Microsoft may be getting the crap beat out of it in Europe these days, thanks to Monti and his anti-trust goons (you musn't give people things for free!!), but the software giant is plugging away, developing offerings for customers at an impressive rate for a large fim:

Microsoft aims to score with sports fans with the launch Monday of its first add-on service for so-called smart watches.

The company unveiled its MSN Direct data service in June, delivering news headlines, weather forecasts and other updates to smart watches. The add-on promises to provide MSN Direct subscribers with the latest information on basketball teams in the National Basketball Association (NBA), Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), and National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I teams.

The content itself will be generated by ESPN, a television and Internet sports network, and will feature information such as scores, statistics, standings and game times, according to Microsoft.

The Redmond, Wash.-based software giant has been pushing hard to establish itself as a software and content vendor in the nascent market for smart watches, devices that look like traditional wristwatches but feature embedded capabilities for receiving data via wireless transmissions.

Convergence, they name is wristwatch? Maybe not, but this takes us further down the road of always on news and info streams, a positive development.