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Microsoft's offering promises to make checking email, hands-free cell phones, and downloading music while driving as easy it is with a PC.

Ford is hoping that the Microsoft technology, dubbed Sync, will revitalize sales in North America, which were anything but stellar in 2006. According to the Wall Street Journal, the technology will be offered as an option in all Ford vehicles starting in the 2008 model year.

The carmaker currently offers many technological features, like iPod jacks, satellite-radio, and Bluetooth equipment for cell phones.

Microsoft is also hoping the deal will help its Windows Automotive division - which in 2004 struck a broad development deal with Fiat - improve its Bluetooth know-how. Fiat offers a similar technology called SpA outside the U.S.