was just another balmy day in California. [UPDATE: Actually, Tahoe is out of the MSNDirect coverage area. But Sacramento isn't. Garmin says the c580 should roam. Good! The problem is that the Garmin takes awhile to load up new data in a new area, and by the time its loaded, you might already have driven through it. Bad for road trips.]I sure wish Garmin would fix this flaw on an otherwise wonderful car-toy. Then again, the MSNDirect issue seems to fall in Microsoft's domain. Evil corporation, please fix, kthx.

If I were buying a GPS, I'd go for this model's predecessor, the c550, if you can get it for much cheaper. It's last year's model, but you know that list of nice things I said about the StreetPilot? The c550 has all of the good stuff, and none of the bad stuff. Until the Dash Net-enabled GPS comes out, the c550 seems like the one to have.–Brian Lam

c580 [Garmin]

It does the head-of-its-class GPS navigation that all Garmins do. But like the 680, it has the ability to download gas prices, movie times, weather, and traffic — and use that data to route you accordingly. Add a Mcdonalds finder before road trip season, and we'll be up to our neck in McNuggets in no time. Garmin's entry is just in time, to meet the challenge from upstart Dash, with their cellular-data equipped GPS hitting California roads in a month or so.

I'd be happy, but not thrilled to hear about this setup, but screenshots abound. The integration looks tight.

–Brian Lam

Garmin c580 [via GPS Track Log]

There's no setup, subscription or Internet connection required—it's all broadcast to you via the FM band. Plus, the coffeemaker automatically grinds and brews that java for you, so you can load it up with beans and water the night before and be greeted with a steamy carafe of that jitter-inducing manna from heaven.

What a great idea, to have a live weather display on a coffeemaker. That's exactly the place you're standing when you're wondering what kind of day it's going to be outside. Spot-on use of SPOT, but you'll pay dearly at $199 when it's available November 15. – Charlie White

Melitta ME1MSB Smart Brew Coffeemaker With MSN Direct [SpotStop]