Microsoft My Phone
Last week in Barcelona Microsoft unveiled Windows Mobile 6.5, the latest iteration of its mobile phone OS which looks..well a bit like the old one with a few extra bits on the front end. Regardless of the fact that I have just upgraded to a new phone I can still quite happily say it’s not a patch on the iPhone.
But that’s not what this post is about, but the abbreviated version of why I stuck with Orange and now the HTC Touch HD rather than defect to O2 and the iPhone is that the Exchange push mail is far better on Windows Mobile. Not that’s its too shabby on the iPhone of course, but I need my phone to compliment my business and not my lifestyle.
This post is about the new free service that Microsoft announced called My Phone, which allows Windows Mobile 6 and above users to synchronize nearly everything that is contained on their phone. Contacts, calendars, tasks, text messages, photos, videos, music and documents to be precise. The service is currently in beta, and the only way in is either to get a beta code or register your interest and hope you get the nod.
Fortunately the nod in question came to me on Saturday morning so I thought I would give my initial impressions here.
After signing in to the My Phone web site you are asked to provide the phone number of the device you will be using. This will then send a text message to the phone containing a link to the My Phone web site to install the application. Not exactly brain crushing stuff so far.
As anyone who has ever installed an application on Windows Mobile will know, it’s not exactly the most exciting thing in the world and My Phone is no exception. A couple of clicks and you’re off. All that’s left to do is enter your Windows Live id and tell it what you want to sync.
Now here is the biggie for me, you cannot sync your contacts, calendars or tasks if your phone is connected to an Exchange server as all of your information is already safely sat on a server back at the office. The My Phone service is designed purely for folks with a single phone that perhaps synchronizes with their home PC.
I configured mine to synchronize all of the other items such as text messages and photos so I could at least test the service properly. It will also back up data that is both on the phone and any storage card you may happen to have connected.
One item of note after you have configured what to sync is it will ask you how often to do so. There is also a very strong warning that if you select the continuous synch that you should only do so if you have an unlimited data plan. I’ve got mine set to sync manually, which I do when I’m either at home or in the office so as to use WiFi rather than my 3G data.
After configuring and synchronizing the phone for the first time it’s off to the My Phone web site where you can administer the service. Microsoft provide you with 200Mb of free space at the moment, which I would expect (hope?) to be ramped up after the service goes live.
I’ve used the service to clear out my text messages and tidy the phone up somewhat, which usually I would do from the handset but I haven’t read the manual yet as it’s not particularly exciting. Perhaps I should take all the user manuals I haven’t read on the plane with me this weekend so I can get some sleep?
It’s incredibly easy to be cynical and say that My Phone is just a pseudo knock off version of Mobile Me, and perhaps it sort of it. But if you are forced to use Windows Mobile and want a way of keeping an online backup your mobile data or frequently change phones and want to be able to synchronize it easily then My Phone is a handy bolt on component for you. Of course right now this is just a beta service and the web site itself looks rather sparse (save for the enormous MSN advertisements). Hopefully when the service launches I would imagine with Windows Mobile 6.5 it will have had a new coat of paint. But for now, it’s a handy service even though I can’t sync my mail data with it.
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Category: Tech Stuff
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About the Author (Author Profile)
By day I work in IT as an infrastructure manager, specialising in Microsoft technologies, primarily Windows and Exchange Server.
On here I write about my passions, movies, videogames, technology and particularly the world of high definition.
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Say what you want… I think the reason you can’t sync contacts, calendars or tasks is because all they did was set up a giant Microsoft Exchange Server farm with some custom developed SharePoint Portal Services to hold the rest of the content. A pretty quick and easy answer to MobileMe.
Personally, I think it is unreasonable to prevent me from backing up my contacts, calendars, and tasks to the MyPhone service. I could go on and write all about the potential reasons why Microsoft won’t let you sync contacts, calendars, and tasks if you are using ActiveSync. Some of them actually make sense. But, it doesn’t mean it’s right.
G