News · 13 Jul 2010 · MTW Editorial Team
Microsoft has just announced the new and updated version of their MyPhone service for Windows Phone 7 device. The new service is now called Windows Phone Live and will enable WP7 users to sync the phone content wireless to their 25GB Skydrive and offer all the previous MyPhone services like device location, remote wipe,contact management all for free. I noticed the presence of this service yesterday during my hands-on time with the device. For example if you open a picture (or any other document) on your phone you will have the choice to upload it directly to the Skydrive in just one tap. It is also nice to see Microsoft the premium services for free now.
The Web is a great companion to just about any computing experience these days and today we’re talking a little more about some of the new services for Windows Phone 7 that tie the phone in your pocket up to the cloud. Through a push notification service that we’ve also extended to third party app developers, apps will be able to deliver real time updates. This way you know you’re getting the latest info at a glance, either as banner-style alerts or straight to the personalized live tiles on your phone’s Start screen. A feature we’re discussing for the first time today is the new Windows Phone Live companion site that gives people a central place to see pictures they’ve published, view their Windows Live calendar and contacts, exchange OneNote files and access other information shared between the phone and the Web. The site will offer25GB of SkyDrive and host the Find My Phone service, which allows people to find and manage a missing phone with map, ring, lock and erase capabilities right from your PC – and all for free.
Availability is becoming a hot topic as we get closer to the holiday timeframe we’ve committed to for delivering Windows Phone 7. We remain on track for that goal but also believe that launching Windows Phone 7 really is just one more big step along a new path – part of a course we’ve charted during a time when Smartphone sales are expected to double in the next four years alone according to some. This is a fresh start for Microsoft’s mobile efforts; one in which we put the end user experiences at the center of every decision we make, from architecting a new design and integrated on-phone experiences, to taking more accountability for the hardware and application development platform. We’ve implemented a more measured and structured philosophy to bringing phones to market so that customers have a great experience with the scenarios that matter most to them, thereby enabling us to establish a foundation for growth over the long term.
So what does this mean? We are working closely with our partners to determine exactly where and how Windows Phone 7 will be available regionally this holiday season and beyond. I’m happy to say that Windows Phone 7 will be well represented in countries around the world this holiday. During initial availability, Windows Phone 7 will support 5 languages; English, French, Italian, German and Spanish. The Windows Phone Marketplace will support the buying and selling of applications in 17 countries; Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, UK and United States.
The site is already up at http://windowsphone.live.com/ but you’ll need to sign-in on a Windows Phone 7 device to have access to it.
Source: Windows Phone Blog
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