MSN Direct is the information service that you might remember from Microsoft's SPOT watches; it's just basically news, weather and stock information, for now. It was unusual when it was being delivered via RF to watches and coffee machines; in the handheld world, it has to compete with dozens of other news and information delivery services.

Still, it's cute. The information pops up in a panel on your home screen, and when you tap on it, it expands, finally launching Internet Explorer for full details. Right now the 'news' section only takes information from MSN. But Microsoft wants to make Direct's development process unusually open to users' suggestions, and they're asking people to download the beta and suggest other panels of information they'd like to see. Hey, it's free.

Check it out at Microsoft's site. More photos after the jump.