Windows Mobile 7’s “My Phone” to feature remote contacts & calendar (update: not new)

As Mobile World Congress 2010 inches ever closer, an interesting bit of fact about Windows Mobile 7 has leaked early courtesy of an unusual suspect, Google AdWords.

Thanks to a heads-up from Rafael Rivera, a keyword ad for “Windows Mobile 7” placed by Microsoft on Google.com pointing to its My Phone service clearly indicates a new feature which will be supported in WM7, the syncing and remote management of phone contacts and calendar appointments.

This would be a great step up from the current limited ability to only backup photos, contacts and text messages as well as the ability to locate and wipe lost phones. Fittingly, MobileTechWorld also recently noticed a job ad pointing to a My Phone 2.0 release which hints at even more integration and services.

Update: It appears this feature may already be available on My Phone today, false alarm sorry. Unfortunatel since I use Exchange on my Windows phone, My Phone is severely crippled so I wasn’t aware of this.

21 insightful thoughts

  1. I’m confused…

    MyPhone does backup my calendar already… and contacts.

    I can edit, remove, create remotely on the MyPhone website already…

    1. you can edit calendar on website on pc, but the windows live and myphone systems do not allow you to see or edit calendar on your phone. this is a subject of frequent complaints/wishlist on the msft forums online.

      hopefully we will finally get windows live syncing of calendar to the phone.

      this will mean you can sync contacts and calendar to your phone wirelessly all the time, for free.

  2. Well if you have stuff in the Documents folder it should back it up right… or does it specifically only select documents (txt, doc, docx, rtf, pdf)… I will try it out.

    Apps backup would be awesome! Especially settings…

    Although backing up registry settings, doing a hard reset due to a fault and then restoring that same fault… eep.

  3. I think what this all means is that we will finally be able sync our Windows Live Contacts and Windows Live Calendar with Windows Mobile phones. This should have happened many years ago. If they make this new functionality a premium and paid-for service as I expect crazy and out of touch Steve Ballmer to do, I am moving everything I can and that I have accumulated for 10 years inside Hotmail to Google and considering an Android.

  4. You know for some reason I’m still not convinced we’ll be seeing “Windows Mobile 7” @ MWC. I reckon there’s definitely going to be a Zune Phone OS announced, probably bundled with an announcement of the Microsoft-branded Pink/Sidekick phones (aka from the Danger Acquisition), and something to do with the current WM build 6.5.5 (?)

    Also I think your spot on with the ‘My Phone’ services, Microsoft I think has been heading towards s+s (software+services) for a while now and it only seems logical to build on the My Phone service, probably along with xbox (for the Zune Phone) & live integration.

    But I figured they still haven’t announced Windows Mobile 6.5.5 which has been leaked, but this Zune Phone is almost certain, so perhaps MS is splitting their development on Phone OS’ (after WinMob has essentially failed to catch up on iPhone in the 24 months). I was guessing a branch for WinMob – perhaps merging elements of CE over time maybe with the announcement of 6.5.5 re-branded as 6.6(?) and a branch for Zune which integrates Phone Capabilities (But will they really call that WM7?!) ?

    I mean Windows Mobile is behind the 8-ball, but it has some good points which iPhone OS is still missing, Multi-Tasking and an actual manageable File System to name the most important. But if Zune Phone is replacing these I’m guessing those features would be lost… so It’s going to need something extra to compete against iPhone OS, especially if iPhone OS4 is going to have Multi-Tasking (which looks likely).

    If they are going to call the Zune Phone OS “WM7” then I guess the current development branch for 6.5.3+ is going to be cut off and the Zune Development is going to need to go into overdrive. Won’t most applications developed for 6.1/6.5/6.5.* not work on Zune, at least not without without major rework? What do you think?

    When do you get briefed for MWC ? We’re having the MSP Bootcamp in AUS as the details will come out, but I’ll make sure to follow the event. It should be an exciting show – I’m looking forward to your coverage.

  5. Lebohang you can already sync Windows Live Contacts with Windows Mobile devices – just install Windows Live Mobile and you are good to go.

  6. What I would hope this means is that not oly does it back it up but you can edit contacts and appointments through the Windows Live counter parts allowing editting through the online service or the desktop clients. Here’s to hoping anyway.

  7. @Long – You can already sync and edit contacts and appointments with MyPhone.

    @Avatar X – You can already sync full files with MyPhone (pictures, video, whatever) and full apps with Windows Marketplace for Mobile (just not settings, etc.).

    @Lebohang Bucibo – You can already sync WL contacts with Windows Live for Mobile and Windows Live Calendar with Outlook Connector and then Activesync.

    @Gilly2486 – You can already edit WL contacts and appointments using the online service (Windows Live Hotmail/Calendar and/or MyPhone – both work, take your pick).

    WOW! I wasn’t really thinking this until I wrote up that whole reply, but let’s hope the one NEW feature of WM7 is that they aggregate all these different pieces of software into ONE! I don’t want MyPhone to only do files, WL online service to work contacts, Outlook Connector to be required for calendar, etc. etc.

    ONE UNIFIED PLATFORM!!!! I won’t hold my breath….

  8. P.S. I’m really liking the little pictures that show up for those of us without profiles… maybe I won’t add my picture because I like them so much.

  9. @Andrew That was my point, there has long been rumours and things pointing to Mesh powering the My Phone service but Mesh is about to become part of the Windows Live suite of services so it makes sense that My Phone will be integrated with the WinLive services so there is only one online storage location from Microsoft for contacts, appointments etc etc.

  10. Oh right. Yeah that would be wonderful. I have been waiting literally for years for them to get things together. Every time they announce a new piece of software that does something different, but doesn’t do everything, I keep wondering why I am still waiting. If it weren’t for my MS loyalty! WM7 better get things right, finally, though.

  11. Installed Software onto my Old Sprint Mogel (WM6.1), connected to the site, upload complete. Nice easy. What is Microsoft up to these days.

    That said, site needs some work, be nice to more easily download picutres and video to your computer.

  12. @Gilly2468

    Sorry for the delay… but I LOVE your website! It looks amazing (really like the wallpapers – “I heart Windows Phone”… that was fast!) and graphic design of everything. It is awesome. I will definitely be checking back often!

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