Windows Mobile Marketplace and MyPhone Shutting Down
Last Updated on Wednesday, 8 June 2011 05:19 Written by Alan Wednesday, 8 June 2011 05:19
Windows Mobile had a nice long run, through 6.5 versions, but the release of Windows Phone 7 last year spelled the end for Mobile. Now that inevitability has been given dates. Both the Windows Mobile Marketplace and MyPhone service will be shut down over the next couple of months. Microsoft is notifying users by email beginning today.
Here is part of the text, including dates, from the email users are receiving.
The Windows Marketplace for Mobile web site at http://marketplace.windowsphone.com will no longer be available starting on July 15, 2011. After July 15, 2011, you will no longer be able to browse, buy or download applications for Windows Mobile 6.x phones via the Windows Marketplace for Mobile web site.
The Windows Marketplace for Mobile service will continue to be available on your phone, however. You will continue to be able to browse, buy and download applications for Windows Mobile 6.x on your phone.
On August 7, 2011, the My Phone service will stop saving content from phones to the My Phone service. If you rely on the My Phone service to back-up the content on your Windows Mobile 6.x phone, you will be affected.
Starting on August 7, 2011, Microsoft will begin moving your My Phone content to Windows Live SkyDrive. SkyDrive is Microsoft’s free online storage service that helps you access and share your files such as photos and Microsoft Office documents. Contacts, calendar entries, text messages and photos will be moved to SkyDrive for you. Once moved, you will be able to access this content by logging into SkyDrive using the Windows Live ID that you used to register for the My Phone service.
Other content types, including videos, music, documents and favorites will not be moved from My Phone to SkyDrive for you. If you want this content, you must save it from the My Phone service to your local PC.
On October 6, 2011, the My Phone web site at http://www.microsoft.com/myphone will no longer be available. On this date, you will no longer be able to log in to the My Phone service to access your content stored to the My Phone service. Microsoft will continue to store your My Phone content for one (1) year. Physical copies of your content can be shipped to you upon request until October 5, 2012.
To get additional information on the MyPhone service shutdown, Microsoft is directing customers to the Knowledge Base article 2557520.
We knew this day would eventually come, but I expected to be a bit further off. Microsoft has a habit of supporting old technology long beyond what most people would consider reasonable. And give the number of businesses on Windows Mobile a longer run would have seemed to be a given. That said, I can’t say that many people will be sad to see this mobile OS fade into the past.
Windows Phone 7 And Zune 4.7 Officialy Launched
Last Updated on Monday, 11 October 2010 08:05 Written by Alan Monday, 11 October 2010 04:53
Today, with live events in New York and London, Microsoft officially launched Windows Phone 7, although you can’t actually buy one until November 8. The Microsoft press release I received states:
The new Windows Phone 7 arrives in stores starting Monday, November 8. It’s a different kind of phone, designed to get to everything you love easier and faster. We’re giving our Windows Phone Insider subscribers direct access to the latest details.
The phones announced today included the Samsung Focus, LG Quantum, and HTC Surround for AT&T and the HTC HD 7 for T-Mobile, as well as the Dell Venue Pro.
Microsoft’s blog gave a short update on today’s NYC launch with Steve Ballmer:
Just a short while ago Steve Ballmer took the stage here in New York City to take the wraps of the Windows Phone 7 global portfolio, revealing nine new handsets from leading mobile operators in Europe, North America, Asia Pacific and Australia. He talked about how Windows Phone was designed to help bring together the stuff you care about most to help you get things done faster, whether that is going through work email, updating your Facebook status, taking pictures of your night out or playing games, music and video.
Windows Phone is all about deep, integrated experiences and a unique, elegant design. These integrated experiences come from all across Microsoft including Xbox LIVE, Microsoft Office Mobile, Zune, Windows Live, Bing and more. But it is not just about Microsoft services, Windows Phone 7 is a powerful platform for third party developers as well, allowing them to build applications that are visually stunning and functionally unique. Only Windows Phone 7 has Live Tiles, that display real time updates like news, appointments or status updates. The Live Tiles and Start screen mean you can have a customizable and deeply personal experience with your phone. Like it should be! Our mobile phones are increasingly important to our lives, and they should be uniquely ours. I love that every time I unlock my Windows Phone my family and best friends are staring back at me on the Start screen, and I can get a quick read on what is happening in their lives.
That is my quick update from the press conference. I am going to scoot around the event this morning and post some more about gaming, music and video and of course some more shots of the cool new hardware from Dell, HTC Corp., LG and Samsung.
As for features, here’s what we know now:
- It will have email, calendar, and contacts syncing automatically from your Hotmail account, much the way Google integrates into Android phones.
- Social networks such as Facebook and MySpace also integrate themselves with Phone 7.
- Photos will sync with your SkyDrive account.
- OneNote will also sync with SkyDrive and also with Office 2010.
- Locate a lost phone via maps on http://windowsphone.live.com
Unlike the Phone, the Zune 4.7 software update is available today. When I opened the Zune program on my PC I was immediately greeted with the news.
Once I’ve had more of chance to play around with it I will do a writeup on the features and changes. Although, I do not yet have a review phone to try it out with so for right now I can only look at the Zune features. I’ll leave you with this sneak peek.
Microsoft Quick Hits
Last Updated on Saturday, 19 February 2011 09:39 Written by Alan Tuesday, 5 October 2010 11:00
There’s been a spate of recent news rolling out of Redmond. Here’s a roundup.
Windows Phone 7
This was recently announced on the Windows Team Blog.
Windows Phone Press Event on October 11th
Today I’m happy to share that invites have been distributed for a press conference with Steve Ballmer and Ralph de la Vega of AT&T that will happen October 11th in New York City. It will be an exciting day, and while we won’t yet have phones available for all to buy, that time is nearing! The day will include remarks from Steve Ballmer and Ralph de la Vega, a demonstration of the new Windows Phone 7 capabilities and a preview of several apps, as well as hands on time with the devices for attending media. Later in the day we will showcase all our consumer offerings at the Microsoft Open House press event that immediately follows the Windows Phone 7 press conference. Windows Phone 7 is nearly here!
Windows Family Pack
Windows 7 Family Pack mad a comeback this week. It’s $149.99 for three (3) licenses of Windows 7 Home Premium. There’s an article explaining it at
It’s back! Microsoft offers discount on Windows 7 Family Pack Upgrade
Windows Photo Contest
With last weeks release of Windows Live Essentials 2011 a contest has been announced. Here’s the details from Microsoft:
Windows Live + Bing Photo Contest
Last week, we announced the release of the new Windows Live Essentials 2011 for everyone to download which includes Messenger, Mail, Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Writer, Mesh and Family Safety. To celebrate the release of Windows Live Essentials, the best way to connect your PC to the cloud helping you to share and communicate for free, we are doing a contest with our friends from Bing to highlight Windows Live Photo Gallery.
Photo Gallery is the best place on your PC to organize, edit and share your photos and videos with friends and family and social networks in the cloud. With that in mind, we’re looking for some breathtaking and stunning photos of clouds! We are looking for photos of clouds that somehow illustrate and show how Windows Live connects your PC to the cloud – but in a creative way of course! We then want to put one lucky winner’s photo of clouds on the homepage of Bing for the day! So send in your photos of clouds or anything that relates to clouds – rainbows, thunderclouds, airplanes, orographic clouds, etc. You can take pictures of landscapes, cities, objects, and just about anything so long as clouds are the primary focus of the image.
When taking your photo, you should think about how the photo can draw people in as a starting place for exploring Bing. It should strive for subtlety and poetry. For example, if the photo was taken on a day of celebration, you shouldn’t have to know that it’s Halloween, Columbus Day, or Mother’s Day to enjoy the photo.
Here are the requirements for your photo submissions (5 entries per person):
- No recognizable people.
- No 3rd party trademarks or logos (such as distinctive packaging or building exteriors / interiors) owned by others.
- No objectionable content, such as alcohol, smoking, guns, violence, or nudity.
- No content that is defamatory to any group or individual and/or violates any law.
- JPEG format only.
- Minimum photo dimensions 970px width by 528px height.
- We prefer to have the image submitted in its original size and aspect ratio, which will allow us the most flexibility when sizing and cropping to meet the needs of the homepage.
- Horizontal orientation.
- At least 1MB in size.
- No watermark, signature or photographer name can be included in the image file. The photographer credit for the winner will be added to the page separately.
To enter the contest, send your submissions to WLcontest@hotmail.com by Friday October 22nd, 2010. Your email should include your image(s), image title, short description of the image(s), your first/last name, and a contact email address.
A panel of judges will review all eligible photographs and select winners. 10 winners will be selected to have their photo featured in a Windows 7 Theme Pack to be featured in the Personalization Gallery. The grand prize will be selected that will have their photo featured on the Bing homepage US-English homepage on November 8th, 2010. The winning photographer will be given credit for the photo.
I strongly suggest reading over the complete contest rules and guidelines here before submitting your photos.
Have fun!
